Butterflies and Somersaults

change in a world that fears change

What is education if not the process of change? And what kind of change is it that we want to bring about? And is the education system bringing about the change that we want or need?

In a world that seems to be sinking ever deeper into a darker pit of hate, fear and division I try to keep hope by reflecting on one of the many reasons I wrote the Original Learning Approach - as a pedagogy of peace and justice.

I believe that it is through education that we can change the world - not as the system exists today, which is designed to prepare children to compete against each other and to see a hierarchy of grades and jobs from the lowest and least valued to the highest, and most valued - where sadly today early childhood education gets placed low down in this hierarchy because of a failure to value women, children (especially young children) and play. There is a failure to see just how important the early years are (despite science being able to prove the value) for every single human to evolve. Early childhood is when self identity is forming, language, sense of belonging which connects to self esteem and the ability to take risks… because change is about risk taking - learning is about risk taking - and if a child does not feel safe, and does not have that foundation of feeling safe and loved from early childhood, then the likelihood for them to feel brave-to-learn is reduced.

I also strongly believe that the school system has moulded the adult world through its systematic stripping of children/youth’s risk taking, in the form of curiosity, with the usage of standardised testing which results in teaching/learning the test rather than learning to discover or for joy. It means playing-it-safe and answering how you think the teacher/test wants you to answer rather than taking the creative chance of own opinions and interpretations - and a decade of that kind of behaving will re-wire your brain.

Despite the world saying it wants creative minds - the pedagogy is focused on compliancy.

So how do we bring about change, especially in those unwilling to change, or are fearful of change (without knowing they are)?

I think it has to be done in the same way as we teach children - unhurried. Which I think can be frustrating because some changes we want, we need, now - especially from a social justice point of view. But if we stress people, and take away their feeling of autonomy in their change process it frequently results in the brakes being put on, or walls being put up. Like the tortoise and the hare… being faster and more hurried, doesn’t necessarily mean we will reach the goal first - the goal being peace and justice for everyone.

So it’s like butterfly wings - small, small flutters that create big changes. For instance, my small decision to start writing a blog back in 2012 as a way to have a dialogue with myself (that others could read if they wanted) has ended up with me connecting with people all over the world, with writing books, working at Stockholm University, being a global consultant, my writings being used as texts at various different universities and colleges around the world - a small decision, that I very nearly didn’t do, has lead to something much bigger - it was not what I thought would happen when I wrote that first blogpost.

This is what we are in preschools - we are the butterflies fluttering with the experiences we offer, the words we use, the relationships we build and the joy we create - it also includes the bad experiences - we have so much power, which I think far too many fail to recognise, and fail to consider just how many years their words and actions impact the children in their care. While my daughters thrived at their preschool, the same space was not the same positive experience for my son - and their thoughts of him (and his struggles to self regulate his emotions) I can see left traces on how he self identified - a child less brave to learn because there was constant need to heal to feel safe and the constant fear of not being good enough. Learning requires bravery - for children and adults.

Occasionally their are somersaults of learning/change - where an experience is so profound that it radically changes the way you see things - we can have pedagogical somersaults too - where we change the way we teach/see teaching/learning.

Here is one of my, many, somersault stories…

My son, when he was very young, would always come to my bed in the middle of the night to snuggle up and sleep the rest of the night. Sometimes it would take a while for him to fall asleep and I would roll over to get comfortable… he would say “mummy, look at me” and so I would turn around and face him until he fell asleep again. This happened for years, and while I always turned round I could feel slight eye-roll sensation in my body, as it felt inconvenient or sometimes uncomfortable. One day he asked, “mummy, when you turn around do you still love me?” It was like a tsunami flooding in and violently wiping away any ideas of what I thought was going on and replacing it with his truth, his fear that my turning away from him signalled I no longer loved him. It was a complete somersault. I regained my “footing” (despite being snuggled up in bed) and told him that I always loved him, no matter what position or what direction I was in. For a few more years (he came to our bed for a LOOONG time) I could hear him murmur, “you are turning around to be comfortable, you still love me” and I would murmur back “yes, I will always love you”.

This taught me so much, not just about my son and myself, but about children and how they do not reveal all their fears to us, and that small requests and actions should always, always be met with kindness and curiosity - to find out what is going on - and this gentle and respectful way of meeting children, initially learned through a somersault, is now how I can act as a butterfly, to respond in a way that allows children to be brave enough to face whatever challenges they want to in the future.

The butterfly effect has plenty written on it… and there is no guarantee that our small actions will have an effect and what kind of effect - but I do believe that if we are fluttering small acts of goodness into the world, of sharing good practice with each other, of spreading joy - then we can increase the likelihood of the world following a path towards peace and justice. Because once on that path it is easier to take action - but as yet not everyone is even on that path, even if they want to be. Walking the talk is not always easy… and as I have written in my previous posts here in substack - there seems to be confusion around human values and how to teach them, live them and ensure that they positively impact everyone.

So this is my reminder to everyone. Share your

• good stories

• good practice

• good ideas

• mistakes and how you overcame them

• changes… and why you changed

Because they are like butterflies and somersaults - they make a difference. If you do share a story/photo/practice - why not use the hashtag #butterfliesandsomersaults and see if we can see the ripple?

Butterflies and Somersaults - by AI

https://thedecisionlab.com/reference-guide/economics/the-butterfly-effect

yes, this link is connected to economics, but I think it can still be useful to trigger our thinking within pedagogy.