The role of adults in nurturing children’s spirituality

Abstract

We are living a life which offers little time to stop and appreciate what is really important. This continuous demand to keep up with everything disables us from keeping in touch with what is important. This dissertation is about the role of adults in protecting, nurturing and enhancing children‟s spirituality. People might not understand the concept of spirituality; they might think it is a new age word for religion and this prevents them from seeing its real meaning. This dissertation aims to clarify what spirituality is, and what it entails. Differentiating between religion and spirituality is crucial for unbiased understanding and appreciation of spirituality. This dissertation also aims to pinpoint that spirituality is a biological component that has much to do with children‟s wellbeing. It is important for adults not to underestimate this important dimension of children‟s lives. When adults create opportunities for spiritual development and spirituality is given the importance it deserves the lives of children are enhanced with positivity. On the contrary adults who undermine children‟s spiritual development because they fail to appreciate spiritual capacities are doing a disservice to the little ones in their care.