Learning to Think

We teach our children to read and write before we teach them to think.  Autonomy in the early years does not include deep philosophical thinking.  Who are you?  A reply of ones name will be given.  What does it feel like to be you?  Do you feel safe? Are you sad?  What does love feel like?  Questions I was never given as a child, I never questioned anything. Why do I go school mummy?  Why is the letter ‘a’ the first letter of the alphabet?  As parents we don’t encourage our children to think for themselves from a young age.  We do everything for them.  We decide whether they eat meat, or that they maybe a vegetarian.  We decide where their clothes are bought from.  It is unique for a child to make an informed choice.  I worked in a school recently and the whole school were asked, “Should I eat meat?”  As a result some of those children became vegetarian.  The younger children were not included because the teacher thought it was a very contentious issue.  She believed it was not up to them to decide, it was the decision of their parents.   Because the school is based in a very rural part of England, where some live on livestock farms, I felt the teacher was wanting to maintain the equilibrium.

 I want my children to be able to make their own decsions.  I want them to have choices in life because choices make us feel powerful and in control of our lives.  If we have no choice we can feel powerless.  Feeling powerless triggers a chemical response in our body, leading to depression, anxiety and low self esteem.  We can always create choices. 

The deluded thoughts she had in her mind are just that and she was able to acknowledge another level of her thinking.  Her grounded self would tell her deluded self, “that’s just a crazy thought, it’s not my reality”.  It had taken a long time to feel this way about crazy thoughts and in the past she had let them control her life.  Anxiety, paranoia, low self esteem, self-hatred, depression had all helped her be the person she is today.  She made a choice and would not be beaten by her own mind.  She was on the pathway to becoming an emotionally intelligent person.  As she sobbed on the way home from the school run she waved an unusual wave as another car let her through.  As she saw her fingers move she remembered her mum who died so many years ago, waving the wave.  She remembered her as a powerful women, with great confidence and a beautiful smile.  Something she had not done for a while, there was no weakness only strength.

~ by girligorgeous on July 17, 2009.