“Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education”
Bertrand Russell
How can you, in practice, provide your children with the best possible life? This is the key issue addressed by this initiative.
“Philosophy for the Development of your Children” aggregate both the benefits of group work (the sharing of experiences and insights; of insecurities and challenges connected with the responsibility of educating children; mutual support) and of a personalized approach (acknowledging and valuing the particularities of each person; the concrete application in the practical life of each participant). The initiative begins and finishes with an individual (or couple) Philosophical Counseling session, which are complemented by 8 group meetings.
In each group meeting I present the foundations of a healthy development process. Beyond that the initiative aims at equipping you to properly support your children to: a) fulfilling, to the maximum of their possibilities, the potential that is already in them; and b) to build a life with which they feel truly fulfilled and satisfied. Starting from the real-life experiences shared by participants those foundations are clarified and absorbed in the particular context of each participant. The most potent and relevant philosophical insights are presented throughout each meeting, in connection with your concrete life. Each meeting’s topic has been carefully selected as a way of securing the transformative power of the initiative.
The work is complemented by an Action-Plan towards Development (APD): an action-plan that is designed to accommodate the particularities of your specific context and of your children’s particular nature. It presents clearly and in an easy-to-apply fashion the key points in which you will need to focus in order for you to contribute as healthily as possible in your children’s life. The APD is composed of 3 parts:
a) A section focused on specific observations about you and the development process of your children.
b) A clear and detailed action-plan which will allow you to focus your efforts in the direction of the best possible development of your children (even after the group-work is over).
c) Recommendation of relevant readings, which will enrich the development process of your children.
The APD was designed with a clear objective: if properly implemented it will give you access to the capacity to transform the life of your children in a concrete, practical and consistent way.
Why will “Philosophy for the Development of your Children” allow you to provide your children with the best life they could have?
They will develop, in one way or another. The question is: what kind of development will they have? Two main possibilities present themselves:
a) Will their development involve a process which will lead them to a life of excessive and unnecessary suffering? An empty life with no passion, frustrating and filled with unbalances which present themselves in the form of acute anxiety, insecurity, guilt, remorse and sadness? For as hard as it feels to face a reality as dark as this one, it doesn’t make it any less of a real possibility. In fact, this is how most people go through their lives.
b) Your children’s development will lead them to a truly fulfilling life. No unnecessary suffering or scars. Authentic and comfortable in themselves, your children impress into the world their unique potential. The process is natural and totally integrated into their daily lives. They find themselves with a deep feeling of fulfillment in relation to the life they lead.
Parents have the power to influence the development of their children in a decisive manner. Sometimes the exert such influence consciously, but for the most part they do it unconsciously. This work was designed with the aim of supporting you in moving consciously in the direction of providing your children with the opportunity to lead the best life they are able to.
Human beings are instinctively wired to pursue their self-realization, i.e., to bring forth their immense potential, and to lead a life which will bring them genuine fulfillment. At the same time each person is unique, which makes it the case that each person’s potential and the kind of life which would bring them genuine fulfillment are also unique. The most adequate and healthier kind of development for each person is the one that respects and cultivates their particular nature.
The (erroneous) belief that an individual’s socialization process requires that they conform to socially accepted standards is entrenched in contemporary society. This makes it inevitable that you children’s development and education will involve incessant pressures towards molding them in terms of their behaviors, attitudes, beliefs and worldviews. Just like in our case, they are conditioned on a daily basis by the “one size fits all” mentality.
The problem is that this conditioning causes them to suppress their authentic nature and potential in favor of fitting into what is expected of them. This process, which happens to all of us, has two disastrous consequences:
a) An immense potential (which we all have) remains repressed.
b) We all have by nature an impulse that relentlessly seeks self-realization, which we are taught to repress. The result is a great inner pressure, which translates itself into anxiety, anguish and frustration (and in the more extreme cases, depression and occasional panic attacks).
This understanding goes hand-in-hand with psychanalyst Karen Horney’s view of the neurotic process:
“The neurotic process is a special form of human development. It is not only different in quality from healthy human growth but, to a greater extent than we have realized, antithetical to it in many ways. Under favorable conditions man’s energies are put into the realization of his own potentialities. Under inner stress, however, a person may become alienated from his real self”.
We will work towards avoiding that new inner dysfunctions of this kind are generated or internalized. We will also make sure that the existent ones are properly addressed. Also – and mainly – we will focus on equipping you for allowing your children the opportunity of a fulfilled life. One in which all the inner richness of who they are, and their potential, are properly and healthily expressed.
New class
Death is not sad. The sad thing is most people don't live at all.