I absolutely love the work you are doing here, and I've thought recently about how human design can impact our kids' learning styles. I find myself getting pulled back into the "system" thinking from time to time, and it makes so much sense to me that it's part of my human design to do so. I know I have a lot of open centers as well.
I’m so glad there is value here for you Kelli. HD is such a helpful road map… I see it as like a starter guide to the patterns we are holding that might not be helpful — a way in to start seeing and unwinding them. I am going to be exploring the open centres and their links with the deschooling process over the coming weeks and months.
A beautifully reflective piece. The tension between instinctive parenting and the growing pressure to measure, optimise and compare is something many parents recognise. What begins as presence and responsiveness can slowly become management and monitoring.
Perhaps the most important idea here is reclaiming trust — in our observations, in our children’s individuality, and in the understanding that growth unfolds over time. Slowing down enough to respond to the child in front of us, rather than the expectations around us, may be one of the most meaningful shifts a parent can make.
Oh yes — it’s a process of letting go of those external expectations and reclaiming trust in our long-buried intuition, and in turn our children’s natural trajectories. Thank you for reading and adding to this important conversation with your thoughtful comment.
Even as I approach learning with a somewhat unschooling approach I find myself wanting to document learning! The tension between a new way of learning and the one I lived at school. Thank you for this thought provoking and helpful article.
Thank you for reading and commenting. I’m so pleased this article helped you. Yes, the drive to document is real! I felt it a lot in the early stages, and of course it is always lurking because we might be expected to document what we are doing to external “authorities”. But it’s worth noticing if/when our need to measure and document might be pulling us away from the experiential learning in the moment. As you point to, it’s another layer of ‘schooling’ to shed.
Thank you for these thoughts! I appreciate the reminder that we do know our children best and probably also know what they need best. Every child is different and worthy of being treated as an individual.
They certainly are. The system disempowers most of us from holding on to that truth, and the truth of our own knowing, as they grow. Thank you for reading and commenting. I’m so glad you got value from the article.
“But compliance is not the same thing as wellbeing.” This is my favorite line in the entire piece. It’s the quiet part being said out loud.
Indeed. Thank you for this recognition.
I absolutely love the work you are doing here, and I've thought recently about how human design can impact our kids' learning styles. I find myself getting pulled back into the "system" thinking from time to time, and it makes so much sense to me that it's part of my human design to do so. I know I have a lot of open centers as well.
I’m so glad there is value here for you Kelli. HD is such a helpful road map… I see it as like a starter guide to the patterns we are holding that might not be helpful — a way in to start seeing and unwinding them. I am going to be exploring the open centres and their links with the deschooling process over the coming weeks and months.
A beautifully reflective piece. The tension between instinctive parenting and the growing pressure to measure, optimise and compare is something many parents recognise. What begins as presence and responsiveness can slowly become management and monitoring.
Perhaps the most important idea here is reclaiming trust — in our observations, in our children’s individuality, and in the understanding that growth unfolds over time. Slowing down enough to respond to the child in front of us, rather than the expectations around us, may be one of the most meaningful shifts a parent can make.
Oh yes — it’s a process of letting go of those external expectations and reclaiming trust in our long-buried intuition, and in turn our children’s natural trajectories. Thank you for reading and adding to this important conversation with your thoughtful comment.
Even as I approach learning with a somewhat unschooling approach I find myself wanting to document learning! The tension between a new way of learning and the one I lived at school. Thank you for this thought provoking and helpful article.
Thank you for reading and commenting. I’m so pleased this article helped you. Yes, the drive to document is real! I felt it a lot in the early stages, and of course it is always lurking because we might be expected to document what we are doing to external “authorities”. But it’s worth noticing if/when our need to measure and document might be pulling us away from the experiential learning in the moment. As you point to, it’s another layer of ‘schooling’ to shed.
Thank you for these thoughts! I appreciate the reminder that we do know our children best and probably also know what they need best. Every child is different and worthy of being treated as an individual.
They certainly are. The system disempowers most of us from holding on to that truth, and the truth of our own knowing, as they grow. Thank you for reading and commenting. I’m so glad you got value from the article.
This is brilliant, Gem. Such insight! I'll share.
Thank you so much Wendy. That really means a lot 🙏