Inspiration from the past

While moving house, I came across a hand made book my sister had made years ago when she was a child of ten. She had written a wonderful story and illustrated it with beautiful, detailed and careful art. This little book had been lying around in a plastic bag for years- almost 30 years- and no one had looked at it.
But when my daughter B saw it she was electrified. She immediately studied it and then began a series or drawings copied from the book, based on the book, inspired by the book ("Aunty P did these at age 10? I'm 10 and I want to do stuff like this.").
What has followed is the beginning of her own hand made book. She is so engaged in book making that her vibes are catching and her sister is now also making a book. Together, they pore over the pages, getting ideas on perspective, design, facial expressions and so on.

Thank you, dear sister for this inspiration. I mentioned it to her and she said she might want to do illustrations if she has stories. So i tell my girls, let's give her stories!

More from "In Defence of Childhood"

I couldn't rest until I added this part about Technology and children's inner wildness.
Mercogliano dedicates an entire chapter to the topic and it doesn't look good (I suspected this all along).
According to M the internet, TV, video games, music videos and other forms of cyberspace are "all major sources of childhood domestication."
Drawing from many research sources he goes on to explain how they are harmful on many levels: emotionally they have a tendency to discourage children from being in genuine physical and emotional contact with one another.. fostering a sense of connectedness that is often illusory.

Electronic media is so enticing and "provides so much instant and effortless gratification that they are severely eroding kids' desire and ability to engage in real play. These technologies render the consumer passive, a state that is the antithesis of real play, removing the physicality, the imagination, and the interactivity upon which inner wildness feeds."

Mercogliano examines "the pervasive extent to which the entertainment and advertising industries influence children's thoughts, feelings, values, and the sometimes irreversible personal choices children make based on that influence."
What is even more chilling is the recent research he quotes that is beginning to determine the effects of new medium on children-from the standpoint of violence and aggression-how the violent content desensitizes children to real life aggression and violence- to neurological effect such as the out- right hypnotic effect on the brain.
Dangerously addictive, they are found to be taking over the life of some young people ( and he has seen this first hand in his own school,) slowing down thinking.
Neurologically electronic media, especially TV, video and computer games "suppresses the thinking and imagining centers in the brain so severely that it renders the medium absolutely useless as an educational tool." (Emery).

From a number of recent studies he quotes that television causes memory impairment. "The reason for tv's apparent suppression of left brain mental processes: the technology of the device itself. The images appearing on a TV screen (or computer monitor) are generated by a cathode -ray tube that emits radiant light, rather than the reflected or ambient light that brings us the rest of our visual experience. "Ambient light does not in and of itself have a particular effect on our nervous system, radiant light has a potent activating and deactivating influence on many neurological processes.

In conclusion "not only is the tidal wave of high tech games and entertainment negatively influencing the quality of children's thinking an feeling... but it is also potentially impairing the ability to have any thoughts at all."
Chew on that.

Daimon. Be present!

In Defense of Childhood: Protecting Kids' Inner Wildness-Review

The untamed. The creative. The chaotic. The exuberant and non- conforming in the self. The 'Daimon'- that Greek word that Plato asserted "regards the supreme form of soul in us, we must conceive that the god has conferred it upon each...as a guiding genius - that which...lifts us from earth toward our celestial affinity, like a plant whose roots are not in the earth, but in the heavens".
A guiding force and companion as Phillip Pullman illustrates his books His Dark Materials-an inner voice made manifest in an animal that is representative of the individual 'self'.

We all have one but unlike Pullman's we can't see it. It would be better for us if we could- at least we would be able to be in touch with it.

In his book In Defense of Childhood: protecting Kids' inner wildness (2007), Chris Mercogliano refers to this 'daimon' as inner wilderness.
The term makes me remember a book by Maurice Sendak, Where The Wild things Are (1964) and how the kid is sent to bed because of being wild. On his travels he meets and interacts with all these wild creatures who gnash there terrible teeth and roll their terrible eyes. Wicked! And so the child's imagination is still going despite being 'grounded.'

Childhood (he traces the history of childhood) is a time when the daimon's presence is harder to ignore, indeed should not be ignored. It should be encouraged, heeded, nurtured so that the individual will find his or her true path in this life.
And yet, everything about today's world is bent on domesticating this wilderness. Childhood is under attack. How is this happening? Why are we letting this happen? How can we protect and nurture the undomesticated in our children (and ourselves)?
These are the themes that run through Mercogliano's book.

Mercogliano is certainly not the first person who has noticed that kids these days live lives that are over-regulated, over protected....cocooned and above all, safe. His book is a synthesis of other people's observations on the topic. (I was disappointed that the educator of all educators John Holt was not mentioned at all. Shocking!)

Basically, we have fixed it so that childhood today is micro managed, "social engineering of the transition from youth to adulthood." Terms such as 'helicopter parenting' imply parenting without trust nor faith in our kids ability to have their own adventures.
We are raising a generation of plugged- in, clued- out,digitalized, hearing impaired kids.
I notice on the bus that youth hold on to ipods and cellphones like babies hold on to their soothers and baby blankies. Even when they are in love they are still checking the text messaging on the cell while they smile up at their boyfriend or girlfriend!
When it comes to the daimon "most adolescents today are entirely other directed--which makes it very difficult to hear the voice of their daimon (156)
Nature deficient disorder, and not enough solitude are two factors that harm the development of the daimon at it's most vulnerable-a time when kids are trying to figure out who they are in this world.
Very disturbing since "the natural world does not judge," to borrow a borrowed quote from the book (116).

When we consider that in the past, great things like sailing ships, managing family businesses were being done by 13 and 14 year olds (Taylor Gatto has written about this in great length) and what we offer instead- squashing youth's natural urge, drive and daring be it with the "shelter of school" or with media and over consumption- it's ugly.
We deprive our kids without even knowing it by limiting their world- we don't even include them in the work of grown ups either.

While the book focuses on children and youth it applies to adults as well. We have to take risks, we have to explore, we have to taste, feel, immerse ours selves in the world, but also take time for solitude and reflection- pay attention.

We-young and old- have everything to lose by not heeding the call of the daimon.