Vision For Our Future: Reimagining Childhood. Jinan KB.
Channel: Math 4 Wisdom
Date: 2023-04-04

"Vision for Our Future: Reimagining Childhood" by Jinan KB from Kerala, India

http://kbjinan.in/
http://ekfoundation.in/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC80rT8Zj1EE8TrzD3UreYfQ
http://www.re-cognition.org
https://independent.academia.edu/JinanKodapully

0:00 Exploring the crisis of modern human beings. As an engineering student, I wondered, Why are we only studying Western knowledge? Why can't I find people truly committed to learning as an existential quest? I resolved never to do what I did not want to do, never to have a 9-to-5 job.

1:30 Learning design was different. People were truly interested in learning. It was based not on teaching but experience. What is the software of learning? What makes certain places conducive to learning? Western aesthetic sense was being imparted. Beauty, knowledge and value are the three pillars of culture. The modern world is distorted by Western notions of beauty and knowledge. But beauty is contextual and biological, it is aptness in formation. Beauty does not disturb the way nature functions.

3:35 I began to work with indigenous, illiterate communities. I quickly learned the arrogance of teaching traditional craftsmen. Living with them changed my perception. Literates learn the word, illiterates learn the world. Literates are unnatural, artificial intelligence. Illiterates develop intelligence naturally. Literates are alienated from their bodies and surroundings, they create ecological crises.

6:25 Children are the most misunderstood beings in the modern world. They are born with absolute openness. This requires an environment of open space and freedom. Children turn any object into a toy, any activity into play.

8:00 Indigenous knowing is opposed to indigenous "knowledge".

9:40 Literacy began to mediate the relationship with the world.

13:05 I challenge modern science because it doesn't look at children as the point of exploration.

13:55 Consider four ways to study dogs: 1) Read a book. 2) Study pet dogs. 3) Study stray dogs. 4) Study natural dogs in the jungle.

15:00 Reconsider what is a child. The modern crisis is because of unnatural childhood. Schools and toys are crimes.  Allow children to explore the real world. This forms their brains to be capable, not incapable.

16:50 "Do Nothing" parenting workshops. Indigenous communities have no parenting. Parenting is a modern notion. 

17:30  I am not against literacy or digital tools but they need to be in their place or they will take over. I am creating a web portal for parents to come together and learn from each other and observation of their children.  Life coaching is a sign of alienation.  This web portal encourages the creation of an environment at home for freedom and equality.

19:00 Bring the kitchen to the floor, make food at home. Children will see processes, not products. The modern world is designed for masculine youth. Eliminate furniture so children can roam around.

20:20 I have documented thousands of children's activities. The framework, the grammar, the way of learning, the context do not change. I want to start a cognition lab to look at what free children do.

22:00 Reimagining childhood. I adopted a girl and followed three principles: Never say No. Always follow her (let her decide). Never lie to her. I learned this from the indigenous community. A child doesn't know anger. Anger stems from restriction and negation.

23:30 Let us rebuild the world from conditions for the child, the food we should be eating and the activities we should be doing.

23:55 The US is the biggest problem.  Reductionism occurred when we reduced the world to the written word. The first violence is the mind completely neglecting the body, overpowering and destroying it. In modernity, we only have masculinity. Literacy doesn't require femininity or sensitivity. Rationality. Modernity appropriates words and justifies them. Boredom. In the indigenous community nobody is bored.

27:45 Nobody taught us language consciously. It is not the ego but rather the whole body is functioning. Learning a second language becomes a mental activity. 

28:45 The root cause is our alienation from life. Indigenous people have conflicts but they don't carry them. Anthropologist Christoph von Fuerer-Haimendorf studied the Naga people. There was a fight between two tribes. The British called for a compromise. After about 30 minutes the people switched over to talking as friends. Children are like that. You may get angry but in a few minutes you forget it. This is human nature. But modernity subjects us to fear, tension, stress every day. Thus temporary qualities become permanent. 

31:20 The mind is continuously fooling the modern human. The term embodiment comes from the mind, not the body.

Publish your own "Vision for Our Future".  View the "Call for Essays"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx5As5hU0vY

Recorded on 2023.03.21 by Andrius Kulikauskas of Math 4 Wisdom http://www.math4wisdom.com

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