I am working on an essay defining wisdom and compassion and how it relates to our children at schools. I quote The Dalai Lama. If you are interested, please review his take on compassion.
Compassion and the Individual The Office of His Holiness The Dalai Lama
Friday, October 14, 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
Journal Entry for Oct.: The PTA (Parent-Teacher Association) and its possible place in compassion and wisdom
Journal Entry for Oct.: I continue my drive to clarify my stance and spread the word. I am investigating if the PTA can play a role. (This is more a rant than a cohesive claim)
I am a new member of the PTA and I am naive about what their mission and goals entail. Thus far, the local PTA has listened to my concern but they would rather defer to the principal for a response and possible action.
I do not believe it is solely the responsibility of the principal or the school administrator to take action. Parents and their selected representatives need to participate in the discussion and implementation of philosophy in the school place.
The way a child's wisdom and compassion is exercised is generally unchallenged at home. They enjoy playing and pretending in different worlds and possibilities without too much interference. If there are multiple children in the house, their wisdom and compassion are in practice by playing and expressing their views of the world to each other. When they share feelings, concepts or stories with parents, they are often granted the freedom to express themselves without too much challenge. Entertainment, such as watching TV, reading, listening to music, or simply observing the world unfold, is subject to their own criteria of interpretation and judgment. The way they view the world at home, for the most part is open for their own interpretation and relationship.
Children engage the world through a process of reaching-out and bringing-in things of the world. They formulate and create imaginary worlds. They play with new objects and determine their place and value. They reach-away, engaging the world but not necessarily accepting anything. They concoct, amalgamate, construct, and destroy—play—with the things, feelings, notions, and other beings that they engage with without a definitive determination of what these things stand for, what they mean, or what system they belong in.
Slowly, this process gets challenged by society’s need to “educate” children. Parents, understanding the child’s unavoidable (as it may seem) educational fate, prepare the skill sets necessary for learning. Preschools and kindergarten focus on altering the behavior of children from a mode of play to a mode of learning. Educators introduce the particular way that children will acquire new information. They instruct (discipline?) how a child will learn and what they are going to learn.[1] Children arrive to a learning institution and are confronted with determined paradigms and established "realities," and new rules on how to observe and view the world.
This confrontation may or may not challenge the way they engage the world. Many factors are involved and I am not in a position to assert. However, I am able to show that this confrontation is drastic. From having the ability to play, create, and manage the things of their world, children are now engaging in a system that only allows information to be received and not inter-manipulated. Creativity is limited to particular given things. Play is limited to given times, ways, and spaces. Imagination is reduced to a “fake” state-of-being. This drastic engagement may greatly increase the chances that the way they comport to the world will be altered in schools.
One can argue that the way they engage the world needs to be altered so that they can survive in society. I disagree with that claim for reasons that I hope the entirety of this blog and my entire opus can explain. It will be sufficient here to claim that if our attributes of compassion and wisdom continue to be healthy from childhood, society and the world would benefit. Altering this mature function of our being only increases our suffering.
The interaction between a child's established mental capacities and the way material is being introduced falls delicately between school activities and the home life.
What is dreadfully important to note is that this confrontation usually falls between the cracks: It is not attended by the educators who worry primarily about pushing the established curriculum through their itinerary and strengthening particular skills that children develop; and parents often overlook the clash because of neglect or the need to get positive results from their child’s learning. Children’s established capacity to be wise and compassionate may be getting tainted, and neither the parents nor the educators seem to be in a position to make the appropriate harkening.
A liaison between the home life and the life of school would be beneficial. Such a liaison would encourage parents, teachers, and administrators to cooperate in sharing how children’s wisdom and compassion are practiced at home and how it is engaged at school so that we can continue to allow their mindset without too much interference.
As I present above, school’s operations will face the exercise of a child’s philosophizing. This unavoidable reality does not necessarily have to hinder their compassion and wisdom. Wisdom and compassion can flourish in a school place if the child is allowed to develop, in his own terms, his or her world. What is needed is active co-creation—a way that children can use their compassion and wisdom to figure out how they will deal with the material that is being presented at schools. What is needed is someone to relay those particular nuances to the educators and the parents. I do not see why the PTA cannot find a way to be such a facilitator. I do not see why, these liaisons cannot be trained and educated on the elements of compassion and wisdom in children.
For a very simplistic example, in the next PTA meeting, a liaison would ask parents if their child is asking questions. They would inquire about how the question is asked, its content, and the way it is being addressed. The liaison in turn would discuss whether the parent is approaching the questions and answers in a way that would fortify that child’s wisdom and compassion. Also, the liaison would address the educator and inform them on the nuances of that child’s curiosities, explaining to the educators how they can continue what they discussed at home.
This is a mere suggestion and I am certain not a well polished one. As I investigate the responsibilities, missions, and goals of the PTA, from the national, state, and district branches, I will report and determine whether they can or cannot play a role in implementing philosophy in the school place. Perhaps they may provide much more organized and refined suggestions.
(To be continued)
[1] I do not intend to present teachers and educators in negative light. Most of them deeply care for children and do an exceptional job in education. I am simply pointing-out what they are trained to do with no mal intention on their part. If society requires them to teach in a certain way so that children gain the required knowledge to help society, then that is their job and an honorable one at that.
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