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Surrounded by beauty

Whether it be the natural environment or the things we introduce to it, all is to be very beautiful.

When I first worked with children I was influenced by a chapter of Edith Schaeffer’s in which she discusses flowers and meal table decoration. She urges us not to say: “Oh, it doesn’t matter, it’s only the children.” She reasons: Children growing up in an atmosphere where beauty is considered an important part of daily life cannot help being inspired to develop their own original ideas in these areas, nor can they help being prepared to live aesthetically themselves. *

A little enhancement has been made: a visual boundary in hessian. Some boundaries are really solid and some are just signals. Whatever the material, we must try to preserve the natural beauty and let children learn from its glory.

* Edith Schaeffer (1971), Hidden Art, Norfolk Press, page 104.