Education is an Atmosphere

Mason believed that one-third of education is atmosphere. Yesterday, I posted a little about this. She wrote that atmosphere is different than environment. Atmosphere is invisible and intangible.

Learning happens everywhere. Today, grabbing lunch on the go, I witnessed a woman with two small children speaking rudely to the restaurant employees. Because I have been thinking about "atmosphere," I thought about how this was a lesson. A negative atmosphere teaches negative lessons. 

Being a mother makes me want to model patience, kindness, humility, forgiveness, and gratitude (and, and, and...) because these are the lessons I want to teach my daughter. (And these are the lessons being a mom teaches me.)

Atmosphere is not our physical surroundings. I have to remind myself of this. We live in a very small apartment with no lawn, the trade-off being that we live within walking distance of the beach and the weather is like being on vacation year-round. But atmosphere is how we live in this space, not what we furnish it with.