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%DISCOVERING PERSONAL WONDER CURIOSITY AWE+790523
%QUESTION PUZZLE MOTIVATE WORSHIP THOU SUBJECT+790523
%OBJECT SPIRIT CHILD FAIL ADULT PARENT 790523
The child perceives a wonder-full world. The child's
life is full of wonder and wondering. There are no clean
distinctions between wonder, awe, questions, puzzles, I-
Thou relationships, subjects, objects and worship. There
are all together with integrity in the child's motivation.
The child's meaning in life is wrapped up in wondering,
doing, experiencing, and integrating.
Family, school, community, work place, etc. give
direction to the child's wondering. In tragic ways the
process of giving direction tends also to close off whole
wonder-full aspects of life. By the example of important
role models many questions are never asked, feelings of
awe and wonder are muted, distracting curiosity and
puzzles are set aside, I-Thou relationships and worship
occur more rarely, the world fills up with impersonal
objects and the spirit of life fades with the memories of
childhood. It is risky for the child to persist in doing
in adult life what none of the important adult role models
do in adult life. To survive, childish behavior must be
left for children. Adults who behave as children do are
looked upon with suspicion. Childish curiosity, awe,
questions, puzzles, motives, worship, I-Thou
relationships, spirit, and wonder are thus severely muted
by the adult conformist value patterns. (See the books
"One Child" and "Exploring the Crack in the Cosmic Egg".)
To discover personal wonder again the adult must be
born again and again become a child. The adult must leave
the protection of the conformist womb and experience the
excommunication from the collusions of that womb, in order
to again wonder about all that is outside the constraints
of the conformist womb. The protective conformist womb
blocks vision of the broader world as the price for its
protection. Rebirth is the process of escaping from the
protection which is no longer essential. Rebirth is a
traumatic experience, just as is birth. Growth following
rebirth depends critically upon being born into a fail-
safe community of Love.
At its best the educational process facilitates
rebirth of students by giving them a fail-safe loving
community into which to be reborn. Only as students
rediscover personal wonder will they become real students
who fulfill their unique potentials. Only thus can they
transcend the institutional arrangements designed to help
fulfill unique potentials. Only thus can they transcend
the institutional arrangements designed to help them, and
become free of their constraining tendencies.
(c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in
www.essayz.com Search for Integrity and Honesty
(On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)
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