"Never give children a chance of imagining that anything exists in isolation. Make it plain from the very first that all living is relationship. Show them relationships in the woods, in the fields, in the ponds and streams, in the village and the country around it. Rub it in."
Love this - show that everything belongs to the same stream, one affects the other, etc. In the end, its showing children or anyone else for that matter on how to think, and not what to think - and probably the best way to do it is doing it non-verbally.. or discussing stuff at an elementary level. The moral classes that I went through as a kid told me not to kill, not to steal and such, but I've always wondered why they never discussed WHY should we not do this, and that, and open up the discussion. Awesome post - going to check out your post suggestions too :) Thank you!
Precisely. I completely agree. I was told not to kill, steal, or lie, but there seemed to be no way of discussing the reasons for not doing these things that didn't bring in religion and dogma.
I think teachers are afraid of imposing their own beliefs and opinions, and some parents feel they have to express the ultimately correct, or "perfect," set of beliefs to their children, but they don't have it yet, so they avoid these questions. We can show certain things nonverbally and in an elementary way without influencing kids' beliefs.
Thanks for checking out the suggestions. There's some good writing under the education and parenting tags that is being ignored.