Thinking about Bare Feet When It's Sixteen Below

Walking on a sandy beach is one of my most favourite things in the world to do.  I spent many hours of my early childhood on Kew Beach in Toronto, and my summer holidays on a sandy beach in northern Michigan, perhaps that’s why.  Or perhaps it is because walking barefoot and exposing our many little bones, (26 in each foot!), 33 joints, and more than 100 muscles, tendons, and ligaments to the delightful uneven surface and temperatures of a shifting, soft beach is like an expensive massage.   Walking on cool hard-packed sand washed smooth by waves allows us to see our temporary footprints and the patterns we leave.  The myriad nerve endings in our feet (more  than anywhere else in our bodies) send messages to our brains about how to proceed through the world as we go about our day. 

Can you tell I recently went to a wonderful workshop on feet?  http://www.alignmentrescue.com/ It has affirmed my belief that we who work with young children need to take the health of children’s feet more seriously.  Here comes the negative musing.

In many child care settings, and even in some people’s homes, babies and young children spend all of their waking hours in shoes.  Their little flat feet are still developing and likely do that best being bare for much of the day.  I always marvel that the fastest runners in the world come from places where the children spend much of their time barefoot.  In Kingston, Jamaica, birthplace of lightning fast, Usain Bolt, the children’s feet and gross motor skills amaze those of us from the coddled north.  Shoes are unfortunately sometimes a luxury worn for school or church. The children run, skip, kick a soccer ball, unwincing over rough ground, with strong, tough feet.  Funny that babies often go through a stage where they take great delight in peeling off their own socks and mastering removing their shoes, and sometimes those of anyone else within reach.   They know it’s good for us! 

Bare feet in Riverton City, Jamaica

Some early learning settings never let the children have their shoes off, not even for sleeping.  They use the excuse, “What if there’s a fire?” What if there is a fire?  One person scoops of the basket of shoes,  tarp, and blanket as part of the evacuation drill.  Worst case scenario, the children’s feet get cold for a short time.  I worked in a child care in a centre in a high school.  If students were going to pull the fire alarm as a prank, or in protest of the principle’s new policy (which they five times one day) it was usually on their lunch break which was our sleep time.  So I know how easy it is let children sleep (when the growth hormone is released) without shoes, and have faced the consequences many times about evacuation in all types of weather. 

I also hear people say, “It’s for health and safety reasons.”  Really.  Before rest time, children go to washroom in their shoes, then run around on their little cots before laying their little faces on those contaminated cots. So health and safety?   In other countries, such as Japan, the children, even the toddlers change from their own shoes to special sandals to wear in the washroom. That is for health reasons. 

Preschool washroom slippers in Ikoma City, Japan

In practice as an ECE in child care I instigated barefoot days.  We’d make sure our small playground was safe from any sharp objects, leave all the trikes and wagons in the shed, and let the children play barefoot.  They were happy to do so.  It’s a healthy, human thing to do.  But I have never seen anyone else do this with the children.  What are we afraid of?  A splinter?  A bruise?  A stubbed toe?  Or the wrath of a helicopter parent . . . 

I am waiting for summer to feel the cool grass, grainy sand, sun-warmed granite, and the beloved earth under my feet.  

Molly in a river: Photo Dave Cooney

Bare foot traction.  Photo: E. Harrison

Khalil Gibran — 'And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair'