The Importance of Books

I’m always touched by parents’ devotion to reading to their children every day, no matter how busy their schedules or how tired they are. Some parents even read to their children on Zoom when they have to travel for work.

In this digital age, parents sense the importance of books and the crucial realms of learning they provide. The Commission on Reading validates parents’ dedication, citing adults reading aloud as the most important factor in children’s future academic success. Research shows that reading to children from the time they are infants till they are students in middle school is not only foundational to their vocabulary, attention span, and overall learning, but in their emotional development as well. Not as much attention has been given to the positive effects of reading aloud on the adults themselves and their relationships with children.

When adults read to children, they are often revisiting their own childhood world of books and stories, an activity that can bring back the feeling of being nourished. Reading out loud usually involves physical closeness and a willingness to be still and share feelings of intimacy.

Adults often find that reading to children allows them to let go of their stresses of the day and enter a realm outside of scheduled time. When we read to children, we step out of our tendencies to overthink and plan, and we see the world through child’s more in-the-moment perspective. Interesting new research shows that reading aloud also has a memory-enhancing effect on adults.

Books lead us through the fascinating evolution of children’s development. Baby books with their repetition and rhymes tune us to the complex and delightful process of learning language. Books for preschoolers get us involved in the emotional life of the characters, and their stories inspire interpretation and conversation. “Why do you think Jojo did that? What was she feeling? What will she do next?”

Chapter books invite us into worlds of discovery and the adventure of finding series of books we can enjoy together. Research shows that graphic novels present complex language and plots, coupled with stimulating pictures, that adults and children can interpret together. Since children’s reading ability lags behind their ability to understand until about eighth grade, hearing adults read provides more sophisticated intellectual and verbal stimulation.

Reading together also encourages empathy and love. Who hasn’t fallen in love with countless characters in books? Reading with children offers rich opportunities to talk about feelings and about the choices book protagonists make, providing life lessons without lecturing.

Our favorite children’s book characters live within us more vividly than any books we read as adults, and revisiting those books is like touching base with old friends and introducing them to our children.

Let’s keep exploring the world of books as we lead up to our Book Fair in March.

Founders Day 2023: Looking Back

Founders Day 2023

Founders Day, February 25, marks the shared birthdays of our school and its founders, Ivy O. Duce and the Indian spiritual figure Meher Baba. Mrs. Duce founded the school on February 25, 1975, which was also her birthday. The school was modeled on the principles of Meher Baba’s “school for love” in the 1920s. His birthday is also February 25, and we honor him along with Mrs. Duce as the school’s founders. It’s our 48th birthday!

We’ll be celebrating Founders Day on Friday, since the 25th is Saturday. We’ll have live entertainment and special treats for the children and staff, and elementary students will receive coloring books about Mrs. Duce and Meher Baba.

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Remembering Our School’s Earliest Days

Karima, center, Nancy, left, and Katie share memories of the first White Pony class.

The Meher Schools first opened its doors in the fall of 1975. Known then as the White Pony School, it was a preschool housed in space rented from a church in Lafayette. There were nine children in the first class. One of them was a two-year-old named Karima Hastings, now one of our second grade teachers.

“I remember preschool vividly,” she says. “We did all my favorite things: art, singing, dancing, playing with friends. The feeling that stands out in my mind is one of total acceptance and love from the teachers. It was just a feeling of happiness and freedom.”

After preschool, Karima lived in Washington, DC, while her parents completed Montessori training. She returned to the school for second through sixth grades. One of her classmates in Room 11 – where she teaches now – was her future husband, Ira Hastings. Their son, Matteu, graduated from Meher School in 2018 and today is a sophomore at Las Lomas High School in Walnut Creek.

"We were giving as much as we could to the children, and we were being given very much."

One of Karima’s favorite preschool teachers was Nancy Burgess, who works in our preschool aftercare program. “I remember Karima as a very courageous and strong little girl,” she says.

Ivy Duce is surrounded by students at a play they performed for her in 1979, after the school added an elementary school and high school. The girl next to her in the dark dress is her granddaughter, Mary Knowles. Mary was a classmate of Karima’s in the first White Pony class.

“The school was a sunny place where there was lots of new learning for children and teachers. We worked hard to learn how to do the best for each child. I felt very grateful and very nurtured. We were giving as much as we could to the children, and we were being given very much.”

Nancy taught at the school from 1975 to 1981. After that she taught at a Montessori school in Lafayette for five years and then in the public schools for 17 years. She often returned to The Meher Schools to help out during vacations and summers. She rejoined our staff when she retired, in 2007, and has worked in our aftercare programs ever since, first in the upper grades, then in kindergarten, and now in the preschool.

Karima’s mother is Room 2 teacher Katie Ulmer. “I remember how happy we were that Karima was accepted at the new White Pony School,” she says. “She brought home many rainbow and unicorn pictures over those early years that my husband, Jerry, and I uncover now and again among our keepsakes.

“I was busy commuting to work in San Francisco but felt so secure and blessed that Karima was at the White Pony. I remember attending a class play one year where she played the part of an Indian boy in Meher Baba’s ‘school for love.’”

Katie taught at the new preschool until 1980, when she took a job at Gump’s in San Francisco. Twenty years later, “very ready to come back to teaching,” she re-joined our preschool teaching staff.

Ivy Duce’s son-in-law, Duncan Knowles, the father of Mary in the photo above, says Mrs. Duce envisioned a school that offered not only solid academics but a grounding in love, honesty, fairness, respect, and service to others. Ellen Evans, who was principal for the school’s first 41 years, remembers her saying, “A child needs love like plants need sunshine.”

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Is it “The Meher Schools”? “White Pony”? “Meher School”? It can be confusing, but each is correct, depending on what it’s referring to:

Our preschool is “White Pony School.”

Our elementary school is “Meher School.”

“The Meher Schools” is the name we’re incorporated under. It includes both the White Pony School and Meher School.

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Words for Young Ears

Some conversations between two adults are wonderful for children to overhear. Hearing a parent or teacher talk about their accomplishments, their kindness, or their honesty validates their positive feelings about themselves. The Nurtured Heart Approach urges people to intentionally share approving words about children within their hearing, as one form of personal recognition. These are conversations we want children to overhear.

In daily life, most of us aren’t always tuned in to what a child is overhearing. We have all that “Oh no!” experience after realizing a child was listening to a conversation we’d rather they didn’t hear.

This is a particularly interesting time of year, when parents often have lively discussions with each other about what the child will be doing next summer and next school year.

As a result of the flurry of these discussions, sometimes children start exhibiting anxiety at school by having a bathroom accident or an emotional meltdown. One of the first things we might ask parents is “Are there conversations about changing classrooms, going to kindergarten, changing schools, attending middle school?” When children catch parts of conversations about the future, they often get confused and don’t know how to formulate questions about what they’ve heard.

Although we are all processing changes that might occur over the next year, it’s helpful to stay aware that children don’t need to be focused on the upcoming school year in February. If you think they may be tuning in to adult conversations and worrying, it’s great to reassure them that they will learn more about new situations closer to the time they are occurring. We want to keep them enjoying the present moment.

Of course, impending change isn’t the only subject children overhear that causes them anxiety. Problems in the economy, the world political situation, or concerns about a relative’s health are hard subjects to process in overheard discussions. Children tune in to teachers’ private conversations too often about the health of other students or staff members.

Teachers and parents can work together to keep each other informed about subjects children might be tuning into, and how we can best support their understanding and their enjoyment of every day, as we get to experience the excitement of a new spring.