As we’ve learned more about the brain, how it grows and how it develops, what we’ve kind of said, parents and teachers, is just a whisper of how important the early years are and in that whisper we’ve talked about literacy and we talk about ABC’s, we talk about numbers, and if we don’t understand it really deeply, then we get caught up in the trap that earlier is better and it’s not. the thing that I think about a lot, what kids need in the very beginning is experiences to attach words to because there would be no sense in reading a scientific paper about erosion, how that happens any place, if you’ve not had any experience with the hose pointed at the sand and the sand is rushing away. Experiences to attach words to. And the other thing that children need more than anything are pictures on the walls of your mind so that you can imagine it.
Things to think about
What experiences do you give to children to attach words to?
How do you give children pictures on the walls of their minds? In what ways do children get to imagine a story?
What influences from the outside world do you see encroaching on a child’s imagination?
How do you stay in the moment with children? What do you think about each day that honors that moment and not a future concern?
Highlights from Playful Wisdom
by Michael Mendizza featuring Bev Bos and Joseph Chilton Pearce
When the child comes into the world the reception of that child determines how they respond to that world. This is hormonal. This is cellular. It’s biological. It doesn’t have anything to do with the child’s feeling good or self-esteem. The emotional state of the mother profoundly affects the emotional state of the child. This is transmitted hormonally. If a mother knew this, if a father knew this, if the nation knew the full impact of that intimate relationship then, the protection and support we provide for that mother and father to create the most powerful nurturing ambient possible would be our highest priority in order that there might be no anxiety, no fear. With this support of the parent we might then have a completely different world from that one simple little action. Joseph Chilton Pearce
As we’ve learned more about the brain, how it grows and how it develops, what we’ve kind of said, parents and teachers, is just a whisper of how important the early years are and in that whisper we’ve talked about literacy and we talk about ABC’s, we talk about numbers, and if we don’t understand it really deeply, then we get caught up in the trap that earlier is better and it’s not.
The beginning is figuring out who you are, how you fit into this universe and then how we nurture that spirit so that they’re never afraid to grow and to learn and to wonder. And I think we’ve become so afraid that our children won’t be able to read and it’s whether they want to. I’m going to share an experience that I had.
The beginning is figuring out who you are, how you fit into this universe and then how we nurture that spirit so that they’re never afraid to grow and to learn and to wonder. And I think we’ve become so afraid that our children won’t be able to read and it’s whether they want to. I’m going to share an experience that I had. I was doing a workshop with a huge group of parents and it wasn’t about reading. I was about I think art and storytelling and music. I just got started and an adult raised his hand and he said, “What about the ABC’s? What about reading?” And it was one of the moments that I was most pleased with because it just came to me. I said, how many of you believe that your child is intelligent enough to read? Everybody raised their hand. And we believe that. And then I said to them, what are you reading yourself right now, just shout it out? Nobody said a word. There was dead silence. And in that moment then I said, write the next part down. Your child will not be a reader because you know children learn to be readers on the laps of their parents. Seeing their parents read. Seeing adults excited about sharing something. Often when my parents come in this school I’ll wave a book and say oh you’ve got to read this. There’s some wonderful stuff here. Paying attention to that kind of love, not teaching children how to read, but the love of story, the emotional part of reading with your child. You know I think we are way off track We are way off track.
You know there’s people besides me, Joseph Chilton Pearce is one of them who talks about not teaching kids to read before they’re 9 or 10. Telling stories, doing that wonderful song. You know the thing that I think about a lot, what kids need in the very beginning is experiences to attach words to because there would be no sense in reading a scientific paper about erosion, how that happens any place, if you’ve not had any experience with the hose pointed at the sand and the sand is rushing away. Experiences to attach words to. And the other thing that children need more than anything are pictures on the walls of your mind so that you can imagine it. What good is it to be able to read something if you can’t even imagine what it might be? So I think that the expectation of adults comes from a lot of pressure from a lot of people who don’t know young children. I think that watching television, we’re bombarded with ideas about how children grow. The latest thing we can get. Tapes and CD’s that we can play in our children’s crib to help them. The other thing I think a lot about and this is kind of, I hope this makes really good sense, my mother had eight children. She was busy feeding us, keeping our clothes, her iron wasn’t certainly like mine and the clothes weren’t certainly like ours are today where we don’t really to iron much, so she was really, really busy. We saw her working hard. I also saw her reading a lot.
The thing is about parents today, is they only have two children. And I think that’s a really good idea. I don’t think it’s maybe a really good idea to have eight children unless you really want to do that, but all of our hopes and our dreams are wrapped up in two children and I think that we are afraid to let them skin their knees, to not know something. And they’re out in the adult world all the time where somebody says what’s your name and how old are you and that’s not important at all and the kid is confused. I love my grandson because he says, “I’m one, two, three.” You know he’s got these fingers and he doesn’t know what to do with them. You know that’s not stuff he should have to worry about. It doesn’t matter how old he is. One of the things that I find the more I teach young children the more present I stay. And that’s what children are. They’re present. And to think about them or be concerned about what they’re going to be in twenty years is absolutely for me the most bizarre thing in the world. Who knows? Who knows? You know you’ve just got to keep that incredible curiosity absolutely engaged forever, being curious about something. The people I admire probably the most are people who switch careers mid stream. Oh man, I’m interested in this. Gosh I’d be interested in this. My oldest son is an artist and it’s interesting to me, he’s always interested in something new. Now he’s interested in sailing and then he’s interested in this and then he’s interested in that, always taking it just as far as he can. That’s what I want for children. I think the fear for parents is that not in creating that kind of a child or helping that kind of a kid grow, it is actually in making sure that they’re employable. Are they going to be employed? Are they going to have a job? Are they going to get into a college? Gosh it’s hard to get into college these days. It costs lots of money. Who are you going to be? The kids who are going to make it in the next generation are the kids that are curious, who can develop new ideas, who can invent something that will be useful. And when you go back through history that’s exactly what you see.
