Our Mission: To provide an early childhood education model of free play in natural surroundings, bounded by the Golden Rule, so that children have the fundamental foundation necessary to grow into their full physical, social-emotional, and intellectual potentials.
Our Vision: Golden Rule schools are everywhere the norm for early childhood education.
The Outcome: Every child thrives, capable of living freely in peace, for life.
A Golden Rule School is designed to support whole child wellness–including ideal brain growth and development–for children ages one to five, through the freedom of free play with access to nature and the boundaries of the Golden Rule.
Free play children mature at their own pace, both physically and socially. Some are early walkers, some are late. Some are early talkers, some are late. Some are naturally social. Some are naturally shy and reserved. With lots of activities to choose from, friends to play with and the Golden Rule as the boundary of behavior, they all ultimately develop kindness, confidence, and independence, the necessary foundation for a happy and rewarding life.
With the Golden Rule as the boundary of behavior, children learn to live freely in peace from their earliest years. The Golden Rule is the perfect social-emotional guide for all of us. It’s so important that spiritual traditions worldwide, for thousands of years, have declared it to be the most important instruction. It tells us exactly how to treat each other, in every circumstance. It awakens the understanding that ‘others count just as much as me’—that we are all equals.
Do not offend others, as you would not
want to be offended.
In everything, do to others what you
would have them do to you, for this
sums up the law and the prophets.
The successes of your neighbor and their losses will be to you as if they were your
own.
Is there any rule that one should follow all of one’s life? Yes! The rule of gentle goodness: That which we do not wish to be done to us, we do not do to others.
Everything you should do you will find in
this: Do nothing to others that would hurt you if it were done to you.
None of you shall be true believers unless
you wish for your brother the same that
you wish for yourself.
That which you do not wish for yourself you shall not wish for your neighbor. This
is the whole law: the rest is only
commentary.
Udanavarga 5:18
Matthew 7:12
T’ai-Shand Kan-Ying Pien
Analectas 15:23
Mahabharata 5:1517
Sunnatt
Talmud Shabbat 31
The experience of childhood is the key factor in determining a child’s future health, happiness, and success in life. A secure childhood unaffected by insufficiency or other worries will produce a happy, healthy, cooperative, creative, and kind adult. Conversely, an insecure environment causes a child’s adaptable brain to conform itself to specialize in protection and self-defense, to the detriment of social-emotional skills. This adaptation for self-preservation has the disadvantage of creating what is essentially a brain impairment, a social-emotional brain disability that prevents the brain from flowering into its full potential.
How significant is this disability? Its effects are sweeping. We are all afflicted, directly, and indirectly. It is wreaking havoc everywhere, in our interpersonal relationships, our economic relationships, and even in our political relationships. This disability causes us to misperceive each other and the world as threatening, which limits the development of feelings of trust and unselfishness. It’s a social-emotional impairment that hinders us from recognizing others around us as the human and spiritual family that we are.
This disability causes children, families, schools, and workplaces to suffer enormously. The earth and every living thing on it are suffering because of this social-emotional impairment. We have had it for so many generations that we all consider it to be normal. But it is not. We can heal this disability by changing the way we handle childhood. We can immunize our children against historically normal prejudice and greed by providing physically and emotionally secure environments in which to grow up.
By providing Golden Rule School education before anything else, we raise children to be kind, caring, cooperative, and creative. We raise them to feel safe with others and their world. It’s a brain thing. We can end prejudice and greed in a single generation, with every child, by putting this knowledge into practice.
Hours: 7:30 to 5:00 Monday-Friday
Rates: $9.50/hr for children from 12 to 30 months (no daily minimum)
$9.00/hr for children over 30 months (6-hour per day minimum)
We operate year-round, with the opportunity for a different summer schedule or a summer break for parents who are teachers or others who so desire. (In other words, your child’s space is held for the fall, even if they do not attend during summertime.)
Parents provide diapers, a sippy cup, and an extra change of clothes. We provide all else, including organic, non-GMO snacks and meals, diaper wipes, sunscreen, etc.
We do not compromise on the children’s health. We feed them organic and non-GMO food, prepared onsite. Lunch is sit-down, snacks are not, unless they’re messy ones. Their personal water bottles are always available.
Learning how to take a break when you need one is a good skill. Children are so active it’s often not something that occurs to them. We have formal nap time from 12:45 to 2:30, but sometimes unplanned napping or resting just happens!
© 2020 Owl House Children’s Sanctuary
