STRESSED OUT!

Lectured by Teresa Mello Vianna, Rachel Farias and Euler França Jr

Retreinamento 1º sem 2005

STRESSED OUT!

By Sue Ferguson

Maclean’s - Canada’s weekly magazine

November 22, 2004

Which factors are contributing to

increasing stress levels among kids?

Preschools tutoring to get a head start, to reach “school readiness” (mastery of early

numeracy and literacy skills).To reassure parents that they

are nurturing their kid’s brain.

Music lessons, organized sports,

Kumon Math, Reading Centers, dance classes, all sorts of after-school

activities.

Psychiatrist Rosenfeld co-author of the book

“The Over-Scheduled Child” affirms: “Parental pressure

isn’t necessarily the gateway to genius.”

• Leonard Bernstein didn’t start playing the piano until he was 10.

• George Gershwin’s musical brilliance developed on the heels of

a childhood spent roaming the students.

• Albert Einstein was a late talker and poor student.

Enough is enough, say some parents called the new refuseniks.

They refuse to drill their kids with flashcards, toss early

learning workbooks in the trash, and walk by lamppost signs for

tutoring without a second glance.

Let’s kids be kids again!

The Family Virtues GuideJanuary 2005

A child is a spiritual being who is brought into the world to grow up body,

mind and spirit. Inherently, children are

learners.

Research shows that their brains begin learning, actually

processing information, even before birth. Parents are the first

and most important teachers (educators).

Yet they receive little or no training in what to do or how

to do it. Unfortunately, children don’t come with

instruction manuals.

There is a growing concern among conscientious parents

that our children are caught up in materialism to the detriment

of character, that they are picking up values which place

personal gain before ethics, integrity, or love.

There have been valuable efforts focused on seeing the child as a separate

person with unique feelings and ideas.

Much has been written about the emotional and psychological health of children and families, covering topics such as honoring a child’s

feelings, keeping peace in the family, building self-steem, learning

to speak so kids will listen, and learning to listen so kids will talk.

What has yet to be addressed in a broad way is how parents can meet

the spiritual needs of children.

• VALUES ARE CULTURE-SPECIFIC.

• VITUES ARE UNIVERSALLY VALUED BY ALL FAITHS AND CULTURES IN THE WORLD.

• VIRTUES ARE DESCRIBED AS THE QUALITIES OF THE SOUL.

Each day of living with children brings fresh opportunities for guiding them at “teachable

moments” which pass quickly and may never come again.

Parenting is made up of so many things - physical care, affection, encouragement,

enjoyment, correction, protection and teaching.

Just as children’s bodies need food, air, light and warmth, their spirits need challenge,

direction, and encouragement.

The world needs people who are willing to take personal

responsibility.

Naturally, you can’t help someone else grow

without growing yourself.

To teach children well is to bring out the best in them. What’s best

for them has everything to do with what is best in them. Virtues are gems in the mine of the true self. A parent/a teacher is meant to mine a child’s gems and bring

them to light.

Each child is born with a special bundle of potential. In that bundle are three things:* Inherited traits* Individual temperament* Innate capacities: gifts, talents, abilities, limitations, and virtues.