D  e  s  e  r  t     E  x  p  o  s  u  r  e      january 2005

Into the Future: And a Child Shall Lead Them...

Finding the way into the future--with the 4-H Club.

Ever since I became a grandma a few short months ago, I find myself watching children a lot. They are teaching me--again. Having most recently come from Source/God/Creator, children are great teachers because they haven't picked up much earth baggage. . . yet. Their auras are clear and clean and their minds less brain-washed.

Apart from my grandbaby (who is of course the most incredible baby in the universe), there are some kids between 7-14, born and raised in Grant County, who have caused me to re-think a belief or two.

Grant County Fair has been over for a while by the time you read this, but it was there that I was stopped dead in my tracks by the talent of our youngsters. Robert Pack did a pastel of a bouquet of roses worthy of any high-class gallery, Silver City or elsewhere. His sister, Serena, had entries in every competition including the horse show, (where she won "Best of Show"), bead work and a discourse on Araconda chickens. As anyone who has been to the fair in Cliff knows, the level of competition is high.

Now, to set the perspective straight, I'm city-born and -bred. My kids were raised in several large cities and educated in a few different countries, which I justified as beneficial to making them global citizens. Now I'm thinking that the 4-H club (where country kids have been learning the fine art of living for over 100 years) may help children to cope with the necessities of living on the planet better than most of the venues my children--the global citizens--experienced. In fact, what I saw at the county fair put my vegetarian, meditating, world-traveling youngsters to shame, in terms of sheer all-around competence.

The incredible talent on display at the Grant County Fair results from a combination of the 4-H Club and parental/care-giver involvement. Parents hand over the genes, care-givers hopefully offer love and attention, but it's, dare-I-say, "institutions" like the 4-H Club that offer optimal environments for learning.

You probably know 4-H stands for Head, Heart, Hands and Health. Their Web site (www.4-H.org) is a wealth of information, including a statement that confirms what I always suspected--that children are, in fact, our teachers: "Researchers at experiment stations of the land-grant college system and USDA saw that adults in the farming community did not readily accept new agricultural discoveries. But educators found that youth would 'experiment' with these new ideas and then share their experiences and successes with the adults. So rural youth programs became a way to introduce new agriculture technology to the adults."

Always the children will bring us into the future--kicking and screaming maybe, but we can be assured that it is children who lead us into places where we wouldn't normally go! They keep life moving in more ways than one.

The following fact from the 4-H Web site was news to me--the big city know-it-all: "In 1948, 4-H began a program of out-of-state trips and international exchanges, and extended itself into urban areas in the 1950s." If I'd known 4-H was in Toronto, I would have begged my dad to let me raise a horse in my backyard. I can already see how the garage would have made a great barn.

The 4-H concept is brilliant and pragmatic. The Head is for thinking critically and solving problems. The Heart represents respecting self, others and the environment and communicating. The Hands prepare one for a career and serving others, while Health means "choosing healthy lifestyles and managing change and challenges." They surely have their work cut out for them in today's world.

Children are the result of the biological imperative to perpetuate the species. They have their own trail to travel, carrying on their backs all our hopes and dreams.
I don't want to wax poetic about "perfect" kids because there really is no such creature except in a parent's mind. Good parenting is damn hard work. (My Teacher used to say "parent = pay-the-rent.") It requires, above all, a lot of time--which may be the key difference between a kid who succeeds and one who struggles. There's absolutely no excelling in a given sport or musical endeavor without hours and hours of dedicated practice. And without the support of the parents, grandparents or other caregivers, there is no way for a child to explore a talent, let alone perfect a skill.

There are enough poor examples of parenting and caregiving, made obvious by the many troubled teens all over the country. But I've also seen enough of over-parenting zeal to want to vomit. Flash cards so six-month-olds can get a head start on school. Potty-trained, one-year old wunderkind. College prep for seven-year-olds.

There's got to be some kind of balance between the fanatical, controlling parents and the parents whose kids sit in the car while they play the slot machines. My conclusion is that the 4-H Club is that kind of balance, providing opportunities for children to excel at whatever God-given talents they have. The children I saw at the Grant County Fair were busy creating their own lives--not tagging along as appendages to their parents' lives.

It may be argued that a fair portion of Robert and Serena Pack's talent is a direct infusion of artistic genes, their mother and grandmother being local, award-winning artists. In today's world, however, offering our children opportunities to find their own voice, create their own path, or express their unique individuality is one of the greatest gifts we can give them.

As for the 4-H Oath:

"I pledge. . .
My head to clearer thinking
My heart to greater loyalty
My hands to larger service and
My health to better living
For my club, my community, my country and my world. "

What more could we possibly want from our children in this crazed world we call home?

Siri Dharma writes Into the Future regularly for Desert Exposure.

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