Parents as People

Parents as People: The Family as a Creative Process

We live in a time when family life is dying. The saving medicine will not be found in revivals of older nostalgic forms but in a new and vital connections to the archetypal roots and necessity of family. These connections will not come through theories of family life or copying other’s family forms but through deep recognition that “the family is an act of creation – a work of art.” This new and powerful perspective on the life of the family is told with remarkable simplicity by Franklin Kane, Filled with workable wisdom that will be found of immediate benefit to any family and particularly to families in trouble, this book is strong medicine for our urgent need. I urge you to take it. – Russell Lockhart, Jungian Analyst

Content

Preface

Introduction

FAMILY

• The Small Family Group
• Starting a Family
• Devotion
• Respect
• Interest
• Love

TIME

• Rhythm, Ritual, and Celebration
• A Question of Trust in the World

LIVING IN TIME

• The Day
• Contemplation Exercises
• Dreams
• And then the Children
• Meal Times
• Dinner
• Bedtime
• Tyrants
• Back to Bedtime
• Storytelling
• Candles, Prayers, and Good Night
• The Heart of the Family Day
• Adult Time
• Single Parents and All Parents as People
• The Week
• Observing the Children
• The Festivals of the Year
• Looking at the Year
• …and the Day
• Taking time for
• Spring
• Summer
• Autumn
• And Winter Approaches
• Birthdays
• Presents

LIVING IN SPACE

• The Environment
• Art, Literature, and Music
• Television
• Literature

DYNAMICS OF THE FAMILY

• Making Decisions
• Adolescence

Conclusion

About the Author

Franklin G. Kane (1938-2009), spent his life in service to others as a teacher, administrator, counselor, and mediator. After graduating from City University of New York, he and first wife Betty Staley became involved in the Waldorf education movement. He received his teacher training at Emerson College in England. In 1965 he moved to Sacramento as part of a group of young teachers who transformed the struggling Sacramento Waldorf School to a thriving K-12 institution. In 1976, he co-founded the Rudolf Steiner College in Fair Oaks for training of Waldorf teachers. In the mid-1970’s, he developed sites and programs for the new California Conservation Corps. In 1981, he moved to Edmonton, Canada, and led the first public Waldorf program in North America. He earned an MA in counseling from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara and began a career as a therapist. For the past 10 years, he and his wife Gayle managed care homes in the Bay Area for children and youth, and helped many transition to better lives.