“For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.” – Rudyard Kipling

At Aishling Forest School, we always encourage our learners to follow the “Forest School Way” which includes our three main guideposts 1. Taking of taking care of yourself, 2. Taking care of others, and 3. Taking care of Mother Earth. As we wrap up our second week of the Spring 2022 season, we’re excited to share with you some of the tidbits that we covered at school this week, as we focused on the theme of “Taking Care of Others” which always leads into our discussion about wolf packs.

You may have already heard your learner use the wolf call with us at forest school, or even at home: we use this call as a signal that it’s time for the pack to come together as a community. We model this from our beautiful and fascinating wild canine friends, as the educational non-profit Living With Wolves has documented that wolves care for each other as individuals, form friendships, and nurture their own sick and injured.

“Pack structure enables communication, the education of the young, and the transfer of knowledge across generations. Wolves play together into old age, they raise their young as a group, and they care for injured companions. When they lose a packmate, there is evidence that they suffer and mourn that loss.” Wolves are also a symbol of guardianship, loyalty, and spirit. Their ability to make quick and firm emotional attachments is inspiring for our wildling learners to look up to and learn about caring for others.

This past week, like a wolf pack, we dove deeper into what it means to take care of each other, as much of our system of demonstrating care-taking comes from child-led exploratory discussions as well as the information based on the research done by the “Making Caring Common Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education” One of the first techniques recommended is to teach children to learn caring and respect is by treating them that way, especially through meaningful conversation.

At our opening circle each morning, we allow each learner a turn to speak about their point of view regarding the question of the week, with this week’s question being, “How do you take care of each other as a wolf pack?” Many of our learners mentioned similar thoughts and agreed that taking care of each other meant helping one another with 1. Opening a snack, 2. Getting an adult if someone is hurt, and 3. Listening to each other. This is always a helpful practice to do at breakfast or dinnertime when the family is together and you can come up with your own question of the day to develop meaningful connections through open conversation. 

The Harvard Graduate School of Education also recommends that to help raise a caring child, it’s important to be a strong moral mentor which can be demonstrated by visibly checking in with others, or to make caring for others a priority, and encouraging kids to work it out together as a team. These are major opportunities that we encourage and use at Forest School. Our learners are taught to “check in” by playing our “Stop” game. We pretend that someone is upset and yells “Stop!” to which all the learners nearby are encouraged to check-in and say, “Are you okay?” With this practice, we make sure that we are mindful of all our friends in our wolf pack.

Additionally, when we come to a disagreement at Forest School, our wolves are encouraged to find a peaceful solution and our mentors are there to assist them with ways to find an agreement if they have difficulty problem-solving on their own. Another way to encourage caring for others is to provide opportunities to practice gratitude to enable us the expansive awareness to caretake. Gratitude is a part of our daily routine at Aishling as we open up each morning thanking earth, wind, fire, water, spirit, family, and community for all that they provide for us.

Speaking of gratitude, we are so grateful for our giant wolf pack and all of the families that have joined us this season. We hope that by encouraging our wolf pack to take care of each other, young and old, sick or healthy, old friends and new friends, these experiences and memories will help guide them on their own personal journeys filled with lifelong healthy, loving, and respectful relationships.