the color violet…

September 16th, 2009

Tagged best school in america, blogs education, how to prevent school violence, public school blog, school violence, school violence prevention, the color violet, violence in school curriculum

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After a few weeks of school, I began noticing something peculiar…

My dear children LB & Seala began to turn violet!

I was very puzzled…

And soon it began to affect our whole household! There was a violet & vibrating atmosphere all around us!

I immediately contacted my wise elder sister, Shining Dove, because she has been here on Earth for 6 years longer than I have, & I greatly value her opinion. She advised me to right away bathe the children. Then give them a nice, hot meal. My sister said that she had encountered this before, and thought the children might be getting exposed to lots of violets in the school!

I puzzled over this, because when I had visited the School of Old Sister Oak, although it had not been in session, there was nothing violet in sight! It was predominantly greens & browns, I would have said…

The other children were also non-violet, I would say. There were little brown acorns, green beech nuts, a few colorful marbles, & my two dear little clay balls. Where was all the violet coming from???

My sister suggested that I homeschool, as she does…I thought over this bit of advice which my dear sister had given me, but sadly realized that I could not homeschool…I had just started a new job, which we needed now that winter was fast approaching…Also, I knew I do not have the ability & wisdom to homeschool, as my dear sister does…& finally, I wanted to give public school a chance…

…but, I did follow the bathing advice!

Every evening, I would give the children a warm bath, & try to wash off all the violets…but I was never able to get rid of it completely. Then I would give them a nice, hot meal…

…but whenever I asked LB & Seala what was going on, they just shrugged & rolled sadly away. I was so worried!

After a while, I saw that this was really affecting all of us…so I decided to pay a visit to the school…

And no wonder the children came home blue & violet!

Their curriculum, especially the Language Arts & Social Sciences, for whatever reason, had been becoming more & more Violet…the books, & most especially the movies! This particularly affected LB, because he was in the middle school classes…

There was a giant TV in the school, and gone were the reds, greens, yellows, pinks, & browns..not to mention the oranges, golden peach colors, & charcoals…What on Earth was going on???

I have to say that not all the children seemed to be as affected as LB & Seala were…some seemed to shake it off upon leaving the school, & others, similar to LB & Seala could not. (Maybe if their Dad lived closer, I wondered, would they be more resistant to all that Violet stuff? )

So…gathering up all of my tiny courage, I went to speak with Old Sister Oak.

I explained to her what was happening to my children…how we had come to Earth thinking it was a purely Blue planet, but were so happy & amazed at the glorious variety of color here! And while Blue is very important, it is just part of the picture of life on Earth…

In a similar fashion, couldn’t the curriculum reflect all that glory & diversity of life here on Earth, I wondered? Why so much focus on just the most Violet episodes?

There is so much more to history & literature than just Violet solutions & outcomes! So many other examples for the children to learn from & follow, to ingrain into their consciousness! Didn’t we want the children to grow up strong & diverse, like the Earth, in all her landscapes & seasons?

(I was quite nervous speaking with Old Sister Oak about this, because I did not want to criticize her school… but if Old Sister Oak thought I was being melodramatic, she made no sign of it…she focused very intently on what I was saying, & asked me many questions, for which I am so grateful!)

Sister Oak is a very wise & kindly teacher…She listened carefully…thought it over…then talked with the other parents…

She said that she had not realized, over the years, how Violet the curriculum had become.

In part, it was because of the ease & availability of the giant TV/movie player, which shone with a Violet hue & had easily become more prominent in the curriculum. (I agreed, the TV had a very strong, immediate, & visceral impact on my own children (often giving them both nightmares!))

…and maybe also just because of something, which Old Sister Oak simply called ”continental drift” (?) …

(I’ll have to ask my sister about that one…or maybe my Dad would know…it sounds a little geological…)

In any case, what a wonderful change has come about since our conversation that day….