My Intuition Blog Experiment: Kids Really Do Know How to be Quiet

It's Week 38, Day 3 of my blog experiment and today I helped out in my daughter's Sunday school class. It's a Catholic program, a new Montessori-like class for 4 and 5 year olds. There were about a dozen kids in the class and I expected them to be antsy, fidgety and to generally have a hard time with all the quiet. The setting is church-like and the children are taught to speak in whispers and be respectful of the space.

There's a portion of the class, lasting about 45 minutes, where the kids do their "work". This means they draw or look at books in the prayer corner, arrange flowers that might go on an altar or do a quiet craft related to some aspect of the church. They have lots of choices and lots of responsibilities: there are many activity trays with either breakable or spillable items and the children put them away by themselves when they are finished working with them.

I sat in this class this morning and watched these kids entertain themselves quietly, without bothering each other, with minor assistance. They behaved beautifully. Beyond beautifully. And, I'm not sure I've ever seen a group of 11 kids be so quiet together for so long. They just knew what to do and seemed to understand that it wasn't the place to be rowdy. Now, from what I know and see, this isn't the case in church so I'm not sure why it was in this church-like class setting. The teacher definitely set the stage and had a quiet directive. Nonetheless, I was impressed. And, it gives me faith that children have an amazing capacity to follow peaceful guidance when given it. It made me proud and hopeful.