– One very important problem is people “burning-out” professionally. Many people working with children and with adults “burn out” after a year or two. They simply can’t bring themselves to go to work. One reason for it is that a person does not use his entire personality when interacting with children. He uses only a narrow part of it. When this happens, everything else within that person is not activated, eventually causing inability to keep doing the job.
You are saying that an educator has to be a person first of all. He has to have an “adult half” and a “child half.” Is it possible that the educators will also burn out after a year or two? If so, how can we overcome this problem?
– You want to place your instructors in our educators’ place, but it doesn’t work.
– Yes, I see that.
– And it won’t work. With us, the educator is the most important member of society. He lives the same life as the children’s parents and grandparents, as the mass media, and as everything. He lives it! It is not some small part of him that might burn out because he cannot express himself. He participates in the most creative process in the world. All of life is connected to him, the children he raises, their parents, and all of society in general! We are forming a new generation, the next level, and I would even say—a new dimension into which humanity is entering.
We have to give it everything we have. We do not have a personal life, the private life of our family or ourselves, or our own friends. All aspects unite into one whole. There cannot be any fatigue or one-sidedness here because I am in this entirely. In this area, I have to realize my habits and interests, my relationships with my parents—even if I am an adult, with my children, with my family, and with the entire society around me.
I don’t see this profession as being separate from the world. On the contrary, I am at its core. Together with all of humanity, I work on transforming myself, on bringing myself into balance with Nature, which is showing us the universal, integral interconnection of all of its parts. And I am forming this together with others.
We hold gatherings, conferences, and exchange experiences. Society lives all of it, so there is no place here for professional burnout! This is our life, and it continues the way it is.
However, if a person does suffer from professional burnout, he should be transferred, such as by giving him the chance to provide an upbringing and teach at corporations. Or he should be transferred to a different type of work, such as production. But I don’t think this kind of problem can arise here.