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2021

Play distorts; Toy distracts
An online 6 day course offered by ekfoundation to enable the journey of re-discovering what truly children are
Dates: March 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 30 ; Time: 7-8pm

Brochure



There is a need for fresh research on children.
One that will enable us to really understand children’s true existential needs.
The paradox of modernity is that we seem to know many things- even able to go the Mars, etc but seems to have lost our instinct for looking after our children. Most of us have become dependent on external sources- books and experts even to do our most basic and fundamental activity for the survival of the species. And as you know we claim to be the most advanced in terms of evolution and intelligence and yet we don’t know how to bring up happy and contented children.

Children and us- the ‘modern’ humans belong to two paradigms of being. We want them to be like us and they want to keep their original, nature-centric, contented being-ness. With brute force, manipulation and trickery we win finally. Ensure that they become mediocre, dependent, arrogant, and confident with no substance…..

It is time that we give up and learn to lose in order for life to win.

So, there is a possibility of a win-win situation provided we prepare ourselves to shift from our paradigm and learn from children how to be natural, spontaneous, happy for no reason, to explore, to be open, not to hold on to anger, how to handle fear, to be present, to be truly creative……the list can go on….

They live in timelessness, in the state of abundance and existential freedom whereas the modern paradigm brings us to the state of scarcity, deficit-ness, constrained and under control, and wanting to control and time-bound. This is no idealization. This is the beingness of people from indigenous cultures. Step out and sensitively observe any illiterate person without our usual biases. Watch sensitively the maid that comes to your home….

I have been on this journey since 1990 guided by many children and illiterate people. I can offer some hints on how to undertake this journey and how to prepare ourselves to learn from children.

One thing I can tell you is that all our attempts to create a child-centric space will fail because we do not really know children- We are making up all kinds of wrong ideas about play, toy, story, learning, education, etc just to suit our ego and comfort. Almost all things that adults make supposedly for children are actually for the convenience of the parents/ adults to deal with their notions, laziness, concerns, anxiety, etc.

It is very urgent now because even the last bit which is essentially in the child’s domain is being taken over by the adults- Playing and ‘toying’.

Isn’t it strange that within the schooling paradigm we never talk about knowledge creation? Are children meant to learn second-hand knowledge or are they biologically equipped to create knowledge? The paradox is that we are now systematically killing the natural ability in children to create knowledge by interfering in their play and making of toys which are in fact the cognitive system provided by life. The most dangerous trend is that parents/ ‘well-meaning’ adults are playing with children with no understanding of the real nature of play. For us- the educated, play, learning, work, art, etc are fragmented into various watertight compartments whereas for children everything they do is done playfully (play), seriously(work), economically(art)-and learning is the consequential outcome.

The fresh research would require a fresh way of looking at children-one that has total trust in life, in children, and in oneself.

Join us in this journey

Let us think together to explore how we do constitute a people-centered 're-search' where each of us again becomes knowledge creators instead of this constant dependency on books and experts at least in the domain of ‘parenting’ because your dependency will be learned by the child!

- Jinan
Existential knowledge foundation (ekfoundation)