The Second Paramita of Ethics & Volunteering at IGDVS
All Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Venerable Master, Dharma Masters, wise teachers, and Dharma friends: good evening. My name is Thao. I have been volunteering at the girls' school since 2018. Currently, I am teaching one period of Buddhism and occasionally chaperoning events.
In the spirit of the six paramitas, I will share an anecdote related to the second paramita - precepts, morality, or ethics. As part of my volunteering at the school, sometimes I will pick up Starbucks or boba drinks for the girls. It is a joy to see how happy the girls are from something as simple as a drink.
One afternoon, I was picking up about thirty boba drinks from the local donut shop. Since the order is so big, it is packed into cardboard boxes for easier transportation. Although I enjoy bringing the girls treats, the part that is not fun is carrying all the drinks to my car and transporting the drinks back to the school.
While I was waiting for all the drinks, a stranger approached me. "What are all those drinks for?" she asked. I told her, "I'm picking up drinks for a bunch of junior and high school students." She responded with a smile, "Better than a bunch of drugs and alcohol." She walked out of the store and I thought, “Good point."
Teaching the girls makes it fairly straightforward to keep the precepts, so I will speak about the second paramita more broadly, in terms of ethics, and the way I conduct myself. I will share my experience volunteering at the girl's school and sprinkle in the second paramita where it arises.
I finished my master's degree in organization and leadership in 2017. An important lesson I learned was understanding the key connection between secondary education and higher education. At the time, I was working for Dharma Realm Buddhist University and also had the opportunity to work with the girl's school. It felt like a rare and wonderful opportunity to have elementary, secondary, and higher education institutions all on the same campus.
I began to volunteer at the girls' school in 2018, teaching in both the elementary school and high school. When someone teaches, it is interesting to see the different affinities that teachers have. Sometimes it's an affinity with subjects, sometimes it's an affinity with the institution, and sometimes it's an affinity with certain age groups.
Without previous teaching experience, I felt intimidated not knowing what teaching high school girls would be like. Would they listen to me? Would they behave? I was in for a surprise when I realized that teaching elementary students was not my strong suit. Instead, I found more resonance working with high school students. They are old enough to engage in critical thinking and abstract concepts while young enough to be sweet, playful, and open-minded. The girls were incredibly impressive and continue to be so.
The first course I taught in the high school was ethics for freshmen. I started off the class with having the girls engage in an open conversation to decide on classroom agreements and share what qualities they find inspiring.
My intention with creating classroom agreements is that it would foster a safe space for the girls to be open and to learn. Together, we came up with the following classroom agreements:
Speak with trust and no judgment
Respect others
Learn together - collaborate
No need to compare yourself
Get along with each other - harmony and inclusion
The qualities that the girls found to be inspiring is when a person is:
Influential
Patient
Trustworthy
Helpful
Empathetic
Good Listener
Responsible
Humble
Egalitarian
The qualities the girls picked sounded like they were well on their way to learning about and embodying ethics. I printed out the classroom agreements and inspiring qualities, taped it next to the chalk board, and it was there to guide our time together going forward.
The ethics course content centered around these qualities. I would find a figure that demonstrated these qualities. On the other end, I would have the girls reflect on how these qualities show up in their own lives and how they could embody these qualities as well. A typical class would have several usual components: writing, reading, listening, and discussion or sharing. I also start each class with a check-in to see how the girls are doing.
Over the years, I have taught a variety of courses including ethics, Buddhism, and world religions. My approach to teaching is focused on application and integration of the course materials in everyday life. Every year the group of students are different and so the classroom dynamics change as well. To put it in Buddhism terms, I have a beginner's mind when it comes to teaching. All that goes into teaching - preparing the lesson, teaching the lesson, and evaluation of the course - is a work-in-progress that requires refinement and is always evolving.
After several years, I realized that being a volunteer teacher set a much higher standard of how I conduct myself. Not because I needed to earn their respect or approval, but because they were holding me to a high standard as a teacher. I was particularly touched at a holiday banquet where the girls were diligently serving the teachers at lunch. After all, another teacher said to me, this is developing virtue and instilling goodness schools.
Respect is inherently built into the school system. For example, there is a standard greeting that is done at the beginning and end of every class period. Students greet the teachers in both English and Chinese, while the teacher also greets their students. This infuses the spirit of conducting myself to the best of my ability and leaving room for improvement. Students are precious, much like pearls to be shined, and it important to keep that pure intention in interacting with them.
The girl's school is truly something special. Teaching has only been one aspect of my volunteering experience. There have been many magical and meaningful events beyond the classroom.
Sometimes the aspect of volunteering is subtle. It could be driving the girls on Saturday morning to take their SATs and taking them out for lunch so they feel nourished after a hard day of taking tests. It could be driving the girls to local events and cheering them on when they do musical performances or Chinese dance. Other times, it's taking them on walks or bringing them sweet treats to brighten up their day.
It has been especially tough for students during the pandemic. Last school year, the girl's school reopened for in-person instruction. Efforts were made to keep the girls engaged outside of the classroom while keeping them safe. In fall, we did the annual Russian River watershed cleanup and took them out to lunch afterward. Another afternoon, the girls went to a local pear orchard to pick fruit.
Activities and events continued through spring semester. We took them to have lunch at Lake Mendocino and visit the local museum. The girls brought their learned experience back to campus, and I supervised the girls as they curated a beautiful museum exhibit that demonstrated the Expected Schoolwide Learning Results (or also known as ESLRs). Teachers and parents could come visit the ESLR museum and see the brilliance of the students, where academic intellect meets creativity.
As the school year wrapped up, I chaperoned the senior class trip. These seniors were the same girls I taught as freshmen. This first group of high school girls I taught were an extraordinary bunch. I got to teach them when they were freshmen, juniors, and seniors. I witnessed them from their early days in high school to being big sisters and leaders in the school.
Shortly before they graduated, I wondered and reflected: How would their time with me impact their life? I could've taught them differently. Could I have done more? I want to do more with them but time is running out.
I imagine parents go through a similar process as their children grow up and leave the house.
It is a natural transition for the girls to go onto higher education and out into the world. And so, I continue to do my best for the next group of girls.
I would like to acknowledge that the exceptional operation of the girl's school is due to the amazing support of teachers and administration. Bhikshuni Jin Jr is a fantastic principal to the girls. She holds them to a high standard so they continue to develop into mature, responsible, and thoughtful humans while always looking out for them, whether it is professional development opportunity or treating them to a yummy snack.
There is no more exemplary example of the second paramita than being around sangha members. That is part of the uniqueness of IGDVS - the students are sharing campus with sangha members. Some of the nuns are involved with the girl's school in teaching, dorm supervision, or dining services. With such influence by the nuns, the paramita of precepts permeates the environment.
Many of these experiences are indescribable, but photos help capture how special and precious it is to volunteer with the girl's school. I will share some photos to wrap up my talk
Photo captions
1 - I’d like to highlight another special aspect of Igdvs, which is summer camp. Summer camp usually happens every year around June for two weeks. Students may stay on campus or just come for the day portion.
2 - in 2021, we took the summer camp students out to the coast, about an hour and a half away from Ukiah
3 - one of the activities from the day on the coast was taking them canoeing
4 - during the trip, I met another teacher from the girl’s school. Even though we have both been around the community for over a decade, we didn’t meet until we were both chaperoning during summer camp. She has become one of my closest friends.
5 - another activity during summer camp is having the girls spend time at Mendocino college.
6 - At Mendocino college, there is a program called Caring kitchen. Caring kitchen provides nutritious meals to individuals and families facing cancer.
7 - the girls learn to harvest various herbs and vegetables from the college’s garden
8 - garden photo
9 - then they help prepare food in the kitchen. I enjoyed chaperoning the girls so much that I continued to volunteer at caring kitchen for the following year
10 - the next few photos are from 2017. Elementary students are harvesting pumpkins from cttb’s organic farm
11 - farm photos
12 - this was a year before I started volunteering but I remember seeing these girls made me want to start!
13 - in fall 2021, we took the girls to do a local park clean-up
14 - afterward we took them out to lunch
15 - about a month later, we took the seniors to do a Kayaking trip in Santa Rosa
16 - kayak photo
17 - in spring semester, the girls worked on curating the ESLR museum
18 - eslr museum
19 - the eslr museum had many creative pieces of student work from all grades
20 - for Easter, bhikshuni Jin Jr asked me to pick up a bunch of donut holes to represent Easter eggs. She was worried that the elementary students had an easter event but had not planned anything for the secondary students.
21 - we hid the Easter eggs around the school building as a scavenger hunt. The girls divided into two teams to look for the donuts and enjoyed snacking on them after they were found
22 - another field trip was taking the girls to an interfaith event with the local Adventist hospital, where they treated us to a delicious vegetarian lunch afterward
23 - last year, I taught a memorization class in world religions. When I was younger, I was given a beanie baby for memorizing the great compassion mantra at Berkeley Buddhist monastery. My dad gave me a bag of my old beanie bays, so each girl got one after completing her memorization
24 - this is my fellow teacher and good friend chaperoning the seniors on their class trip last may.
25 - I have taught these girls since they were freshmen. This is them in ethics class from 2019 at the end of the year
26 - these girls graduated last may and are now in colleges around the world
27 - there have been countless ways teaching at the school has given back to me. in fall 2022, I ran for city council and the girls were some of my biggest supporters.
28 - they helped sew heart pins that represented the brahma viharas so I could give them out to the community
29 - this is my current class of juniors and seniors at the beginning of spring semester who inspire me to keep trying my best.
Being a volunteer and teacher at IGDVS has given me many rich experiences and I feel very lucky to work with them. There is no doubt that teaching the girls has helped me improve how I carry myself and helped me become not only a better teacher but a better person. If any of this interests you, I suggest you come volunteer at IGDVS and experience it for yourself!
Thank you for listening. Amituofo.
