Introduction

Everyone learns every day. Life is a wonderful teacher. The biggest assumption is that we need formal teaching, school, to learn the most. It's a matter of importance, is academics the most important part of life? I certainly do not discount academics. I love learning about everything. I loved school and I think schooling teaches us a lot, academically and more. But I think important lessons are also taught through life. That is, they are taught, if we are willing to listen and to learn.

Children are frequently misunderstood. Just because academically they are not a scholar or a mature adult, just because they still have much to learn, does not mean they do not have much to teach.

If we listen and learn together with our children they can teach us so much. Much of what they can teach us most people would initially veiw as "common sense". Things you are sure you already knew, but knowing and actually using are two entirely different things. Children teach us to be a better person. Children teach us to veiw and appreciate the world differently. Children teach us to enjoy life. Most importantly, when you are a parent, children teach us to parent. Every child is different, therefore, every child teaches differently. Every child teaches us something, something different. No child should be seen and not heard. No child should not be learned from. It is time we listened to innocence.

I am not a professor, I am not a doctor, I am not a pychiatrist, I haven't even finished my bachelors degree. I am a mother, a mother of 4, an aunt to 5 and at times I have been a nanny. Most importantly I am willing to listen. This is what all my children have taught me.