And so is the role of the child…

Despite the many changes to our education systems over the years, the role of the teacher has remained pretty constant. While what they teach and how they teach may change, what remains constant is that the adult is the imparter of knowledge and information, the authority figure within the classroom, which is the container for this exchange to take place.

This all might sound really obvious. Of course the teacher must teach, and the student must learn. But within this statement are embedded some core societal beliefs that have shaped our collective behaviour over hundreds of years, which we have adopted without question. They go something like this:

• The belief that the teacher must be an adult and the student must be a child (at least in terms of schooling), never the other way around.
• The belief that the child is devoid of knowledge and wisdom and needs to be taught through the imparting of information in the form of lessons.
• The belief therefore, that the adult holds the power and is the authority figure in the classroom.
• And finally, the belief that this is the only way to educate kids.

Let’s unpick all of this and explore whether these beliefs still stand within our society. At the core of all of these statements is a perception that human beings are born into this world as empty vessels to be shaped by life, like a lump of clay that is moulded into something recognisable by the artist. It is the role of adults (parents, teachers, wider society) to do this.

Everything else falls out of this core understanding: it places the adult at the top of the hierarchy of life, and the child at the bottom; the younger the child, the further down the hierarchy they are.  The adult holds the power, the authority, the knowledge, and when the child grows up and reaches adulthood, they will do the same for the next generation, and on it goes.

Until now.

A Paradigm Shift

The world is in a state of great flux and change right now, and all around us is evidence of the traditional ways of being and doing things falling away and breaking down. Many of our systems are on shaky ground right now, and will continue to be as technology, and in particular Artificial Intelligence, shifts everything in years to come, in ways that are largely being ignored or overlooked right now.

What this may mean (or will mean, depending on your stance about technology’s upcoming role in society), is that education will be one of the systems to dramatically change. What do you need to teach, if adults no longer need to work? What is the role of the teacher if AI can provide a uniquely tailored curriculum for each child?

But there’s something more fundamental that is shifting in our collective consciousness. The very notion that babies are born without any inherent wisdom or knowledge, and that all humans must prove their worth by becoming productive citizens is a misconception, as any parent of a young child will know. Babies and young children are full of wisdom! They have a personality, they have inherent gifts and talents which become apparent as the child grows older, and they have a unique sense of presence. The growing body of work taking place now to capture babies’ voices in service design is a brilliant example of this new belief in practice – even young children have preferences and desires and feelings that can be expressed in various ways, and by tuning in to the child energetically we can begin to communicate in ways beyond the need for words.

Added to this, many parents, grandparents, carers and teachers will have experienced the natural gifts and passions of children emerging far before they reach adulthood, whether it’s a knack for comedy and telling jokes with perfect timing, or telling stories with perfect structure, or an inherent ability to dance, or to play a musical instrument with natural rhythm and aptitude. These gifts and passions are inherent – they can be developed and improved upon, of course, but they were latent within the child and triggered into being at some point or another.

So, this dispels the belief that children are devoid of knowledge and wisdom. If we believe children to have their own wisdom to share, it totally reframes our concept of the roles of teacher and student. No longer is the teacher the sole imparter of information; suddenly, the child can also be teacher. Instead, the role of the teacher could shift to facilitate the unearthing of these talents and gifts, and the building of new ones alongside.  This also flattens the hierarchy of the classroom and places (at times, when appropriate) the adult into the role of student, shifting the power to the child or children. In doing so, the adult must respect the child and their contributions, instead of respect solely flowing one-way.

Of course, the adult remains responsible for the classroom, and upholds the energetic and physical boundaries to keep everyone safe, but in this sharing of power there is a shift – energetically the teacher is saying, “You also have power.” The greatest way to empower a child is to help them recognise they already have power within. It is when children feel disempowered and as though they have no control or power of their own, that they act out, seek power over others, become violent or else become entrenched in the role of victim, as we explored recently in another blog.

But it’s not just about children sharing their gifts and abilities with adults. If you hadn’t already noticed, the children being born now are not quite the same as previous generations. They are retaining far more awareness about who they really are, not forgetting that they are also spirit and soul, connected to something greater. They are not so entranced with the notion that they are a purely physical being, but instead they are remembering more of their non-physical selves, and in so doing, they are able to retain a greater connection to their Spark.

Because of this remembering (or lack of forgetting), the greatest gift that children have to share with adults is this reflection of knowing who they really are. While adults have largely forgotten and exist in the illusion of separation, as the roles and personalities we believe ourselves to be, children are increasingly demonstrating what it looks and feels like to be aware of our human-selves as separate beings, while also knowing our soul-selves as connected beings.

Defining New Beliefs for a New Future

As our understanding of consciousness grows, the way in which we teach and share information will also change. What if we begin to recognise that information is energy, and can be accessed by tapping into a specific frequency, therefore not requiring us to learn in the way we always have? These paradigm shifts are already taking place, talked about in often hushed tones, for fear of ridicule and judgment. But a sea-change is happening. The wildly successful podcast The Telepathy Tapes shared dozens of examples of non-verbal children with autism displaying other-worldly abilities, from telepathic communication to connecting through consciousness via a type of social ‘hivemind’.

As this paradigm shift takes place in society, our classrooms will change to reflect a new set of beliefs, such as:

• The belief that both adults and children can be teacher and student.
• The belief that child are born full of knowledge and wisdom to share, which may look, sound and feel differently to what we used to consider as important knowledge and information.
• The belief that there can be an exchange of information and wisdom from adult to child and vice-versa.
• The belief that wisdom is inherent, and therefore, is within our reach at all ages.
• The belief therefore, that power, authority and respect must be shared by all.
• And finally, the belief that there are totally new and exciting ways to educate kids, that draw on our creativity, that shift our perceptions and ideas, that allow for each and every one of us to express ourselves to the fullness of our being.

Now wouldn’t that be a classroom worth being in?

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