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So you're not happy with your daycare?
Who's to balme?
Well in my opinion, there's more apathy than integrity when it comes to parenting in this twenty-first century. We can blame the government, who's self-righteous financial transactions are inane and maddening. The very possibility that they even consider foresight in their calculations of where to mete our money means we rarely meet with it. But we can also blame ourselves. And it has nothing to do with being the ones who vote our "representatives" in. The people watching your kids have been taught. But have they been parented?
I've been employed in childcare for almost three years now. I have no degree. I haven't taken any special classes. I have almost single-handedly raised my hearing-impaired son for the past four years. And I do take my job very seriously. I also read... a lot. My resume might not quite stand up to the resume of someone fresh out of university. But I'm telling you now - it doesn't matter a whit. I am a person who knows the significance of my chosen profession: Child - care.
It's not baby-sitting. It's not child-minding. People are spending more time with your children than you are and they were raised by parents too. How your neighbourhood child-care worker interacts with your child is more dependant on how they were raised than by what they've been taught.
Do you care if the people caring for your kids don't seem to have much to say about your children's day? Then say something. I personally don't mind if you're the kind of parent to ask me how Jack did today. If I don't know then I'd better know tomorrow, right? But I will know. Because I care about his development. I care about him. I also know that I really want the same kind of insight from the person that takes care of my own son. It shouldn't be interrogation. I just want a simple acknowledgment of what my kid has been up to for the day. If she can't give me a personalised account then she doesn't know my son. So if Susan can't give you a personalised account of your own son's behaviour for the time she's with him, each day, for a whole week then she's probably not watching him at all.
I'm not trying to make my self look good in the examining eye of "education". I just feel the need to point out the fact that I see a deadening of ambitions when it comes to the enabling of children to become REAL adults.
It is as much OUR problem as it is our daycare's.
Going back to go forward
For generations, the elders of a community, wise and adept at communicating important life-lessons, were the ideal teachers for the members of a clan or family. Combining knowledge and first-hand experience with myth and philosophy, they then devised profound ways to impart this invaluable information upon the youth. These methods of instructing and strengthening the minds of young people has worked extremely well. But these invaluable stories, lessons and anecdotes are quickly being lost and distorted amidst the fast-paced, self-important lifestyle that people on every continent now subscribe to.
I am not an elder. I have been actively involved in many children's lives and I am acutely aware of the need to bring new methods of teaching into our children's lives. Our children need to be given a maleable template of how to cultivate a positive relationship with themselves. That template requires the active involvement of inspired and unrelenting parents, foster-parents and grandparents. I am a person with faults and short-comings just like everyone else. I am also an inspired parent who wants to see the children we bring into this world be given the tools to make this world a better place to live for ALL the inhabitants of this jewel we call the Earth.
I am not an elder. I have been actively involved in many children's lives and I am acutely aware of the need to bring new methods of teaching into our children's lives. Our children need to be given a maleable template of how to cultivate a positive relationship with themselves. That template requires the active involvement of inspired and unrelenting parents, foster-parents and grandparents. I am a person with faults and short-comings just like everyone else. I am also an inspired parent who wants to see the children we bring into this world be given the tools to make this world a better place to live for ALL the inhabitants of this jewel we call the Earth.
Friday, June 27, 2008
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