Small children are especially good at learning quickly. They can
learn the meaning and the pronunciation of the words and the grammar of their
mother tongue with a success that few adults will ever achieve. Children can easily
imitate one’s gestures and postures with great precision. Children learn from
their surroundings using an enormous and precious ability to
imitate.
As a teacher in kindergarten and a principle in elementary
schools, I observe daily how powerful and “able” this imitation is and how it
loses its power during the first school years.
A child learns numerous skills and meanings without intention
and conscious efforts. It is simply naturally open and present in that what is
in his surroundings. A child is not conscious of how and what it had learned by
imitation.
But … a child could not achieve even its upright position without an
adult human being in its surroundings. Nor learn any word without hearing
it spoken by a human being.
This means that how we feel, behave and what we do in a child’s
surroundings goes deeply into his bodily and psychic constitution and remains
there unconscious and very well hidden under the veil of unconsciousness.
This is the reason why a child silently adopts not only good
emotions, thoughts, beliefs from adults but also bad and toxic ones. Adults
surrounding a child have probably a lot of such heritage from their adults. The
story goes further and further into the past of the family tree and it is not
difficult to understand how, for example, some child in his extremely strong
feeling of anger is connected with his grand-grand-grand-grandmother,
unconsciously, of course.
Abilities of Educators
So important for healthy child development. The question is
how we, as adults, can foster our positive influence on the child and its
development. This question has to be even more important for the teachers
who influence large numbers of children!
The qualities of educators that I find important
for healthy child development are:
- Deep respect for life, world and human being
- Personal integrity and self-esteem
- Control of one's own habits, temperament, character
- Emotional stability and maturity, balanced psychic life
- Interest and results in self-development
- Team work with other adults
All these abilities are interconnected and the improvement in
one brings improvement in any of them. They are ordered according to the growth
of a child. Deep respect for the life, world and human being is essential for
the small, in huge reverence for the world, open child. This reverence for the
world is desperately needed when dealing with the challenging and usually
confused teenagers, too.
But a teenager who lively experiences and develops
his/her own personality, besides abilities 1 to 4, needs to meet adults
who are effective in self perception and self-development. Weak
people cannot cope with youngsters in free and healthy ways. Weak
educators tend to use repressive methods which in youngsters provoke
either depression or aggression.
Let's take a closer look at those required abilities and
how it is possible to improve one's own abilities!
1. Express deep respect for life, world and
humanity
- The world is good.
- Life is precious.
An adult who embodies a deep respect for life, world and human
being spreads around himself optimism, enthusiasm, openness and YES to the
unique nature of any child. This helps a child to be as it actually and
naturally is: open to the world and new experiences! This helps a child to
express freely who he/she is and what he/she wants.
This is the only way towards child's creativity in adult age,
developed out of freedom of perception and expression. This is the way how a
child's talents and potentials can come out, can be perceived by educators and
then nurtured and developed.
Irrational fears have no place in a child's
surroundings. Any objection you might have against those two upper statements
shows that your real experience and conscious/unconscious reality disagree with
them. You have some values, beliefs, bonds which oppose to these positive
beliefs. It is useful to discover them and transform them.
Another typical burden is an inappropriate, inadequate or
insufficient appreciation of one's own parents, those crucial people in our own
worlds. Insufficient appreciation of parents is the origin of weakness,
unresoucefulness. Aimlessness in our future and goals, too.
2. Show personal integrity and self-esteem
Every one of us is a precious part of the universe. Appreciation
for the world, life, humanity excluding our own self is not correct. Perception
of one's self as a precious and unique part of the universe is like a star which
shines and spreads light all around. For a child this is like a blessing. A
child can build himself/herself according to this shiny model.
3. Control one's own habits, temperament and character
As we go through life, we become more and more conscious
of our habits, our temperament and character. Members of our family,
colleagues at work, illnesses and life experiences, show us what is
inappropriate. But knowing and doing are two different things!
Habits, temperament and character are anchored in unconscious
layers of our being and to change them requires from us to have a strong
persistence in practicing changed habits and features of temperament and
character over longer periods of time. It is a hard rock to move! It is a huge
challenge to our forces of will. If the will is weak, there is no chance of
changing!
Through Soulwork's dream-work and soul-walk it is possible to
face more consciously the burdens that cause these unpleasant habits and
features of temperament and character. When you are in a position to taste them
somehow and understand, it is possible to change them much more easily.
Tempered temperament, character and habits and ability to
control them are needed abilities for any adult person who is taking care of a
young child in the process of functional development of body constitution. It is
a helpful tool: like a bearing structure for future building of a child.
4. Emotional stability and maturity, balanced psychic life
Emotionally stable, consistent and meaningful in thinking, persistent and life
appropriate in actions – these are main attributes/fruits of a healthy psychic
life of an adult person. These attributes are needed when there is a child in
our surroundings and we want for him/her to develop good habits, tempered
temperament and character.
Our exceedingly strong and unpleasant feelings have originated
in our past and the past of the people with whom we were connected. It is
similar with burdens in thinking and our activity.
5. Interest and results in self-development
Adult person with interest and results in self-development is a supportive axis
for a teenager governing the unpredictable and strong emotions and climbing in
yes-no perspectives of the world. Interest and results in self-development
assures parents and teachers in having a required minimum respectability from
teenagers. It enables communication with them.
6. Team work with other adults
You can function very well with your abilities on your own. But
in pairs or teamwork you can have difficulties and your abilities might not
manifest.
When you are a parent or a grandparent you need to work like a
team with your partner in the same direction with similar values, beliefs. First
respect and love each other. Those are the conditions for all your
personal abilities (respect for life, control of habits,..,...,.) to be
effective to the highest degree.
It is the same with a team of teachers, kindergarten teachers,
or any kind of educators. When couples or teams do not really co-work, child
experiences this as weakness in his body and soul.
The best heritage we could give to our children is the best
of what we really are.
I can help you to change your abilities and improve your
cooperation in pairs to assure better conditions for child development.
Make an appointment with Marinka
Plagiarism is theft. Copyright © Marinka Spodniak 2010
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