PSP in the Family and Community
The family and the community is where it all
begins! In the Letters
To U, the Mysterious Dr. M. shares his personal family and community background and discusses how it shaped his view of himself and the world. His childhood, like many of yours, was filled with experiences that have left scares and painful memories. Reports from victims of child abuse, sex abuse, and domestic violence make it clear that early childhood experiences, positive or negative, continue to influence us throughout our lives. The long-term consequences of early childhood socialization are what make PSP
in the Family and Community so very important.
Consider the levels of violence, bullying, and other forms of delinquency that we see among many of our children today. We ask, Why are they behaving in these ways? It is a good question but can be asked differently. We believe a more productive question is, What are our children responding too? The first form of the question focuses your mind and attention on the children as though their problem behaviors are originating in them. The second form of the question focuses your mind and attention on the social and environmental context to which our children are adapting.
For the first time in human history children have unlimited access to information about the adult world. Think about that! Really! Think about it! For generations our Ancestors kept these worlds separated. Children were protected from the complexities of the adult world of decision-making. Their eyes sheltered, they were nurtured into ideal culture and were shielded from and then gradually introduced into the world of real culture. Ideal culture is what we try to pass on to the next generation. Real culture is what we do and how we act in our everyday lives. These two are often not the same. Dr. M. explains the consequences of this dual reality on childhood socialization in The Handbook when he discusses the Cultural Fish Tank.
PSP in the Family and Community means that the family and the community have set a goal that every child will be socialized to internalize the Prime Directive. It means that every child will be trained in the personal skills of Creating Peaceful Space for themselves and others. It also means that the adults around those child will have to model behaviors consistent with the Prime Directive. In other words, you have to close the gap between your ideal and real culture, between what you say and what you do, between what you tell your children is the right way to be in the world and the ways you show them how to be in the world.
In the 10 Selfish & Unselfish
Reasons for You to Create Peaceful Space part of The Handbook, Reason 9 is, It Will Facilitate A Positive Future for Your Children. Reason 10 is, It Will Promote The Survival of Our Species. Dr. M. elaborates on these reasons in The Handbook. Your children represent both a responsibility and an opportunity. Your responsibility is to raise them to adulthood and as responsible members of the human family. The opportunity that comes both to parents and community members is the possibilities of the future.
- The Prime Directive as a guiding principle in the human family will provide all children with a common benchmark for social interaction.
- The Prime Directive as a guiding principle in the human family will provide parents with a consistent protocol around which to build concensus and unity regarding their child rearing practices.
- The Prime Directive as a guiding principle in all human families will provide a uniform environment for children to explore themselves and their world.
- The Prime Directive as a guiding principle in the human family and community will bring resurgence to our ancestral tradition that it takes a community to raise a child.
- When the behavioral protocol of choosing to Create Peaceful Space is nurtured into and internalized by every human child we will have unlocked in them the fullness of their human potential.
Read The Handbook On Being Human, vol I and consider the possibilities!
PSP in Education
PSP in the Workplace
