The home page of the Opal School Blog is now open to the public! So that's where I've been for the past few months. I'm going to try and develop these two blogs as reflective of one another -- one personal, one professional -- and both in the collaborative spirit that is the most wonderful opportunity with blogs. In both, my hope is to explore possibilities for relationships between adults and children that recognize the vast resources in each.
What does it mean for adults to be in a productive relationship with children who we know to be competent protagonists of their own lives and learning? What does it mean to "teach" or "nurture" a child who arrives in the world with powerful natural learning strategies that are ready to be put to use? What tools and strategies support such competent children? What do we have to learn from the children themselves?
There is such tremendous untapped potential in what we currently understand about our relationship to children. This limitation impacts the decisions we make from our homes, to our childcare settings, to our children's museums, to our aftercare programs, to our public education policies, to our pediatrician's offices. It is time to push ourselves towards new visions, new possibilities for the choices we make that truly take us beyond our standard assumptions.
But it is so very hard to take this leap of faith with the ones we love who are children now. How can we take risks with these precious ones we are responsible to care for right now and who only get this one chance for childhood? When we underestimate what children are capable of, we underestimate our own selves. Any new vision for how we want to be together in this world starts with them.
We need stories and images of new possibilities and productive, encouraging outcomes to support us to try new things. We need to share our successes and our challenges, our questions and our discoveries, our worries and our dreams. We need to share information, too. So let's help each other have the courage to carefully, responsibly, creatively (and with great joy) chart new territory together. That's what Wonder love and Opal School Blog are for. So help us share them, and share with us, and let's get to work-- with curiosity, with forgiveness, with joy!
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