Harmony in the Classroom
The Advocate

By Alison Damast, Staff Writer

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Feng shui finds its place in Norwalk middle school

NORWALK—AT first glance, Sherri Daley’s seventh-grade classroom looks like a typical middle school space.

But closer examination reveals healthy potted plants by the window, yellow wind chimes, a flowery mirror in the back of the room and a 9-inch red ribbon hanging from a hook.

These are not frivolous decorations, Daley said.

With these items, she has ushered positive energy flow and the feng shui philosophy into the halls of Ponus Ridge Middle School.

Feng shui — which in Chinese means wind and water — is a centuries-old practice that strives to create an ideal and balanced living environment.

“It is much more challenging these days to get the kids interested in something, and I’m always trying to get them to do something that will leave the classroom with them,” Daley said, recalling how the class first discussed feng shui in September. “We were talking about balance in our lives and what makes them happy. I said something ridiculous about feng shui and the kids perked up.”

From that moment, it became clear to Daley that feng shui had a place in the classroom as well as the home.

With the help of Westport feng shui consultant Tracy Boyce, Daley and two of her language arts classes started to incorporate the philosophy into the language arts curriculum.

They started to explore how they could make their classroom and homes a more positive and harmonious space, Daley said, but the project soon took on a life of its own.  With the help of Daley and Boyce, students plan to paint a feng shui mural on the brick wall at the front entrance of the school and plant a garden.

“I think you really do get affected by your environment and kids spend a lot of time in school,” said Boyce, who has visited Daley’s classroom twice this fall. “I’m not sure when they’re designing schools that they really have the in mind.”

During Boyce’s visits, students have learned the basic principles of feng shui, the theory of the movement of energy between the elements, and what steps they can follow to take charge of their environment.

The tell-tale signs of the feng shui invasion are all over the classroom. A copy of “Feng Shui for Dummies” lies on Daley’s desk. A feng shui floor plan of a room designed by three students hangs from the bulletin board in the back of the classroom. Students even brought in a bowl containing a fish, a feng shui “cure” to make the classroom environment more cheerful.

Many of Daly’s students, such as Lashawn Salmon, 12, have caught the feng shui bug.

“It’s cool. It calms everyone and you get to learn about the environment and the chain of life force,” Lashawn said. “I can’t wait to start the mural because everyone will be, like, ‘I want to learn this, too.’”

Rana Hamocka, 12, has become an amateur feng shui decorator, and has started to arrange her bedroom according to feng shui placement rules.

“I’ve thought about how I should arrange my room and arrange other rooms in the house to make things flow better,” Rana said.

Daley hopes students will be able to complete the mural in the spring with the help of artists from the community.

She has applied for a Norwalk Education Foundation mini-grant and said she hopes the organization will fund the $2,000 needed to complete the mural. In addition, her two language arts classes are writing letters about the project to Schools Superintendent Salvatore Corda.

Students have enjoyed learning about feng shui, Daley, said, because it is such an unconventional classroom topic.

“They love it,” she said, “Because it doesn’t look like learning to them. But they have been learning a lot about themselves, their family and their environment. They have been doing a lot of learning, only they don’t think they are.”