Do you remember the old Whitney Houston song? It was really popular in the '80s. It went, “I believe the children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way.”
Well, Whitney couldn't have been more correct about the first line. Of course the children are our future, in every possible way. Without children there is no future for the human race. Children keep the world going forward. Children are our pride, are joy, and they're the future for all of humanity.
So, she's right, of course, children are our future and yes we should teach them well, a subject that's become very controversial lately.
What does it mean to teach them well? I'm going to touch on that a little bit in this podcast but, lastly, the “let them lead the way”...no, Whitney, I don't think that makes any sense at all.
We need to let children naturally and in their own way and at their own time unfold, like a blossom. You don't want to force the blossom open, by any means. They should lead in their own development along the arc of their own natural course of growing and learning.
Each child grows and learns and changes at their own pace, in different areas, in that way, yes, we should let them lead the way. But in the larger sense of what the world's all about and how to get by in this world and what to make your most important value, no, children should not be leading the way…