Prompted by recent discussions on children, child raising and education with some fellow okayplayers, I would now like to take the time to ask some of you your thoughts and ideas on certain aspects of raising children. We have on this board a few parents, some experienced, some just entering the journey, and one who has just been blessed with the experience of giving birth. We have psyche majors and a grad student who's specific area of study is early child development, so it seems like a nice foundation of resources are at our disposal. So the question is:

"If we were to take the best parts of everything learned from our experiences thus far in life (and on the boards), how would we best transmit these ideas and what exactly would be taught?"

For example: One might notice the merit that comes with knowing a few languages, and thus want to teach one's child a few from birth by speaking in another tongue during the child's formative years since this is the best time for learning.

One might want to start their child on a vegetarian diet to give it the healthiest start and start a behavior for that child that would certainly benefit him/her in the long run.

One might teach a child about the plethora of ideas that exist in each culture from the point of view of that cultural group, i.e. sending/or visiting with that child, a Yuruba community for a week or two in order to see what it's like first hand, vs. reading about it from a foreign perspective.

Basically this post is aimed at transcending the faults that i've noticed in the world and sometimes on these boards. It's not enough to just talk about the problems that we see, but if there is no plan to outgrow them and to hopefully give the next generation a push to the next level beyond us, then what's the point? We should be able to look at some of the mistakes being made ideologically and behaviorally around us and say to ourselves "how can i teach my child so that s/he dos not repeat these same mistakes?" or at least "what lessons can I teach that will show the pros an cons of a certain behavior and way of thinking?"

In closing, if we were to take some of the best lessons learned from okayactivist and put them into a child (our child) then what would they be? Think about it...try avoid unnecessary jokes (although i suspect this will be blood for the sharks)...and respond/react.

At the very least we can have some good brainstorming as to some of the more positive and applicable teachings and successes that some of us have seen/heard/witnessed...and give guerilla love something to read and ponder over during those few precious QUIET moments she gets by herself!

(((((peace)))))

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