An Evaluation of The Egg and You: New-Life Eggs and Letting-Go Shells

The activity reviewed in this entry is entitled The Egg and You: New-Life Eggs and Letting-Go Shells from the March 2009 issue of Catechist Magazine, which can be found here. This activity is intended for an upper elementary school audience (3rd-5th grade), and can be used with groups of any size. The objective of this activity is to help the students realize the possibilities that God provides for them in their lives.

This activity has two main parts, an eggshell mosaic craft and an egg meditation (the author provides an alternative to the egg meditation which will not be reviewed here). In the eggshell mosaic craft, the students use pieces of eggshell that have been dyed to make a picture that represents new life and the possibilities that God has given them, e.g. an egg, a chick, flowers, a cross, etc.

Following this craft, the students are guided through an egg meditation. During this meditation, they imagine that the egg represents all of the hidden possibilities that God has placed within them. They then imagine that a chick hatches out of the egg and talks to them about all of their hidden potential. Lastly, they are directed to visualize that they are talking to Jesus. The children are to thank him for the new life that he has given the world. The meditation ends with a short time of silence in which the students are directed to thank Jesus for all of the possibilities that God has given them and to listen to what Jesus says to them. When evaluated in light of the discussion by James L. Heft and the contributing authors in Passing on the Faith: Transforming Traditions for the Next Generation of Jews, Christians, and Muslims, this activity has both positive and negative aspects.

In his article, “A Spiritual Crossroads of Europe: The Taizé Community’s Adventure with the Young,” Brother John states that the young are very capable of performing intense spiritual practices and that we should not doubt their ability to do so (152). The egg meditation provides an age-appropriate opportunity for this type of spiritual practice. It also exposes the children to a spiritual practice that they may not have previously encountered. Both of these things will help to form the young child for future participation in intense spiritual practices.

Brother John also emphasizes the importance of small-group discussion and some form of involvement and responsibility on the part of the youth (156-157). This activity does not involve any form of discussion after the eggshell craft or the egg meditation. Presumably, that is because it is geared toward children in elementary school. However, this does not prepare them for participating in this practice as teenagers or adults. It is vital to begin engaging children in meaningful religious discussion as even young children are capable of extraordinary spiritual insight. In this activity the children are the recipients of a lesson that is given to them. They do not have the opportunity to engage in discussion with each other about the key points of the activity.

The Egg and You: New-Life Eggs and Letting-Go Shells has the potential to be a helpful tool to assist children in realizing all of the possibilities that God has provided for them. In order to do this successfully, however, there needs to be some form of discussion about these various potentials incorporated into the activity. As it stands, the children are the passive recipients of the lesson. The craft is nice, but in order to be more meaningful, a discussion of the possibilities that God has given them should follow it. If used along with a discussion, the eggshell craft could be a great visual reminder of the potential in the child’s life. The egg meditation, on the other hand, is a wonderful, way to introduce the children to a new spiritual practice. With a few slight modifications, this activity could prove to be a very powerful experience for its audience.