Status quo

Is children’s education getting more and more difficult? Do more and more parents fail with their children and the problems they apparently cause? Do more and more parents hope teachers in kindergartens and schools might somehow “correct” them?

Too often in our society children are seen as naughty, spoilt, loud, cheeky, stupid or lazy. If you have a closer look, it is not the children alone, who are difficult or badly-behaved. Many children simply reflect the problems and strains of their social environment, and the way they have been treated by adults.

If there are conscious, or unconscious, hidden, or obvious problems in families, then often children live these problems. This can be expressed as aggression, retreat, behavioural difficulties, or illnesses.

It might also happen that children grow up in a very loving and caring environment, but still have, or cause, problems. Hasn’t it been said that children are “old souls in small bodies”. These souls incarnate with certain learning tasks, to grow and develop. And problems are, in the figurative sense, grinding stones that make a diamond sparkle.

It doesn’t matter what the reasons for children’s developmental problems are, but sometimes these blockages or burdens can hardly be discovered, and changed for the better.

In classical education strict measures are taken. Rigid structures and rules are imposed, classical methods are used, and the children are predefined in their roles as “little, incomplete people”.

In alternative education the child’s personality is given more room. It supports the development of their individual personality, and shows an interest in the child’s needs.

However, spiritual education goes a step further. It not only gives room for the child’s personality, but also its spirituality, to develop. Spiritual education not only assumes that children are “souls in a physical body”, but also that they are born with an inner wisdom and a spiritual awareness.

In particular, in our times, children have the desire to live and express their inner wisdom and their spirituality. However, they are not always taken seriously by adults, and therefore are put in their places.

Spiritual education aims at recognizing children’s spiritual needs in order to be able to fulfil them. Furthermore, it involves noticing and transforming blockages and burdens within families, with the help of spiritual tools. It is only when parents realize that everyone can and should follow their own path of development, that there is also a development process for the child and the adult together, that problems with children can be seen, understood and solved from a different perspective.