Staying Curious: Learning Never Ends!

Thank you so much for the incredible amount of feedbac that I’ve received from my writing 
in the last two newsletters and I just wanted to say how much I appreciate each of you taking the time to read, comment, and take my musings to heart. 

As we wrap up the fourth, (fourth!!!), year of our Gan Early Learning Center, which, as I like to proudly remind everyone, is the only northwest Jewish preschool from Minneapolis to Seattle, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on what educating young children has taught me, over the last few years. 

Just recently, one of our young friends asked me about the jar of baby corn lying on the counter, “What is this, Morah Mussie?” When I responded simply that it is, baby corn. I got the question thrown back right at me, “But what IS it?” 

“Wow”, I thought as I quickly scrambled to check google, “I’m not exactly sure. Maybe it’s the corn on the cob as it is just beginning to grow, an actual baby corn on the cob, maybe it’s an entirely different vegetable. Is it a vegetable or maybe a fruit? I never even thought 
about this!” 

One thing I’ve learned as a preschool teacher and director, over and over again: Stay curious. Keep wondering. Don’t ever stop learning. 

This reminds me of our most recent Shabbat Experience, a question came up during lunch about a particular kosher tradition. When myself and Mendel were questioned about that, we kind of looked at each other somewhat dumbfounded, we actually weren’t quite sure
Although I was always a questioning child and teenager, and wondered and debated with my parents and teachers about everything we believed in and everything we did, somehow, some things fell through the cracks, and this one daily part of my life was just never wondered about. It was one of those things, done from a young age, that we just, well, did.

Needless to say, later that evening, Mendel and I opened the books on Jewish law, and learn, we did. 

It is a special gift to be in an environment, where all of us come from different backgrounds and levels of observance. We are in a culture and mentality that is in learning mode, always questioning, in a sense of wonder, leaving no rock unturned. Just like young children. And I treasure that. Let’s stay curious.