Mata, J. (2011, September 30). Children’s Spirituality as Experienced and Expressed in a Kindergarten Classroom. (p. 226). ProQuest, UMI Dissertation Publishing. ISBN: 978-1-24457-228-7.

INTRODUCTION - As a child I had all sorts of interesting profound questions I pondered constantly. I wondered where we came from, why we were here, what our purpose was, and what exactly we were meant to do with our time alive. I remember going through a phase in which I wondered if everyone had these same questions and saw and understood life and death, or at least tried to, as I did. So when I heard “Oh ¿Qué Será?” for the first time at age ten, it quickly became one of my favorite pieces. I also remember talking to my grandmother, a very devout woman, about these questions and having her reassure me that God existed and that he was not only looking after me, but had a plan for me. She told me that I would eventually come to understand what I was meant to do with my life, and she encouraged me to trust my instincts and follow my heart, because she believes that is the place where God lives, within each and every one of us.

I kept pondering the questions and when I entered adolescence, the questions grew stronger. Eventually doubt and lack of guidance made me withdraw from the religion I was born into. Later on, as a preschool and kindergarten teacher, I was asked to teach religion to my students in the Catholic schools I worked at, which caused a great deal of soul searching for me. My struggle continued and it was not until well into my twenties when I realized that religion and spirituality are not one, and that I could hold on to my beliefs and nourish my spirituality and that of others, without having to live it through any particular religious practice. Eventually, in my late twenties, early thirties, I made peace with the Catholic Church where I was reared, and decided to go back to my roots. I started practicing the Sacraments and joined my religious community.

To this day religious rituals are very important to me and I would want to rear my children, if and whenever I have them, in my religious traditions. Yet, I truly believe that as humans we have the potential to be as spiritual as we want to, within or outside religious traditions, since spirituality is innately part of ourselves and a major component of who we are. This notion of spirituality being broader than and not limited to religious beliefs did not come easily to me, and I suspect others may also confuse spirituality and religious expressions. We need help to guide ourselves, to find our paths, and to embrace our beliefs, whatever they may be. To encounter spirituality is a natural, innate human ability (Daly, 2004) and like all dimensions of humanity it requires nourishment, and if we are lucky, guidance from significant adults in our lives. As a former early childhood teacher I posit there is no better place to start providing this guidance than in early childhood classrooms.

Through this study I set out to describe four kindergarten children’s spiritual experiences in a New York City school classroom. By describing these children’s spiritual experiences in a school setting in the form of individual profiles, I hope to offer an in-depth description of this phenomenon, and with it help inform teachers, educators, and caregivers to recognize and better nourish children’s spiritual lives. Having significant adults in children’s lives informed of how they live and express their spiritual experiences might facilitate a smoother spiritual path than the one I had.