– Currently, the process of upbringing and education is structured sequentially, so if a child falls out of the process at some stage due to an illness or some other circumstance, it is often very difficult or even impossible for him to reenter it.
Is the method we are talking about open? Meaning, can a child start participating in it at any given moment? Or should we nevertheless make sure that the level of the children’s preparation is approximately the same?
– We definitely have to take a child’s level of preparation into consideration! If a child got sick or something happened to him that forces him to be absent for a period of time, then we have to make the whole group, the whole class participate in that. It’s better not to call it a class because this creates a negative association with a social class, with some kind of separation. A group is something friendlier, a setting where everyone are friends and equal. Whenever any person lags behind, the whole group should support their friend.
The group should be more or less homogenous. And even if someone joins it after the group has been formed, it should only be done when there are no other options, and very carefully. It will be necessary to give that child some time to prepare, go through a “crash course” so he can tune into the general flow and method, and will understand the group’s outlook on life, and that is not easy to do.
But we have had cases of children from the outside joining the group successfully. They go through a conflict, but they overcome it and become part of the group.
Still, I think that this period traumatizes both him and the group. And it’s clear how difficult this is for everyone and for him. It leaves a scar that remains there no matter what.
We understand that life is life and we are in a transitional period from the egoistic world to the integral world, but we have to try to protect the groups we are creating and lead them carefully, so they are open to all, yet open precisely because they know and understand each other. But it’s very difficult for them to just allow someone to join them.