Thus said Andrew Jackson Davis, that great American Seer, the harbinger of Modern Spiritualism: He was speaking at Dodsworth’s Hall, New York City in 1863, as he invited his audience to form the first Children’s Progressive Lyceum, based on the model he had seen used to educate children in the spirit world.
Children are the future of the human race and of the world we are privileged by God to share with many other forms of life. Davis recognised after his ‘visits’ to the spirit world, that the way children were educated in the Victorian Western World, was wrong. Instead of forcing knowledge into them, a much better balanced adult would emerge if we were to draw out the personality and the inherent abilities of the child. With that encouragement, the accumulation of knowledge would be a minor matter, easily accomplished. As a result children would grow up knowing exactly what their gifts were and would spend their adult lives working with those gifts to the benefit of all and the complete satisfaction of their own inner nature. Gone would be all those neuroses resulting from being forced to follow interests and occupations that were anathema to their true selves.
Modern educational methods have moved some way to accommodate the spiritual model but nowhere near far enough in my opinion. The idealism, which is perfectly natural in the young, is far too often stifled at an early age by ridicule and criticism. Please do not misunderstand me; I am not suggesting that children should be allowed ‘carte blanche’; that would only result in the creation of a real-life world like existed in the “Lord of the Flies”. What I am suggesting is that they be given tolerant guidance and encouraged, at every turn, to develop those abilities which are quite apparent to the enlightened teacher. Most of the stress experienced by adults is, in my opinion, occasioned by the inner conflict created as a result of their interests and energies being erroneously focussed. I believe we are given certain gifts because they will be needed in order to make the most of the earthly life we have chosen to live. If we are coerced into ignoring some of those gifts, how can we possibly achieve the end we set out to achieve when we left the spiritual world to come here?
To return to Andrew Jackson Davis’ comment, the realisation of those infinite possibilities, the most exciting prospect for the true teacher, is dependent upon using the special gifts with which each of us is endowed. Only through fully utilising those gifts can each of us make the real contribution we are intended to do in bringing about love, understanding and peace in our world. I do not believe the world was ever intended to become the funeral pyre of hope and expectations that it has. Oh yes, it is deliberately designed to be a world of conflict but only so that through that same conflict, each of us can become stronger and wiser. Conflict is intended I believe, to bring out the best in us, and indeed in some people, that is exactly what happens. Unfortunately, because we have ignored for generations, the need to as educators, draw out instead of forcing in, many people are not fully equipped to make the most of the conflict inherent in earthly life.
When the individual plan of life is changed to accommodate the materialistic demands and lust for power of megalomania, it becomes twisted and the inner conflict it sets up, leads to bitterness and resentment. Because the individual has no idea why he feels like this, it frequently results in antisocial behaviour. As adults, we bear a much greater responsibility in the upbringing of the young lives entrusted to our care than we generally realise. The care of a young, untutored soul is one of the greatest responsibilities we can be given. We are not merely expected to provide physical protection, food, clothing and housing for our charges. We must try as hard as we can to also provide spiritual food, high ideals and a sense of commitment towards the interests of others that is superior to our own personal interests. It is not easy and, as with all human endeavour, there will be times when we fail and despair, but the prize at the end is a pearl beyond price. The sight of our charges becoming fully adjusted, completely happy individuals, confident in their own gifts and abilities and without any inner resentment due to their being selfishly sidetracked to accommodate the misguided desires of selfish individuals.
I cannot agree more.
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