Papa, why do I have to go to school?

   

As a beautiful Sunday afternoon rolled into another Sunday evening, and the looming school week hung heavy in the air, my son Phoenix reflected back to me that simple and profound question, that no conscious parent can escape.  You know, the question that has hung heavy in our hearts since we were them and sitting in our first classroom, the question we have heard repeated over the years, by us, by them, out loud and in our hearts.........

"Papa, why do I have to go to school?

In all likelihood, unless we are homeschooling them, our children will spend more hours of the day, more days of their life, a larger percent of their educational years, in school, than with us, their parents.  How then, if it is our intention to nurture joyful, heart-centered, heroic children can we trust and rely on their schools to be an extension of this nurturing process?  

How can we, in essence, rely on an educational system that will take them in as young children and not release them until they have reached adulthood, to do a better job than we can do?  How can we trust that these precious formative years of their life are being attended to with the same care and intentions that we have?  How can we trust that what they are being taught is serving them in the most beneficial manner?

These questions don't have simple answers.  In fact meditating on them will more likely lead to more questions than to answers.  Because if we truly have the intention to nurture our children in a way that will reveal their gifts, center them in their hearts, and instill them with the courage and strength to be able to not only overcome obstacles, but to transform them into  opportunities, then the process of insuring that their educational experiences are beneficial is one of continual exploration.  There are no simple solutions.

There are however, two essential keys that will empower us and serve us as we navigate a course of action and educational path for our children. No matter  how much our family models might differ and the textures of our visions and priorities may vary, these keys will help us construct a foundation that will serve us and our children, our Rainbow Warriors. First of all, we must absolutely accept and maintain, throughout their educational years, no matter what the nature of their schooling may be, the responsibility of being their primary teacher.

Whatever teachers may pass through their life, whatever educational systems they may pass through, we are the constant, we must be there for them throughout.  Being their primary teacher is an absolutely vital mission. It is essential that we are vigilant in our continual presence and awareness and that we maintain a constant connection and communication with our children, so that we can support them and help them process their educational experiences in the most productive manner, and so that we can  help them by integrating, expanding, supplementing and discarding when necessary.  

Above all, as primary teachers, it must be our mission to insure that their heart wisdom is being nurtured and fed, that their minds are being exercised and not simply filled, and  that their individual gifts are allowed to be revealed and strengthened.  

We must accept, as their primary teachers, the responsibility of teaching them how to act courageously, with heart, with excellence and with strength.   We must accept responsibility for teaching them the value of integrity, the joy of beauty and the importance of idea being manifest in action. 

Which brings us to the second essential key in conscious parenting:  Teaching through action.   However varied the educational, and school situations are that we ultimately choose for, or with, our children are, we must not only accept responsibility to oversee, integrate and support the schooling by being their primary teacher, but we must be models, in action, for our children. 

"We forget sometimes that there are saints
living among us.
When we meet them, we are reminded,
not just of the presence of pure divinity
right here on earth,
but also of our own potential,
and of the responsibility we have to try
to live up to it  for our own sakes and
for the very future of this planet"  - Deepak Chopra

So, why do our children go to school? To learn!

Why do they go to the school they go to?  Why do they learn the things they are learning, in the way they are learning them?  Those questions my fellow teachers, are for us to ponder, hopefully, continually, as part of an ongoing process.