The title of this blog was the famous motto of Ms. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus. I was a big fan of the idea as a kid! Now as a parent… well, I strugggle.
This month I helped our three kids make sugar cookies. I know that the best way for them to learn was to do as much as they can, but there’s a big part of me that just has a hard time letting the mess happen. The battle was my internal unwillingness. I bit my tongue and encouraged them. Our son was reading the recipe, the girls helped measure out ingredients, and all three of them helped scoop out the 6 cups of flour, and dump each one in the Kitchen Aid mixer.
Ari then enthusiastically cranked the mixer to level 10.
Flour and chunks of egg-mixture errupted accross the kitchen.
That ended the kids helping for awhile! Ok, I didn’t lose my temper, but I got to face just how little my patience and tolerance for mess is. It was humbling.
They did get to help roll out the dough and cut some shapes. In the end the mess was not that hard to clean up.
I still believe that experiencial learning is the best kind! But that doesn’t mean I like it. The experience made me think a lot about how much love is shown by great educators and parents who consistently let kids learn and grow in this way.
Ultimately, our Father in Heaven proposed His great Plan of life to be just like this: to take chances, make mistakes and to get messy. That describes this life perfectly. The side that we don’t think about much as a child is the price of such an education. To have a safe space to make mistakes, and to have the means already prepared to contain and clean up all the messes, to overcome all the mistakes– that is a truly committed educator! Ms Frizzle seemed to do it rather effortlessly, but in real life, it takes serious investment from the grown-up responsible for overseeing the chaos.
I believe that from the foundation of the world, the way was prepared for us to safely come make honest mistakes, get messy, and get cleaned up in the end. And we get to keep the lessons and memories! The way was prepared that we could be healed from all injuries we accumulate, and sometimes inflict on each other. This prepared gift would allow us to learn from our mistakes without being condemned by them.
The gift that financed our experiencial education, is the gift of Jesus Christ. His life and sacrifice make all that learning, and all that tying up loose ends possible. I am not that kind of educator or parent yet, but I rely on Him for the help to clean up my own life and my own messes. I feel His willingness, even happiness, that I get to have my experiences and messes! I feel the irony of my unwillingness to let my kids make their own.
On the Path of Life... 