Most people take for granted that school is a necessary part of a society as complex as ours. When children ask parents why they have to go to school, parents may lovingly explain to them the benefits of an education as well as the pleasures of having friends to play with every day.

They call them the "indigo children" - a term first coined by the entity Kryon, channeled through Lee Carroll. Indigo refers to the life color, or aura color, which many souls are adopting in these changing times and which carries with it certain personality characteristics. Some refer to them as “systems busters” and if you watch their effect in the classroom, it becomes obvious why.

The education system depends on students accepting the authority of teachers and acquiescing to their demands. One of the first things you’ll notice about these “new’ kids is that they often question authority. If they don’t get satisfactory answers to their questions about why they should do what is asked of them, they often refuse to comply. Some may do this overtly, by challenging the teacher in the classroom, for example, while others do it quietly by simply tuning out and retreating into themselves.

Educators often mistakenly assume that something is wrong with these children. Psychologists are called in to test them and they often end up with labels such as ADD (attention deficit disorder) or ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). There may indeed be some students in schools that fit these labels because of brain damage or brain abnormalities, but most are misdiagnosed. Their “symptoms” are actually signs of frustration with a system that doesn’t meet their needs.

To really understand how these children differ from those of previous generations, we need to adopt a metaphysical viewpoint. Our old psychological theories and interpretations of human behavior are too limited to account for what we are seeing in these new kids. Heredity cannot explain them, because they usually differ considerably from other family members. Environmental influences don’t hold the answer either, because often a family may have only one such child and the rest appear perfectly able to adjust and function in the family and the school.

A metaphysical perspective enables us to view each child as a unique soul, choosing a life in order to fulfill a specific purpose. The soul chooses the physical appearance, the parents, the gender and also the “aura color” which refers to the band of energy surrounding the physical body. Different colors are representations of different personality characteristics, which are constructed in order to facilitate the soul’s purpose.

The indigo aura color has some unique attributes that seem to be ideally suited to the changes our world is facing. One of these attributes is a strong connection to the “higher self” or soul self, which results in strong feelings of self-worth. Unfortunately, our society frowns on children showing too much of that characteristic. It is often interpreted as arrogance or conceit. When these children stubbornly stick to their inner knowing of truth, in the face of strong pressure to follow the truth of authority figures, they are often punished, rejected or ignored. This results in great inner conflict for the child.

Another characteristic of indigo children is a heightened sensitivity to stimuli. They may have more highly developed senses than average or they may just be more unable to tune out irrelevant stimuli, but the result is they are often overwhelmed by energies around them. Physically they may be more sensitive to noises or to smells than other children. Emotionally they may be more sensitive to the unexpressed feelings of others, without realizing where those feelings are coming from. The resulting behavior is either hyperactivity or withdrawal, and sometimes alternates between these two extremes. This sensitivity is very difficult for the children themselves to deal with, but it is a characteristic that will eventually allow them to develop greater awareness than average…an awareness our world will need in its future citizens if we are to survive and progress.

A third characteristic of indigo children is their unique learning style. Because they are closely connected to the “soul” aspect of themselves, they are often driven to pursue certain areas of interest that may not be part of the curriculum. It is very frustrating for these children to be forced to focus on something they feel is not relevant to their intuitive knowledge of their purpose. Their learning style tends to be less linear than average, which makes it difficult for them to adapt to the sequential presentation used in most educational institutions. They prefer to take a topic of interest focus exclusively on that topic, taking relevant information from all the different “subject areas” and integrating that information into the “matrix” or mind map they are building on their topic of interest.

Unfortunately, the above characteristics make it very difficult for the indigo child to function in the school environment. These children need choices so that they can feel free to follow their own inner knowing. Unfortunately, schools as they are presently designed leave most of the choices to educators and very little to the students themselves. The structure of the classroom naturally falls into a hierarchy with the teacher on top.

The noise and activity levels in schools are also difficult for indigo children to cope with. Their sensitive systems may be overstimulated by the presence of so many other children in a small space. In order to adapt, they are forced to shut down parts of their awareness, which may result in frustration and anger. This may manifest as hyperactivity or anti-social behavior.

The sequential presentation of facts and concepts used in traditional curriculum is frustrating for indigo children who want to “know it all now” and form a larger picture first, before learning the details of a task. In fairness, some schools are trying to provide more “hands on” learning for students and use projects instead of traditional workbook approaches to meet student needs. These techniques are much more suited to the indigo child’s learning style than traditional teacher-delivered instruction.

According to Kryon, more and more of these children are being born on the planet at this time. If this is correct, schools are going to be confronted with more and more children who don’t fit the structure and who through their inability to conform will inevitably “bust the system”. The system will need to change to accommodate the needs of these children or it will simply fall apart. One child who refuses to follow orders is labeled as disobedient or disorderly. A whole classroom full of such children becomes totally unmanageable. And when the old ways don’t work anymore, new ways will have to be found.

A parent dealing with an indigo child at this time doesn’t have the leisure to wait patiently while the system readjusts to the children’s changing needs. Some of these parents have chosen to remove their children from public education and instead pay for private schools that hopefully are more sympathetic to the child’s unique needs. Others have chosen home education as an alternative to institutional learning. Even though we are generalizing and grouping these new children in a category called “indigo”, they do not necessarily have the same needs educationally, so there is no one perfect solution.

There are a number of different educational choices available to parents, each with a unique philosophy and pedagogy. These will be discussed in depth in part 2 of this article. Parents whose children seem to fit the “indigo” description are encouraged to do careful research before placing their child in a school environment. It is also important to continuously monitor the child’s response to the chosen form of education to see if needs are being met or if adverse behavioral characteristics seem to be developing.

It is my belief that schools of the future will differ markedly from schools of the present and past. Many of the old paradigms of education are changing in the light of new knowledge. The children being born today will force changes in the system simply by being unable to adapt to schools in their present form. We are in a time of transition and the problems these children are encountering with our schools mirror that transition beautifully. It is my hope that the transition will be made as quickly as possible so as to avoid many of these children becoming casualties of a system that does not serve them well.

© Outboundlight, March 2000

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