Michael Morpurgo, further says
After that, it’s all about caring for the individual genius of the
child – discovering what it is that that person loves to be doing – whether
it’s painting something, turning over the pages of a book or on their hands and
knees in a sand pit. It doesn’t matter. It’s focusing on what it is they love
and giving them the space and time to explore that.
Relax!
You're a parent now! Yes, the most beautiful moment of life. You've suddenly
become a creator, a Bramha!
Without
relaxation, awareness will be impossible! Without awareness, parents will miss
the initial signals of the inclination and potentials that the child has. The
most satisfied and most successful people have done the things that interested
them the most.
Climbing
a 13K feet mountain peak is enjoyable for a mountaineer, because he/she loves
it. A simple task like buying groceries from a nearby market place can be a
totally suffocating and intimidating experience. Most parents lose their
composure in their anxiety to make the future of their child best.
We
have to remember that children have come with their own seeds and in the right
time these seeds will germinate. It is enough if as parents we are able to
understand them and nurture them, with appropriate inputs. Imagine if you have
a seed for an apple tree and want to develop a good bamboo from it, how
ridiculous it would be. This is what parents want to do with their children! I
wish to quote Khalil Gibran.
Your
children are not your children.
They
are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may
give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are
the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.
To
be able to observe the inclinations, the potentials of individual genius, of
the child, firstly parents have to be relaxed and observant. Instead, parents
are terribly ambitious in respect to their professional life and have a very
high level of expectation when it comes to children. They have zero percentage
tolerance for anything lesser than their expectation.
Children
attend class after class, tuition after tuition, course after course, shoving
some fast food, which is sold across a counter.
While parents are busy earning for paying the fee for all these courses
and the things that they provide. The natural example available for the child is
mostly materialistic in its nature, which deflects the natural quality of the
child to explore, learn, introspect and evolve.
The
environment continuously persuades the child to become successful and smart
instead of being introspective and reflective, so that they can discover the
unique qualities that they have.
“The
child who is born as a genius,
is
ruined,
being sent to the school for education”.
Much
before the child understands himself or herself, the child is helplessly
surrounded by a highly competitive environment steered by comparison and
competition instead of nourishment of the intrinsic genius. Continuously the
child is prompted to become a money churning machine.
In
the yogic education system, a child is taken to a Guru (teacher – life coach)
when he/she is seven years old. Up to the age of seven, the home is the ground
for learning. Mostly the learning happens through observation of mother,
grandmother, then father, grandfather and then the extended family. The oral
inputs from the family with their linguistic specialties and range of
tonalities form the basis of learning of the child. During this period the
child begins to feel loved, wanted and starts to learn what trust is! And
parents and members of the family are able to observe and identify the
limitations and the unique qualities of the child. What was a natural tradition
has been abandoned in the name of modern education and today experts have
started realizing the value of the yogic approach to education.
People
hope that they will be happy by adding objects, gadgets, facility, position and
power. Every moment is spent in planning, accumulating and protecting what has
been accumulated. In this process they have become impatient, impulsive,
aggressive and irritable. Their impatience has manifested in every aspect and fibre
of the environment in which the child is born into and instead of feeling
wanted and loved the child feels unwanted and neglected.
If
young parents take to the practice, philosophy and lifestyle that is developed
in the yogic system, they will present a great example to their child, which of
course becomes the most profound and irrevocable learning of their lifetime.
The
positive parent has the health, energy, enthusiasm, creativity, resource,
knowledge and time, thus provides an example of a calm, understanding, loving,
caring, brilliant person that I can adore all my life. The innocent baby does
not understand that you have gadgets, vehicles, wardrobes or that you are
connected to the MLA' s and MP's.
The
child of a millionaire and child of a pauper only know if their parent is able
to care and love me. Whether you wrap your child in a linen, silk cloth or
simple cotton cloth is immaterial to the child. The only thing that the child
wants to bask in, is your love, your care and your affection. Please give your
child that! In addition your facilities can be there!
Many
parents come to me and request for a counseling to their teen aged child to
give them a perspective about how much they love them and how hard they have
worked all these years to provide them all their needs. Having missed out on
the most crucial time of childhood, trying to repair a broken relationship
leaves parents with despair and depression. I wish to tell parents,
“If you have done justice to the arrival of a
life,
you will be trusted when they grow”
If
the first and second step of preparation of the environment and love and care
is provided, you can be rest assured that your child will grow up into a
physically and mentally healthy person. Who will have a positive self image and
will work towards a progressive, uplifting and rewarding life that we can sit
back and enjoy watching.
Michael Morpurgo, also
says, Linked
to this is a very strong conviction that the first seven years of school should
probably be delayed. The grounding at home is so, so important. To me, the
formal learning process should kick in much later, only after all this ground
work has been done. When they do go to school it shouldn’t be a huge separation
from the atmosphere of home – it should be a continuity of that care and
affection. The whole notion that we should suddenly make scholars out of
children and be testing them when they are four or five is completely absurd.
Courtesy of recent education ministers, things are now akin to how I was
brought up in the 1940s and 1950s when everything depended on passing tests,
and if you didn’t do well the presumption was that you weren’t trying hard
enough.
