Hans Henrik Knoop

Contents
Preface
Chapter 1: Our great adventure

· We are beginning to understand our own history

· Universal principles of development: spontaneous self-organization and complexity growth

· Cultural evolution

· The development of the individual

· The world’s most advanced network: the human brain

· The triune structure of the brain

· The reptilian brain

· The limbic system

· The neocortex

· The human need for meaning and understanding

· Creative tension and problem-solving skills

· Intrinsic motivation: flow—enjoying life through learning

· Learning on the edge of chaos

· The basic principles of learning

  Chapter 2: The child’s journey into being

· The development of the brain during childhood

· Neural windows for privileged learning

· Mental development in childhood

· The emotional basis: entering the world—and feeling at home there

· The intellectual basis: a competent child

· What a child learns and when

· Rich concepts make us strong

· Can children be creative? 

· Good playing is good learning

· Constructing the inner world by constructing the world outside

· General principles of healthy learning environments

· Challenging scenarios with ideas for parents

· Concluding remarks on the scenarios

· Special requirements for learning environments for children ages 0-5

· A humane learning environment

· The story of our lives

· Living, learning and creating

References

From the Preface

This book is intended to provide ideas, inspiration and useful information for all who are concerned with children’s learning, development and well-being, whether as parents or in other roles. It provides a clear and up-to-date overview of current knowledge about child development, and it contains a wide range of ideas for parents and educators on how best to create stimulating learning environments for children.

Most of us automatically associate childhood with play more than anything else. Children play as often as they can; play is fun. Many of our happiest memories of childhood are based on experiences involving play. It is what children prefer to do above all else, because play contains in its very foundation all the most important elements that allow children to learn, to enjoy life, and thus to become stronger. For the same reason, play will normally be an experience for children, in which they are completely captivated in and by their activity, while trying always to enrich it by introducing new elements and increasingly demanding challenges. This applies irrespective of whether the activity is sensory-motor play, fantasy play or rule-based play.

Our knowledge about children, and indeed about human beings in general, has expanded enormously over the past few decades. In consequence, many of our traditional ideas about what is good for children, and how they can best be brought up to be happy and well-balanced individuals, have had to be drastically revised. For example, we now know that human beings are naturally motivated to learn to a far greater degree than we once thought, and consequently that learning is not something we need to force children to do, but rather something that comes naturally to them. We have also discovered that effective learning depends on having a much more flexible and varied learning environment than we previously thought necessary. These discoveries, taken together with the knowledge obtained from recent research into the workings of the brain, have led to a true paradigm shift in our ideas and practice with respect to learning and learning environments…Through the three main chapters of the book it is shown how we have gained a thorough understanding of children’s learning and development, and about the necessary frames for it. Chapter 1 begins by surveying the background to our knowledge and new understanding of children and their world. First, there is an outline of cosmic evolution and the primary forces that drive the development of the universe. There follows a presentation of human biological evolution—the process which, for better or worse, has made mankind the totally dominant species on earth in the space of only 200,000 generations or so. This includes an examination of the evolution of the human brain, and of the consequent process of cultural evolution that has taken place over the past 30-40,000 years. It is this cultural evolution which has produced human civilizations and given rise to all our present knowledge and technology. On this background general principles for learning, well-being, and development are presented. Chapter 2 examines the forces and emotions that motivate our children, and looks at the basic processes of their learning, thinking and development. Finally, Chapter 3 considers the implications of the points covered in Chapters 1 and 2 for raising children. Many concrete ideas are presented for improving the learning environments aiming to help children growing into ever stronger and more harmonious individuals.

The book can be used as a reference guide, but can also be read from beginning to end as a modern story of children’s needs and possibilities. As the content is both essential and broadly relevant we hope that it will find its way to many readers among parents and professionals across cultures and societies. As we shall see, our children can and will most likely contribute to building a peaceful and prosperous future for themselves and others, if we can but give them the means of constructing harmonious inner and outer worlds during their early years. It is our sincere wish that this book may serve as a contribution in this endeavor.

Values and creativity are two sides of the same coin for human civilization. Values form the essence of a set of priorities chosen by society, and creativity is the concrete result of the realization of these values. Psychologists even speak of two different types of creativity, both linked to our ability to live our lives according to our values. This is illustrated in the model below, which shows how individuals are motivated by the tension caused by the discrepancy between their current situation and the situation which, on the basis of their values, they would like to be in.

A mistake is an event, the full benefit of which has not yet been turned to our advantage.

Or in the words that float across IT guru Ester Dyson’s computer screen when it is not in use:

Make new mistakes!

The word “new” is underlined to emphasize that we should not make the same mistake twice. If we do, it means that we did not learn anything when we made the mistake the first time.

These maxims clearly have their limitations, but they do express an essential truth about human development. If we were to teach these maxims to our children, we might reformulate them as follows:

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, as long as they don’t endanger your health or that of anyone else. For this is how you learn and create things that you would otherwise miss out on.

Creative tension is a form of extrinsic motivation, to the extent that we work to realize our values in the future. Yet life would feel strangely empty if we were not rewarded along the way, if the process of working toward our aims were not in itself enjoyable and worth experiencing for its own sake—which, fortunately, it is to a great extent when we take on meaningful projects.

Nature has equipped us with a special type of biological feedback that rewards appropriate activity, i.e. activity that serves to ensure our survival. For modern human beings, this is largely a question of effective learning, and we are thus rewarded with enjoyment when we learn effectively. Learning processes can thus be said to be intrinsically motivated – meaning that they are goals in themselves. They are, of course, often extrinsically motivated as well, but they do not necessarily need to be as in the case of computer games where children play for the “mere fun of it”. When we release creative tension, realize ourselves, are true to ourselves—or however we may choose to put it—we are motivated both extrinsically and intrinsically, in that we both realize a higher purpose and learn effectively along the way. As a consequence, we experience deep satisfaction by realizing ourselves through taking part in meaningful activities [1] . Over the past thirty years, this feeling of deep satisfaction has been investigated very thoroughly, and we will now examine some of the most important conclusions of this work.

Intrinsic motivation: flow—enjoying life through learning

One of the most important driving forces in the development of both children and adults is the positive feelings with which the body rewards us when we learn something important. The body uses positive feelings to help encourage us to learn what is important for us, since effective learning has been aiding us in our struggle to survive ever since the Stone Ages. One of the most important of these feelings is sometimes referred to as flow. Flow is a condition in which we are completely engrossed in a game or task, lose our sense of time and place, and utilize our learning potential to the fullest. Model 5 is a graphic representation of the flow principle.

The model illustrates how we arrive at the condition of flow when our competence and the challenge we face are in balance with each other. The model also shows how a lack of challenge leads to boredom and how being faced with challenges that are too great creates anxiety. The model also shows how our personalities become more complex (competent) as a result of our experiencing flow (high-point experiences / high quality of life). If a person is in an A1 or A4 state, the person’s competence and challenges are in harmony. If the challenges are greater than the competence (A3), the child will experience anxiety and will be pressured to acquire skills in order to achieve the A4 state. In theory, the person could also attempt to move back to state A1, but in practice it is difficult to ignore meaningful challenges (such as the need to be able to read, for example) once the person has become aware of them. When the level of competence is higher than that of the challenge (A2), the person will become bored and will seek greater challenges, in order once again to achieve the A4 state. In this case it would be meaningless to try to return to A1, as this would imply ignoring or unlearning skills already acquired, which would of course be pointless. It is worth noting, however, that narcotics—which are frequently used to escape boredom—actually can effect a type of ignoring of competence (marijuana, for example, inhibits memory and motor skills considerably). It is extremely important to understand that there is a close connection between learning and flow. This can be illustrated clearly by comparing answers to two central questions.

If you ask people when they feel they are able to learn most effectively, very few will answer that they find boredom instructive in the long run. Likewise, few people would claim that being in a state of anxiety enhances their ability to learn, except over a very short period of time. The overwhelming majority will tell of successful learning experiences during which they were sufficiently challenged by a subject that really meant something to them. Thus, the state of flow arises when we  realize our dreams and ideals in an environment that enables us to become fully involved in a game or task that neither bores us nor creates anxiety.

If we were then to shift our focus and ask when a person enjoys life most, we would find a similar pattern to the answers as with the previous question. Relatively few people would report that they enjoy life when they are bored, nor would many claim to enjoy living in a state of anxiety. The vast majority would say that they are happiest when they are doing something interesting that is neither too easy nor too difficult. By comparing these two factors, we are naturally drawn towards the conclusion that enjoyment and learning are two sides of the same coin. We can see how both children and adults appear to be happiest when they are learning most effectively, and we can even go so far as to assert that “effective learning is experienced as playful” – where “play” is considered broadly as the preferred mode of human being. Effective learning is what takes place when children and adults are genuinely engaged in something, when they are doing something they really desire to do.

As we saw in the section about the development of complexity, children are dependent on learning effectively and experiencing joy in life right from birth. For the most part, they are constantly in a state of flow, unless something interferes with this. If they experience anxiety, they will quickly try to find their parents or cry so that an adult will know they need help. If they are bored, they will soon grow restless and seek out greater stimulation. Both anxiety and boredom are alarm signals, letting us know that our existence is threatened unless we alter our behavior. It is crucial for us to heed these signals and to make sure that we return to a state of mental balance. Unfortunately, we do not always do this, as we often doubt that it can be done without paying too high a price. If, for example, a child is bored at home and tells her parents that she wants to “do something,” and they reply again and again that they do not have time, and if the child is not able to initiate any meaningful activities in the house herself, she will either seek stimulation outside the home or attempt to relieve her boredom by eating or through entertainment—watching television, for example. If the child is anxious and does not feel that the adults around her are able to help, this will often give rise to some form of primitive thinking, which serves as a defense against the internal deterioration of which the anxiety is a symptom. However, fleeing, seeking entertainment and attempting to defend oneself are not particularly helpful responses, as they do not involve any optimal form of learning, and they are not especially enjoyable. Fleeing is, by definition, something that one would rather not have to do. Being entertained can be amusing for short periods, but the role as passive observer quickly loses its appeal, and this role is, in the end, the essence of an unsuccessful life, in that it deprives those who adopt it excessively of their worth to others. Striking a defensive position is not especially pleasant either, since it forces those who do so to devote a large portion of their mental energy and attention to preventing development, with the natural consequence that development is delayed.

Since fleeing, seeking entertainment (fleeing mentally) and defensive behavior are not optimal states, the limbic system responds with a sense of displeasure. The only sensible thing to do is to respect this emotional reaction and to learn from it. The worst thing we can do is to try and numb it with intoxicants, even if these might seem enjoyable once in a while. A person who tries to drink away his problems only makes them worse. Smoking marijuana to relieve boredom certainly inhibits development, since next to nothing is learned while under the influence of this drug. Many who use it cannot even remember what they did the day before, while they are under its influence. Intoxicants that are used to numb the senses end up inhibiting personal development.

One could say, on the other hand, that the process of flow results in one of life’s natural “highs.” The brain uses electrochemistry to reward itself for doing good work—for truly leaning and creating and thus helping the organism to survive, not just in a raw Stone-Age natural sense, but also in the society of the Information Age, where the sheer volume of information we encounter requires us to be in a state of constant learning. To summarize, we might put it this way: We have most fun, learn the most and are most creative when what we are doing is just difficult enough, because in this situation our entire being understands how to achieve its goals. These goals include developing competence, vitality and complexity—and our brains react with positive emotional feedback, to encourage us to continue doing this.

General principles for healthy learning environments

This book is based on two universal development principles: the tendency to spontaneous self-organization, and the tendency to complexity growth. We have seen how the human body in general, and especially the brain, works according to these principles by continuously striving for survival, comfort and mental order. We also described how learning environments in the home, the day-care center, the kindergarten or the school can be designed with no regard for these principles, with a subsequent high risk that learning will be hampered. When designing learning environments for children, young people or adults, it is obviously sensible to take these factors into consideration by trying, as far as possible, to optimize the opportunities for self-organization and the conditions for personal development through meeting meaningful challenges. The following sections list a number of concrete points to bear in mind in this context.

Firstly, we recommend a series of general principles for the design of learning environments, principles born of our need for freedom and growth and directly related to the points discussed in the previous sections of this chapter. These principles highlight different aspects of optimal learning environments for children. They overlap to an extent, and are mutually concordant, with the result that together they provide an impression of what constitutes a good environment for growing up and learning. The principles are:

1. Design the environment to allow the greatest degree of self-organization and complexity growth. To repeat the most important point: The overriding principle for child-rearing is to follow the child’s fundamental joie de vivre as expressed through his or her need to learn (internal construction) and his or her need to contribute to the development of the world (external construction). We should create learning environments that provide increasingly complex challenges for children, which give children the best possible opportunities for independence, and which are characterized by security, love and care. 

2. Design the environment with clear expectations that everyone will learn what is necessary and meaningful, and will contribute something of value to the community. This is a concrete expression of the fact that we both want and need a balance between the needs of the individual and the needs of the community in everything that we do. This balance can be developed by basing the community on fundamental respect for the individual combined with an expectation and recognition that the individual does have something to contribute. Children should feel that they have the opportunity to achieve a great deal in life, and that they are needed.

3. Design the environment to support the development of our intellectual, emotional, social and moral characteristics by building on our fundamental need for mutual support through the following sub-principles [2] :

· There should be active participation in increasingly complex interaction with people, objects and symbols present in the immediate environment.

· In order to be effective, this interaction must be on a reasonably regular basis over a long period of time, and must be with people with whom we develop strong, mutual, non-rational bonds, and for whom over time (preferably a lifetime) we come to feel ever greater responsibility.

· This kind of lasting form of interaction in the immediate environment is sometimes referred to as proximal processes—interrelated and ongoing processes—a term used to emphasize the fact that learning never takes place in a vacuum, never in isolation. Everything we learn is learned in connection with someone or something and against the background of what we already know.

· Proximal processes should be seen as the primary driving force behind human development, since they involve a union of thought and action in an environment which we can understand and which allows us to perceive the consequences of our actions. Quite obviously, childhood normally is the best period of a person’s life in which to experience proximal processes. 

4. Design the environment to make it attractive and supportive to the learner. This principle is largely implicit in what has already been said, but it is important to emphasize that we do not simply grow because we have something inside us that drives us forward, but also because we are attracted by people and things which we wish to approach in one way or another. For example, adults who appear interesting and who are driven by their own curiosity, energy and care are about the best inspiration that a child can have.

5. Infuse the environment with creative tension and opportunities for active problem-solving in an atmosphere which is positive. People need meaning in what they do and work for, as well as in their communication with each other. In order to satisfy this double need for meaning, it is essential to have an a clear overview of the future related to the work we are doing, and also to experience and enjoy a feeling of success in the work. This requires a certain level of direction and a degree of procedural flexibility in everyday life. In this respect, it is important to continue to develop a realistic understanding of the world and one’s own life, while simultaneously working to develop ideals and ambitions. This can be achieved through dialogues, discussions and joint projects. An important additional skill, and one which may need specific, separate practice, is problem-solving. The reason for this is that encountering problems often hinders development. This is particularly unfortunate because major development potential is usually inextricably linked to encounters with problems.

6. Design the environment so that it both challenges and supports, by ensuring that everyday life contains both obstacles and aids. In particular, it is important to balance non-competitive dialogue for the development of ideas with competitive discussion for the selection of ideas. Naturally, the challenges must not involve too high an element of risk—either emotional or physical—even though there can never be complete safety.  

7. Design the environment so as to allow the individual to build on his or her strengths while minimizing the effects of his or her weaknesses. Throughout our lives, we develop preferences and aversions. The things we prefer and those we detest are often closely linked to what we are good at and what we are not. To make use of a person’s positive energy, it is therefore often a good idea to build on such personal strengths, and, if necessary, to use these as resources to eradicate weaknesses. This applies in particular to early life when children are especially depending on effective learning, and where learning experiences may have longer lasting effects, for better or worse.

8. Design the environment to allow easy access to necessary, high-quality information. We always need information, irrespective of what project we are working on. In this respect, it is essential to have an infrastructure that provides the shortest possible route to the information required. There is nothing quite as dreary as waiting for a large file to download or having to wait for someone else to finish using something you need when you cannot make any progress without the item in question. Of course, it is impossible to avoid waiting altogether, but intelligent organization of the learning environment can often significantly limit the time wasted in waiting. Children are particularly impatient and are therefore very dependent on a flexible and efficient information infrastructure.  

9. Design the environment to support flow by ensuring that there are [3] :

· Concrete goals that provide direction without imposing restrictions.

· Manageable rules that create a safe framework for free expression.

· Ways of matching challenges to competence so as to prevent anxiety and boredom.

· Clear information about how well the person is doing so that people can follow their own development and maintain control over events.

· No distracting factors so that it is possible to concentrate on one thing at a time. This ensures the highest quality of both the process and the product.

10. Take the brain into account in designing the environment by ensuring that there is [4] :

· The opportunity for coherent concentration where the learner can become completely immersed in purposeful learning.

· An atmosphere of security and attention without fear, anxiety or disorder, linked always to an appropriate level of challenge.

· Active work that makes it possible to use meaningful and useful information and to consolidate it through repetition.

On the basis of these principles, the following sections will present concrete examples of what good learning environments for children can be like. For the sake of clarity, each principle is illustrated by a single example, i.e. Example 1 refers to Principle 1, and so on. The examples have been selected as typical scenarios in modern families and institutions.

Example 9: An environment that supports the experience of flow

Scenario:

A 5-year-old boy wants to help his father to put up boards on the side of a new tool-shed in the yard. The father tells him what to do, but when he starts to hammer the nails in, he quickly loses interest. The father tries to encourage him to continue, but soon becomes irritated over the boy’s lack of concentration on the work. The boy then loses all interest in helping—and thus loses an opportunity to learn a good deal while spending some quality time with his father.  

What can the father do?

For the boy’s active participation in the construction it is important that each of the criteria for experiencing flow, as listed below, are met. A flow-supporting environment that holds active enjoyment, and thus reinforces interest, is typically characterized by clear goals and rules for conducting the activity, balance between challenges and skills, immediate feedback on performance and the possibility to concentrate on the task. Thus the father may consider whether the activity honors these criteria.

Does the boy have any idea of why the tool-shed is being built? Does the boy have any expectations of getting something out of the shed for himself, which would make him more motivated to join in the work? Does the boy feel that he is making a meaningful contribution to the building process, or does the way the father talks to him make him feel that he is just getting in the way?

If the boy understands why the shed is being built, and he experiences to play an important role in the construction, it seems that the goal is relatively clear. Then it is important that the boy knows the “rules” for hammering in nails (how to hold the hammer correctly, etc.) which will enable him to control his own working process fairly well. If he knows what to do, he should experience being good at hammering nails in, and he should become better and better at this (clear feedback on own progress). Naturally, it is good if he can see for himself that he is doing a good job, but it will certainly help if the father praises him for his work also. Be careful not to provide too much negative criticism, as this can discourage the child from taking part in the activity. Positive criticism is the most effective kind of feedback for promoting a specific kind of behavior, and a specific mental attitude. If all these conditions are present, then all that the father will need to do is to ensure that nothing happens to disrupt the work (maintain concentration). If he can do this, the tool-shed should soon be finished—built by father and son together.

Other important considerations in relation to this scenario:

As we have seen, an activity can be sufficiently joyful in itself to be pursued, hovewer, it is always extra motivating if there is also some higher meaning or purpose  to what we do. Clearly the latter is the case here where the family acquires a shed to store tools, and where the boy may be allowed to play.

Modern society is extremely loaded with information, in part because various media continuously struggle for our attention, thereby making us buy something we didn’t ask for initially. As an example, we are said to be exposed to 3.000 advertisements a day. Many of these distract us more or less, as they turn our attention away from what we actively are doing. Often they also confuse us, as they offer a world of “goals” as alternatives to those we already aim at. As such, there are traits in our time that clearly do not support flow very well. Furthermore, we may indicate the risk of this information bombardment inducing more or less permanent mental information-overload, which makes things even worse, as we tend to perform worse when anxious. Children who, from an early age experience a hectic, information stuffed daily life may develop various strategies to master this situation. One extreme strategy may be cynicism where the child avoids involvement in the social environment, that is the life of others. Another, contrary, extreme strategy can be subjection (voluntary outer locus of control) where the child, like a puppet, accepts being led by other dominating persons in the environment, thereby continuously fluctuating with the shifting “trends”. It goes without saying that the most adequate strategy balances between these extremes, as is the case when the child develops the feeling of deep, social attachment and self-dependence (voluntary inner locus of control). Nothing is more important than helping children finding and maintaining this balance.

Questions to reflect upon: 

Do you give children opportunities to experience flow? Do the activities have reasonably clear goals and rules? Are they normally sufficiently challenging? Do you use boredom creatively—as a signal that children want to create and learn more? Do you tackle situations that involve excessive challenges in a way that will ensure that children will still want to take on new challenges? Do the children have the opportunity to evaluate how well they are learning, and how close they are to achieving their goals? Are you good at praising children without this giving them the impression that your evaluation is more important than their own? Is it possible to concentrate on individual activities in your environment, or are there often unwanted interruptions?

…The great story on which this book is based is the story of a world that is ever growing and becoming more varied—a world in which we are all striving for a life of security and challenge, and to which we all want to make a creative contribution. Every child born is special, born to develop in a special way, and to make a special contribution. Children’s creative learning processes are the means by which they come to be able to understand themselves, to interact socially and to make a valuable contribution. Therefore, we must do everything in our power to ensure that children grow up in an atmosphere of learning and creativity. In this book, we have attempted to summarize essential knowledge about how to carry out this task.

Research into the brain has given us the insight that much of what we have previously done with the aim of helping people to learn has in fact hindered them from doing so. One fundamentally mistaken assumption about learning has been that people are born passive—that we would rather not act unless we have to. The exact opposite clearly applies to healthy, alert people. Like all other living organisms, people are driven by a force for “spontaneous self-organization, personal growth and adaptation to the environment.” In plain English, this means that people want as much freedom as possible, full control over their lives and personal growth throughout their lifetimes. As such, under appropriate conditions, people maintain their natural curiosity and initiative throughout their lives.

Children are born with a desire to learn by constructing internal mental maps and to contribute by constructing their external world. This construction and engineering-oriented approach to existence lasts a lifetime if we are fortunate with the families, circles of friends, institutions, workplaces, communities and countries that surround us. In this context, “fortunate” simply means that these environments should be supportive of our human nature by allowing room for individuals to develop through ever-increasing understanding of themselves and their surroundings, and enabling individuals to make meaningful, personal contributions to this environment. In a bit more technical terms, we have stated that harmonious people and harmonious environments are complex—i.e. they contain a large or small number of elements or parts that work well together.

Complexity at the personal level may imply a large variety of details and experiences over which a person maintains an overview, and which combine to form a detailed but coherent mental map of the world that the person can use for orientation. The better this world map is—i.e. the more competent the person is—the better are the chances of this person being able to realize his or her dreams and ideals. Complexity within the family may imply parents and children who develop in very different ways and at different speeds, but who maintain deep-seated respect for each other’s differences and therefore experience a rich and interesting family life. Complexity in the school or at the workplace may imply students or teachers who have sufficient freedom to develop personally and to specialize, but who still understand that the precondition for this freedom is the ability of every individual to contribute meaningfully to the community by identifying with and taking responsibility for the aims of the school. “Freedom with responsibility” is quite simply the most effective principle of leadership known to man—a principle that applies equally to children and adults.

Despite the fact that these ideals appear self-evident, it is, as we have intimated, worth noting how seldom we manage to live up to them. Looking back over the past 150 years, we see a long series of erroneous views about our learning and development. It is hardly surprising to note that these views have effectively hindered much human development. We have shown how it has long been assumed that “we are born lazy,” which has led to the development of a wide range of means intended to force people to get moving. These have of course inflicted a great amount of damage on people, who are naturally designed for self-controlled action. We have assumed that “children must learn that they will be bored,” which is equivalent to training the body to ignore the alarm signals that tell it that it is about to lose out in competition with others who are not bored—others who therefore develop better. We have assumed that we “learn from our painful mistakes,” even though there are strong limits to how much pain we can tolerate—or to how much “opposition makes us stronger.” Long-term, anxiety-arousing opposition breaks down both body and spirit. We have assumed that “children play in kindergarten” and “learn in school,” even though almost half of what people learn during their lifetimes is learned before they start school. We have assumed that “playing and learning are two different things” even though we in fact learn most effectively when learning is “child’s play”, and we enjoy play most when it is really rich on learning. We have assumed that “work and enjoyment are two different things” even though it has been proved that we work best “when our heart is in it” or when the work is done in a playful way. And there are many other examples of how our assumptions about human nature have been way off the mark. 

Living, learning and creating

We belong in the universe. Every one of our cells is made up of atoms that were created in stars over a period of billions of years. Children are born into this world carrying the history of the universe in every one of their cells. Children are driven by universal forces, forces that make them curious, make them hunger, and define their need for love and their desire to influence the world in a personal way. This is the way it has been throughout the history of mankind. It is nothing new. What is new is that we are beginning to understand it—that we are learning to understand our own history.

When new knowledge is discovered, at least two things always happen. First, this knowledge creates instability, as it challenges accepted assumptions. Second, it creates stability, as it contributes to making a more complete overview. Our children depend on both these aspects. They cannot live without constantly developing, and their endless curiosity is the visible proof of how important and fun the right amount of “inner disturbance” is to them. However, they cannot live without the order and stability that is made up of their mental map, their physical surroundings and their social relationships. Their needs for attachment, love and care are absolute.

Creating a stable framework for continuous learning and well-being in the family, at the day-care center, in the kindergarten, and at school is of fundamental importance if we want to see our children get a good start in life and feel good in their world—and human beings who feel good in the world will probably also take good care of it.