He turns 13 today; a teenager now. What adventures and challenges lie ahead of him in adolescence? What peer pressure and family support will he experience as he changes from a boy to a man? As he matures, where will he belong, how will he blossom into his potential? What unique joys and healthy upheaval will he experience as he grows? Who will love him? Whom will he love?
David Suzuki in his book The Sacred Balance quotes Montagu, saying a healthy human requires more than satisfaction of psychological needs in childhood. Montagu lists the following psychic needs of a growing child that must be fulfilled to ensure full development of a child’s potential:
- The need for love
- Friendship
- Sensitivity
- The need to think soundly
- The need to know
- The need to learn
- The need to work
- The need to organize
- Curiosity
- The sense of wonder
- Playfulness
- Imagination
- Creativity
- Openmindedness
- Flexibility
- Experimental mindedness
- Explorativeness
- Resiliency
- The sense of humour
- Joyfulness
- Laughter and tears
- Optimism
- Honesty and trust
- Compassionate intelligence
- Dance
- Song
He turns 13 today.
I wish for him, and indeed for each of my 10 grandchildren, the full list.
I send love.
Ashley Montagu, The Direction of Human Development (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1995)
David Suzuki, The Sacred Balance, Rediscovering Our Place in Nature (British Columbia: Greystone Books, 1997)
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