The adult
must have the ability to listen to the
child, not just as a technical skill, but on a spiritual level.
We are
living in an age of distraction, with much inner and external noise. This noise
weakens one’s ability to hear truly attend to the moment at hand and truly
reach out to others. In this work with children, the ability to listen and
listen well is critical – as it becomes harder and harder to do so in general
society, it will become still more difficult to do so with children.
Children
have fewer and fewer role models for true listening, so they can’t do it
themselves for others, and when this lack occurs during this critical period of
development, children will also lose the ability to listen even to themselves,
to their own inner guide, to their conscience, to the calling towards their
vocation in life.
Listening is the first step in
helping a person to feel valued. It is so easy to become like robots, thinking
of the next presentation, worrying about getting each step correct with the
child – when the child needs the adult to follow his lead, work with him where
he is at, walking forward with him
towards the next signpost along the path of self-construction. Other methods of
educating the youngest people in our society promote this robot-like attitude,
providing a specific set of regulations for all children, and sapping the true joy that comes from working with
these children just at the beginning of their lives.[2]
Listening can be good for one’s
physical health, affecting heart-rate, oxygen level and blood pressure. When a
person realizes he has been deeply heard, his eyes moisten.[3]
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