Question: Three times a week for half an hour, I teach children in one group and twice a week in another. We play unity, that we love each other, and they love this. But they will leave me in two years. Will it hurt them when they leave for the world where they are not liked much?

Answer: Don’t worry. It will be much easier in the world for a person who has received integral training. We think that we need to prepare children for our cruel world, so that they are ready for any problem. Don’t do that. On the contrary, these people suffer most of all. And if a person relates to everything softly, with the help of the upper Light, he creates a shell of security around himself.
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From the European Convention in Germany 3/23/13, Lesson 5

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Question: The children are our future and the world’s future. They work on connection by playing games, but sometimes they get tired of the connection games and say, “That’s it, enough! We want someone to finally win.” What can we do in situations like this?

Answer: It is a problem when someone in the group wants to win. It means that the game isn’t managed correctly. Of course, both grownups and children always wish to win. It is a psychological urge that exists in each of us to some extent. However, education is about teaching a child gradually to think that it is impossible to win alone but only together, and then a habit becomes a second nature.

This is psychology. This is how many groups around the world are trained, such as divers, athletes, and so on. It is psychological training. When a person understands that, even if he succeeds in something, it is still thanks to the group. So, this is something that must be learned. We can teach this to kids so that they will think, feel, and behave that way.

There is even a tragic example of a submarine that was sinking and half the crew could have saved themselves, but the other half could not. So, the first half refused to leave the submarine, and eventually they all died. They felt that they were so connected that they could not leave their friends!

This example shows to what extent the preparation for connection—for the feeling of “we” without which there is no “I”—is developed in a person.
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From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 2

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In the News (from Plan and the Overseas Development Institute): “Girls are bearing the brunt of the global economic recession – being more likely to experience poverty, reduced life expectancy and drop out of school, according to a new report from Plan and the Overseas Development Institute (ODI). …

“It says family poverty hits girls hardest – with only a 1% fall in GDP increasing infant mortality by 7.4 deaths per 1,000 girls versus 1.5 for boys.

“The findings also indicate that food shortages and malnutrition are more common among girls than boys. Women also reduce their own food consumption to become ‘shock absorbers’ for household security.

“As women go out to work longer hours for less money, more girls are pushed out of school and into filling the gaps at home with domestic work, into hazardous child labour or even transactional sex.”

My Comment: Integral education leads us to building a society of equals, providing everyone with basic needs, and everyone’s duty to participate in their own correction (education and upbringing). If we stop producing more than is essential for existence, we will get rid of unnecessary and harmful work and will be able to raise ourselves to the next level dictated by nature, the level of integral humanity.
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In the News (from GlobalScience.ru): “American psychologists are alarmed. Today’s kids increasingly abandon traditional toys in favor of computers; moreover, the process begins at a very early age. This trend is observed in all the developed countries and brings producers of traditional toys to ruin. Is it necessary to teach children to use computer technology so early, immersing them in the virtual world?

“Psychologists warn that happiness is in good communication with the child, spending time together with him, and therefore, they advise parents not to buy their way out of responsibilities with expensive toys, but to spend more time with children.”

My Comment: We have made our life so that we have no time for children; we push them towards computers. If it were not for the threat of the ruin of manufacturers and sellers of traditional toys, no one would have raised the issue. In integral education that Kabbalah offers, the main emphasis is on communication between children and discussions with the teacher, guided tours, and games; working with a computer is only supplementary.
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In the News (from Fox News): “ Nearly one-fourth of the students who try to join the U.S. Army fail its entrance exam, painting a grim picture of an education system that produces graduates who can’t answer basic math, science and reading questions. …

“The report by The Education Trust found that 23 percent of recent high school graduates don’t get the minimum score needed on the enlistment test to join any branch of the military. …

“The military exam results are also worrisome because the test is given to a limited pool of people: Pentagon data shows that 75 percent of those aged 17 to 24 don’t even qualify to take the test because they are physically unfit, have a criminal record or didn’t graduate high school. …

“The study shows wide disparities in scores among white and minority students, similar to racial gaps on other standardized tests. Nearly 40 percent of black students and 30 percent of Hispanics don’t pass, compared with 16 percent of whites. The average score for blacks is 38 and for Hispanics is 44, compared to whites’ average score of 55. …

“A Department of Defense report notes the military must recruit about 15 percent of youth, but only one-third are eligible. More high school graduates are going to college than in earlier decades, and about one-fourth are obese, making them medically ineligible.

My Comment: Nothing can be achieved by force. Integral upbringing must come first and education only in parallel with it. Otherwise, students will not study. And with integral education, they want this education themselves; this is what we see in our system. Integral upbringing uses the natural inclination of children and adults, not pressure and coercion.
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Question: Should a mother of young children make efforts to be physically present at the convention?

Answer: I would recommend that women with young children not attend the general convention, but take part in the mirror congresses, which are held locally, in the same city, so that they can get home in an hour and a half.

If you have very small children, then it is better for a few women to unite at someone’s home, not tearing themselves away from the children; otherwise, they would feel restless at heart so it isn’t worth risking that. If children are the age that they can be looked after by a husband or family member, it is another matter.

You should not come to the convention at any cost. We will organize such gatherings, and you will have an opportunity to participate in them because by that time the children will grow up a bit.
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From the Virtual Lesson 1/6/13

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In the News (from Iowa State University): “The Media Violence Commission’s research-based report concludes that the research clearly shows that media violence consumption increases the relative risk of aggression, defined as intentional harm to another person that could be verbal, relational, or physical. …

“In their report, the commission wrote that aside from being sources of imitation, violent images — such as scenes in movies, games or pictures in comic books — act as triggers for activating aggressive thoughts and feelings already stored in memory. If these aggressive thoughts and feelings are activated over and over again because of repeated exposure to media violence, they become chronically accessible, and thus more likely to influence behavior. …

“While most public policy has focused on restricting children’s access to violent media, the commission found that approach to have significant political and legal challenges in many countries. For that reason, it recommends putting efforts into improving media ratings, classifications, and public education about the effects of media on children.

“‘Improving media ratings really has two pieces. One is that the media ratings themselves need to be done by an independent entity — meaning, not by an industry-influenced or controlled system,’ said Anderson, himself a leading researcher of the effects of violent media on children. ‘They need to be ratings that have some scientific validity to them.’”

My Comment: Since these media are beneficial to many, it is much more difficult to ban them in our society than smoking. The environment forms a child, but even parents cannot talk in the organized manner against the media that destroy their children and all the efforts of parents to instill good education. Are WHO and UNESCO opposed to these media? Did anyone put forward such proposals in the UN? There is one answer—we cannot resist such media because we ourselves are no different!

According to Kabbalah, a person never commits his own acts, but only what society, his surroundings, his environment, dictate to him. That is why by choosing the environment, a person completely determines his actions, which are the result of the influence of the environment. That is, one can determine his actions only through the environment in which he exists. And his free will is only in choosing the environment. (See Baal HaSulam, “Freedom of Will”)
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In the News (from Espanarusa):“Education Coordinator of the Super-Parents organization appealed to Spanish parents with advice about how to tell a child about a difficult economic situation; it is important to avoid transmitting anxiety and fear, to explain that not only material benefits bring happiness. …

“Children need to understand that the crisis limits Christmas gifts. The child must feel surrounded by parental love and understand that whether he receives many or few presents, he, in any case is loved very much.”

My Comment: That’s right, due to the crisis, parents’ attention and love will be returned to children!
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I mourn all the victims, and more so than anyone else because I feel like an accomplice, guilty of what has happened. After all, this act is a consequence of our indifference to how our children grow up and to the fact that they become violent killers … We are to blame; the education system, a lack of upbringing is to blame. When will we understand that children should not only be taught to read and write, but that we should also make human beings out of them, raise them? The lack of integral education will be manifested more and more, but how many more similar cases need to happen before we begin to act! [95551]

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In the News (from DailyMail): “New research has shown how positive social relationships in childhood and adolescence are key to adult well-being, while academic achievement has little effect.

“Scientists do not know much about how aspects of childhood and adolescent development – such as academic and social-emotional function – affect adult well-being.

“They define well-being as a mixture of sense of coherence, positive coping strategies, social engagement and self-perceived strengths. …

“Results showed there is a strong pathway from child and teen social connectedness to adult well-being – showing the significance of positive social relationships over the lifespan to adulthood.”

My Comment: Happiness is in connection with the environment, in harmony with the world. Who needs research! The world must change, or rather we change it, and we will become happy, we and not those who dictate us today from what we have to be happy…
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