Beginner’s Mind
She finds strange ways to eat her food--with unconventional utensils, toys, you name it. She postulates theories about the moon's craters, snail family dynamics, and how to help people less fortunate than we are. As humans, there is so much we know and so little we know; even if I had a degree in any of these areas, who would I be to retort back at every one of her delightfully creative and often workable ideas, "No, that's not how it works. This is how it works."
In doing this, in biting back all of the answers and allowing for exploration, not only am I helping to foster a lifelong learner who is inquisitive enough to take on her world, I am also taking my own self back to that beginner's mind and seeing things with fresh new eyes. Knowing that every single thing in my line of vision is more than it seems--and useful beyond its physical manifestation and manufacturer's intended use--is one thing, but being able to actually come up with those uses, those ideas, is another thing entirely.
As parents, I think we need to take a step back and stop talking so much. Let our kids lead more often. This doesn't mean to let them run amok without curfews or rules to protect them, or even without our guidance at all. It means we should treat our children seriously, like the amazing beginners they are, and let them show us an entirely new way of thinking. Give them the freedom to invent, question, test, roam, and discover all on their own and simply enjoy the process of it all.
Well, it's not entirely new to us, is it? We were once beginners ourselves. I think we can still be beginners, too.
Posted in Parenting on May 04, 2010 - 04:33 AM
One of my jobs as a parent is to keep my four-year-old's beginner's mind intact. Without me (or any other adults) in her life, I believe that this would happen naturally. But since my views and the views of the other adults around her are all clouded with our own experiences and opinions, we have to learn to tread lightly every day.She finds strange ways to eat her food--with unconventional utensils, toys, you name it. She postulates theories about the moon's craters, snail family dynamics, and how to help people less fortunate than we are. As humans, there is so much we know and so little we know; even if I had a degree in any of these areas, who would I be to retort back at every one of her delightfully creative and often workable ideas, "No, that's not how it works. This is how it works."
In doing this, in biting back all of the answers and allowing for exploration, not only am I helping to foster a lifelong learner who is inquisitive enough to take on her world, I am also taking my own self back to that beginner's mind and seeing things with fresh new eyes. Knowing that every single thing in my line of vision is more than it seems--and useful beyond its physical manifestation and manufacturer's intended use--is one thing, but being able to actually come up with those uses, those ideas, is another thing entirely.
As parents, I think we need to take a step back and stop talking so much. Let our kids lead more often. This doesn't mean to let them run amok without curfews or rules to protect them, or even without our guidance at all. It means we should treat our children seriously, like the amazing beginners they are, and let them show us an entirely new way of thinking. Give them the freedom to invent, question, test, roam, and discover all on their own and simply enjoy the process of it all.
Well, it's not entirely new to us, is it? We were once beginners ourselves. I think we can still be beginners, too.
Tags for this entry:
early childhood,
childhood freedom,
parental involvement,
beginner's mind
