excerpts from the book "how children fail": "The question I have been trying to answer for many years is: Why don't they learn what we teach them? The answer I have come to boils down to this: Because we teach them--that is, try to control the contents of their minds." "A few good principles to keep in mind: (1) Children do not need to be "taught" in order to learn; they will learn a great deal, and probably learn best, without being taught. (2) Children are enormously interested in our adult world and what we do there. (3) Children learn best when the things they learn are embedded in a context of real Life, are part of what George Dennison, in The Lives of Children, called "the continuum of experience." (4) Children learn best when their learning is connected with an immediate and serious purpose."

looking through my email drafts, I found this (saved in 2013): "Whatever an education is, it should make you a unique individual, not a conformist; it should furnish you with an original spirit with which to tackle the big challenges; it should allow you to find values which will be your road map through life; it should make you spiritually rich, a person who loves whatever you are doing, wherever you are, whomever you are with; it should teach you what is important, how to live and how to die." John Taylor Gatto

what you wrote made me realize that here on nostr I can create my own way to communicate what comes to me. it's not that I can't do it elsewhere, but I always felt like I had to fit in some kind of structure and that was so uncomfortable to me. in my experiences here I've been finding freedom within myself to express my thoughts and feelings. I still have a lot to unpack, but I feel some kind of courage.

today I noticed my efforts to be invisible, to not cause trouble, to not leave marks wherever I go, to be unreachable so I can't receive anything others try to offer me. I was letting all these thoughts pass, and I was feeling all that arrived with that, when I saw those birds in this picture. they were not trying to be anything. they were not flying for me to take their picture and they were not trying to avoid being seen by me. they were doing their thing. and I saw them. and maybe I saw myself.

"enquanto falamos, uma flor se abre sem avisar ninguém" Márcia Baja

with a loving look: notice the threatening tones with which you speak to yourself observe the aggressiveness of your thoughts towards you observe your attempts to control your actions, always judging yourself inferior and seeking superiority observe your judgments about your appearance to escape how you feel observe your internal contradictions observe what you project on others, but which asks to be seen in you accept each of these observations. they are not who you are. allow yourself to feel everything that arises and let it pass.

may we, adults, look at children with the freshness of the new wind touching their skin may we look at children as a bridge back home, to our nature, to wisdom may we look at children taking care of our projections, to really look at them may we see with clear eyes who the child is at that moment, contemplating who we are and our transformations in that encounter may we allow ourselves be touched by the poetry of play may we let ourselves be touched by every smile and every cry, by every expression may we feel their presence may we be present with them