September 4, 2007 11:35 AM
Raising compassionate and aware children
At The MizReport today, I'm running a piece on the state of our nation as compared to Rome in the days leading up to the fall on September 4, 476 BC:
The fall of Rome - a lesson for today.
I really don't like to drop bad news without offering hope for parents who are busy raising the next generation. I mean, we cannot change the world - all we can do is raise children into adults who are prepared to cope with it. To pass on our faith effectively, we cannot keep it compartmentalized. We cannot perpetuate the notion that God's blessing means material abundance. It doesn't. And for children raised with this Christian materialism ethos, what happens when they encounter their first major loss or struggle when they're out from under our wing?
The best way to prepare our children for what I believe is our country's very uncertain future - is to expand their awareness of cultures and time periods outside our own. Anything to challenge the extreme self-centeredness with which we are born and with which we each must struggle all our lives - the self-centeredness that seems to have become the central ethos of modern-day America.
Here's an article I wrote seven years ago on this subject:
Countering a Culture of PlentyEver wonder about building your kids' character in a culture of plenty? Ever wonder if the deck is stacked against you when the times aren't tough enough?
I know I do.
Maybe it's because I grew up poor myself and I know firsthand the powerful lessons poverty can teach. I'm grateful Tripp and I are able to give our children so much I missed, but I'm also painfully aware how those advantages crowd out the character building that comes from never being able to take your school clothes, your medicine, or even your next meal for granted.
And it doesn't help either that we live in a culture heavily skewed toward entertainment - much of it unhealthy - and based on a Me-First! mentality.
That's why since becoming believers seventeen years ago, Tripp and I have worked extra hard to broaden our twelve children's horizons, to counter the cultural blindness that comes with being too comfortable, and awaken in their hearts the idea that those who look like they have less may often have a little more.
Picture This
We can add more dimension to our children's world vision, and better build their appreciation of other cultures by first understanding that children learn differently than we do.
Children under 6 are not at all capable of abstract thinking. Words like sacrifice, courage, kindness have no meaning for them. But the concepts can be communicated through pictures and stories which convey those abstract ideas in the things that people do.
Children aged 6 to12, while becoming more capable of abstract thinking, still learn more effectively with a multi-sensory, hands-on approach.
So while there are plenty of books at the library to help my children learn about other countries, I've found a few ways to help my children zero in a little more, to feel less on the outside looking in, and to appropriate for themselves some of the more admirable qualities to be found in other cultures.
Sometimes, I'll pull my kids together for a special project - making a collage illustrating a specific activity like working or playing games, or a value like honoring parents or caring for brothers and sisters.
I explain we'll be looking for and cutting out pictures of children engaged in doing whatever we're focusing on, then turn them loose to hunt through the stacks of National Geographics I've collected through the years from library and garage sales (going rate about a quarter each). When everyone has their pictures, we discuss them, point out on the globe where the children live, then glue them to a big piece of poster board, adding a Bible verse which seems to cover the subject.
[for more on using National Geographics as an educational resource, click on Barbara's Picks - then Early Education - then scroll down. See also the chapter on laying a preschool foundation for cultural geography in Mommy, Teach Me!]
It's one thing to have your child memorize a commandment. It's another thing to immerse them in scenes of how it happens all over the world. And because the lessons we learn at an early age are the ones that stay with us all our lives, it's a way of giving your child a real foundation in the knowledge that we're all God's children, that though we may send money to help those who have less materially, they may have as much or more of the things money can't buy.
Snuggle-Up Lesson
If a picture's worth a thousand words, a movie's worth a million. And because they involve more senses, they have an even greater impact on children.
One of the blessings of videos is that they bring other cultures right into our living rooms. If you've shied away from videos with subtitles, you may be missing more than you think. Everyone in the family can enjoy foreign films. Simply snuggle your pre-readers next to you and quietly read the subtitles -- not every word, but just enough to keep them involved with the story.
There's nothing like gathering your children together to watch a film that boosts their compassion and teaches them simple, spiritual lessons. Try a gem of a tale like The Children of Heaven, nominated for an Academy Award as best foreign film of 1997. Set in Iran, it's the simple story of a boy who picks up his sister's newly-repaired shoes, then misplaces them while running the rest of the family's errands. Both of the children are anguished by the loss, as each has only one pair of shoes. They dare not tell their parents, who are already behind in rent and struggling to keep food on the table. And so they come up with a plan to share the brother's shoes. How they manage, and how eventually the brother finds a way to earn another pair of shoes paints a portrait of selfless love, steadfastness and grace.
All the easier for children to absorb when the main characters are children and the problem is child-sized. What young viewers could ever look inside their own closet - or at their own brothers and sisters - the same way again?
Cross-cultural activities are really about more than supporting missionaries and helping those in need. As Samuel 16:7 says, "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." We benefit by understanding ourselves and teaching our children that in some important ways, we who look like we have everything are truly needy too.
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(c) Barbara Curtis. This article first appeared in WorldVision in 2000.
Posted in Culture, Current Affairs, Homeschooling, Mothering, Movies, Spiritual education | Permalink
