Don’t “Smudge” Yourself through Life
– Another important aspect in psychology is the “experience cycle,” the preparation and choice of how to act, the act itself, and the completion and integration of the experience that resulted.
How important is it to ensure that projects started by the children achieve completion? If the children started doing something, should we encourage them to bring the process to completion?
– Bringing things to completion is a must! And in the process, everything must be described, filmed, completed, and documented. Clear conclusions must be drawn from it, which should be very concise so everyone can understand them even when they are expressed in a few words.
– That way we train a child to demand to make every situation in life concrete and real. Later, this will be of great help to them in making sure they don’t “smudge” themselves through life, but always use their experiences to the maximum and learn from them.
The children went on an excursion, and then had a discussion. Maybe they created some kind of new boundaries or rules of behavior for themselves. All of this has to be documented, and the discussions should be minimal. The most important thing is the conclusion. It makes a person practical, preparing him for any form of activity.
– A person’s professional identity is an extremely important part of his general identity. Should a child find his professional identity in this group as well?
Meaning, the children sit and decide, “You, Johnny, will be better off being a plumber. And you will turn out to be a good scientist…” Should a child solve these questions in a group setting as well?
– If we don’t develop a child in connection with others, then we will never discern what his inclinations are. That’s because by himself, a person is a small animal. His inclinations are expressed precisely in his connections with society, with the surrounding environment.
Any form of our activity is aimed at the connection between us. Even if I study butterflies, it means that society somehow “delegates” me to that activity. I have to understand my significance, the fact that someone needs this.
First we have to spend several years studying with children from ages 5 or 6 to ages 10 or 11. This includes making them included in one another as well as visiting various sites—industrial, scientific, medical, and social locations, which will gradually let them understand the various areas of people’s activities.
Every time these trips are discussed, all the information must be documented. Every child will write a short report, through which we will begin to see the child’s approach and discern his interests. For example, he may like to connect and bend tubes, so maybe he really will turn into a plumber. Or maybe he’s interested in how people are cured. Or he likes collecting plants or butterflies, and so on.
Depending on how he describes what happens—with a physical or mathematical inclination, or in a sensitive manner—we will be able to see his inclination, either toward humanities or toward concrete matters. Gradually everything will be made clear, and the constant discussions will let the most important thing surface: Me in relation to others. This is a person’s profession.
After all, a profession means that “I service other people and society in some way.” This defines my place in society, my salary in it, and my position. I can only find that place after taking in many impressions, discussions, and sensations of everything that surrounds me.
Just asking a little child, “Who do you want to be?” Is an incorrect approach. But between the ages of 4-5 and 11-12 (no later than that) we can already see a person’s inclination with absolute clarity.
13 is the age to become a university student. I think that as part of our upbringing, from around age 13 a child should start studying in a university program. By 17 or 18 he should graduate from university, meaning receive what is today considered higher education. After that he really will be professionally fit for a specific type of activity.
A child has to be taught to self-develop, to observe himself and others, and how to communicate with others. But the most important thing is to teach him to understand the world he lives in. A person has to understand his essence and his goal in life.
The integral, global education, or better put—upbringing—develops a person so much that it won’t be difficult for him to study any science. That’s because first, people talk to him about the world as a whole, about the general history and the general global system. And second, they explain that physics, biology, and chemistry are fragments of a huge global system: Nature. We will not be able to grasp it and absorb it at once, but we can absorb fragments. If you cut a little piece of a huge cake, then you can eat that piece. But you can’t swallow the whole cake all at once. This is what the separate sciences are, such as when we study biology, which examines living cells, tissues, and so on.
A child relates to the study as a particular field that is not so frightening. He looks at everything from the outside. And even if he delves deeper and deeper, he does not sink into it or becomes confused between “Where is all of this happening and where am I?” He looks at everything objectively. He can absorb all the knowledge instead of drowning in it, and this is very important for children!
I often see how children are afraid of the enormous amount of knowledge thrown at them. Every day they are presented with a multitude of formulas, going from one lesson to the next. Physics is followed by math, then biology, and then history. A child simply shuts himself down, and in the end does not absorb anything. He finishes school formally and retains impressions of it, but most of those impressions are from things that happened during breaks rather than in the classroom.
What’s important is precisely this integral, global approach that reveals the world to a person. Children have to discuss the lessons themselves as well as the way they are held, in addition to all of their trips, and their impressions of these things. From a young age, children should have the opportunity to participate in the world the right way: go out to various events at least twice a week, get to know how things work: an airport, a hospital, a depot, nursing and retirement homes, factories, and so on. Then the children will feel that they are preparing themselves for the real world.
Children study in school and at the same time learn about the outside world. They are shown the kind of knowledge that is necessary for living in it. That is how one’s preferences for a profession become clear, as well as one’s attitude to the world. In a regular school they are simply forced to study. But in this case they already understand why they need this knowledge.
And even if I don’t really need to know how yogurt is made, I still know that I need yogurt, and that means I’ll look at how it’s produced. After all, someone will make it, while in the meantime I will work with motors, for example. This means a lot! I don’t have to be a doctor, but I know why and how a hospital works.
The most important thing is to show children that we are included in one another and that all of our professions exist for the sake of creating the correct social interaction. Then they will start having a very calm attitude to their studies. Children won’t be bothered or scared by the prospect of starting university at age 13, even considering that they are regular children and not exceptional in any way. They have simply expanded their boundaries, their attitude toward the world, so the world doesn’t scare them. The most important thing is to overcome fear.