Monday 25 July 2011

Indigo Children

I have written before of a tendency among British home educators to embrace crackpot beliefs and unconventional ways of thinking. These typically range from homeopathy to the New World Order. Over the last few months, I have been told of another such loopy idea which has apparently become very popular in some quarters. This is the idea of the so-called Indigo Children. Now I have of course heard of the Indigo Children, but was not aware that it was flourishing in this country. Like so many other weird belief systems, it started in the USA. Put briefly, the idea is this. Some children who have been diagnosed as or exhibit the signs of having an attention deficit or being hyperactive, are really very special and misunderstood by the rest of the world. Far from having special educational needs, they are really the forerunners of a new kind of human. This is curious, because others have observed that many home educating parents have the idea that their children are very talented and empathetic; although in ways which cannot be measured by conventional means.

Indigo Children have a number of characteristics. They behave as though they are very special and important. They are intolerant of authority and do not react well to being told what to do. They are amazingly sensitive and talented, but not in ways that schools recognise. They will not submit to the ‘ritualised behaviour of society’; in practice, this means that they refuse to wait their turn in queues and so on. Many of them have been diagnosed as having ADHD.

Now all this is very interesting. There are two possible explanations for conduct of this sort. One is that these kids have been sent to the Earth by a higher power to lead us all into the Age of Aquarius or something of the sort. In other words, they are truly special, but our blinkered eyes are unable to recognise how important and special they are. The second possibility is that these are spoilt brats who have been indulged by their parents and allowed to get away with murder and that when they start school and find that they are not the centre of the universe, they take the news badly!

I have been given the names of a number of parents who are well known on the British home educating scene who, it is claimed, believe that their children are Indigo. I have no idea whether any of this is true, but it does seem to tie in neatly with a lot of what I have observed. Quite a few of the home educated children in this country have been diagnosed with special needs of one sort or another. In America, this is the group from whom the majority of the Indigo Children are drawn. Many British home educators do seem to think that their children are fantastically sensitive and have all sorts of abilities which conventional education has failed to recognise. The very idea of their taking GCSEs like all the other kids is absurd; they are far too special for such mundane things as examinations.

I am wondering if any readers have heard about this at all? As I say, I am not claiming that this it is actually the case that the Indigo Children business has taken a hold among British home educators; merely that I have been told by several people that this is the case.

20 comments:

  1. You're in danger of being fashionably retro here, Simon. I haven't heard any talk of Indigo Children for at least five years.

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  2. I'm with Allie on this one. Haven't heard anyone talking about it for years.
    Maybe the difference is pinpointed in your statement 'Quite a few of the home educated children in this country have been DIAGNOSED with special needs.' As far as I remember, Indigo children were self-selected, and I suppose I can see why because it sounds so much nicer than SEN with all it's perjorative overtones.

    Parents who are coping with a child who is outside the norm need explanations and hope. Society all too often comes up with the simple one 'it's your lousy parenting' and in the current funding climate the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off. If calling a child indigo helps them get through the day, then who does it hurt?

    Nor is this sort of labelling confined to the non-medical types. One of my children has an official diagnosis of Oppositional Defiant Disorder after repeatedly asking medical professionals to explain what they were doing and why and questioning the point of tests. He helpfully explained that he didn't have a problem with authority, he had a problem with patronising idiots. In their view this confirmed the diagnosis!

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  3. 'I have no idea whether any of this is true,'

    ...and yet you feel about to post with an air of authority on the subject.

    15 years of Home Ed and NEVER heard the expression, or the idea, among any HE families we know.

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  4. 'You're in danger of being fashionably retro here, Simon. I haven't heard any talk of Indigo Children for at least five years.'

    As I said, I have heard of the Indigo Children, although not in connection with home education. Does this mean that you have heard of them in this context?

    Simon.

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  5. 'As far as I remember, Indigo children were self-selected,'

    In America, there is a big thing about kids who have been diagnosed as ADHD and their parents preferring to see them as Indigo.

    Simon.

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  6. '...and yet you feel about to post with an air of authority on the subject.'

    Confusion here between two very different things. First, the concept of Indigo Children, with which I am very familiar. Readers will recall that for many years I wrote regularly for Prediction magazine. It is hardly likely that a crank idea like this would pass me by. Secondly, I was asking whether this was a popular idea among any home edcuators. I was not writing here with authority, but simply asking for information.

    Simon.

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  7. Well, I think I heard about Indigo Children through people/magazines (i.e. people or people who introduced me to magazines)that were generally about 'alternative' parenting and so that sometimes included home ed. But I haven't heard anyone (home ed or not) talking about it at all for five years or so.

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  8. 'But I haven't heard anyone (home ed or not) talking about it at all for five years or so.'

    Wel of course they have morphed a little over the last few years into Crystal Children, Rainbow Children and also Star Children. Perhaps I have simply been misinforme; maybe this is not a particular trend with some home educators at all.

    Simon.

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  9. 'I have written before of a tendency among British home educators to embrace crackpot beliefs and unconventional ways of thinking. These typically range from homeopathy to the New World Order.'

    You tend to open many of your blog posts like this, giving readers the impression that you are thoroughly knowledgeable about 'British home educators' and what they think. Yet the comments at the bottom of your posts invariably prove you are wrong about that.

    I think that the problem is, Simon, that you read a few loud-mouths (or listen to silly gossip from your informants) and then seize on the idea, in order to try to lend credibility to the idea that home educators are in need of closer supervision.

    In my experience, home educators are not more likely to be nuts than any other group. If you have actual proof that they are, then let's hear it.

    (Of course, hearing people say, 'You want to be with your kids all day? You must be mad!' doesn't constitute such proof. LOL!)

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  10. "Perhaps I have simply been misinformed; maybe this is not a particular trend with some home educators at all."

    I would agree with you there, Simon, but another possibility occurs to me. You seem to be picking up on so many unusual trends at the moment that I wonder if you are being very gently wound up?

    By the way, have you heard that some LA staff are actually giant green lizards out to take over the world by reducing educational standards?

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  11. 'By the way, have you heard that some LA staff are actually giant green lizards out to take over the world by reducing educational standards?'

    Very successfully too. I heard that as well. My cousin's chiropodist knows one of those lizards, so I'm pretty sure it's true.

    And of course, it's now on the internet. So, that's that.

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  12. Alli is right, this hasn't been mentioned much recently, but it has definitely been discussed within the HE SEN community between 2006 and 2008. Then there was no mention of it until a single mention in 2010 which was hoping that a certain book wasn't talking about things like Indigo children.

    SEN1

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  13. Indigo kids eh?
    Sounds a bit like The Village Of The Damned...
    That David Icke has been putting it about a little bit more than we ever suspected.

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  14. One of the people who runs a HE group in Glastonbury holds such beliefs:
    http://gloweducation.co.uk/about.html

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  15. 'Never trust a hippie'

    John Lydon

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  16. There you go, Simon. One person in Glastonbury. There's shock.

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  17. This set of beliefs was a 'thing' in the US (not really among home educators) for about 15 seconds, ten years ago, when Jenny McCarthy (much more a celeb there than here) attempted to start a business selling products for 'Indigos'. In the US, this was much less about ADHD and related issues, and much more about high-functioning kids with autism, like McCarthy's son.

    Unluckily for US public health, McCarthy later abandoned the idea that her son was 'Indigo' (after her business failed) and embraced the idea that he was autistic, and that she had 'cured' him of this 'vaccine-injury'.

    She became a leader of the US arm of the crackpot anti-vaccination movement, which has done far more harm than her previous beliefs, and 'Indigo' pretty much died on the vine.

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  18. Just read the Glastonbury site...one of their inspirations is a plagiarist conman.

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  19. No thanks. Not sure why you are so keen to promote this site.

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