by Jo-Ann Van Reeuwyk with Paul Dull and Mark Ponstine

“So the classroom where truth is central will be a place where every stranger and every strange utterance is met with welcome” (Palmer, “To Know,” 74).

In our research to unpack Sacred Space Pedagogy (SSP) over the past five years, it has become increasingly evident that teachers and administrators at the schools we observed have a definite inclination to create places for students that provide safety, support, and room for risk-taking. We also discovered that faith-focused questions and convictions infiltrate their classrooms. Yet teachers and administrators often lack the vocabulary or language they need to describe and develop their notions of providing “sacred space.” We visited five schools in particular: Mustard Seed in Hoboken, NJ; The Potter’s House in Grand Rapids, MI; Daystar in Chicago, IL; Grand Rapids Christian Elementary in Grand Rapids, MI; and Kemang, one of the schools in the Sekolah Pelita Harapan system in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Administrators were able to articulate broad visions of faith-infused schools, but language was often vague about what it means to provide Sacred Space Pedagogy for their students.  While teachers’ eyes lit up when we probed for evidence, language was limited. In fact, when first asked about where sacred space was evident in the school a common response was to invite us to chapel services and to review chapel programs for the academic year. Their first inclination was not necessarily to take us to their classrooms.

Defining Sacred Space

Barbara Brown Taylor defines sacred space in her book An Altar in the World as places and practices that pronounce blessings. Our quest has been to discover how and where to practice sacred space in our schools. Beyond this, we think practicing sacred space is a matter of feeling at home enough in our own skin so that we might celebrate with and bless others in their skin (see Delpit).

We think of Sacred Space Pedagogy as connecting spiritual, structural, and teaching practices that unify the head and heart and link to ways of living and learning in our communities. Parker Palmer articulates it in this way:

“What do I mean by sacred? It is a paradoxical concept—as one would expect when exploring the most profound truth of all. On one hand, the word points to an ineffable immensity beyond concept and definition, the sacred as Rudolf Otto defined it in The Idea of the Holy—the mysterium tremendum, the numinous energy at the heart of reality. On the other hand, sacred means, quite simply “worthy of respect” (“The Courage” 111).

In conducting research, we selected schools where we believe special attention is being given to exploring the intersection of learning and sacred space. We looked for places where power structures were acknowledged and altered enough so that safety for all could be created. We found examples of teachers and students exploring sacred space at The Potter’s House, Mustard Seed, Daystar, and  Sekola Pelita Harapan.

The Classroom as Sacred Space

We found several instances suggesting that teachers are exploring how to use spaces in this way. For example, Aubree Cantral, a teacher at The Potter’s House, provides time and space in daily classroom work for her students to draw prayers related to their current topics of study. She then encourages students to fly them as flags in the windows. This practice demonstrates a practical way to unify the head and the heart with classroom learning. She is providing sacred space.

Finding Sacred Space in the Local Community

To further develop a picture of what these teachers and administrators are engaged in, we looked in particular at the way schools treated not only interior but also exterior spaces located in each school’s local community.

Claiming and Creating a Shared Space

Remarkable to us was the use each of the schools we visited made of nearby community parks. Several of the schools find themselves in busy, urban environments. Rather than searching for separate or isolated playground space, or resorting to interior gym spaces for recess and play time, each of the schools has incorporated local community parks.

These schools have managed to find a creative way to provide sacred playground space. The typical fallback spaces of gyms and classrooms for inclement weather just do not suffice for regular use. Another solution was needed: the parks. Our conclusion? When the sun shines and the breeze is present, the parks provide true sacred space—an opportunity for students and teachers to thrive in community that is both shared and sustainable.

While some of the parks are maintained by the city or district, a few of the parks had to be designated as child-friendly. This necessitated thorough cleanup—often of drug paraphernalia—and a “claiming” process by the teachers and administrators. A few of the schools we observed share park space with multiple schools or groups. At any given time during the day students and community members play and live together. Mustard Seed shares the park with several participating schools with designated areas for the children to keep play organized. Community is built among many members of the surrounding area in the city.

Contributing to a Sustainable Space

We view community parks and green spaces as sacred in part because they nod toward sustainability, generally and particularly. These schools, where parks are being cleared and spaces made child-friendly, are also engaged in gardening.

At Mustard Seed, for example, a back parking lot now provides nurture to potted plants, herbs, and flowers. At The Potter’s House significant work has taken place to create a rain garden. It is now a welcome part of the local environment and community.

Mark Ponstine, Pre-K–8 principal at The Potter’s House, describes their school’s further attempts at garden-making in this way:

Of course, we work to develop classroom communities and we try to help students see their role in the church at large, but I also want to deepen our students’ sense of belonging in our school neighborhood and broader community. I appreciated hearing more from the Plaster Creek Stewards.* Just yesterday there were students here in our community doing some water testing and weeding some rain garden areas, and I was encouraged to continue and even strengthen our school’s commitment to this kind of work in our community. I have several teachers reading David Sobel’s Place-Based Education, which is giving us some new ideas on how to connect our classrooms and communities. Specifically, I am working with two science teachers to have our students begin a school garden here on our property. While I like the thought of our students digging in the dirt and learning about seeds and experiencing good science content, I am also looking forward to the possibility of our students selling produce to our school and broader community and partnering with others who live on the street near us. If we can improve the way we use the physical space near our school, bring a little bit of order out of the chaos, and connect better with our neighbors at the same time, I think we are moving ahead with both hospitality and stewardship.

Finding the Sacred in City

As our investigation of interior and exterior spaces continued, we were led to contemplate one school in particular, which has a very specific philosophy of “the city as classroom.”

Daystar in Chicago incorporates twenty-two class excursions per grade into their yearly rhythm as a school. During these excursions, all students travel to resource areas in the city.  Students complete assignments at a museum or an institution that is relevant to the topics they are currently exploring in their classrooms. We enjoyed imagining the richness provided to students who can finish a science experiment in a museum and then visit the same museum numerous times over the course of a school year for completion of a variety of projects.

This same school provides a coffee house for, and shares a park with, the local community. All this we believe exemplifies a well-known saying, attributed to Abraham Kuyper in Lectures on Calvinism: “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine.’”

Creative Solutions When Space Is Scarce

As a side note, we acknowledge that schools the world over may not have the option of utilizing a park nearby. One school in Jakarta has devised an interesting solution. One of the SPH schools, Kemang, is housed on five floors of a high-rise building. The school has managed to convert interior space into successful playground and pool areas. Further investigation is needed to discover whether the space is in fact comparable to the parks, but at first glance, it seems to be a workable solution for a school in an urban area, which has minimal access to green space.

Sacred Space for the Teachers

One of the questions we had as we interviewed was whether or not the providing of blessings was extended to staff and administrators. (You can read more of this in the article “Tensions and Transformations.”)

As an example, at Mustard Seed, you find a safe and quiet space for meditation, prayer, and time out in the teachers’ workroom. Tucked up and facing a medium-sized window is a comfortable rocking chair surrounded with greenery. Remarkable is the subtle invitation for the teacher to sit quietly. The back of the chair faces the busyness of the teachers working at tables in another part of the room. A few moments of respite are caught. While only a few moments perhaps, there is a kind of honor and sacredness offered to teachers in the midst of their work.

These are some instances which illustrated to us that these schools and their communities are committed to providing sacred space and Sacred Space Pedagogy for their students and teachers regardless of whether or not those particular terms are used or the SSP philosophy is fully articulated. Within the interior and exterior spaces, and for all members of the school community and beyond, Sacred Space Pedagogy is taking place. With this article we have tried to provide a few examples of this for you to contemplate.

*Note: visit http://www.calvin.edu/admin/provost/pcw/ for more information about Plaster Creek Stewards. 

Works Cited

Delpit, Lisa D., and Joanne K. Dowdy. The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts on Language and Culture in the Classroom. New Press, 2002. Print.

Kuyper, Abraham. Lectures on Calvinism. Eerdmans, 1943. Print.

Palmer, Parker J. The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life Jossey-Bass, 1998. Print.

—. To Know As We Are Known: Education As a Spiritual Journey. HarperSanFrancisco, 1983. Print.

Taylor, Barbara B. An Altar in the World. HarperOne, 2009. Print.