Educating Children – What Do We Want To Teach them?

Today, so much thought and effort goes into educating children and planning out their first 18 years of life is purely focused on getting good grades, so they can get into college to get a good job as if getting that degree and a job is the ultimate prize. This mindset is a trap and supports the premise that learning is finite, when in fact, learning never ends.

Learning is life and life is learning. When you’re learning, you’re alive and growing. By definition, that which is not growing is dead.

Is knowledge enough?
Knowledge is that information which you learn, such as fact and figures, historical accounts, etc. But knowledge alone is trivia and can do nothing, unless it’s put to use. When you exercise the knowledge you acquire, develop a deeper understanding of yourself; this transforms knowledge into actual “knowing”.

Knowing is the life of knowledge. It’s using the knowledge in your everyday living, putting to work what you’ve learned. It’s relating what you know to what you’re living. It’s that which never ends. In fact the more you know, the more there is to know, the more you open your eyes, and the more you see the infinite learning that surrounds you.

So, what do we want to teach our children?
We need to first ask whether is it to gain knowledge and strive for a better standard of living, to be skillful and dutiful? Do we expect our children expect to learn and at some point stop? The idea of having “completed your education” in ordinary schools and even colleges is not aligned with true learning. You may achieve a better standard of living but not necessarily a better standard of life. How good is it simply to have a good paying job when one is empty not knowing what life is, what love is or what light is? It’s the grammar of life that makes a difference, the knowing.

By expanding education through knowing you gain a rich life, opening one’s eyes to the amazing opportunities that exist as well as those that are yet to be created. There’s no struggle to survive; it’s a celebration of every day and flowing with the vibration of life. True education prepares you to be yourself charting your own course rather than following the herd. Each and every person is born with a specific purpose to fulfill that serves the world. It’s about becoming yourself, uniquely and authentically.

The definition of education itself is to draw something out of you, to make your potential real. We must be ever vigilant in while educating that we are not repeating what is done in schools by pouring in facts and figures, asking the children to parrot back what is learned. Children must learn a certain amount of knowledge and be able to navigate in society but most importantly turn knowledge into a knowing.

There’s simply no need for all the extensive computer programs, constant “educational” entertainment or expensive and complicated school-ish work. When we are using these superfluous materials, pressing and pressing the child to parrot what is being learned, we are ignoring the natural process, the genius factor found within each child. What if in fact we are guiding him in the opposite direction of his life’ purpose or expecting something he is not ready to do? Now that would be a tragedy.

When we stand back and simply observe, allowing the natural education process to unfold organically we witness the emerging child, the drawing out of his authenticity, his own unique genius. This is where you will find peace without struggle. This is where the child will light up and shine with brilliance, where the real movers and shakers are born like Thomas Edison whose genius and “un-school like” practices brought light to the world and still lights us up each and every day.

Will this be your year – the year you will take learning at the speed of life and cultivate a lifestyle of learning that supports your whole family and each of its members to be authentically brilliant?

Parents Inspired to Action
Follow these steps to begin creating a true education, Understand your own highest values and those of each of your children so you can more easily communicate and navigate the family dynamics.

Children Inspired to Action
Help your children see how they’re choosing according to their highest values and be able to make clearer decisions. As they are going through their day teach them to ask themselves, “What’s happening in my day to fulfill my highest values?

Steps to bring education into a knowing:

• Awaken your child’s natural genius by communicating with him through his highest values. This is the trail that leads to his life purpose. Once the highest values are determined you cancustomize education for each of your children and better relate by knowing his “life language.”
• Release the need to conduct “school” in your home and turn it into self education that is guided and mentored by the parent, created as a lifestyle and subjects chosen or molded according to the child’s highest values.
• Create an inspiring learning environment where learning is a lifestyle and happens naturally as you are living and learning in your everyday life. Let the children see you learning as well.
• Create a journal of what you are studying and discovering together to illustrate that learning never ends.
• Seize opportunities that arise where your children can bring their knowledge into practice through projects, group events and expert demonstrations. Connect them with people who have done and are doing the things they want to do.
• Bring life to all subjects by aligning what is studied, written about and presented to the student’s highest values.

When children and nature mix, something magical happens