Have you met the green corridor / nature park cyclists? We meet them every week in Forest School.
They are a crucial part of the safety of our children at Forest School.
At Forest School Singapore, we venture far and wide within our “Campus”. Very often, the green corridor and trails of the Nature Park would be filled with cyclists. On weekends, the cyclists at Green Corridor (GC) ride with higher energy. Some of them would ride at really high speeds. Some of them can get impatient with our little ones. But most of the time, they are really kind and would look out for our groups in their own unique ways. They would ALWAYS try to avoid colliding with us.
Some of them would be kind, and wait for our little ones to finish admiring the flowers by the side of the road. They would heap praises on our kiddos for being so in tune with and aware of nature. But sometimes they may be impatient and borderline rude. They would make snide remarks about how inconsiderate or unruly our kids are.
We always invite them to share their remarks directly with our little ones, no matter if they’re positive or negative.
Our belief is that there is wisdom in a community that helps to raise a child. When we say it takes a village to raise a child, it doesn’t mean that everything has to be positive. But it has to at the very least be expressed directly and bravely to others.
The whole range of reactions from our GC cyclists provide our children with other perspectives for them to consider. We may not have to agree with all the perspectives of every community member, but it is important for us to listen to others as much as possible.
It leads us to slow down in life, so that we can pay attention to the general wellness of ourselves and others.
These cross-engagements are also a great space for us to cultivate empathy for our children, coaches and the cyclists.
Just imagine, when our children get to interact authentically with the cyclists, they would feel and hear the energy that each of them carries. They learn that our world has all types of people with many different states of mind. They are not all the same like in textbooks. The kids then learn all these through facilitation with coaches after the engagement, and develop their own stands on the issue. Now imagine these kids growing up to be in positions of power – how would they treat their community then? Imagine that.
Sometime our coaches may get nasty remarks, as those who don’t know us, and our practice, may misunderstand our coaches’ space-holding for negligence.
Now, I must say that these engagements may get so nasty at times that our coaches feel the urge to give a good tongue-lashing to the cyclist.
But even that is a great opportunity to learn about setting boundaries and how to express them.
We are all not perfect, but it is through engaging, listening and trying to understand one another that we are able to better sync with our community, for the benefit of our children.
Written by: Darren Quek
Editted by: Wei Shimin
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