It can be very difficult to parent or teach a child whose reality is so much larger and whose sense of life purpose so much more intense and grander than our own. Many parents, in an endeavour to salvage their own sense of self-worth, retreat into ‘pulling rank’. Other parents choose eventually to virtually leave the child alone, so unable are they to find any meaningful point of contact with their incredibly mature, self-contained and determined child.

Later articles in this section of our web site will look at other, far more positive responses. In the remainder of this article, however, it is important to examine the changes and growth which may need to occur within ourself, as parent or educator, once we come into contact with a spiritually precocious child – and since the mid 1980’s there are more of them.

As I revisit my own childhood, I am aware that my parents played a vital role in keeping alive my spirit, and validating my powerful sense of wider vision and purpose. My mother simply loved me unconditionally and nurtured my practical creativity. Although she could not visit my depths or heights she helped keep my feet firmly and realistically planted and supported all my initiatives. My father gifted me with himself, his time, his sense of wonder, and his commitment to doing God’s will, however challenging that became. He shared his own passionate soul and the books which, throughout the years, continued to open doors into the souls of others. He understood my need to quest, and my own commitment to service.

How does that translate to today, and to the responsibility we as parents and educators have?

First and foremost, we need to have embarked on a committed spiritual journey of our own and to have come to know ourselves as spiritual beings. Our spiritual life cannot be superficial. It cannot be something which emerges only when it seems appropriate or expected. It must be the deep life-giving well at the core of our being from which our visible outer life, with its ethos, decisions and actions, flows. Without that, there is no way we can begin to understand either our child’s commitment to making a difference in the world or their insistence on truth and integrity. Without that there is no meeting of souls. We need to have dared to look beyond the small world of immediate family, friends and the satisfying of personal desires and ambition to the complex global world, with all its crises and challenges. And having dared to do that, we need to have committed to being part of that world in a deeply worthwhile way.

We need to have begun to realise that within what seems like chaos and disorder, there is evidence of order and larger purpose. The child we have a responsibility for will already intuit that, even if they cannot yet articulate it. They will already be aligned at a very deep level to that larger purpose, even if, in childhood they will struggle to find ways to serve it in an environment that often seems claustrophobic and confining.