The chapter discusses the concept of belonging, and of shelter and safety. When we go back to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, it appears to me that home is at the foundation of the hierarchy - in meeting the child's safety needs. From an adult learner perspective, sometimes it's important for us to create a sense of home within our learning environment, where the learner feels safety and the ability to learn and express themselves.
The chapter then goes onto explore Erickson's stages of development, which classifies people's stages of life as 8 distinct steps along life's path, and that these are not easily defined with age, but as descriptions of how someone presents themselves. It's interesting how adolescence is defined as "identity vs. role confusion" and how our learners, even in a workplace educational setting are still in this role even though they are technically adults.
The chapter then goes on to discuss Piaget, a philosopher who I studied in my childhood development class. Piaget does a good job of discussing how children move from a sensorimotor stage to a formal operations stage in their cognitive development. Once again, I think the author does a good job of indicating that the cognitive development is separate from age - just because someone becomes an adult does not make them classified as in the formal operations stage.
When discovering ones place in the universe, the author also discusses how people move from "I am my relationships" to "I have relationships" which is something that many people I work with have trouble moving towards. Their lives are encompassed by their relationships and they are not able to separate themselves from relationships. This can affect their interpersonal relationships whether in an educational or personal setting.
Ultimately, he equates the transformations we have in our human development to our definition of "home" in the universe. He shares how, when we help our youth make meaning out of their world, they will become more at home in the universe.
I wish I understood these concepts more clearly. I just went through a horrible week of family miscommunications, hurt feelings, anger responses and intense decisions - with very unsatisfactory and unsettling consequences. Home is a powerful word and family is a powerful word. And it is debilitating when all the individual emotions and wants get played, manipulated, miscommunicated or even just expressed!
ReplyDeleteFunny how your first paragraph made me think of ET and the "I want to go HOME" and your last paragraph hit right on with our hopes in raising our children (I like everything inbetween too!)
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