So, I want to dig in a little deeper on the topic of revolutionary parenting. I'm using revolutionary instead of radical here because I want to differentiate from radical unschooling. I don't have any problem with radical unschooling, and in fact it's sort of what I do. It's also a piece of what I mean when I say revolutionary. It's just not the whole picture.
What I really want to talk about is how do we raise children who really want to change the world. What does it take to raise kids who have compassion, care about the earth and other people and are kind? What does it take to raise kids who are curious and thirsty to learn more? What does it take to raise kids who celebrate diversity and honor other paths and beliefs and understand that all people need, want, and should have peace, opportunity, and justice? What does it take to raise kids who will question authority and mainstream ideas? What does it take to raise kids who are creative problem solvers that can think out of the box? What does it take to raise kids who are passionate and ready to take action? What does it take to raise children ready to be responsible for themselves? What does it take to raise kids who are confident, strong, and centered? What does it take to raise kids with a solid spiritual ground and/or moral compass?
Maybe I should take a step back. These are the things I think we need to nurture in order to shift the world in a more sustainable direction. Compassionate, caring, kind, curious, questioning, creative, unconventional, passionate, responsible, confident, strong, centered, morally tuned problem solvers who celebrate everyone and believe in justice and peace. These are the things I think are important, but maybe you have other ideas? What do you think it takes?
I'm feeling like this might be an ongoing series at this point. It's feeling too big for one post. I'll start by listing each of the major issues that I believe must change to have kids come out this way. Then maybe I'll do a couple different posts.
Kids need to spend a majority of each day with someone who truly loves them, at least for the first few years. A family member or close friend. We, as a society, must figure out how to support this.
The current education system and, in fact, most of the modern ideas about how children learn need to be totally scrapped. No reform. This needs a total do over. There are a few who've gotten it right or close to it. I've written several posts about education, but I'll write another from this perspective.
We need to get our kids more exposure to other cultures, religions, traditions, countries, beliefs. We are failing miserably here.
Children should be treated like human beings. Radical idea, I know.
Children need space and freedom to be without intervention. Alone and with each other.
We need to have honest, respectful, and authentic conversations with our children.
I'm gonna go into more detail on each of these, though they probably won't each warrant their own post. Stay tuned, and tell me what you think. I've raised some badass kids, but I've got two more in the pipe, so I always love more thoughts.
Have I mentioned how amazing these two are?
Pics mine and pixabay