Is this how we want to teach our children?

 

 

 

 

This picture, from an article on the Washington Post, “Delaying kindergarten until age 7 offers key benefits to kids — study”, is in my opinion an appalling example of the horrors of technology in early childhood.  This poor child’s posture, her grip on a magic marker, the completely artificial graphics, the oversized headphones blocking out the real world, all of this speaks to the antithesis of how young children should be taught.

As a contrast, compare this scene from a Waldorf Kindergarten, where children are interacting, doing an artistic project, and the entire environment is filled with warm, natural, materials:

 

 

 

 

 

Need I say more?

Parable of the Sower

“That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.” (Matthew 13, NIV)

My partner, for her expressive arts project in relationship to her course work “Introduction to Family Therapy”, drew three beautiful pieces based on the parable of the sower, as a metaphor of the “soil” that we grow up in.

Here are the three drawings, which she did with water-based colored pencils:

Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.