No parent should be satisfied to have a child graduate from high school with the functioning abilities of a ten year old—yet two-thirds of all students do no better than that. How do our schools address the problem? They bore children, scare them, and overwhelm them with work...all in the name of education. When schools insist upon silence and restraint, they create passive learners who are rewarded for such accomplishments as sitting still in their seats for forty-five minutes.
As parents, we’ve thrown readiness out the window as we rush to begin academics as soon as a fetus has the beginnings of a brain. Dr. George Bouklas believes we can revolutionize education and its outcomes by teaching parents and educators to become facilitators instead of wardens. A Healing Education gives parents permission to advocate for their children, to insist that educators focus on exciting a child’s mind rather than subduing it. Too often, Bouklas contends, parents don’t demand better because some teachers make much of the horrors of youthful zest instead of using their skill to harness the energy. A Healing Education calls for an individualized approach to education offering structure, freedom, intellectualism, nurturing, and challenge as it is needed, when it is needed, and on whom it will be most effective. A Healing Education is a wake-up call for parents who cower in the presence of teachers and for teachers who don’t understand that there should be at least as much action and excitement in the classroom as there is in the halls and the playground.