A World of Wonder
Raffi is just an amazing person. He seems to have come close to perfecting this magical attitude of simultaneously taking the world and everything in it deeply seriously, and still having a lively optimism and sense of fun. I can't try to capture all the fascinating, scary, terrible, wonderful, thought-provoking ideas the people talked about at the conference I just went to, but I just want to write my favorite thought that I heard tonight, so that I remember it in the future looking back on this. When asked about whether or how to introduce troubling facts about the world to small children, one of the women on the panel said that she believes it is crucial for a small child to grow up with a deep internal feeling that the world is good. Without time to develop a connection with, a love for the world and society and life in general, how will a child grow up to have the hope and optimism and desire necessary to be an activist for real change? I thought that was amazing because I'd never thought in those terms before. But thinking about it now, I feel like that's been such an amazingly important factor in my own development. Right now, and the past several years and in the future, as I learn more and more about the scariness of the world and the terrible things that go on, shocking and demoralizing as they may be, I come at the task of confronting these things from the state of having a deep feeling that things can be good, people can be good, families can be loving, schools can be vibrant and nurturing communities, whatever I may hear about the world, I know that's not all that's possible in human life, and I have that feeling because I had such a happy and safe and nurtured childhood. And that's probably what stops me from becoming cynical and depressed, even when I feel confused or overwhelmed by how much there is wrong in the world and how little I can do to fix it. I can always come back to the feeling that if I can just be a good person and try to help the people around me be happy, that will be something important and worthwhile. Even when I feel insecure about it, at the deepest levels, I'm optimistic, idealistic even. And apparently, it was no accident: my dad told me in the car on the way back that he was amazed to hear the woman say that so firmly and clearly, because he says if he and my mom ever were to articulate a general philosophy behind how they tried to raise me and my brother in our early years, that would be it. I had never thought of it, but it's so important; if we raise a generation of people scared about the future and cynical about humanity, how will that lead to change? Sure the world is in many ways in horrible shape right now, but what we need is a generation of people with a deep faith in the ability of society and the world to be better, to be good, and enough love of the world to propel them to work hard to improve it.
Back to Raffi, I am just amazed by how his whole attitude shows such deep optimism and faith that the world can be good. Naive, idealistic, yes, but why not? If you can have idealistic goals of reforming all of society, and yet feel joy and fulfillment just from making one child smile, isn't that the ideal attitude for real reform? I just find it so inspiring. He said in so many words what my dad told me he found obvious from Raffi's music: that his basic goal is to create children's music that respects children as whole people, without being at all condescending. And he enjoys it, singing and dancing, being silly, with such an endearing child-like spirit.
And I met him! I shook his hand, and my dad told him the story of when he signed an autograph for us and a bunch of other people who'd been waiting even though he wasn't intending to sign autographs, and I told him I loved him when I was little, and he asked how old I was now, and I said twenty, and he said well then I'm a Beluga Grad. *laughs* I told him I was going to be a teacher, and he said "well there you go, you're part of the revolution!" *giggles* And he really does just have this air of respect and interest when he's talking to you, even though obviously there were many people wanting to talk to him and we couldn't have his attention for too long, but it didn't feel like talking with some big celebrity who didn't care about some random adoring fan. It was really wonderful.
Quickly, a bit about the four panelists:
*One was a woman who talked about all this ecological stuff about how many toxic chemicals there are in our food and water and all that...pretty scary. Makes me glad I at least don't eat meat, heh.
*Another was a woman whose main point was that commercialism is harmful to children and to parents' attempts to raise children the way they think is right. Coming from a household where we all sit around during shows either groaning and muting all the commercials, or actively making fun of them and picking them apart, I have an instinct to think "eh, that's overreacting, it's not such a huge influence," but of course that instinct is probably wrong, and in general I have no problem agreeing that commercialism is annoying and immoral and harmful.
*Third was the woman mentioned in the first paragraph, whose main point (and such an incredibly important one!!) is that children should play more! Creative play, running around, building in the woods, playing make-believe in any way, just exploring the world in a free and creative way, without the idea of a goal or task to be accomplished, is so important to early development, and more and more devalued in the educational system. I do have one caveat in wholeheartedly agreeing with her stance, however: I believe that adults sometimes overlook real creative, interactive, developmentally healthy uses of, say, television and computers. Now I'm not advocating that children sit in front of a screen all day. There are obvious physical health problems with that, and it's also true that chances are that if you spend all day at a TV, not all of that time is healthy, engaged, interactive TV-watching, the kind where you're actively contemplating and evaluating what you see, finding meaning in the humor, connecting with other people over the stories, et cetera. But that kind of TV watching exists! As do healthy and even wonderful and enriching uses of the computer. Yes, there are dangers, horrible dangers. There are internet predators. There are games that are mind-numbing and really don't involve much brain activity or any social interaction. But taking the stance "TV and computers are evil!" is a simplistic approach, and unrealistic, I think, at this point, if you want a child to be able to actively engage in the social world they're growing up in. Instead of targeting specifically the entities of "TV" and "computer", a more nuanced approach, I think, is to focus more actively on the child and the child's development, on helping children become intelligent critical thinkers, guiding them to be responsible, trustworthy people, and then TV and computers will be just two more things in a huge list of factors in a person's life that can be used in both healthy and unhealthy ways, and the child will be well equipped to choose the healthy ways. Now, for very young children, obviously the adults should be active in encouraging activities other than sitting and watching whatever's on TV, or shutting yourself in your room to play computer games all night alone...and I'm not denying that there are real problems caused by these media. It just seems to me, as someone who's life has been influenced and helped very much positively from both TV and computers, that these technologies are a reality and are going to be a reality in children's lives, and childhood theorists needs to develop ideas about how they can be utilized to be healthy tools in development, rather than just sticking with the mantra that kids shouldn't spend time watching TV or staring at a computer screen. Of course, no one on this panel was specifically advocating that. It's just something I always feel weary of whenever this general topic comes up. But in general, I think her point is so important: children need to play!
*Finally, the last guy was some lawyer or law professor or something, whose main thing was talking about how evil big corporations are because they're pretty much designed to not even be able to take any interests into account other than the interest of the stockholders to make money. Hence they are pathological and inherently don't have the well-being of the people as a goal and they cannot be trusted to regulate themselves. Here here, I'm all for it, down with corporations! *laughs*
Okay I've babbled long enough. I met Raffi! How amazing is that? He is wonderful, he really is. I'm so glad he and all the other people at this conference are in the world. Maybe the world really can be good.
Here is Raffi's Covenant for Honoring Children:
We find these joys to be self evident:That all children are created whole, endowed with innate intelligence, with dignity and wonder, worthy of respect. The embodiment of life, liberty and happiness, children are original blessings, here to learn their own song. Every girl and boy is entitled to love, to dream and belong to a loving "village." And to pursue a life of purpose.
We affirm our duty to nourish and nurture the young, to honour their caring ideals as the heart of being human. To recognize the early years as the foundation of life, and to cherish the contribution of young children to human evolution.
We commit ourselves to peaceful ways and vow to keep from harm or neglect these, our most vulnerable citizens. As guardians of their prosperity we honour the bountiful Earth whose diversity sustains us. Thus we pledge our love for generations to come.
Back to Raffi, I am just amazed by how his whole attitude shows such deep optimism and faith that the world can be good. Naive, idealistic, yes, but why not? If you can have idealistic goals of reforming all of society, and yet feel joy and fulfillment just from making one child smile, isn't that the ideal attitude for real reform? I just find it so inspiring. He said in so many words what my dad told me he found obvious from Raffi's music: that his basic goal is to create children's music that respects children as whole people, without being at all condescending. And he enjoys it, singing and dancing, being silly, with such an endearing child-like spirit.
And I met him! I shook his hand, and my dad told him the story of when he signed an autograph for us and a bunch of other people who'd been waiting even though he wasn't intending to sign autographs, and I told him I loved him when I was little, and he asked how old I was now, and I said twenty, and he said well then I'm a Beluga Grad. *laughs* I told him I was going to be a teacher, and he said "well there you go, you're part of the revolution!" *giggles* And he really does just have this air of respect and interest when he's talking to you, even though obviously there were many people wanting to talk to him and we couldn't have his attention for too long, but it didn't feel like talking with some big celebrity who didn't care about some random adoring fan. It was really wonderful.
Quickly, a bit about the four panelists:
*One was a woman who talked about all this ecological stuff about how many toxic chemicals there are in our food and water and all that...pretty scary. Makes me glad I at least don't eat meat, heh.
*Another was a woman whose main point was that commercialism is harmful to children and to parents' attempts to raise children the way they think is right. Coming from a household where we all sit around during shows either groaning and muting all the commercials, or actively making fun of them and picking them apart, I have an instinct to think "eh, that's overreacting, it's not such a huge influence," but of course that instinct is probably wrong, and in general I have no problem agreeing that commercialism is annoying and immoral and harmful.
*Third was the woman mentioned in the first paragraph, whose main point (and such an incredibly important one!!) is that children should play more! Creative play, running around, building in the woods, playing make-believe in any way, just exploring the world in a free and creative way, without the idea of a goal or task to be accomplished, is so important to early development, and more and more devalued in the educational system. I do have one caveat in wholeheartedly agreeing with her stance, however: I believe that adults sometimes overlook real creative, interactive, developmentally healthy uses of, say, television and computers. Now I'm not advocating that children sit in front of a screen all day. There are obvious physical health problems with that, and it's also true that chances are that if you spend all day at a TV, not all of that time is healthy, engaged, interactive TV-watching, the kind where you're actively contemplating and evaluating what you see, finding meaning in the humor, connecting with other people over the stories, et cetera. But that kind of TV watching exists! As do healthy and even wonderful and enriching uses of the computer. Yes, there are dangers, horrible dangers. There are internet predators. There are games that are mind-numbing and really don't involve much brain activity or any social interaction. But taking the stance "TV and computers are evil!" is a simplistic approach, and unrealistic, I think, at this point, if you want a child to be able to actively engage in the social world they're growing up in. Instead of targeting specifically the entities of "TV" and "computer", a more nuanced approach, I think, is to focus more actively on the child and the child's development, on helping children become intelligent critical thinkers, guiding them to be responsible, trustworthy people, and then TV and computers will be just two more things in a huge list of factors in a person's life that can be used in both healthy and unhealthy ways, and the child will be well equipped to choose the healthy ways. Now, for very young children, obviously the adults should be active in encouraging activities other than sitting and watching whatever's on TV, or shutting yourself in your room to play computer games all night alone...and I'm not denying that there are real problems caused by these media. It just seems to me, as someone who's life has been influenced and helped very much positively from both TV and computers, that these technologies are a reality and are going to be a reality in children's lives, and childhood theorists needs to develop ideas about how they can be utilized to be healthy tools in development, rather than just sticking with the mantra that kids shouldn't spend time watching TV or staring at a computer screen. Of course, no one on this panel was specifically advocating that. It's just something I always feel weary of whenever this general topic comes up. But in general, I think her point is so important: children need to play!
*Finally, the last guy was some lawyer or law professor or something, whose main thing was talking about how evil big corporations are because they're pretty much designed to not even be able to take any interests into account other than the interest of the stockholders to make money. Hence they are pathological and inherently don't have the well-being of the people as a goal and they cannot be trusted to regulate themselves. Here here, I'm all for it, down with corporations! *laughs*
Okay I've babbled long enough. I met Raffi! How amazing is that? He is wonderful, he really is. I'm so glad he and all the other people at this conference are in the world. Maybe the world really can be good.
Here is Raffi's Covenant for Honoring Children:
We affirm our duty to nourish and nurture the young, to honour their caring ideals as the heart of being human. To recognize the early years as the foundation of life, and to cherish the contribution of young children to human evolution.
We commit ourselves to peaceful ways and vow to keep from harm or neglect these, our most vulnerable citizens. As guardians of their prosperity we honour the bountiful Earth whose diversity sustains us. Thus we pledge our love for generations to come.
posted by Ashila at 11:42 PM
1 Comments:
This conference sounds amazing.
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