Organic Farming
Findhorn Flower Essences
Funny how somehow you get pushed to do things... As some people know, I don't believe in coincidences, but more that everything happening to each of us has a meaning... that we can find or not.
If somebody had told me 6 years ago that I would do the work I do now, including the projects that I have now, I would have seriously advised him/her to find a good psychiatrist. So many things happened during those last years, and when I look back now, I can finally understand why and how, and see all that it brought me.
I used to hate kids... Couldn't bear them. (Even their proximity was very hard for me). I didn't want to have any children. The more distance was between them and I; the better
Then I decied to travel, and the cheapest most conveninent method I found was being an Au Pair. Looking back, I'd I had no idea what I was doing! If I had had the slightest idea of what was waiting for me, I would have stayed home with a good book and chocolate! lol Or probably not. Staying home is not really me. Anyway.... the first weeks were quite of a nightmare, and I really had to deal with myself while setting up priorities. I had decided that I wouldn't go back home and I would face the challenge.
My priority was travelling, and of the thousand possibilities none were easy (at that time for me anyway). I knew I had to keep earning money, so I kept on being au pair or whatever would look like that (even if I also found other possibilies of work on the side. Kids were kind of always in the way. I did that for a bit more than a year, in 3 different countries and 5 different famillies. And astonishingly, it only got better. I had gained a lot of self confidence with kids, and could do my job quite well. Hard school but good one.
I returned home and moved to another town. I started to study again, which required a job of course. Well, the only skills that I had and with which I could "sell myself" were some healing knowledge and experience, languages and children. Therefore I found a job with children.Wouldn't have been funny otherwise.
The job had a better schedual than the Au-Pair kind;( I had enough of that!lol), I was coming to workat a certain hour and leaving when I was done. I was working more than part time there, which involved taking care of everything normal to the everyday life of 2 children. My two years period was wonderfull. ( Ah??lol)
Don't ask me how I got to the point of finally enjoying children! Well, 3 years of taking care of kids everyday helps I guess. We did have a wonderfull relationship during those 2 years.
Then I had to move again, to keep on studying in another university which had my specialization.This year I didn't work with kids for the first time since 3 years... and I missed it!
So I came to a point where I decided I would work with children. I could have specialized my studies to work with children, but that did not satisfy me. That just did not lead to the point that I wanted to reach, which is the happiness of children. I did my studies practicum in an institution with children, and although it was very interesting, I was looking for "more", you know? I just couldn't be satisfied with the way they were working for the children. They were doing their best I believe, but I was persuaded there was just more to do, better to do to make a kid grow a way that he/she can have a happy life.
One of the things that I did with the kid during those 3 years was work related to school, being homework or teaching (some of the kids I looked after were not going to school, but having their classes by correspondance). And I had loved that part of the job. Because it's just so easy to reach a kid, to make him/her feel like having the knowledge, to teach him/her while having fun.
I was about to do my mastering year, but had no good idea on what I could do research. So I decided to start a teacher training, that would give me better ideas for my master, and that would allow me to have efficient skills quickly, be able to have a job that I like and in which I really want to invest, while finishing my master and eventually start a PhD with the studies I had started already.
I was just not satisfied with the way that traditional schools take care of the children that come to them. School is the most important part of the life of a child. The child spends the whole day there. That means if the training is not good, if the teachers are not good, if the environnment is not good , how can the kids become a balanced and strong adult, able to really take his/her own life in charge? In most traditionnal schools ( of course not all, luckily there are exceptions), teachers have new kids every year, they have no idea of his/her history, of "who that kid is" before the first day of the school, and unfortunatelly don't know much more the last one. For the lessons, they will anyway use the same material as the years before, without caring too much about the fact that the kids ARE NOT the same as the ones of the years before. You can't teach the same things the same way to different people, especially not to children.
In most traditional school kids are treated like they are a number, not as being a real individuality. The teachers are also not trained to do it differently.
So... I just though that was not the way I wanted to teach.. and looked for other possibilities. The best that I could find, and with which I had had contact during my time abroad was the Waldorf Schools one ( R. Steiner). I though that could be a good beginning. So I am doing the Waldorf Schools TeacherTraining and will be done with it in another year.
I am planning to keep on my other studies (so Health Psychology), but more because I am very interested in research on that topic than for a full time job. But as a main job, I want to keep on working for education.
As a project, I am planning to participate to the creation of new kind of schools (Heartlightschools), which come from the Conversations with God books. They should be very good one... and there will be a lot to build and to create for children. That should be very exciting. The first school is being opened next sptember in Ashland (Oregon)... with as a goal, that the kids that will get out of those schools will be ADULTS, on a body, mind and soul level.
The world of waldorf schools
www.indigochild.com
Heartlight Schools
Some other possiblities of work
Beside that I have planned to keep on in my (Health) Psychology studies, as planned. I want to work at the school til I have my master and then pfffffffft...! I'll think about doing my PhD in the US I guess. Aaand in the meantime I wanna put my spanish back in shape, and might wanna spend a year in a school in South America. Yeahhh... Languages are my passion.
Wot!!? Speak 4 languages fluent isn't too much.
Yup, I'm making myself a pretty busy life. With my habit of always doing 2 things at the same time. But you know what?? This is an EXCITING life : )