Kids are very present. They want things right now. Where kids actually learn that is in play. You bring the lemons, I’ll bring the lemonade. You bring the sticks tomorrow, do you have a sheet? How we gain the ability as we grow to wait to be gratified is just an amazing thing and it’s essential because when you’re an instant gratification society you don’t have any sense of the future. You’re just always wanting. Again, kids don’t have that really young, but the way they learn it is when they play.
Things to think about
In what ways do you introduce gratification deference to children in our current society?
Do you have toys in your school that foster instant gratification?
In what ways can you add people to your program that allow for varied relationships and a village of support for children?
Highlights from Playful Wisdom
by Michael Mendizza featuring Bev Bos and Joseph Chilton Pearce
Principals continued
7. Rediscover the natural genius children call play.
Life is a miracle and play is the way this miracle expresses, expands and develops. Without play life is mechanical, repetitive and dull. Every child is born into the optimum state of learning and performance, what every child calls play. When adulterated-adults rediscover this optimum state, their relationship with the child, at any age, becomes in sync. Conflict disappears. Discovery and co-learning expands. Realize that the original play state is universal and applies equally to Einstein, Mozart, and great performers in sports and the arts, not to mention your cat, your six-month-old and your teenager. Competition implies fear and fear siphons away and wastes the precious energy and attention necessary to be our personal best moment by moment. By watching you gather this play-full energy and attention and invest it in true creativity instead of fear and worry each day, your child learns easily and naturally to do the same. This energy and attention is the difference that makes the difference in a mundane life or the miracle nature gifted each of us. Life and especially what we call thought and consciousness is creative play in action. To treat it otherwise is a grand and near-universal delusion.
8. Touch and move a lot.
We miss so much of our life stumbling in a foggy daydream, the millions and billions of thoughts we have each day. During the critical early stages of a child’s life, and that means humanity’s future, this foggy daydreaming translates into “not here” to the child, not unlike having a conversation with a friend who is texting. The relationship is disassociated and that is what the child experiences. Shut up, be present, available and stress-free as much as possible. Communicate with your body. Affectionately touch and carry your little treasures as much as possible.