Revolutionary Parenting: Digging Deeper Part I
So, I want to dig in a little deeper on the topic of revolutionary parenting. I'm using revolutionary instead of radical here because I want to differentiate from radical unschooling. I don't have any problem with radical unschooling, and in fact it's sort of what I do. It's also a piece of what I mean when I say revolutionary. It's just not the whole picture.
What I really want to talk about is how do we raise children who really want to change the world. What does it take to raise kids who have compassion, care about the earth and other people and are kind? What does it take to raise kids who are curious and thirsty to learn more? What does it take to raise kids who celebrate diversity and honor other paths and beliefs and understand that all people need, want, and should have peace, opportunity, and justice? What does it take to raise kids who will question authority and mainstream ideas? What does it take to raise kids who are creative problem solvers that can think out of the box? What does it take to raise kids who are passionate and ready to take action? What does it take to raise children ready to be responsible for themselves? What does it take to raise kids who are confident, strong, and centered? What does it take to raise kids with a solid spiritual ground and/or moral compass?
Maybe I should take a step back. These are the things I think we need to nurture in order to shift the world in a more sustainable direction. Compassionate, caring, kind, curious, questioning, creative, unconventional, passionate, responsible, confident, strong, centered, morally tuned problem solvers who celebrate everyone and believe in justice and peace. These are the things I think are important, but maybe you have other ideas? What do you think it takes?
I'm feeling like this might be an ongoing series at this point. It's feeling too big for one post. I'll start by listing each of the major issues that I believe must change to have kids come out this way. Then maybe I'll do a couple different posts.
Kids need to spend a majority of each day with someone who truly loves them, at least for the first few years. A family member or close friend. We, as a society, must figure out how to support this.
The current education system and, in fact, most of the modern ideas about how children learn need to be totally scrapped. No reform. This needs a total do over. There are a few who've gotten it right or close to it. I've written several posts about education, but I'll write another from this perspective.
We need to get our kids more exposure to other cultures, religions, traditions, countries, beliefs. We are failing miserably here.
Children should be treated like human beings. Radical idea, I know.
Children need space and freedom to be without intervention. Alone and with each other.
We need to have honest, respectful, and authentic conversations with our children.
I'm gonna go into more detail on each of these, though they probably won't each warrant their own post. Stay tuned, and tell me what you think. I've raised some badass kids, but I've got two more in the pipe, so I always love more thoughts.
Have I mentioned how amazing these two are?
Pics mine and pixabay
Love your ideas and am excited to read more. We have 12 children, 5 adopted and 1 who is our child while technically just being under our care and legal guardian. No differentiation is made. Multi racial and multicultural. We celebrate and enjoy the heritage and music and art of all as a family. One thing I have stressed is that while they must respect all, they do not need to blindly take the words of other adults as genuine. I want them to question, while being polite and respectful, those whose ideas are shallow or narrow. We may not agree with others, but we don't judge or belittle because of differences. Many differences can expand our thinking while not necessarily forcing us to change our beliefs. We have tried hard not to raise children. We want to raise loving, responsible, hardworking, generous, caring, and giving adults. Thus that is how we treat them. We encourage responsibility and respect, meaning increased responsibility and privilege as they show they can handle it. And as such, we try to model adulthood as not being stodgy or dull, but playful and fun and creative and interesting... like society sees a child. So they don't miss on the joy, but gain the maturity and social awareness that is often credited to adults.
That sounds so beautiful and really in line with what we are doing. That balance of openness and discernment is crucial yet takes a bit of practice. Same with respectful questioning! Sounds like a really lovely family. I look forward to more interactions!!
It has been challenging, to have beliefs that we hold to and are passionate about, but yet striving to respect the beliefs of others as valuable, just as we hope others can respect us. At times, they are at a loss of how to interact with their friends who may believe differently, but ultimately the core of respecting others as we wish them to respect us, even if they don't, has created more wins than losses. Raising them to be servants, where ever they are... looking to help and support and give, even when others don't, has become part of their family heritage. Again, it is hard when they see others taking the easy way, but so far, so good.
It's one of the big challenges of parenting, and it's a big reason for my belief in deep involvement in our kids lives. We have to hope that some of it will rub off on their peers. It's so lovely that you're raising them with the servant's heart. It's so rare. Just today I was upset that my oldest won't be here to see the Star Wars premier (we are quite serious about Star Wars here). Then he told me he had promised my mom and dad he wouldn't miss their Christmas celebration (we can't afford to go up there this year, but he's close by) and that he had noticed their sadness when his cousins left early on thanksgiving, so he wanted to be sure to spend the whole weekend with them. At that point how can I feel anything other than pride?
Parenting win! What a great kid. (We've prepurchased tickets for Star Wars opening night as well)
He's a treasure for sure.
This sounds like it's going to be an interesting series. Looking forward to it! You should also consider the steemiteducation tag for the series. You could earn some nice extra votes :):)
That's good to hear. I wasn't sure about the steemiteducation tag because a lot of my views are very contrary to most modern ideas on education, but if there's an openness to diversity of thought, I'd love to share the conversation with more people and get more input.
I couldn't agree more! Babysitter is kind of a "bad word" for me. My ex-wife and I split our work schedules up when my first son was born so he would always be with one of his parents. Even after we've separated, we've spent the last two years with the same mentality. Carlin is now 4 years old, and has only ever stayed with someone else a few times, and only for a few hours at a time, and he has never stayed over night anywhere but at mine or his mother's house. My second son is now 5 months old, and the same rule has applied. @cryptomomma and I work separate shifts so Baby Vincent always has momma or papa around.
I really think it makes a difference in helping them feel safe, loved, and trusting. I don't mind the night here or there, but every day all day just seems crazy to me.
It sounds like a good series coming up!
Thanks for talking about these things this here on Steemit.
I'm feeling excited about it. I love the evolution of the posts and how they just flow. I love how I don't always know what's coming until I start. Thanks so much for stopping by and for all your support. I truly appreciate it! I'm committed to continuing to speak up for the rights of children, though I expect there is more opposition to come.