How do we enable children to gain a sense of ownership in groups and organizations of which they are part? One way is to let them use community spaces as they see fit.
I always felt that the United Methodist Church in Atwood, Kansas was MY church. It was much more than the place I went on Sunday mornings. It was like a second home.
One reason I felt so comfortable at the Methodist Church is that I participated in a wide range of activities. I sang in the youth choir. I was a regular at Sunday School. I was an enthusiastic member of MYF (Methodist Youth Fellowship). I was a huge fan of church potlucks (except for the time I took rhubarb pie by mistake thinking it was cherry). It was a place where I spent many hours.
It was weekday afternoon hide-and-seek games that made the church seem much than just a place to go. Our hide-and-seek games were not church sanctioned activities. To this day, I’m unsure of whether adults were aware or not. We never advertised our games to parents or other adults. We didn’t really hide what we were doing, either. That would have been impossible given the loud nature of our games.
The Atwood grade and junior high schools were located directly across the street from the Methodist Church. It was a perfect place for young boys to stop and blow off steam after being cooped up for hours in a classroom. We could usually round up at least four or five boys for our version of hide-and-seek better described as hide, chase and tackle. A player wasn’t “found” until he was unambiguously tagged, which usually meant dropping the fugitive to the ground.
The church was never locked — at least, not all the doors were locked. We tried to avoid the entrance by the pastor’s office. Again, we weren’t necessarily trying to hide what we were doing. We just figured fewer questions is always better than more.
The church building was, in fact, a group of buildings tied together by a convoluted series of halls and staircases. We liked to enter down a long staircase into the old church basement which served as a fellowship hall for many years. The basement was like an old gym complete with stage on one side and a large kitchen on the other. The original sanctuary was up two flights of stairs. Behind the old sanctuary, was an area where families gathered before funerals and the choir before Sunday service.
The new sanctuary sat to the north and extended to the east of the original building. This portion included a balcony overlooking the sanctuary and to the side, an adult classroom, the pastor’s offices and an entrance hall for the choir behind the church alter. The basement addition contained six to ten classrooms and a large nursery.
The combination of rooms with multiple exits, staircases and hallways was a better than any labyrinth. We used all the space the church had to offer, including on occasion the bathtub designed for baptisms buried in the basement stage and the large air ducts in the older parts of the building.
My favorite hiding place was the old sanctuary. It had the most favorable escape routes to evade pursuers. I could exit toward the back, down the stairs to the fellowship hall, across the basement “gym” and through the kitchen to the new addition classrooms.
The more thrilling route was out the front of the old sanctuary through a series of up and down staircases followed by a long narrow hall. I would lead my pursuer through this maze and up to the balcony overlooking the new sanctuary. I would let my advisory believe he had me cornered. Then, I turned and leaped from the balcony to the wide aisle dividing the two sections of sanctuary pews.
That’s were the pursuit would end. Unless, I was being chased by a veteran who practiced the balcony tactic, too. In that case, I hoped not to stumble when I hit the floor so I could make it to he choir hall behind the alter before being tackled from behind.
The Methodist Church became a second home because we had free reign. One might question the appropriateness of our game — especially in a sanctuary. Yet, the silent conspiracy between knowing adults (there must have been some) and energetic youth allowed our games to flourish for many years with little or no damage done. The result was we young people felt a deep sense of affection for our place of worship.
Giving children free reign is a powerful gift. My experience is that it builds confidence in children as well as a sense of ownership in the places we adults want them to be.
I’m must admit I don’t give my children the latitude to run free as I did as a child. I tell myself it’s because the town we live in is bigger, the times are different, public buildings are used by more people. The truth is I need to do a better job to adapt. Their need for free reign is no different from mine thirty years ago.
What community spaces exist in your community? How can you help children use these spaces as they see fit rather than only as adults prescribe?
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John Creighton can be found on Twitter @johncr8on and onFacebook.
Photo Credit: Rawlins County Square Deal