What if children were actually perfectly designed for childhood? I think this idea is closer to the way nature works than our current understanding. A snail is much less sophisticated than a human, but it is still perfectly designed to be a snail. Yes, children are vulnerable and immature, but they come hardwired with the tools they need to develop into adults. If more of us, parents and educators alike, really understood this, then we could spend less time “fixing” kids who are fine and more time addressing children who have somehow gotten off-track from what nature intended for them…and finding out why. Spoiler alert, it usually has something to do with us adults!
I'm a youth coach and I see this all the time. Early maturing kids get all the benefits of selection/recruiting/coaching while those whose DNA is telling their bodies and minds to wait a while get cut and are lost in our adult 'fetish' of turning kids into mini-adults so we can WIN!! Often the answer to any skill development question is... wait a year. Piaget showed us that. "Every flower blooms in it's own time".
"The reason a child is childish isn’t for lack of telling. It’s because their brain is on a different operating system. One which has a lot of maturing to do, but which is just right for the stage they are at now." This is an incredible perspective shift. I always found it striking that we are encouraged to allow our children to be little, as babies, and then all of a sudden we have to tell them how to "be". This idea of trying to form my children, to tell them to be less childlike in order to teach them how to be an adult, has caused me so much distress and left me feeling like a failure. The idea that my children's brain is perfect for this stage of life is incredibly supportive and liberating. Bravo.
What if children were actually perfectly designed for childhood? I think this idea is closer to the way nature works than our current understanding. A snail is much less sophisticated than a human, but it is still perfectly designed to be a snail. Yes, children are vulnerable and immature, but they come hardwired with the tools they need to develop into adults. If more of us, parents and educators alike, really understood this, then we could spend less time “fixing” kids who are fine and more time addressing children who have somehow gotten off-track from what nature intended for them…and finding out why. Spoiler alert, it usually has something to do with us adults!
I'm a youth coach and I see this all the time. Early maturing kids get all the benefits of selection/recruiting/coaching while those whose DNA is telling their bodies and minds to wait a while get cut and are lost in our adult 'fetish' of turning kids into mini-adults so we can WIN!! Often the answer to any skill development question is... wait a year. Piaget showed us that. "Every flower blooms in it's own time".
love this! education should be designed around the actual way a child grows up
"The reason a child is childish isn’t for lack of telling. It’s because their brain is on a different operating system. One which has a lot of maturing to do, but which is just right for the stage they are at now." This is an incredible perspective shift. I always found it striking that we are encouraged to allow our children to be little, as babies, and then all of a sudden we have to tell them how to "be". This idea of trying to form my children, to tell them to be less childlike in order to teach them how to be an adult, has caused me so much distress and left me feeling like a failure. The idea that my children's brain is perfect for this stage of life is incredibly supportive and liberating. Bravo.
This is one of the best things I've read in awhile.