As a stay at home parent, my job description is constantly morphing. Somedays I feel I'm the entertainer. Others more of the referee or disciplinarian. Somedays I'm a coach running defense and sometimes clearly in charge with offensive plays up my sleeve. Sometimes I'm slave and short order cook and others I'm master and chef. And let me tell you as a temporary single parent ,and one that hasn't left the house or my two children in 48 hours thanks to little sickies, I could currently be described as potential sadist!
I don't know if you've seen this or not, but I've noticed that some stay at home parents fill out assorted forms at school, or on social media, or wherever, with a job description that says CEO of Smith Household or employed by Emma (7) and Kate (5) or some kind of cute spin. I'm not a big fan of this in general, but I did, however, happen to recently see a description, still tongue in check, that I actually thought brilliantly applied: Director of Development. As parents, we really are the central source for encouraging our childrens' development into self sufficient and hopefully productive, happy adults. We directly expose (and sometimes indirectly, oops) expose them to information. We are their first touchstones for making sense of the world around them. It's a huge position to field and one that has oh so many strings and expectations attached.
I've had this in mind the last couple days even as I fight the urge to impatiently wring necks....here I am developing my child each and every waking minute we interact. Am I actively or passively doing this? I've been picturing myself shaking the polaroid, with just a little bit more of their images "developing", becoming clear each day.
Interestingly, I have been reading a bunch about Maria Montessori, the founder and theorist behind the education system commonly referred to as Montessori, lately and her philosophies dovetail so nicely with this idea. (Let me say in advance that I have no direct experience with Montessori education and neither do my children. We've done straight up preschools and public school thus far. ) But learning somewhere that Montessori was the first woman to practice medicine in Italy in 1896 initially piqued my interest about her. As did lots of little tidbits I'd see around on other blogs about Montessori methods with kids which all seemed to point to creative exploration and inner development.
It turns out that Montessori's main theory is that we are incomplete at birth. We require adult nurturing for a period of time before becoming fully functioning adults. Montessori thought this period of formation lasted until the age of 24. (And random or not, neural scientists have recently concluded through studies that the foundational neural structures in the frontal lobes of the human brain are not complete until around age 24!) Montessori believed education was an aid to life, it was a way to help children build their inner selves, their minds, from infancy to maturity. She once said "a child's work is to create the person he/she will become." I love her rationale that no two individuals learn the same thing the same way, so in essence no two individuals will ever build the same brain. Montessori originated the descriptor "Kids are like sponges" though it sounded all old-timey and professional when she said it since she used the words "absorbent minds" instead. Anyone who has spent anytime with children knows how much information they are capable of swallowing and with such gusto and enthusiasm. They are a rapt audience just waiting for the show.
And though I'm focusing in on children because of, ahem, my very important job description as Director of Development, I don't see any reason that this line of thinking can't be applied to one's own life, regardless of age or station. Aren't we all really directors of our own development each and every day? Wouldn't you hope that your most important job in life is to become exactly who you want to be?
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment