We often engage in conversations with children about WHAT they want to be when they grow up, but lately I've been pondering a different question, namely HOW our children will be as the grow to become citizens of the world.
Thanks to inspiration and insight from the NOW Association's Framework of Competences, a tool which they've developed to support learning facilitation processes with adults, I've been asking myself - what competences do we need want to encourage in our children to lay the groundwork for a more inclusive and compassionate society?
Some of my favorite picture books these days, like Love, Z written and illustrated by Jessie Sima, can be fun and fertile conversation starters around complex emotions like (in this case) love. When our robot friend, Z, finds an old letter signed "Love, Beatrice", it launches Z on an adventure to find out what love is.
Sima's beautifully illustrated characters offer their own experiences and thoughts on what love is, feels like, or means to them, which in the end enables Z find an understanding that "computes" with their own experience.
What does love mean to you?