Why Forgiveness Education Matters
Do you see that 6-year-old over there? He lives with his mother. His father abandoned the family two years ago. His mother does not know it, but deep down in his heart, he is saying this about himself, “I’m not much. Dad left me and if I was more than ‘not much,’ he would still be here.”
As he grows to adolescence, this young man deepens his conviction that he is “not much” and now even believes that most people walking around on this planet are “not much.” Deep down in his heart, he is saying this about others, “There is too much hurt in this world. People are just mean. They are out for themselves. Even forgiveness is just an insincere move to keep a false peace….while we all walk around saying ‘no one is much.’”
How many children are heading toward this same set of conclusions about oneself and others? Too many.
Forgiveness education helps young children, as young as age 4, to know this truth: We all possess inherent worth. We all have built-in precious value that no one can take away from us….not even those who proclaim to us, “You’re not much.”
Through forgiveness education, the student learns this answer: “Not only am I of precious worth, but so are you, the one who wants to convince me that I am ‘not much.’”
The world needs forgiveness education so that we can rescue the young from these lies….and so that they can pick themselves up…..and others up…….and create a more peaceful world.
Robert
Every child on the planet has the right to forgiveness education. Therefore, every educator, and that includes parents, has an obligation to provide this forgiveness education to children. At the end of the day, would you prefer that the child’s mind be dispelled of errors in math or that the child’s heart be dispelled of hatred?? If math is required in schools, then all the more must forgiveness education be required.
Your point is wise, Samantha. Educators cannot defend their ignoring forgiveness education. Some of us are beginning to watch. Will they continue this serious omission to children’s education?
Schools are going to have to alter their thinking to incorporate this. The idea is so important. The huge requirements now in place for public schools stifle innovation and creativity. Look how the achievement in American schools has plummeted in recent years, and this is using tests that match the mindless irrelevancies taught in today’s state schools. It is time to re-think basic education and part of the basics must be forgiveness now.
Forgiveness education is something that can stay with a child for a lifetime. We so quickly forget the names, dates, and places from our history classes because, even if a basic principle applies to us today, those details do not. Forgiveness applies directly to each of us and thus this is the kind of education that is relevant for life itself.
I think school systems don’t even know that forgiveness education is here for them. I think it is a marketing thing. If good marketing could be brought to the decision makers, over and over, I think this movement will expand.
Let’s face it, anger is on the rise in schools. Look at the anti-bullying programs as one illustration of this. Too many students are the walking wounded because of emotional abuse, abandonment by a parent, and other of life’s challenges. These kinds of programs seem to me to be an answer to this growing problem of anger in schools.
I just read the guest blog about Laura and the horror she had to endure after the attack on her. Her story is strong support for forgiveness education. Just think of children already being equipped with the life-saving virtue of forgiveness before something so unfair happens to them. It is a way to keep them alive and, in Laura’s case, thriving as she writes beautiful poetry.