Have you ever watch a small child learn something new on their own? That the velcro on their shoe makes a sound? Or listened to them as they miraculously acquired language? You know you didn’t teach them that, but there it is. They are learning on their own. Children are born thinkers and learners. The quantity of what we actively teach and what they learn doesn’t even compare. So the question I think we need to ask ourselves as parents is, “Where can we assist our children on their learning journey? What areas can we open up to them? What resources can we help to provide to encourage the learning they are already doing?”
“When you want to teach children to think, you begin by treating them seriously when they are little, giving them responsibilities, talking to them candidly, providing privacy and solitude for them and making them readers and thinkers of significant thoughts from the beginning.”
(“Sweet Land of Liberty” – by Grace Llewellyn, pg.58-59 in Everywhere All the Time, ed. by Matt Hern)
It isn’t about teaching children what to think. It’s about respecting the fact that they already know how.
Grace Llewellyn
The Teenage Liberation Handbook
Guerrilla Learning: How to give Your Kids a Real Education With or Without School
Founder of “Not Back to School Camp”
