Today I met the World’s Foremost Explorer, Scientist and Adventurer
arun on Jul 02 2007 at 7:45 am | Filed under: 0 to 2 year old, empowerment & trust, natural learning, parenting, unschooling | Click here to go HOME | or find out about SUBSCRIBING TO THE PIT |
This morning I realised that I was in the presence of a pioneer! More than that he was a scientist, an explorer, dare I say… perhaps the most intrepid adventurer of our time.
What’s more it happened in our house… in our kitchen no less!
For that was where I was in the presence of Z, our 14 month old son.
Z woke up with a to do list… but once he had ticked off pooing, weeing and eating he was on the job and did not stop (actually he did not even stop while he was pooing, weeing and eating either).
- He explored – he touched, tasted, poked, prodded anything and everything in his vicinity.
- He experimented – once he discovered something interesting he would linger, try something, then do it again, again and again to verify his results.
- He enjoyed – there was no dreariness to his ‘jobs’. Each experiment, each exploration held his attention. His joy was almost tangible.
- He experienced – he was not phased by new sites, sounds and tastes… they bombarded him yet he navigated them with a tremendous appetite for more.
He is totally non discriminating. His curiousity extended as much to the paper bag full of beans that he put in the pantry (did I mention he also does house keeping) as it would if a UFO landed in front of him and a green bug eyed alien popped out to shake his hand.
As I observed his focus, fascination and seeming bliss at carrying the bag of beans, I realised that the same explorer, scientist and adventurer was once in me… once in everyone I know. I also realised that the few that survived child hood were shadows of their former selves… at best they had scars from being told what to do, what to learn and perhaps worst of all… what to be.
There and then I promised myself to support the explorer in my son by giving it space to make discoveries, mistakes and amazing experiences. To let it thrive by getting the hell out of its way. To befriend it by always being there for him. To honour it by trusting Z and letting him be… be whoever he wants.
Who knows… in the process perhaps my battered and tired explorer might see that the coast is clear and reemerge to say hello. I can only hope.
Children are so eager to learn and explore and understand everything. It is amazing what little scientists they can be.
I see this every day with A. It seems so sad what could happen to this way of looking at life. You should look at “The Geography of Childhood” by David Trimble and Gary Nahban, the first essay talks about this exploration.
How beautiful.
I wish I had had that insight when my children were that young.
So much of their learning at that age was manufactured, geared and rigid. It was hard to know what their real strengths and interests were because they lacked the freedom to just figure that out for themselves.
I have noticed such a change in my daughter, 11, since we started homeschooling. I have seen how much children flourish when you just let them be who they are and help them learn what they want to know.