The Spirit
of Ma’at Vol 1, No 10
by Dorene Graham
This article first appeared in Oracle2000 under the title of
''Education for the Children of the New Millennium.'' It is reprinted here with
the author's permission.
I grew
up thriving in the public school system. It never occurred to me to question
this path for my children, until my oldest daughter, Jessie, reached the fifth
grade. She had been struggling through school, and had fallen into an alarming
depression. I took her to counseling, and since she had gone through similar
counseling at an earlier age, she was diagnosed with clinical depression. I
don't know if I can describe her at that point, but I felt as though some cold
stranger had taken over my daughter. The things she talked about wanting to do,
the harm she saw herself capable of inflicting on others, and her total lack of
emotion sent dread crawling through me.
Her counselor
referred us to a psychiatrist who prescribed Zoloft, an antidepressant. I was
frightened. Jessie seemed lost and capable of carrying out the atrocities she
spoke of. For two weeks I forced those pills on her, while she became colder
and more withdrawn. We went back to the psychiatrist and she shocked him,
telling him of the things she thought of doing. I cried through the session. He
sent her to the waiting room, his eyes wide with shock. He increased her dosage
and said if she didn't take the pills our only alternative was to commit her.
I
waited for the prescription, crying in front of my daughter and all the people
in the waiting room. I can't express the depth of my despair at that point. I
couldn't stop the tears. I had kept up a strong front, but it came crashing
down that day. My tears impacted Jessie more than anything I could have said,
though, and her attitude softened. Later I learned she'd been hiding the pills
under her tongue and pretending to swallow. I knew then that I couldn't drug my
child.
Instead,
we talked. She felt more comfortable talking to me than to her counselor, and
though she continued counseling, we spent as much time as she needed one on
one. I'd call in the angels and draw light around us. Talking out her thoughts kept
her from acting on them, at least the most extreme ones. So as difficult as it
was to hear, I listened night after night. Often our talks took on a spiritual
aspect. Slowly, I got my daughter back.
In
spite of all these difficulties, she remained in public school. Each day she
seemed to die a little, yet I continued to send her, like a good mother. She
asked me to homeschool her, but the concept was so foreign to me that I took a
year researching, while she grew more and more desperate.
By the
time she started the sixth grade, her distress reached the point where I
couldn't stall any longer. I withdrew her. My heart pounded, like I was doing
something wrong, or dangerous. I had been so brainwashed by the system that I
believed strangers more capable of educating my child. I had so readily given
up one of the biggest responsibilities of my life, that I felt guilty
reclaiming it.
I
learned of various methods of homeschooling, including unschooling, a form of
child-directed learning that allows the child's interests to determine areas of
study. The idea intrigued me, but again it was so foreign that I dismissed it.
I withdrew my middle daughter after winter break, and for two years we did
''school at home.''
Though
the stress level in our household dropped drastically, Jessie remained unhappy.
She had difficulty learning her lessons, and labeled herself ADD, encouraging
me to take her in for testing. She thought if she was diagnosed, she could be
''fixed,'' but I opted against the testing. I told her she wasn't the problem.
We just had to find a different way to teach her.
Two
things happened then that changed our lives. First, I discovered The Open Mind:
Exploring 6 Patterns of Natural Intelligence by Dawna Markova, PhD. Per Dr.
Markova's model we're all intelligent in different ways. I had known for some
time that Jessie was a kinesthetic learner. She learns best by doing. The Open
Mind helped me understand that her brain is wired so that for her to trigger
the beta waves that allow her to focus and concentrate, she has to do so
through movement.
All
those times when she sat on our love seat, rocking the potted plant beside her,
driving me mad with frustration, she was trying to concentrate as I practiced
what Dr. Markova calls ''educational bulimia.'' Just as in public school, I
stuffed information into Jessie, so she could regurgitate it onto her tests.
Because she never assimilated the information, she'd forget it shortly
afterward. No true learning took place. How wrong I'd been to be angered by her
plant rocking. We had found a basis for teaching her.
The
second event occurred when I took her to see Kimberly Cahill, an energetic
healer. There Jessie found the diagnosis she'd been seeking, a label for her
''condition.'' Ms. Cahill believed her to be an Indigo Child. Also known as the
Millennium Children, Indigos range in general from age zero to twenty-two, with
some older adult forerunners. These children display a new pattern of behavior
believed to be evolutionary in nature. Nancy Ann Tappe was the first to
identify and write about them in her book, Understanding Your Life Color. She
began seeing the indigo life color in children's auras sometime in the '70s.
Extremely
creative and energetic, according to Doreen Virtue, PhD, Indigos have a high
sensitivity that if not handled appropriately can result in either the child's
becoming introverted and isolated, or having attention and aggression issues.
Dishonesty and lack of integrity trigger a sense of indignation in them. Dr.
Virtue sees this as a positive characteristic that can go very wrong. She
points to Columbine as an example of this, echoing Nancy Ann Tappe's belief
that the children involved with this and other such tragedies were Indigos who
were negatively influenced by their environment. Dr. Virtue advises parents to
open the topic of spirituality with these kids to avert the negative behavior.
Not
only Jessie, but also my youngest daughter, Lindsey, displays many of the
Indigo traits. They have difficulty with authority if given without explanation
or choice. Jessie gets frustrated with ritual-oriented systems that don't
require creative thought. Both are nonconforming, always finding their own way
of doing things. Jessie is antisocial when not around her kind. Both know when
people aren't honest with them, and won't respect these people. Lindsey is
sensitive to the energies of others and highly emotional. She feels bad,
sometimes physically ill, with strangers. If she's upset or agitated, she'll
likely vomit. I work with her on zipping up her chakras and shielding before we
go into public places.
Many of
the Indigos have developed psychic skills and are gifted in some way. A large
number of them are labeled ADD and ADHD. Robert Gerard, PhD, believes this is
because Indigos relate to the world in a nonlinear way, another valuable
characteristic. Almost all whom I have come in contact with are kinesthetic
learners. I believe they are labeled learning disabled because they have
difficulty adapting to a visually-oriented school system. Not all children with
ADD or ADHD are Indigos, and not all Indigos carry this diagnosis. If your
ADD/ADHD child can remain focused on a project or activity for prolonged
periods once his/her interest is involved, then this child is likely an Indigo.
These
kids are here to usher in a new age, and they're showing us in the most drastic
of ways that the old energies aren't working. School reform that stresses
longer hours and an intensified curriculum does not serve them. More is not
better. It's time for a different approach.
The
Millennium Children, as well as all children, need a learning environment where
they can follow their interests, where they are respected and respect in turn,
and where education is more about self-fulfillment than the transfer of
standardized information. These kids need to be taught about spiritual matters.
Many of the Indigos, especially the younger ones, come into this world with
their agendas intact. They know why they're here and won't waste time on
anything not in line with that purpose. If we honor them for who they are,
they'll surely lead us into an age of enlightenment. It's time we do our part
for them.
Resources:
1. The
Open Mind: Exploring 6 Patterns of Natural Intelligence by Dawna Markova, PhD
2. How
Your Child is Smart by Dawna Markova, PhD, and Anne R. Powell
3. The
Indigo Children by Lee Carroll and Jan Tober, indigochild.com
4.
Indigo Angels: Helping Our Kids Cope in Today's World, interview with Dr.
Doreen Virtue by Diane M. Cooper in the October Spirit of Ma'at
5.
Parenting ADD/ADHD and Indigo Children, by Vikki Lawrence
6. For
a wonderful site, full of information on giftedness and Indigos:
metagifted.org.
Dorene
Graham is the founding president of Indigo Village, Inc., a nonprofit corporation
forming a holistic school and summer camp program dedicated to the needs of the
Indigo Children and all the children of the New Millennium. For more
information, please call 770-643-1441, or email dorenegraham@mindspring.com.