Religious awareness in six-year-olds
Oct. 23rd, 2007 08:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhuOn the bulletin board outside of Tani's classroom they often post the kids' collages, which are often about religious themes. Twice now I've been very proud of Tani's response. (Forgive me, please, this outburst of parental pride. Consider this post a "baby book" page. Or just don't click on the lj-cut link.)
The first one was for the assignment "I feel God's presence when.../ I feel close to God when..." Most of the kids related it to sports achievements such as "...when I make a basket at basketball" (gosh, it starts that young, huh?) but Tani's was "...when I create things like this collage, because God created everything in the world." I can't find it quickly, but that answer is actually in the Talmud (well, not the collage part) in that the rabbis infer a creative duty from the principle of imitatio Dei.
So today they had collage portraits of Abraham, on the subject of last week's Torah reading, Lech L'cha. Specifically, the assignment was to express how Avram felt when he received God's command to "Get yourself going from your land and from your father's house; go to the land which I will show you." All but two of the pictures were of a sad Avram, with captions along the lines of "Avram is scared," "Avram is sad to leave home," and "Avram is upset because God is bossing him around."
But Tani's was "Avram is amazed and excited because he doesn't know what will happen next. He's happy because God spoke to him." (One other child had a similar answer.)
Yes, it must have been difficult for Avram to uproot himself from bet Haran. But I am proud of my son for having internalized the sense that to serve God is a source of amazement, excitement, and joy.
The first one was for the assignment "I feel God's presence when.../ I feel close to God when..." Most of the kids related it to sports achievements such as "...when I make a basket at basketball" (gosh, it starts that young, huh?) but Tani's was "...when I create things like this collage, because God created everything in the world." I can't find it quickly, but that answer is actually in the Talmud (well, not the collage part) in that the rabbis infer a creative duty from the principle of imitatio Dei.
So today they had collage portraits of Abraham, on the subject of last week's Torah reading, Lech L'cha. Specifically, the assignment was to express how Avram felt when he received God's command to "Get yourself going from your land and from your father's house; go to the land which I will show you." All but two of the pictures were of a sad Avram, with captions along the lines of "Avram is scared," "Avram is sad to leave home," and "Avram is upset because God is bossing him around."
But Tani's was "Avram is amazed and excited because he doesn't know what will happen next. He's happy because God spoke to him." (One other child had a similar answer.)
Yes, it must have been difficult for Avram to uproot himself from bet Haran. But I am proud of my son for having internalized the sense that to serve God is a source of amazement, excitement, and joy.