A couple of the (less) evolved staff modeled a system for their children in which they:…read more
1.) pretend to not know who a person is. say 'I don't know who you are' and move away from the other child as a group 2.) bring up someone they see as more powerful, say the powerful person doesn't like the person they are excluding (to the child's face,) and 3.) spread a rumor about the person they want excluded. tell the other child a rumor has been spread about them to cause hate towards them.
I talked to my child about how this comes from deep insecurity and wounding that goes deeper than us or what we will ever know about the situation.
It is 2 years after we met this small group and these 2-3 adults still do this to us and invite their kids to do the same.
Now we know the pattern and have learned it, it doesn't work so well... a child from this group recently came up to us to say 'We don't know who you are and my Mom doesn't like you. I spread a rumor about you in this new group we are both in...' while also saying 'My friend, who you know, doesn't know who you are either, but saw you the other day.'
Sometimes kids are illogical.
Their parents must have modeled this due to early childhood wounding. It must be something large to keep modeling acting in this way. Since they have shown us who they are, over the last 2 years, I see now, they aren't safe.
We must protect our peace while also not throwing out the baby with the bath water of those who were fixtures in our heart, in our time at Forest School. Danny, Snow Goose, Dylan, Flint, you live on as fixtures who influenced us kindly. Danny and Linda from my child's 3rd grade year, remain so important, despite these silly attempts at bullying from some staff and their kids.
"We must take care to feed the minds, hearts, and spirits of those coming up behind us--to offer songs, poems, and stories that will break open that which is hardened, expose that which is evil-minded or would harm, and remind us how we are constructed to bring forth beauty of thought and beingness."
― Joy Harjo, Catching the Light