Whether I like it or not, I’ve been taking a cold hard look at our educational system. I have the full field covered; college and high school-aged brothers, a son who is a high school freshman, a son in middle school, a kindergartner, and two preschool-aged children. What I have observed is that this system is not giving them any credit.
Children are not eventual commodities, they have value in the here and now. They came with it. They came loaded with all of it. All the potential, all the answers, all the drive, all the vision, all the motivation, all the curiosity, the innate sense of joy in the world around them. They came ready. And yet, we don’t ask them. We seem to have little interest in who they are. Ignoring their wisdom while assuming that we know best. Assuming that it is our job to fix the condition of their lives by preparing to set them off toward a life that is not authentic to who they are. They have all the inherent value that they need, and should not be marketed as a successful product. It serves no one to dilute the content of the character of children by forcing them into rolls that are not true to who they are. Our duty is to honor them. To do them justice by nurturing their true spirit. By instilling in them a sense of presence. To be sure that they know, that who they are, just as they are, is perfection. They are beautiful. Their minds are beautiful, their potential is limitless. We simply need to let them show us their way. Stop talking, and start listening. They are not wild beasts in need of taming. They are weird and wild spirits of whimsy. They are the best of us.
Ms. Is 