Abstract
The human psyche has been colonized by existing industrialized-corporate-military-economic powers that push us away from connection. Today in high income nations like the USA, children grow up unnested and disconnected, not only from other people but from the natural world. Without nested companionship, children grow without the deep social bonding and nature connection characteristic of our ancestors. Instead, children learn to resonate with archetypal forms of abandonment, growing up dysregulated and disconnected, becoming more self-protective than open-minded or openhearted, unlike the adults from societies where our evolved nest is provided. Because our species-typical developmental system or nest is denied for most children, they grow up anxious, seeking remedies in addictions, including control or addictions. Virtue development is simultaneously thwarted. Many children in the USA arrive at school after a toxically stressful childhood with dysregulated neurobiologies (e.g., overreactive stress response) and underdeveloped sociality. Educators can help meet students’ needs for calmness, belonging, and connection by mimicking our ancestral context for raising healthy and happy children. In our ancestral context, humans are lovers of the earth, beauty and wholeness. Getting back to respect the other-than-humans is critical for ecological health. Ideas and efforts to educate for reconnection to nature are spreading.
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Notes
- 1.
The Evolved Developmental Niche (EDN) for human beings is only slightly different from their social mammalian line’s developmental system, which emerged between 20 and 40 million years ago. Humanity’s EDN includes soothing perinatal experiences, breastfeeding for several years, and throughout childhood: responsive relationships including with a set of alloparents, affectionate touch, positive climate, self-directed play, and nature connection (Hewlett & Lamb, 2005; Narvaez, 2014).
- 2.
The Indigenous worldview is one of two worldviews (Redfield, 1953). It considers the cosmos moral, connected, sacred and sentient whereas the dominant worldview considers the cosmos amoral, fragmented and disenchanted. The two worldviews hold contrasting assumptions which affect attitudes beliefs and behavior (Four Arrows & Narvaez, 2022).
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Narvaez, D. (2022). The Moral Education Needed Today: Decolonizing Childhood and Reconnecting Children. In: Webster, R.S., Airaksinen, T., Batra, P., Kozhevnikova, M. (eds) Humanizing Education in the 3rd Millennium. SpringerBriefs in Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1205-4_11
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