Being a Kindergarten teacher for 21 years and now having two very young granddaughters, I can thoroughly relate to sitting on the floor as opposed to a chair. Whenever I did sit in a chair while teaching, it was always a kid sized one. I never really thought about it until I read this post. I will now be much more aware as I go forward on the value of sitting on the floor.
Judy, you might like this posting from Dec 2023. In the second half of the essay I describe research done in grad school on the origins of kindergarten and how it might inform how we renew and re-educate ourselves. https://clifforddeanscholz.substack.com/p/going-back-to-kindergarten.
Jill Hollowell here. I’ll bet if people took their shoes off when they went into their house, the floors would be cleaner and people would be more likely to sit on the floor… another cultural element. Enjoy your writing, thank you and happy new year.
Thank you, Jill. And so good to hear from you! Yes, taking one's shoes off at the door seems to make the interior of a home more intimate immediately, and in a number of ways. Sure, it's cleaner and that's a plus on a lot of levels, but with our shoes off, we are also in more intimate contact with the space even as we walk around. Similarly, perhaps, people like to take their shoes off on a warm sandy beach. It's almost like we're not really "there" until we do. Footwear changes our relationship with any environment.
Being a Kindergarten teacher for 21 years and now having two very young granddaughters, I can thoroughly relate to sitting on the floor as opposed to a chair. Whenever I did sit in a chair while teaching, it was always a kid sized one. I never really thought about it until I read this post. I will now be much more aware as I go forward on the value of sitting on the floor.
Judy, you might like this posting from Dec 2023. In the second half of the essay I describe research done in grad school on the origins of kindergarten and how it might inform how we renew and re-educate ourselves. https://clifforddeanscholz.substack.com/p/going-back-to-kindergarten.
Jill Hollowell here. I’ll bet if people took their shoes off when they went into their house, the floors would be cleaner and people would be more likely to sit on the floor… another cultural element. Enjoy your writing, thank you and happy new year.
Thank you, Jill. And so good to hear from you! Yes, taking one's shoes off at the door seems to make the interior of a home more intimate immediately, and in a number of ways. Sure, it's cleaner and that's a plus on a lot of levels, but with our shoes off, we are also in more intimate contact with the space even as we walk around. Similarly, perhaps, people like to take their shoes off on a warm sandy beach. It's almost like we're not really "there" until we do. Footwear changes our relationship with any environment.