The Dialogue Between "World" and "Person": Grounding in the World, Life, and Self: Conditions for Flourishing
Grounding in the world is achieved when children and adolescents can trust the world and themselves, when they experience their life as good, when they learn to deal with themselves in an appropriate way, and when they recognize the personal values, they consider worth pursuing. The development of being human unfolds in the following four fields, the four fundamental motivations:
Our Existence – To be able to be there
Are we able to be – to be present in this world? Can we carry our existence even when the world shows its challenging side? What helps us – and helps children and adolescents – to endure and remain in this world in difficult times?
When we are given grounding, space, and protection, we learn to accept the unchangeable, or at least to endure it. We develop trust and courage – a fundamental trust in the world.
Our Life – To like to live
Do we like our life? Do we find it good that we live? When we experience life as good, we also discover many things that speak to us and warm our hearts: perhaps music, sports, art, collecting stamps, pets, friends, books, an inspiring topic, a film, a play – hopefully also our professional or pedagogical activity. When we, or children, sense that a person or a theme fulfils us, we enter into relationship with that person or theme, invest time, and seek closeness. In doing so, we learn to turn toward someone or something. This nurtures our joy in life and lets us experience our life as valuable – as a basic value.
Our Authenticity – To may be oneself
Are we allowed to be as we are? Or do we repeatedly experience that we must be different in order to be accepted – or even liked – by others? How we relate to ourselves shapes all our relationships to people and to things. What helps us to enter into relationship with ourselves? How are children strengthened in their sense of self? For all of us it holds true: when we experience attention, fairness, and justice, we are able to encounter the other and also to set boundaries. In this way, our authenticity and our sense of self-worth grow.
Our Meaning – To do what we should
Toward what should we direct our life? What is it good for? For what do we wish to have lived? What is valuable enough for us to dedicate our whole strength to it? Here it is about actions experienced as meaningful – not in our dreams, but in reality. For this, we need a concrete field of activity in which to engage ourselves, structures that sustain us, and values by which we can orient our lives. When these conditions are fulfilled, we act in harmony with others, with the possibilities that open up, and with ourselves. We shape our future and experience our life as filled with meaning.
Instead of Dialogue: Blockages
When blockages appear in one of these fields of development, educators are challenged to identify the missing building blocks and to “work them through.” This applies also to educators themselves. The aim is always to keep the dialogue between the person and their fields of development open – or to support children and adolescents in re-engaging in this dialogue.