Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Whole Adult/Whole Child

I will be speaking November 19th at Search-Institutes "Big Tent" conference in Houston, TX.

The focus of this talk will be on challenging parents to look at their own wholeness in context to the reality that we can only raise a child to full human capacity if we ourselves have tuned into build our own whole SELF.

What is a parent? A parent is a "Human Capacity Development" expert. Only of course, many parents are not this. Very few people truly understand how dependent a child is on the parent to facilitate their 'wholeness/humanness.

To be fully human does not just happen. It has to be developed or it will not happen (think of Afghanistan and how few children are even moderately educated and how this impacts the way they live their lives.) Children need "Human capacity development' experts to help them achieve their highest capacity of being fully human. Yes, a Human Capacity development expert is a parent--but as is obvious not all parents are human capacity development experts. That's what I think we all want to be when raising our children. But far too many parents are neither experts or doing much "human capacity" developing! Its not because they don't want to, but we simply do not have a system structured into our lives of how to become true experts in "human capacity development". It is missing in action even though every adult I've ever met has desperately been looking for it.

Life Puzzle is a family systems model and a framework for our adult lives. But at the same time, it can be the framework for helping you determine what you as an adult need to help your child learn too. If nutrition is a piece of your puzzle--its a piece of your child's puzzle too...what are you doing at age 1,3,5,7,9,11,13,15 to help him/her learn age appropriate information in that area so that by the time he leaves at 18 he has a solid foundation in that area so he can not only use it beneficially in his life...but also share this on down to his own children?

That's what I hope to express in Houston---how can we become the first generation of parents to become Human Capacity Development experts? Right now, the only criteria for being a parent is whether or not you can have a baby. Considering that we make babies not much differently than a dog or a horse...you can see the standard for becoming a parent is pretty low. It is imperative that we raise the bar. Children who are going to be able to live effectively in the 21st century need high quality human development. This doesn't just happen--it has to be fostered by good parenting--and I would challenge, and will do so in my presentation in Houston that the goal of every parent should be to see themselves as "human capacity development" experts--and then engage actions to make this possible.

I would say that Life Puzzle-making enables this--but it is just one of many potential models for the future creation of "Human capacity Development"experts who will take parenting to new levels that will be beneficial for adults and children. Imagine the world of whole adults/whole children. It is possible.