Young Children and Spirituality

Maintaining that spiritual development is an integral element in child development, Barbara Kimes Myers provides a framework for the discussion of spirit and spirituality in the lives of children. Through her discussion of the four core conditions of a spirituality of caring, she crosses the borders of various faiths and applies her theories to a variety of practical and professional settings.

Through Myers'' discussion of the four core conditions of a spirituality of caring, she crosses the borders of various faiths and applies her theories to a variety of practical and professional settings, providing a common language that can be used to talk about the centrality of spirit--that which fuels development and learning. She discusses transcendence, family life, cognition, church and state, fundamentalism and multiculturalism. Her framework emerges from her understanding of the thinking of key child developmental theorists--Vygtosky, Piaget, Erikson, Gardner, Giroux and Noddings.

Barbara Kimes Myers is Associate Professor of Child Development at DePaul University. She is the co-author of Engaging in Transcendence and is a frequent contributor to early childhood publications.