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Challenge Beliefs
To challenge beliefs is not merely to disagree—it is to pause, reflect, and inquire. In education, parenting, and personal growth, this act requires humility and courage. It means examining the scripts we’ve inherited: about children, intelligence, success, behavior, control, and even love. It means noticing the unconscious “shoulds” and asking, Is this really true? Is it still serving life?
Challenging beliefs is foundational to transformative education. In the Reggio Emilia approach, educators are not expected to implement a fixed method. Instead, they are invited into ongoing pedagogical reflection—willing to rethink what they thought they knew, in dialogue with children, families, and colleagues. Similarly, in Coyote Mentoring, questioning assumptions is part of awakening deeper perception and relationship.
For adults in caregiving roles, this work often begins with discomfort. What if “good behavior” isn’t the goal? What if the child refusing to share is practicing consent? What if mess, risk, and slowness are not problems to solve, but opportunities to see differently?
Challenging beliefs opens space. It invites us out of control and into relationship. And when done with kindness and awareness, it doesn’t dismantle trust—it deepens it.
Related Reading
- Education and the Significance of Life by J. Krishnamurti
- The Hundred Languages of Children by Carolyn Edwards, Lella Gandini & George Forman
- Parenting from the Inside Out by Daniel Siegel & Mary Hartzell
- Raising Free People by Akilah S. Richards
- Project Zero – Visible Thinking Routines
- Reggio Children – Teacher as Researcher
Glossary
- Belief – A mental model or internalized assumption, often unexamined, that shapes how we interpret experience.
- Assumption – A belief so ingrained it often goes unnoticed or unspoken.
- Unlearning – The process of intentionally questioning and releasing outdated or limiting beliefs.
- Pedagogical Reflection – Ongoing self-inquiry by educators into their practice, values, and assumptions.
- Image of the Child – A Reggio Emilia concept referring to the beliefs we hold about children and their capacities, which shape our teaching.
Articles and Resources on This Site
A poetic and provocative invitation into the sacred realm of human presence, I and Thou offers a relational metaphysics that challenges modern habits of detachment and objectification.
Critiques of how neoliberalism reshapes early childhood through metrics, market ideals, and control—while also spotlighting paths of resistance rooted in care and justice.
A bold challenge to conventional schooling, Free to Learn argues that children thrive best when trusted to play, explore, and educate themselves through freedom and community.
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