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- "How do I listen to others? As if everyone were my Master speaking to me his cherished last words." ~ Hafiz
Tag Archives: equality
Reconstructing Adult/Child relationships- part 2: A context for mutuality
A Context for Mutuality… Adult/child relationships are also constructed through family design and structure. In mainstream society and nuclear family settings, virtually all relationships children have, at least initially, are mediated through their parents. While kids gain greater independence, especially as they get older, in conducting peer-to-peer relationships, there is little scope for independently initiated and facilitated relationships with adults. Most child-adult relationships are based on adult authority such as … Continue reading
Age as Grounds for Exclusion?
Age Discrimination We have perceived children for so long as immature and incompetent that we have barred them from participating in activities that allow them to mature and gain competence in the world. These ideas are based more on our sentiments about children however, than on the validity of what children, if they are allowed, are actually capable. Age in and of its self is neither a measure of competence … Continue reading
Supporting Autonomy Through Social Strcuture
Social Structure Social structure constantly shapes and directs our lives. For most of us, it is not something that we pay much attention to or that we are consciously aware of. The following experience and insight from living on a family homestead and community with kids and parents living and working in the same space together, helped me to see how social structure might be an important element in design … Continue reading
Integration of children in community and society
I do a lot of wondering. A lot of wondering about kids and childhood and our current social construction of childhood, how it supports kids as unique beings in their learning and growing and becoming autonomous people, and how it might work better. What does it mean for kids to have rich, purposeful, engaged lives as part of their community and their society, not only when they grow up, but … Continue reading
Children navigating their sex lives- Part 2 in series on body space/freedom of movement
Children’s Sex Lives (part two in series on body space/freedom of movement for part 1, click HERE) Both on the subject of allowing children to trust themselves and their bodies and on the task of bringing children into full parity rather than enforcing inequality through limiting, I have come to examine our ideas around children and sex. We make many assumptions and justifications regarding our need to control and limit … Continue reading
Are your belifes about what kids can do limiting them?
The effects of our beliefs on kids’ capabilities One of the ways we interfere with children’s autonomy and act upon them, rather than cultivating relationships of mutual respect and shared power is through our beliefs of children’s limited capabilities and our efforts to keep them within those limits. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. We don’t allow kids to do things we think they are not capable of and therefore they … Continue reading
Cultivating Consideration
How do we cultivate in children a sense of care or consideration for others, a sense of responsibility and participation in the human community? While accountability and responsibility are important this does not mean that we use authoritarian power and punishment to “teach” someone a lesson. Like in any caring relationship, the goal should be toward cooperation and mutual respect, and through this care, a movement toward consideration and meeting … Continue reading
Let kids rule the school
As part of my blog, I want to include stories about kids taking responsibility for and capably running their own lives, of achieving things on their own without the direct involvement and design of adults and showing themselves capable of things we so often believe they can’t do or must learn from adults first; This article about high school kids directing their own learning is one such example: Op-Ed Contributor … Continue reading
Posted in Empowered Kids
Tagged Autonomy, chlid empowerment, Cooperation, equality, Self-determination, self-directed learning
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Creating a New Paradigm For Childhood:
I have come to believe that the current social construction of childhood puts children in a position of subordination to adult authority in ways that are both oppressive and limiting. It teaches fear of and obedience to external authority rather than fostering freedom and promoting the capacity for independent thinking, mutual respect and self-responsibility. Given this, how can we construct childhood in a way that is not controlling or oppressive; … Continue reading