Opening Charge

‘Socialization is the ultimate responsibility of the custodians in the life of the life of the child. This requires knowledge, wisdom and skills. It is therefore the responsibility of the custodians of the child to understand and create an enabling environment for the child discipline and development. One of the highpoints of the Montessori Method of early child development is the creation of an enabling environment, which will help the child to bring out his/her God-given potentials. Once the environment is created, the custodians will only need to guide the child to maximize it (environment).’

Hello friends sure you are doing well today. It is a trying weekend for our dear nation Nigeria. From Bauchi to Lagos and from Suicide bomber to plane crash, many precious souls created in God’s image exited their early suits and went to answer to their Creator. As the nation mourns, I believe the incidents should be a reminder that we are in this place just for a season. It is not therefore how long but how well. I pray that God will grant the families of all the affected souls the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.  I also pray that God will give our political leaders the boldness and wisdom to investigate the circumstances of the bomb blast and plane crash and ensure justice is done.

Friends, join me today as I share with you the 7^th core habit of a purposeful, disciplined and effective disciplinarian: Study to discipline:

I will like to commence our discussion on the issue of studying to discipline with the   submission found in the foreword of The Secret of Childhood’ as follows, ‘Dr. Montessori pointed out to us, that if we are to help life, we have first of all to study it. Studying it, means that we do not try to teach it, we learn from it instead. We learn from this living organism, the child, its needs and tendencies. Only when we know the child’s needs can we begin to learn how to cater for them.’

While discussing patience as a habit, I made reference to the subject of knowledge. I stated that the strength of patience is confidence in the adopted method for child discipline. Confidence here is built on the foundation of knowledge acquisition. Dr. Montessori’s argument is very instructive. Our first attempt at child discipline must begin with understanding the child. When we understand the child, we will understand the method to be adopted to discipline him/her. The truth of the matter is that understanding the child is foundational to whatever method we want to apply.

There are three areas we must study, if we are going to be skilful in child discipline and development:

The first is child psychology: many are who engage in child discipline and development today, who know next to nothing about the child psychology and development. Psychology is defined as ‘the science that deals with mental processes and behaviour and the emotional and behavioural characteristics of an individual, group, or activity.’

The study of the child is an on-going process. How often do parents and teachers update their knowledge and skill in the area of child development and discipline?

The second is to understand the sociology of the environment in which the child is being raised: a lot of the custodians of the child do not know what it means to develop or train a child in the 21^st Century.  Sociology is defined as ‘the study of human social behaviour, especially the study of the origins, organization, institutions, and development of human society.’ Apart from understanding the psychology of the child, the custodians must understand the sociology of the society in which they raise their children.

Psychology is useless without sociology. As a matter of fact the foundation of psychology is sociology. I therefore make bold to say that any attempt to understand or address the psychology of a child without first taking time to understand or address the requisite subject of his/her past or immediate sociology will be an exercise in futility.

The third area to study is socialisation: the psychology of the child is a product of the sociology of his/her community through the process of socialisation. Socialisation means ‘the adoption of the behaviour patterns of the surrounding culture.’

Socialization is the ultimate responsibility of the custodians in the life of the life of the child. This requires knowledge, wisdom and skills. It is therefore the responsibility of the custodians of the child to understand and create an enabling environment for the child discipline and development. One of the highpoints of the Montessori Method of early child development is the creation of an enabling environment, which will help the child to bring out his/her God-given potentials. Once the environment is created, the custodians will only need to guide the child to maximize it (environment).

One major challenge in Africa about child discipline and development is that there are also many, who do not believe in what they know and do not care to apply same. They underrate the impact of their cultural leaning towards the child. Therefore their heads know what their heart does not accept. And once their hearts do not accept it, it will remain a knowledge their hands will never practice.

I conclude here by saying that when we understand the sociology of the environment in which the child is being raised, we will understand the psychology of the child and therefore understand how to apply discipline, aimed at child development. Have an INSPIRED Week.

Think the Child…Think Today…Think the Future…

POINT 2 PONDER:

‘Psychology is useless without sociology. As a matter of fact the foundation of psychology is sociology.’

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