How To Grow A Child

Imagine if instead of learning how to teach my child, I learned how to read him!

Imagine being a child whose parents allow her to grow at her own speed; parents who provide encouragement and opportunities that feed a child's natural abilities and curiosity.

It's not a new concept. Intelligent and I'll admit, often wealthy, parents in the past often did just this. That is why some children learned Greek at three and algebra at six. It is why some composed piano pieces at seven and sang harmonies before they could read. It is why some children became exquisite lace makers and others natural healers. The cabinet makers and silver smiths, the bakers and even the most humble cooks who were allowed to develop their own interests and take pride in what they did often excelled in ways no one could imagine.

Not everyone knows right from left, or can march in rows two by two. By the time some learn the right from the left, the marching is over and they never even get the chance.

Our need and desire for money today often denies children the right to be themselves, to learn in a way best suited to who they are. As we have more and more labor saving devices we create more and more slots to simplify what needs to be done with great intuition and love. The sooner we dump our children into these slots, the less likely they are to have the opportunity to grow round and rich and diverse.

Once kings and queens put small people into oddly shaped pots and left them to grow there into fantastical dwarf like shapes. I worry that incogitancy, poverty, laziness and short sightedness in the world today is doing the same thing to many modern children.