Warning/Disclaimer

On this site, I will make every effort to be clear and explicit. I hope that what I offer will help you engage your children and aid their minds to blossom. What this site will not help you do however is create well-behaved or obedient children. I confess that as a parent, I struggle with this issue myself. There are many good books out there that can assist you in this regard.

The domain of my comments is somewhat different. Do not worry though, being precocious is not counter to being well-behaved. They are simply different areas of concern, just as being a good cook or gardener speaks nothing of your ability to learn French or Cantonese.

I do believe that the best I can do for my children is to give them every advantage possible for the development of their minds, all the while accepting that what is best for them (and I hope for the world in which they grow) is not always what is easiest for me. If you choose to follow the advice and ideas I proffer here, be forewarned, you may likely produce a strong-willed and independent child, one who may outwit your every effort to set down rules.

But to quote Farquat of Dulock: "That's a sacrifice I'm willing to make."

First, a definition

What do I mean by "articulate child"? I mean a child whose cognitive development takes full advantage of their natural endowments. The capacity to devise and articulate complex thoughts is outward evidence of this process.

We learn through our experience in ways compatible with our natural tendencies and abilities. It has been said that the training of animals is mostly a matter of encouraging behaviors that an animal is already disposed to exhibit. The amazing thing is the great richness of these potential behaviors.

All animals (humans included) are endowed at birth with certain capacities, which experience permits us to exploit. Birds are born with wings. Wings do not ensure flight (as the several species of flightless birds attest). However, lacking wings does make unassisted flight rather difficult. By analogy, our minds, like our bodies, hold a trove of capacities that experience with the world permits us to engage.

An infant is not a blank slate. But neither is an infant endowed with fully-functional "hard-wiring". It is the combination of our biological foundations and our interactions with the world that leads to our cognitive development.