Being Guided through Nitobe

A great teacher truly can make a difference: I've visited the Nitobe garden a couple of times during the B.Ed. program, but today I experienced it through a totally different (and more informed!) perspective, thanks to our knowledgeable guide, Tsubasa. As our CFE group explored Nitobe, our guide shared one interpretation of the garden, which is that it represents a person's path through life. We started out surrounded by tall trees, which symbolize how large the scale of the world is to little ones as they crawl and toddle around. Next, after seeing the "father" lantern with its guiding light, our group chose the more challenging of the two paths that lay ahead, in spite of being a bit tired from our morning gardening work. We were rewarded by traversing over a beautiful path along a river, and our guide described that this represents being cared for by the "father" waterfall on one side, and the "mother" calm river on the other. I had enjoyed Nitobe on previous visits, but learning about its symbolism from our guide brought it to life in a much deeper way. It reminded me how fun it is to learn new things, and that participating in the joy of learning is one of the best things about teaching.

Experiencing the world as So Big, like little ones

                                               Taking the more challenging path - what troopers!