|
American Dream
The Changing Earth
Hopi Prophecy
Links
Southwest Desert Sustainability Project (link)
How children learn
John Taylor Gatto
A Revolution of Positive Change
One Earth Thinking from Ages 9 Up
Multiple Intelligence
Fractels
Mythic Imagination
Learn in Freedom Links
Contact
|
Greatness and Children
Greatness implies breaking old standards and bypassing norms. Greatness is not taught, it is aroused from within. It should be encouraged and given room for growth. Greatness is inspired by challenge and fired by freedom of thought and action. Greatness is made possible by the opportunity to make mistakes. Greatness is motivated by passion and instinct and knows no boundaries. Greatness is risky....one of the least secure things one can do with one's life. Greatness relies on faith, trust and hope. Greatness is an inner calling to play out one's part in the whole. Greatness is built on vision. Greatness is scared at times but never afraid. All are born great. Greatness is an act of personal truth resonating from within and is the ultimate act of humility. Greatness is inpsired by creative spirit and is a gift for inspiration, betterment and renewal. If all of us p layed out only a small fraction of our greatness, it would become heaven on earth.
Children are people.
Possibly the least understood people on earth. Their failure to be understood is in direct proportion to our inability to understand them. Children are mirrors. they reflect the adult world of tension, frustration and contradiction. They show us our weakness, priorities, fears and resentments. Children are the reflection of social conditions; a reminder of our neglect and victims of global selfishness. Children are discerning, honest, bright, curious and respond to their enviroment from the first heart throb of the fetus. They live in a world of trust, magic and possibilities until we tell them it is not real. We destory the sanctity of personal creation in the name of some externally defined mandate. This violence is perpetuated on unwilling victims every day, all of the time. Our children have a choice and the capabilities to change this reality. They have this choice, in particular, if we step out of their way and support the "who," the "why," and "what" of their personal destiny.
|
|
Living and Learning and Freeing Our Children
- All Children are Different. They all possess different rates and styles of learning and comprehension. They all perceive differently.
- Don't try to bend their will to yours. They have far greater tensile strength than you can imagine.
- Create as many opportunities for experience as possible. Learning through Living.
- Structure can be debilitating if rendered too soon. Learning is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being.
- The arts are critical to self discovery, encouraging self understanding and conviction. The arts provide a context for experiential immersion,and employ kinesthetic, multisensory and multidisciplinary learning.
- Respect, integrity, accountability, interconnectedness and compassion are necessary. Mistakes help us to be free. Understanding, listening, watching, observing, sensing, intuiting, all provide freedom. A free child is neither governed by parents, schools, religion or dogma, but able to confer with and understand reality outside of prejudice, near-sightingedness, hatred, bigotry or self interest. A free child will question everything including you or me,
the meaning of suppression or oppression and the meaning of leadership.
- Freedom to become your own person suggests an absence of societal claims and icons; an avoidance of socially whitewashed stereotyping; a stripping away of outter wrapping. Poverty, status, fame or fortune are not relevant to the acts of defining and refining life's path. Self accessment, irreverance when necessary, sacredness when appropriate, discernment, intuiting balance and blessedness.
- Our job is to support and promote power, vision and purpose.
To encourage, facilitate children taking on the management of their context, locale, community, environment, village....and world. Creating new realities, one step at a time.
|
