Recently, I have been thinking how I can raise my children with a humanistic outlook on life. After some thought and reflection, I have concluded that they are teaching me how to live in a more humanistic way. Here are some recent examples which led me to that conclusion.
My four year old son, Pierre, loves to ask why, what, and how about everything he encounters in his path. At times I have struggled to give satisfactory answers to some of his questions and respond with a honest “I don’t know”. Sometimes I have given him answers which I feel are foolproof, but after his relentless questioning I realize that I do not have a solid rational foundation for some of my answers. A couple of days ago while Pierre and I were folding my clothes he really challenged me for the better. I was showing him how to fold my shirts and pants, but he did not want to do it my way. He told me, “I want to do it a different way”. At first, I tried to beat him in the head with the notion that daddy knows best and follow my way to do it correctly. He refused to do it my way and I finally gave in and waited for his imminent failure. I was shocked to see him take a completely different approach and still end up with a perfectly folded pair of jeans. He looked at me proudly and stated, “You see daddy, I told you I could do it.” I praised him and told him that I had been wrong. The pride on his face was priceless!
My one year old son, Paolo, has also impacted my understanding of raising children to appreciate the humanistic approach to life. Yesterday, we went to the local park and he went on his first swing. He relished each swing back and forth and laughed with contentment during this new experience. He was enjoying and embracing that present moment for all it offered and not allowing anything to distract him from the joy it gave him. Earlier that same day, he ventured outside of his room and crawled across the whole house to the living room stopping along the way to enjoy different objects on his path. He could not help but explore and examine what he considered interesting along his way. He and his brother, Pierre, naturally express the following quote on a daily basis:
These precious moments with my children allowed me to understand that I am likely to thwart and retard their natural humanistic methods by enforcing my predetermined answers onto their worldview. I need not worry about instilling and guiding my children toward adopting humanism as their guiding life philosophy because they are naturally born as humanists and express all its values with no outside indoctrination. They have displayed a life approach which includes critical thinking, curiosity, and an open-mindedness toward discovery that I don’t incorporate enough in my life. It is me as an adult, who has been groomed to believe that there exists one right answer for every question, that needs guidance and assistance in recapturing my natural inheritance of humanism. I thank my children for enlightening me and I pledge from this moment forward that I will focus on solely cultivating and encouraging the development of this natural, life affirming attitude of my children and value any lessons of humanism that they bestow on me.
“Humanism is, in sum, a philosophy for those in love with life. Humanists take responsibility for their own lives and relish the adventure of being part of new discoveries, seeking new knowledge, exploring new options. Instead of finding solace in prefabricated answers to the great questions of life, humanists enjoy the open-endedness of a quest and the freedom of discovery that this entails.”1
What have your own children or children in general taught you about embracing life and humanism?
1 Fred Edwords, What is Humanism, http://www.americanhumanist.org/Humanism/What_is_Humanism (1989 & 2008).
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