items of interest

with contributions from Gail E. Hudson

"Nurturing spirituality [in children] is different from fostering self-esteem, points out Dr. Ann Mise of Seattle, who did her doctoral work on children's spirituality. When interviewing kids in South Africa and Washington state, she found that those who had a strong spiritual life also had strong self-esteem. But, she cautions, nurturing spirituality 'is not about providing activities and opportunities that revere the child's self. Rather, it is about revering the interconnectedness of life and the individual's relationship with God.'"

Gail E. Hudson
"Nurturing a child's spirituality" Portland (OR) Parent
September 1998

In a presentation on the value of laughter, Laurie Young of Laughter Works told her audience that adults laugh an average of fifteen times a day, while a four-year-old laughs up to 400 times each day. One of the chief reasons people give for not laughing more is that they don't have enough time for it, but Young and her colleague Key Caskey—both teachers in Western Michigan University's Holistic Health Department—emphasize that the mental and physical benefits of laughter make it worth taking seriously.

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