Visiting Tanzania: The Rift Valley Children's Village

Jetruda drawing Shanchezia Zebra plant leaf from shrubs around the RVCV campus

About a month ago, Ashley and I set off for Tanzania.  An epic trip for us, one that we started to plan in late summer of 2021 and canceled due to Covid fears. In late summer 2023, we reopened our plans, thrilled in anticipation that we would finally make it.

After we cancelled our trip, I wrote about where we had planned to go: The Rift Valley Children’s Village (RVCV).  We learned about RVCV from our close friend, Peggy Curley Bacon, who has volunteered and served on the board of this amazing place since the beginning. We were lucky to travel this time with Peggy and her husband, Carter, and to volunteer ourselves. This post gives the history of the village, where 100 would be orphans have a forever home where they are nurtured, safe, loved, and provided with an excellent education until they are financially independent.

Elementary students gathering before school

Our first morning at the Children’s Village, we met the group of elementary age children at 7 a.m. where they gather on benches before school to express gratitude, to share, and to set out to walk to their nearby school all together.  That morning the adult leader of the day asked about the “RVCV family rules,” what are they? Different children, all in different stages of learning English, offered up the rules…be happy, help others, always tell the truth, be thankful…

Then, they took turns sharing a joke or two before heading off across the fields to their school.

Walking to Gyetighi Elementary School

The Tanzanian Children’s Fund, the foundation that supports multiple initiatives, has vastly improved the local elementary school, Gyetighi, renovating and adding buildings, planting gardens, hiring many more teachers, and raising standards of all kinds.  The Fund has also transformed the local Oldeani Secondary School by building classrooms and dorms and hiring many more teachers. The fund has built and staffed a health clinic that serves the surrounding community. In addition, the Fund supports small business development, especially for local women.

Mica demonstrating contour drawing for younger children

Several times during our stay, I was lucky enough to be able to work with about 7 children, ages 7-10, with the art materials that I had brought with me to leave with them…black fine line pens, quality-colored pencils, watercolors, good quality mixed medial paper, and markers. When we arrived, I started to collect a variety of leaves from plants around the campus.  With the children, I demonstrated contour drawing, or “bug drawing”…pretend that you are a tiny insect crawling around the edges of the leaf that you are holding. Follow the path of the insect carefully with your pen.  Then use whatever colors you would like to finish your piece.

Jacob painting Zebra plant leaves

I was floored by the focus of the children and the pleasure that they took in doing these drawings! They had not worked with materials like these, and they do not have any art classes in school. They all were engaged immediately and did beautiful work. They were happy. I was overjoyed.

I was supported by several volunteers who were there for a month from the U.S., and a Tanzanian high school boy, Micah, who joined in and inspired the children, and helped to translate.

Drawing by Jetruda

I could not be more grateful or more humbled by our experience at the Rift Valley Children’s Village.  We were surrounded by such a happy and highly functional community of adults and children for five days. We were thrilled to be able to contribute to this place and the people who live there.  Ashley was helping Carter build shelves for storage during the time that I was working with the young children.

We gifted several children with extra sketchbooks and pens that we had brought along so that they can keep drawing on their own.  And we decided to sponsor two sisters, now age 7, for the remainder of their education. 

Painting of Zebra plant leaves and Calathea plant leaves by Jacob

We are forever changed by this experience. Children who would otherwise be without homes and without family, are becoming strong, talented, passionate young Tanzanians who will be leaders in their communities. In our world where so much is unsettled, it is truly uplifting to experience a community like this one. Thank you, founder, India Howell, whose vision and dedication brought this place into being and gratitude to the staff and the board that sustain and lead this beautiful place into the future. 

Sunset at the Rift Valley Children’s Village

Learning & Joy

Self Portraits, JK class, South City Catholic Academy, St. Louis, MO.

How was your passage into the new year? Ours was full of grandchildren and a bonfire and skiing all together on beautiful snow despite the wildly unpredictable weather in Vermont.

We are full of gratitude for our year of work with several wonderful schools and all the teachers who are working to make learning more interesting, meaningful, and beautiful for their students…who want to create lasting learning that makes a difference in children’s lives now and into the future.

We visited one of the schools where we work the week after Thanksgiving in St. Louis, South City Catholic Academy (SCCA).  We found many aspects of student and teacher work that are an inspiration to us! And we found teachers eager to embrace ever new ways to engage their students in learning that is transformational.

The Art Studio, South City Catholic Academy

One of the ways that we work is to photograph evidence of vibrant learning in the environment, in organization and materials, in student-to-student sharing and collaboration, in teacher to student relationships, and in learning made visible often displayed on the walls.  We then project the images back to the teachers and ask them what they see.  They appreciate seeing through our lens what is working well and feel pride in their progress as a community of learners. Several of those images are included in this blog post.

Documentation, South City Catholic Academy

Louise visited the school where we work in Somerville, MA the second week of January, Prospect Hill Academy (PHA).  Likewise, at PHA there was much evidence of progress and joy in student work.  One exceptional hour was shared observing in Peter Coner’s kindergarten classroom as children worked in centers…dramatic play, the studio, blocks, construction, the library… followed by sharing by several students with the whole class.

A protocol for responding to the student work frames the conversation for the students.  The questions that frame the conversation are: What do you notice? What questions do you have? Are you inspired to do your own work, or do you have suggestions for your classmates who are sharing today?

Afterwards, the kindergarten and pre-K teachers who were observing shared with the students what they had learned from them.  The kindergartners were rapt in attention listening to what the adults had noticed and appreciated by spending an hour observing their work and play.

The following dialogue was recorded during that observation by one of our team of observers.  The dialogue took place in the dramatic play area where a group of children were pretending to be cats.

Pretending to be cats, Prospect Hill Academy, Peter Coner’s classroom, Somerville, MA

 Peter (teacher): What do cats eat?

 All of the group: Cat food!

 Edwensky: Kitties, I have some orange juice for you.

 Dorothy: I don’t think I ever saw cats eat orange juice.

 Khalessia and Dorothy: Meow, Meow.

 Edwensky: Kitties, time to eat!

 Khalessia and Dorothy: Meow, Meow.

 Edwensky: Kitties, do you want to go for a walk?

 Khalessia and Dorothy: Meow, Meow.

 Edwensky: I think that “Meow” means “yes.”

 Khalessia and Dorothy: Meow does mean “yes.”

 (Edwensky leads the cats around)

 Dorothy: Cats twirl like this. And they pick the best spot. Meow.

(Dorothy twirls in place and lies down on the sofa.)

 Dorothy:  Cats lie on top of each other. I want to lie on top of you!

(Dorothy and Khaleesia lie on the sofa together for a moment.)

 Khalessia: Hey, let’s go wake up daddy.

(both girls crawl over to Edwensky who is lying under the table.)

“Cats lie on top of each other.” Dorothy

The observer commented afterwards,

I was impressed with the extent to which kids embody animals as a way of learning about them. They really moved around like cats.

And, I noticed all the negotiation of the story and of the physical space. There was such subtlety in the students’ communication, both physical and verbal. They are developing an understanding of how to "read" one another.

This was an experience of pretend play that was captured during the one hour of observation. It represents the value of observing and of recording the words of the children and capturing their play in photographs.  We now have documents that we can study together and imagine how to further support this pretend play. 

There is much research done on the value and importance of pretend play for young children…role play, social/emotional growth, negotiation, collaboration, storytelling and story-acting, perspective taking, self-regulation, empathy.

In their book, Play, Playfulness, Creativity and Innovation, Patrick Bateson, and, Paul Martin explore how creativity and divergent and innovative thinking have their roots in pretend play in childhood.

What a wonderful way to conclude and begin our year…with two schools where curiosity and joy in learning are alive and thriving. Here’s to a year of learning and of joy for all of us.

Playing Games, South City Catholic Academy

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Finding Light

Our winter sunset

I just read one of the most beautiful pieces that I have read in a long time that I found moving and helpful and true. It is by an author whom I admire and love: Mary Pipher…author of Reviving Ophilia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls, and many other wise books. She has been an inspiration to me for many years.

When I read this short essay, I thought, what could be more fitting than to reference it for our December blog post when the shortest days are upon us, and the world, as Mary Pipher writes, “is pummeled with misfortune.”

You can find this piece published as a guest essay in the New York Times on December 11th, at this link. And also excerpted below.

The Time of Year and the State of the World:

Mary Pipher writes:

…As we approach the darkest days of the year, we’re confronted with the darkness of wars, a dysfunctional government…mass shootings…and the tragedy of climate change with its droughts, floods, fires and hurricanes. Indeed, the world is pummeled with misfortune.

We can count ourselves lucky if we do not live in a war zone or a place without food or drinking water, but we read the news. We see the disasters on our screens. Ukraine, Israel and Gaza are all inside us. If we are empathic and awake, we share the pain of all the world’s tragedies in our bodies and in our souls. We cannot and should not try to block out those feelings of pain. When we try, we are kept from feeling much of anything, even love and joy. We cannot deny reality, but we can control how much we take in… Whatever is happening in the world, whatever is happening in our personal lives, we can find light.

…I am up for sunrise and outside for sunset. I watch the moon rise and traverse the sky. I light candles early in the evening and sit by the fire to read…We can watch the birds. Recently it was the two flickers at my suet feeder with the yellow undersides of their wings flashing, the male so redheaded and protective, the female so hungry. Today it may be the juncos, hopping about our driveway, looking for seeds. The birds are always nearby. Their calls are temple bells reminding me to be grateful.

White Breasted Nuthatch, Watercolor Bird series by me, Louise

For the Light that Family, Friends, and Children Bring to us:

Mary Pipher writes:

…For other kinds of light, we can turn to our friends and family. Nothing feels more like sunlight than walking into a room full of people who are happy to see me….or my friends, sitting outdoors around a campfire in our coats and hats, reciting poetry and singing songs.

…We also have the light of young children. My own grandchildren are far away, but I spend time with 9-year-old Kadija. My husband and I are sponsoring her family; they arrived here from Afghanistan, with only the father speaking English, only a few months ago. Already, she can bring me a picture book and read “whale,” “porpoise” and “squid” in a voice that reminds me of sleigh bells. I know someday she will be a surgeon, or perhaps a poet…

Ashley and Alden, our youngest grandchild

For the Arts and for Spiritual Life:

Mary Pipher writes:

In our darkest moments, art creates a shaft of light. There is light in a poetry book by Joy Harjo, a recording by Yo-Yo Ma and in a collection of Monet’s paintings of snow.

The rituals of spiritual life will also illuminate our days….readings from Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Buddhist monk and influential Zen master. Also, it’s the saying of grace and the moments when I slow down and am present. Whatever our rituals, they allow us to hold on through the darkness until the light returns.

For the Light that Memory Brings us:

Mary Pipher writes:

Finally, we will always have the light of memory. When I recall my grandmother’s face as she read to me from “Black Beauty” or held my hand in church, I can calm down and feel happy. I feel the light on my skin when I remember my mother at the wheel of her Oldsmobile, her black doctor’s bag beside her….Deep inside us are the memories of all the people we’ve ever loved…. And when I think of my people, I’m suffused with light that reminds me that I have had such fine people in my life and that they are still with me now …

My mother reading to our son, Alden, circa 1984

For the Goodness of People and for Becoming Each Other’s Light:

Mary Pipher writes:

…Every day I remind myself that all over the world most people want peace. They want a safe place for their families, and they want to be good and do good. The world is filled with helpers. It is only the great darkness of this moment that can make it hard to see them.

…No matter how dark the days, we can find light in our own hearts, and we can be one another’s light. We can beam light out to everyone we meet. We can let others know we are present for them, that we will try to understand. We cannot stop all the destruction, but we can light candles for one another…

Thank you to Mary Pipher and to the New York Times for publishing her wise words.

We send you all our light during these dark days, and wish you each peace as well as connection to the pain and sufferting, and also to the joy and light of this beautiful world that we share.

Louise and Ashley

Scholten Family Farm, Weybridge, Vermont

Stories in Leaves

Jack arranging natural materials

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to get on the train in Middlebury, Vermont and get off at Penn Station and then head to see our son, Chris, our daughter-in-law, Lei, and two grandsons, Jack and Alden. 

I have written about Jack frequently here because I spent several full days a week with him during the pandemic when he was two years old and his family lived close by. We drew, walked in the woods, adventured, baked, worked with potters’ clay, and collected natural materials always.  

Now, Jack is almost 5 years old.  He still loves to play with art materials when we are together, and I can be counted on to have some with me in my bag to pull out and share.

A collection

This time, I wanted to make a collection of natural materials with Jack around his house and neighborhood.  In New Jersey, it was glorious fall a week or so before Halloween and there were so many leaves, twigs  berries, and seeds to choose from.

Then, I thought…let’s try to arrange some of these things, making patterns and arrangements that maybe the wind could have made. This way of working is inspired by what I observed and loved in Reggio Emilia, where I learned that natural materials are materials just like clay and paint and pens are materials. It is most recently inspired by Margot Guralnick who makes compositions with natural materials every day and posts them on Instagram. I wrote about Margot and my experiences with her and my granddaughter, Delilah, a few months ago.

Jack’s park

Jack liked seeing photographs of what Delilah and I had made a month before in Boston and he dove into the experience which happened on the front steps of his house. Only something was different… Jack started telling a story right away. He said he was making a park. And he told me about all the parts of the park that he was fashioning with the leaves, twigs, and berries that he placed carefully in his composition.

Jack: Isn’t this starting to look like something?

It’s not finished yet.

Actually, it’s a park. I have a very good memory of it. This is a canoe. Theses are the logs for my camp fire. (pointing to open seed pods.)

These are all meeting places. (pointing to areas around his leaf circle)

This can be a person having a meeting. (a twig)

Louise: Jack, Is this a model or map of a park?

Jack: No. It’s a real park because I’ve been there. 

These red berries are  bouncy balls for little children to play on.

These seed pods can be the things that have to fall down every morning.

I took Jack to school the next day and when I picked him up his teacher said that Jack wanted me to come to school and lead that same experience with his friends. So, lucky me, I did.

A Child’s Place is a school with an expansive back field and many more natural treasures to collect. Jack and three friends worked together collecting and then arranging as we had the day before.

At A Child’s Place, the West Yard

This is not hard to do. I hope it is something that the children at Jack’s school do on their own, all the time. If we observe young children out of doors, they frequently pick up stones and acorns and sticks and bring them home. They are collecting. They also arrange them and start to build with them, or make fairy houses with them, or forts with bigger sticks.

In Childhood and Nature: Design Principles for Educators, environmental educator and author, David Sobel lists seven principles that he has observed, and that research has shown children are naturally drawn to and act out, on their own. They are principles that we as adults and teachers can use to organize learning experiences that will naturally appeal to children and draw them in. 

Choosing materials at A Child’s Place

Principle 2: Fantasy and Imagination. Principle 7: Hunting and Gathering. Principle 6: Small Worlds.

About Small Worlds, David Sobel writes:

Children love to create miniature worlds that they can play inside of. Through creating miniature representations of ecosystems or neighborhoods, they can better grasp the big picture. Small worlds work wonders for children. The world is simplified and knowable.

My time with Jack and then with Jack and his classmates highlighted these three principles…hunting and gathering materials, creating small worlds, and using fantasy and imagination to create stories.

Try this. I have made natural compositions on my walks from time to time, and it gives me such pleasure. And now, Jack and Delilah and friends and family can play this same game. Hunting and gathering, making patterns, telling stories, leaving them for others to enjoy as they pass, and for the wind to blow around. This practice is like a conversation with the natural world through all seasons.

Try it!

Principia School’s Early Learning Center: A Retrospective

Preschool classroom, Principia Early Learning Center

At the end of the 2023 school year, we completed our longest working relationship with any school…Principia School in St. Louis, Missouri. We became close colleagues with the principal, Dorothy Halverson, the ateliierista, Louise Elmgren, and many of the teachers over the eight years that we worked alongside them to integrate Reggio-inspired practices into their way of being and learning in school with children. Last spring, Georgia Mae Harrison wrote an article for the fall 2023 issue of the Principia School alumni magazine, Purpose. What follows are excerpts and adaptations from that article. Reading it provides a lovely way to look back on our years of work with them and to be grateful again for their collaboration and their friendship.

An Enrollment Dilemma

In 2008, facing a struggling economy and low enrollment across all levels of the school, Early Childhood Principal, Dorothy Halverson was searching for ways to attract more families.

It turns out, the answer to that dilemma was the Reggio Emilia approach.

The Reggio approach is a child-centered and collaborative approach to early childhood education. Originating in Reggio Emilia, Italy, it emphasizes the child's innate potential and curiosity. The natural environment is seen as a "third teacher," designed to inspire exploration and creativity. Teachers act as co-learners, fostering critical thinking and problem-solving. The approach values diverse "languages" of expression, including art, music, and movement, to encourage communication and understanding.

Preschool classroom, Principia Early Learning Center

Collaboration among children, educators, parents, and the community is essential. The Reggio approach promotes a strong sense of community, self-expression, and a lifelong love for learning, nurturing children's social and emotional development through play and creativity.

Louise and Ashley Cadwell from Cadwell Collaborative (a pair of consultants specializing in the Reggio Emilia approach) worked with Principia for eight years, and noted what stands out about the faculty working in the program: “There are a number of schools that have beautiful woods and grounds that the children rarely visit. The teachers at Principia think nothing of putting on raincoats and boots with children and going for a walk in the woods.” Acorn teacher Heather Buchanan noted, “It isn’t just about playing outside. How do we extend the learning? We are a mediator in their learning. We are constantly prompting them to think deeper about what they are seeing, ‘What would happen if....?’ ‘Why do you think that is...?’”

“We can’t teach our kids to sustain and care about our earth if they don’t know about it,” remarks Halverson.

Nine years into its Reggio Emilia implementation, the early childhood classrooms and waitlists are full—a testament to the impact of the Reggio approach and Principia’s stellar staff. Prospective families are drawn to the nature-inspired learning, collaboration, and sense of community among students, educators, and parents. Kara Moe, a parent with two children attending the ELC, noted that she was drawn to Principia by the big open spaces and natural light pouring into the classrooms, “I think that was the biggest difference from the other preschools that we toured. The children’s work inspired by the natural world was hanging in the hallways. I just loved that.”

During Principia’s time working with Cadwell Collaborative, Louise and Ashley Cadwell worked in partnership with the teachers to strategically compose their classrooms to ignite students' curiosity and enthusiasm for learning. The transition involved a deliberate shift away from plastic toys and bins, favoring the use of natural materials to foster open-ended exploration.

In Patti Matthys-Pearce’s classroom, where she engages with infants and toddlers, the principles of the Reggio approach are enthusiastically embraced. Matthys-Pearce watches as 12–24 month-olds take initiative in their learning, for example, working with potters clay for 40 minutes at a time, totally enveloped in the play—a testament to the profound impact of these Reggio-inspired changes.

There is a remarkable connection of shared values between Mary Kimball Morgan, Mary Baker Eddy, and the founders of the Reggio Emilia approach. Each recognized the inherent potential and capabilities of children, embracing the conviction that they are capable learners from the very beginning—vessels already full and complete.

Having garnered a reputation as an exceptional Reggio Emilia-inspired school, Principia is inspiring other schools around the world. When Cadwell Collaborative featured Principia in their blog, it caught the attention of an esteemed school in Brazil. Upon seeing the captivating photos and insights shared about Principia's practices, they showcased them in their own outreach efforts.

Conversations with teachers at Principia Early Learning Center

Principia's program has also made waves locally. The School's innovative approach has piqued the interest of nearby universities and schools, prompting them to request tours and classroom observations. This resonance within the educational community stands as a testament to Principia's remarkable impact and its role as a source of inspiration for educators worldwide.

Last spring, The Early Learning Center and Preschool Principal, Dorothy Halverson, and Preschool/Lower School Art teacher/Atelierista, Louise Elmgren, participated in "The Reggio Emilia Approach to Education" conference in Italy in April 2023. Over 400 educators from 27 different countries joined the 50-hour International Study Group—a deeper investigation of the concepts, values, and content learning of the Reggio Emilia Approach.

"We had the opportunity to connect with pedagogisti, atelieristi, administrators, and teachers who work in Reggio Emilia’s infant—toddler centers and preschools," Dorothy remarked. What an extraordinary opportunity for Principia teachers and administrators to deepen their understanding and practice of the Reggio approach.

At the core of Principia’s program is a deep sense of respect and love for each child. Halverson states that their mission is for every student to leave feeling loved. Kate Booher, an ELC parent, can attest to this. Booher herself is an educator and teaches in another local Reggio Emilia-inspired school in St. Louis. At Principia, she says, “The way they talk about my child, even on a hard day for him—they describe his interactions with so much love and empathy, and reassure me that whatever he is experiencing is a beautiful part of life. They really focus on his wonder and awe in nature. It is so evident in the videos and photos we see of him at school and the way he is exploring at home.”

Louise Cadwell's profound words from her book, Bringing Reggio Emilia Home: An Innovative Approach to Early Childhood Education, strike a chord with the core philosophy at Principia’s Early Learning program and Preschool. “Education begins the moment we see children as innately wise and capable beings. Only then can we play along in their world.” The educators at Principia have wholeheartedly translated this principle into practice. Their mastery in creating an environment that recognizes and nurtures children's potential is evident in every aspect of the school. By engaging in the children's world, they have crafted a transformative learning experience that leads young learners to thrive—and, above all, to feel deeply loved and valued. What more can you ask for these future leaders of our world?

Stories written and illustrated by students, Principia Early Learning Center