The Energy of Children

I sometimes find it odd that skeptics will point to science as their bedrock argument against the paranormal. Science has stuff in it that's far stranger than anything paranormal, as far as I'm concerned. On the other hand, science believes in the reality of energy, and there is a theory that the energy of children can produce things like poltergeist activity. I've read that the really disturbing physical manifestations that are related to poltergeists are frequently centered around a young child, frequently an adolescent. So maybe this paranormal phenomenon is actually an example of uncontrolled psychic energy.

Some years ago between career shifts -and I've had a lot of those- I spent a little over two years as a special education aide in a K through 5 grade school. I was a one-on-one aide to a girl who was deaf as well as challenged, and I had the opportunity to work in a self-contained special ed classroom. My first year there, we had five children, one lead teacher, and two of us one-on-one aides. That may sound like adult overkill in a room with five kids, but trust me, there were times that three of us weren't enough. Kids are clever and fast. 

I enjoyed the job: my co-workers were both relaxed, easy-going, and funny women and we did our jobs with a sense of humor. There were times that a sense of humor was the only thing that was going to see us through. Yes, even with only five kids.

But one thing we did notice was a certain amount of  -I guess we can call it energy- in the room. As if there was an overflow of activity, even if all the students were sitting at their desks. The door to the classroom opened on its own pretty frequently. We had things fall off of shelves. Maybe because the kids were super active when not sitting and something became unbalanced enough to fall over the edge of a shelf an hour later? Possible. But it happened a lot. I noticed drafts in the room when the doors and windows were closed. And one of the students saw things no one else did. That was possibly part of her condition. And then again...

I was only in the field for two full school years and two summer school sessions, so I never got to have much conversation with teachers who weren't in the same school I was. But I've always wondered if other special ed teachers, tutors, and aides who might be open to the paranormal concept have experienced the same kinds of things in their classrooms. Maybe even more. I do remember one time the principal of the school dropped into our room to see how things were going and asked if we needed anything. We told him we needed a candle, a Bible, and an exorcist, and I don't know how much we were joking. 

I read somewhere that the ancient Greeks considered mentally handicapped people to have been touched directly by God. I sometimes wonder if people who are challenged in our culture are perfect in another dimension or world that overlaps ours, if perhaps they have a conduit to other realms, as it were. I could see how being between two places could raise problems in ours.

At any event, I finished up my second session of summer school and went on to a job in health care. Last year, though, I actually ran into my one-on-one charge when she was on a shopping trip to Sam's Club with her mother. Her mom remembered me and we had a good conversation. My one-time little student is now an adult in her early thirties. As always, I was taken by surprise by that fact, even though academically I knew she had to be an adult. I don't know if she remembered me, but looking at that face brought back a lot of memories, including how active that classroom was, no matter if the kids were up and doing something or sitting at their desks doing work.

Maybe someday I'll meet some special ed teachers who'd be willing to talk about what went on in their own classrooms. That is, besides teaching special students.