How to Prepare Children for an Unknown Future

Parents are asked to prepare children for the future, while living in the present, having been raised in the past. This reality can invoke fear on the part of modern parents. As a result, overscheduling is a common practice. Parenting consultant, Kim John Payne, however, suggests that Simplicity Parenting and its emphasis on providing time for extended periods of play prepares children for a complex future, whereas rigidly structuring our children's days is a throw back to the 1950's. Times have changed. Our children will not grow up to live and work in a world in which they train for a vocation that will provide them with job security and a pension for their retirement years. Preparation for that kind of world would be well served by heavily structuring children's time so they can according to Payne, "learn things from within a box and meet expectations and people-please". The structured and straightforward world of the past is rapidly deconstructing. Most people agree that our future economy and the skills needed to meet it are based on innovation - the ability to adapt to changing circumstances. Instead of following a strict schedule and rules, the learner who is prepared for the future is capable of figuring out how to find his or her own answers. What does this mean for parents? Simplicity Parenting, as described by Payne, is a way of life that "promotes play and creativity and honors a kid's needs and natural rhythms". Although some see this movement as a privilege for those who will be protected from the harsh realities of modern living (like living in the "Little House of the Prarie" times), Payne says that "nothing could be further from the truth". When children are allowed to have the time and space to get into serious play, they build an inner structure that is capable of innovation and developing the variety of skills that are necessary to meet the future. They become capable of creating their own structure for a life rather than relying on the external structure that no longer exists. It's time to let go of the past, to embrace the present with confidence and prepare our children to meet the future. Frankly, it's more difficult to keep children from practicing innovation than it is to allow them to do so. They have what it takes and through play, they grow in the skill and confidence needed to meet the future come what may.

How We Know What We Know

I am fascinated by how people learn, grow and change. How do we come to know what we know? In the study of knowledge practices or epistemology, ways of knowing can be broken into two groups, masculine and feminine. Masculine knowledge practices are based on information coming from outside sources. When an idea is presented and considered valuable, research is done, and if the concept is proven true, results are presented as fact. Hence, one can read about a research study and acquire knowledge from the outside in. On the other hand, feminine knowledge practices are based on personal experience. Something is known because the individual experienced it as true or conducted personal research. This way of knowing things accounts for the uniqueness of the individual. This is acquiring knowledge from the inside out. Anthroposophy, the spiritual science developed by humanitarian, philosopher and natural scientist, Rudolf Steiner, is a feminine way of knowing things. At the Rose Garden Early Childhood Center, anthroposophic indications inform our work with the children and the teachers' path to self development, although they are never directly taught to children. Steiner's indications are not meant be taken as truth but are rather to be experimented with to see if they are true for the individual. In this way, the individual develops an inner authority and is enpowered to find personal solutions to problems. In order to engage with anthroposophy, it requires an open mind, a willingness to experiment and to track personal results. I thank this spiritual science for the understanding of myself, child development and principles that I bring to my work. It is the fertile ground that the Rose Garden was born into three years ago on September 16th. How do I know that Steiner's indications about early childhood education work? I know that they work because the Rose Garden is a healthy, thriving system, able to learn and grow. Happy Birthday Rose Garden! This month, you wear the birthday crown.