Learning through love
Abraham Maslow, the American psychologist, advanced the idea that people need to feel loved and a have sense of belonging before they can reach their full potential. Perhaps Maslow, being Jewish, took some of the ideas expressed in our religion to formulate his theory. The basis of our religious belief is that Hashem’s love is boundless and knowing this gives us a great capacity to love Hashem with all our hearts. He is the ‘strength of our lives’. Maslow realised that love is the strength of everyone’s lives.
As early years educators, our role is not to pour knowledge into the children’s minds, as if their brains were empty vessels. Our role is to give children an opportunity to develop what the Early Years Foundation Stage identifies as “the characteristics for effective learning”. Our role is to inspire children, to motivate and encourage them and to draw out their unique qualities. It is the privilege of an early years educator to nurture self-love within a child.
Children need to start school motivated to learn, with an ability to think critically and feel enthusiastic to try new things. The love they are shown at nursery can build their characters, enabling them to be school-ready.
Importantly, when working in the early years, we should not just be thinking about school readiness. We are also thinking about our children going out into the big wide world and being ready to be part of our community. So, we want our children to understand key concepts such as treating others as you would wish to be treated and loving Hashem. These concepts can be understood only by seeing them in action. Modelling these beautiful ways to live life is another way in which we help the children to learn through love. Embracing chagim and enriching pride in Jewish education is a way we show love for our own identities.
Children start attending early years settings younger and younger nowadays. They have often never been apart from their parents before and so this could be a daunting experience for them. The relationships they make with the staff are often the first relationships they have outside their own family. Therefore it really makes a difference what this bond is like.
In order to feel a strong bond, a child needs to feel like the staff are their friends and friends of their parents. This will give the children a sense of belonging.
I am often asked “what is it about your nursery that makes it special?” The word “special” suggests something exceptionally unique, perhaps even magical and so people are curious to know what our distinct quality is. The special quality at Woodside Gan is undoubtedly what we call “learning through love”. The staff build such wonderful relationships — with the children, with their families and with each other. Over time, we have come to realise that these special relationships, this love is our pedagogy. It’s what makes the children want to learn.
At Woodside Gan, we believe that to fulfil our role as early educators, the children first need to feel a sense of love, a sense of security and a sense of belonging. When they have this, their self-esteem will be such that they have the confidence to learn independence, resilience and develop a sense of agency.
In the nursery environment, children are learning about how to form positive, healthy and loving relationships. They are being taught that while it is important to love yourself, it is equally important to share that love with others. As we sing in our Magic Penny song in the nursery, “love is something if you give it away, you end up having more.”
It is often said that the important words of Rabbi Hillel are all that really matters. The fact he said: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?” shows that fostering self-love is not a new thing but the most precious thing of all. And “if I am only for myself what am I?” is surely the fundamental root of a good Jewish education.
The child needs to feel like the staff are their friends’