Why We Don't Talk About "Spirit" in Preschool . . . And Why We Should

Karntakuringu Jakurrpa

When we die, the arrangement of our physical parts remains the same as it was in life, yet something quite essential is suddenly, from one moment to the next, missing. The people of ancient India called this missing thing, prana. Chinese philosophers gave it the name qi. French philosopher Henri Bergson coined the term �lan vital. Having been brought up as a Lutheran, we spoke of the spirit leaving the body. Whatever we call it, this vital life force, has been an obvious reality for humans throughout our time on the planet. We feel it. We see it in others. And, perhaps most telling, we know when it has gone out of a human body.

In recent centuries, however, we find ourselves, in the West at least, talking less and less about this essential aspect of what it means to be alive. Indeed, it seems we've turned most of the discussion over to the practitioners of alternative medicine, religion, and fiction ("May the force be with you!"), where it can be boxed up and patted on the head as a sort of sweet, abiding myth. Science is ascendant and since scientists are no where close to understanding what qi is or how it works, many of us are suspicious of its existence. Certainly, we think, there must be some sort of tick-tock mechanism still awaiting our measurement and testing, something quantifiable and concrete that will explain this illusion of a ghost living in our bodily machines. Talk of qi or prana or �lan vital or spirit strays too much into the mystical and magical for our scientific age.

We have no problem talking about our bodies, of course. In the early years, we talk heaps about the importance of children moving their bodies, especially outdoors. We fret and worry over proper nutrition, eye protection, and the avoidance in injuries (at least severe ones). And, naturally, we have no problem talking about the mind. I mean, that's our business, isn't it, as educators, to develop their young minds? There are few of us who can't cite this or that bit of neuroscience to describe behaviors or defend practices. And then, there is the old mind-body connection that we insist upon. Much of what we think we know about the body and mind is rubbish, because science is always moving forward, leaving those of us on the "front lines" scrambling to keep up, but that doesn't stop us from talking about it, investigating it, and deploying what we do know (or think we know) toward the betterment of the children in our care.