OF SPARKS AND FLAMES

www.centerforlivingethics.org
www.harmoniesway.net

Q: Traditional education has an established track record of producing graduates who step into successful careers. Failed departures from the norm have consistently resulted in returning to the basics. Why try to fix something that’s appears to have worked for over 100 years?

A: Life-affirming answers come from a penetrating look at hidden potentials in our roles as parents and teachers. Our relationship to the child is like that of the match to the candle. The wick extending through the center represents the conduit between body and soul. The spark must touch the candlewick to produce a flame. 

       Accounts of healthy tribal life, such as the Hopi, portray children immersed in dynamic communal life; growing in proximity to the example of their elders. Such children have been called, “The happiest in the world.” Engaged in interesting, meaningful labors, the elders allow eager apprentices to participate from a young age. Gentle patience and trust in the organic process guard faltering hands and feet. Augmented by songs and stories, purposeful challenges ignite intelligence. The livingness itself  is a vastly superior motivator when compared to imposition, coercion and judgment.

       Civilized life has obscured the potency of the current generations’ innate spark, the ability to draw out (from the Latin root ‘educare’) childhood potentials. Removing childhood ever further from meaningful pursuits, we have placed children in stifling confinements for forced academics. Institutional priorities tend to snuff out the teacher spark, forcing him or her to forgo heartfelt methods. Biased measures further remove the elders from the  vibrant potentials of healthy relationships.

       Now is the time of the awakening—the time to dream to life a new way, reviving the best of our ancient heritage. We awaken dormant potentials to ignite the self-constructive powers of childhood, when we forgo lifeless academics dogged by coercion, testing and scores. Nature supports empowered roles as models, mentors, and inspirers of innate potentials. In the new/old way let us welcome childhood to our sides as we construct, prepare, discover, explore, design, and create. And let us sing with children and teach them through stories. The challenge to redesign is formidable, but beckoning.

       In the Communal Embrace of the new/old way let  boundaries between home and school fade away. Let teachers and parents and children share complementary relationships. The power to ignite the highest potentials of our offspring lies in the flame in our hearts.

        We, the elders, hold the spark, the children carry their own flames.