I feel like in educating children it is something we overlook: wonder & curiosity come from an attitude of gratitude. When we work with nature, when we grow our own food, when we save
seed & when we cope with difficult situations (usually outside our control), we grow in fundamental ways. All our ancestors learned the lessons we (collectively) lack by living day to day life, but we are disconnected from our food, the earth's cycles & our history. Using
permaculture we can reconnect to those forgotten patterns of living and reconnect with our baseline of gratitude.
Here's an example: we all used to express real gratitude over each meal because we planted it, tended it, raised it, harvested it, processed it, cooked it &/or baked it; we have ownership. Self reliance = taking responsibility = ownership = maturity & gratitude. It's difficult to be more than fleetingly grateful for a frozen instant dinner. Some might say it's extra work, but the holistic yield is peace, gratitude, & satisfaction which are some things our society struggles with.
Plus on the pragmatic side, children
should be growing most of the food we all eat, learning the science of it, & gaining real skills, gratitude & humility. The sitting they do for 12 years in public school is a slow motion crime. It's time to set them free & let them learn something real & vital, not an abstraction.