Trekking through Buddhism

Sixth-graders study one source of Eastern philosophy, culture

Sixth-graders twirled miniature drums in their hands Wednesday afternoon, filling the room with popping sounds as each pair of attached wooden beads swung against taut drumheads.

Other students stapled their freshly hand-inked canvas panels side-by-side on a cord stretched across the Hedges Elementary multipurpose room, forming a reproduction of a Buddhist prayer flag.

"These Buddhists put their dreams and thoughts on it," Ryanne Crippen explained as she held out her intricately patterned panel before hanging it next to her classmates' panels.

She had just rolled ink across a hand-cut wood block and pressed her canvas to its surface. Doing so, she picked up the same image that each of her classmates had printed on their panels - a visual depiction of one Buddhist's prayer, in words and pictures.

"They would hang them," Crippen continued, "and the wind would carry (the prayers) out to the heavens and they would be granted."

The sparkle in her eyes told of her excitement for the art project.

"It kind of teaches us about Buddhist culture. It's not the exact same materials, but it's their methods."

Each student also created a personal flag displaying symbols, pictures and words to portray his or her own dreams and thoughts. Those decorated rectangles of canvas are headed for home, to hang next to the family computer, decorate the child's room or, perhaps, blow in the wind and carry their creativity to the heavens.

The hands-on project this past week helped a social-studies unit come alive for Sue Harding's students, even while their teacher is away.

Harding's new friend, world-history teacher Janet Ries Stern of Pennsylvania, substitute-taught this week while Harding took some time off to visit her daughter in South Africa.

Their chance meeting on a flight to Kalispell was "fortuitous," Stern said. Stern, a master's degree candidate in education at the University of Philadelphia, has been visiting the Flathead Valley since 1992. Recently she found a local place of her own, and was heading here to visit this summer.

On the plane trip, Harding noticed Stern's math text. Conversation developed and, before long, Stern had offered to fill in while Harding was out of the country.

They worked out the details through the school, and Stern came to school the day before Veterans Day to meet Harding's students.

As it happened, she brought the perfect opportunity to blend academics and real-life experience.

On the docket for Harding's sixth-graders was a social-studies unit examining Buddhism.

One year ago, Stern had been trekking and visiting Buddhist temples and monasteries throughout Bhutan and India. She immersed herself in the culture and customs of the land, and brought home artifacts that could be shared with schoolchildren studying the area.

In Hedges School this week, she shared slides from her trip to Bhutan and India. Students read books about the culture, art and practices of Buddhism, and wrote paragraphs summarizing what they learned. They learned which countries have Buddhist practitioners and studied their geography.

One of Stern's souvenirs, the hand-carved wood block, was a perfect launching pad for Wednesday's activity.

It was a template for a "community" prayer flag, to become a class gift to Harding when she returns after Thanksgiving. The lesson was a template for student learning about another culture.

"Buddhists live in a big monastery, and only a select few can be monks," Chance Caudill recounted his lessons. "And those people start when they're 8 years old."

His favorite part of the week's study, he said, was Wednesday's art session.

But he hadn't yet heard from Gen Wangden, resident teacher for Kalinga Buddhist Center in Kalispell, who was to visit the class Thursday.

Jolene Smith, who studies and uses the New Kadampa Tradition on which the Kalinga center is founded, served as a sort of forerunner for her teacher as she gave a hand with Wednesday's activities.

"Buddhism is all about inner peace," Smith said. "Happiness is a state of mind - and you can change your mind … You can replace negative thoughts with ones that make your mind peaceful."

Smith joined a handful of mothers and PTO members, all generous in their time, to make the art lesson come about. As the students created flags, they recalled their classroom lessons.

"I think it's very interesting," Kayla Westwood said. "Some people practice Buddhism in the Flathead Valley. (Elsewhere) they practice Buddhism in Korea and Japan and China and Vietnam."

She and two friends, Siri Wheeler and Lillian Surynt, were working on their personal flags and reeling off their newfound learning.

"They shave their heads because they want to show respect," Westwood said.

"The boys and the girls always wear a dress to show respect for the religion," Wheeler said of the monks' robes.

"The top level is a lama," Surynt explained, "and he goes in a cave and doesn't do anything but pray. He doesn't talk to anyone."

Many of the children knew that the first Buddha, a young Hindu man named Siddhartha Gauthama who rejected his family's excesses and went on a life journey toward enlightenment, nearly starved to death after eating next to nothing for six years. Eventually he found peace with the world and traveled the region, teaching his insights to others.

"Buddhism and Hinduism are kind of similar," Brianna Salo said.

"Buddhism came out of Hinduism," added her friend, Amanda Frasier.

One region in which Buddhism took root was the present-day Bhutan, which impressed Stern as having "absolutely no separation between religion and daily life - it's just their culture."

Nelson Fortenberry explained that Bhutan's flag, a dragon on a split background of light and dark orange, symbolized that unity.

"That represents the religious and the nonreligious people in the country," Fortenberry said about the two shades of orange.

In Bhutan, Buddhists make prayer flags such as those found Wednesday in the Hedges multipurpose room.

The tradition was to ask a monk, who was revered among the people, to carry individuals' prayer flags on his journeys.

"It was considered polite for a traveling monk to take a person's prayer flag and give it a higher boost," Crippen said.

Stern worked all week to make Buddhism an object lesson for understanding Asian cultures.

"I teach world history," she said, "and I believe you can't teach history unless you understand the belief systems.

"If you really want students to connect with the material about the culture, you've got to help them know, 'what are they thinking?'"

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com