hand, heart and mind

My youngest daughter has just started at Fossil Bay Kindergarten and she loves every moment. I too enjoy being there. I revel in the atmosphere of calm which is part of the Steiner philosophy. In this place the teachers and parents are careful not to overexpose their young children to stimuli, especially digital stimuli. To allow them to discover the world in their own time.

In contrast my two older children have started going to the High School. Here there is an abyss of difference. Most students have their own device and need to be familiar with social media, online assignments and creating and uploading files. Every day there are emails, comments, things to read and follow. Okay, I am over forty and grew up in a different era but I feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information I receive and which I need to filter. I am an adult and have already developed my cognitive systems. I know how to separate what could be useful to me and what is trash. Young people are still finding out how their brains and bodies work, they are very open to all sorts of stimuli. Too much input before these systems are developed leads to attention deficit, stress, mental fog.

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It is a wonderful thing to watch under 5’s at play. They demonstrate integrity of body and mind, they are utterly present in whatever activity it is they are involved in. In no circumstance will they distort their body to obtain a desired object. Contrast this to the typical teenager who collapses over the keyboard and bends his neck and head down to the phone screen.

Many life skills are not taught. We work them out by ourselves, usually by observation and imitation. Very often we are trying so hard that we completely forget about that mind-body integrity we had at age 5. It is still there however tucked away in a corner of our brains. Waiting for us to think about it.

Lauren Colace