Compassionate and Calm: Introduction
Current reading material: Calm and Compassionate Children by Susan Dermond
The book begins by suggesting that values are best taught by exemplary role models. Imagine that! We not only need to care for their physical needs, we also need to show them, by our example, good habits, compassion, tolerance, gratitude. The list goes on. Who knew raising children was the toughest job on the planet. If we take it seriously.
The book begins by suggesting that values are best taught by exemplary role models. Imagine that! We not only need to care for their physical needs, we also need to show them, by our example, good habits, compassion, tolerance, gratitude. The list goes on. Who knew raising children was the toughest job on the planet. If we take it seriously.
"Matters of the heart are not taught so much as caught, if children are put in an environment that nurtures calmness and compassion. When children are able to be content, to tolerate differences, and to give as well as receive, it is not primarily because of religious instruction or intellectual understanding; it is a matter of the heart.""Anyone can talk about values; not everyone can live out the values they talk about."
"Michael Lerner, author of Spirit Matters, puts it this way: the 'task is not to see how many texts the child can master, but how to awaken her soul to awe, wonder, and radical amazement; how to develop her recognition of others as deserving respect and as embodying God's image..."
KaPOW.
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And so we move through the book, learning and reading examples and ideas of ways to encourage feelings of calm and compassion. Care to join me? I've been looking forward to this book and scanning through it for a few weeks now. Let's do it!