– Do the educator’s personal talents or level of preparation matter? Who can be an educator, and who shouldn’t be one?
– This is a very important question. First of all, an educator has to be brought up himself in a way that enables him to rise above himself and any of his personal qualities, meaning to be as objective as possible in his interaction with the children.
Of course, none of the children should be good or bad in his eyes, or attractive or unattractive. You know very well how much this influences our attitude toward children. The educator cannot view anyone as intelligent or stupid, and so on. He has to treat everyone only from the viewpoint of their growth: How can I help each of them be spiritually, morally, physically, and most important—socially healthy?
The educator has to be grateful to the children because they enable him to grow. They provide him with a bountiful environment to constantly work on himself and perfect his level of spiritual growth together with them. After all, working on oneself is the most wonderful activity.
The educator must hold constant discussions with other educators and continually expand his knowledge in the method of integral, global upbringing. He has to be in this system of learning and self-study 24 hours a day.
It is very important for him to be in a society of educators who care only about this, who influence him, and constantly strive to turn every child into a human being, just like him. At the same time, this society must influence him in a way that will turn him into a human being.
That is, he has to be a person who is constantly growing spiritually and morally, and for whom spiritual development is the goal of his life.
In principle, this is the goal of our existence; it is the goal for everyone, the entire human society. This is the task that Nature has given us. This is the challenge it poses to our generation, and the educator must simply make all of this happen in practice.
Of course, his personal qualities are important. Children need to have educators with a variety of qualities and external expressions. The children have to perceive these expressions very vividly and tangibly, and discern them, realizing that the educators are not some machines that are somewhere over there. Rather, the educators have to be outstanding individuals.
At a certain point we begin to mingle children with adults so the children can adapt to the adults, and not only to their peers. Then the educators simply merge with the surrounding, external environment.
At least once or twice a week we should hold events where children and adults unite. When the children participate in these events along with the adults, they begin to understand them better, to accept them, and to see that adults support them, as well, giving them a place and making room for the children to express themselves just like adults among adults.