Religious Education Update: August 19

Religious Education Update
August 20, 2006

Lima beans and Cattails

We have become, by the power of a glorious evolutionary accident called intelligence, the steward of life's continuity on earth. We did not ask for this role, but we cannot abjure it. We may not be suited to to it, but here we are.
Stephen Jay Gould, Harvard University

Of all the seven principles of Unitarian-Universalism, the seventh is one of the most valued in our congregations, “ We affirm and promote respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part”. Whatever an individual UU’s theological stance, whether agnostic or theist or atheist, most find inspiration in nature.

How do we teach our children to respect the interdependent web? I believe that the necessary first step is to teach awareness. To quote Stephen Jay Gould again, “We will not protect what we do not love”. Before children can love the web, they need to understand that they are connected to all the species on our planet, and that our planet is a wondrous place.

Last Sunday, the children studied the wonders of plants. I had soaked some lima beans overnight, so that they had swelled to several times their dry form. The children then dissected the now more pliable beans, discovering the seed root and seed leaves inside each bean. We discovered that each bean already contains a baby plant, ready to grow once placed in a warm and wet environment.

The children then examined the cattail which I had plucked from a nearby creek. The cattail was brown and fuzzy, and felt surprisingly like a tail of an animal. They were amazed to break off a chunk of the cattail, and discover very, very tiny seeds attached to bits of white fluff. Applying the lesson learned from the lima beans, they realized that each teeny cattail seed already contains a living baby plant, ready to grow into a cattail 6 or 7 feet tall.

Our natural world to full of such miracles, and I think that the kids “got it”. They were excited to share their lima beans’ and cattail’ discoveries with their parents. But perhaps more importantly, they were enthusiastic about their Sunday’s explorations. In Rosemary’s words, “That was fun!”

Marlene Abel
Director of Religious Education