School For Self Esteem

Photo retrieved from: http://www.boredpanda.com/magic-realism-paintings-rob-gonsalves/

School For Self Esteem—when a child practices being a school teacher, her/his self esteem is revealed in the report card comments.

I showed my daughter Pippi a series of optical illusion painting by Canadian Artist, Ron Gonslaves  (above). Pippi found them much fun to look at as did I (the painting above is one of my favourites because I never feel more at home than when I am in the middle of a forest). She said excitedly, “We need to do this at school!” I though she was talking about her real school. However, she said, no, at my school—the school she teaches at that’s located in her bedroom with a total of 18 dolls and stuffed animals in attendance. Her dolls are in for a fun art lesson!

I remember teaching my dolls school when I was a child. I believe that wherever there’s a teacher teaching, there are children that head home after school and practice those lessons on their dolls. Pippi’s school is not for dummies. I read over her geometry quiz and feared I might not pass it. When children play at being teacher, they educate themselves in leaps and bounds as well practice feeling empowered in a trusted position of authority (teachers are still big stuff in our society). The subjects that Pippi researches and then presents to her pupils blow my mind! She’ll be ready to start university by the end of her semester.

Pippi’s school is called Magic Road Elementary School. It is in attendance on weekends and evenings and Pippi is the head teacher. She spends hours at her bedroom school. Her curriculum is quite extensive: in physics they’re studying dark matter, in mythology and they’re studying about Greek Goddesses and Gods, in social studies they’re studying communities, in physical ed, they begin with stretching, then they run and play with the parachute and finish with a treasure hunt, and in art they built a 3 dimensional city from the future.

How a child feels about themselves is revealed in how kind they are to others. Pippi’s uplifting, positive messages to her pupils tells me that she feels confident about herself and can share her kindness by giving praise to others.

She created the report card (below) completely on her on (after I showed her where to find a report card template in Word). She made it for one of her pug dog stuffed toys named Weldy. Pippi’s comments are so kind and inspiring, I truly think anyone would thrive under her tutelage!