Indigo children. Riiiiight.

[ms_collegiality]

A few weeks ago I was at school describing to some colleagues some amusing little thing one of my kids had done, and a woman who was sitting at an adjacent table in the faculty workroom took it upon herself to open her briefcase and bring me a book on "The Indigo Children."  Up until this moment, I had not interacted with this woman, who teaches a philosophy class called Intro to Eastern Religions.  She is an adjunct who has been teaching at my college a long time. 

As I glanced through the book, I was astonished and then chagrined to learn that we are being supplanted, apparently, by a new race of super-children who are more intelligent, beautiful, perceptive, talented, etc.--supposedly genetically evolved.  Parents by the truckload are recognizing these traits in their exceptional children.

Despite the fact that my kids are brilliant, beautiful, talented, yada yada yada, this strikes me as a load of hooey.

Since then, this same instructor has invited me to sit in on her class because she had invited a guest speaker who (I kid you not) channels some fabulous space alien.  Also since then, I've had two of my writing students tell me they were also enrolled in her classes and that she is absolutely nuts.  (I didn't bring her up, I want to assure you.)

Because of the "Indigo Children" book which she lent me (and I returned), I'm now getting lots of chumminess from this lady, and I don't feel at all comfortable, but I can deal.

Have any of you heard of this "Indigo Children" thing before?

[atalanta]

Have any of you heard of this "Indigo Children" thing before?

Heard of? Yes.
Given credence to? Not in this lifetime!

I would worry about the reputation of my academic institution if such an individual were allowed to proselytize (there's no other word for it) on behalf of her weird beliefs. And I'm not just blindly discriminating against her; there is absolutely no body of scholarship to support those ideas, so they have no place in academia.

What is this woman's position?

I have an idea! Next time you see her, smile knowingly and then lend her a copy of "The Midwich Cuckoos". :)

[qrypt]

I would worry about the reputation of my academic institution if such an individual were allowed to proselytize (there's no other word for it) on behalf of her weird beliefs. And I'm not just blindly discriminating against her; there is absolutely no body of scholarship to support those ideas, so they have no place in academia.

What is this woman's position?

I have an idea! Next time you see her, smile knowingly and then lend her a copy of "The Midwich Cuckoos". :)

Proselytizing indeed; this sounds almost as bad as spouting off about creationism/ID.  But at least the students seem to know she's nuts - which is more than you can say when the subject is creationism.

As for Indigo children, I'd have some fun with her by going on about how your children are thoroughly ordinary, even a bit thick - more brown than indigo...

[dogstar]

When I first read your post, Ms. C, I had this image of dark blue kids running around! Or maybe, that the Indigo Girls were expecting or something. So naturally, I Googled the subject and learned that Indigo Children are:

    *  They come into the world with a feeling of royalty (and often act like it)
    * They have a feeling of "deserving to be here," and are surprised when others don't share that.
    * Self-worth is not a big issue. They often tell the parents "who they are."
    *  They have difficulty with absolute authority (authority without explanation or choice).
    * They simply will not do certain things; for example, waiting in line is difficult for them.
    * They get frustrated with systems that are ritually oriented and don't require creative thought.
    * They often see better ways of doing things, both at home and in school, which makes them seem like "system busters" (nonconforming to any system).
    * They seem antisocial unless they are with their own kind. If there are no others of like consciousness around them, they often turn inward, feeling like no other human understands them. School is often extremely difficult for them socially.
    * They will not respond to "guilt" discipline ("Wait till your father gets home and finds out what you did").
    * They are not shy in letting you know what they need.

  They sound like really spoiled, horrible kids, and I'm glad mine are just a couple of dullards born more than 10 years ago who mostly do what they're told, behave politely in public, respect parental authority, are not at all antisocial (just nerdy), and don't expect to be treated like royalty.

  And here I thought New Age was finally on its way out....

[gennimom]

And here I was, hoping my daughter's ability to ignore reprimands was just a characteristic of her age. Now I find out she already thinks she's royalty? ;)

Last night she turned off mommy's computer while she was working on it, and then after getting royally bawled out for it, came up with her "I'm very cute!" look, trying to get back on my good side again. I'm such a sucker for that look. *sigh*

[tamiam]

Sounds like my son.

When he was little, he'd throw up his hands sometimes, and we all thought it was so cute we'd throw up ours in response. Then we'd joke about it; we'd say "I am the king...you are my servants."

Now it all becomes clear. Sigh.

[kaysixteen]

I have encountered an Indigo apologist before.  Her whacko views are almost enough to make me become an atheist.  This is just another faddy new-agey way of papering over spoiled rebelliousness on the part of the kiddies.

[notaprof]

None of this is that new.  I thought all children came into the world thinking they are the center of the universe and it the job of parents and the educational system to gently disabuse them of that notion, in other words guide and train them so they can be productive members of society. 

Sounds like the system and the parents of Indigoes (is that the correct pluralization?) are just not doing their jobs and just giving a nice sounding label to the result to make it seem it was intentional or more accurately, beyond their control.

[prof_mom]

Some people are too precious for this world.

[john_proctor]

You are all far, far too mature for my tastes.

I would wait for a good faculty holiday mixer and with crazyfaclady and SO:

1. chat up the whole "indigo child" buisness, drawing out the characterists and moving it deeply into spirituality.

2. stress that I find the idea fascinating and that it connects with so much that I've read lately

3. Completely fabricate (as an example) a late medieval tradition about such children (give faux examples like, hell, I donno, probably Joan of Arc if I were feeling adventuresome; Martin Luther if the couple were protestant) and their later accomplishments.  Pull the motif back even later into pre-christian Europe

4. Completely draw in the pair

5. Finish the stroke with the (again, purely fabricated) long standing tradition that such children were the offspring of succubbi or were cuckolds (From clergy, if I'm in the right mood - with a slow, politely smiling nod to accompany).

The temptation would be to over-draw it and note how the behaviors of IC's (of course, by this point, I would have jargonized the term) so resemeble the behaviors of bad children that so began the origins of "you little bastard" as an outburst of parental or supervisory rage.

That would be too far.

[rowan]

Someone gave us some "indigo child" literature when my son was born, I remember thinking - "hey its a handbook on how to totally spoil your kid!"  because if your child doesn't behave this way they are not part of the great evolutionary advancement that the indigo child represents, in other words if your kid isn't a self centered demanding spoiled rotten brat they must be a genetic throwback.

There is an entire system to raising the indigo child to meet their full potential that would have super nanny and any sane rational adult throw their hands up in disgust.

Just think, they will be reaching our classrooms in a few short years.  I'm not worthy!

I think my kid is pretty amazing but his buddies at preschool are too, there is E who is still 4 and reads everything he can get a hold of, there is J who has the best comic delivery and sarcastic style I have ever encountered.  There is Z who got so mad at the boys for not taking taking the idea that they all could fly to the moon or beyond seriously she built her own rocket ship out of blocks and it looked tons better then the boys.  There is A who has completely inherited her physicist father's linear mind and loves number games. and then there is mine, the imagination guy at school, he comes up with the adventures they all go on.

So, you see they are all pretty amazing - and not one of them is blue.

[prof_mom]

So, you see they are all pretty amazing - and not one of them is blue.

HA! Amazing children must be blue. I imagine your children use manners and accept the fact that sometimes the world does not revolve around them. Do they say please and thank you and sit quietly the dinner table?

Clearly not the advanced children of the Indiglo.

(Is my sarcasm too subtle? I never really know).

[csguy]

Reminds me a bit of the millenial hype.

They're all great multi-taskers (need to learn to focus)

Love to work collaboratively (need to learn to perform as individuals)

But at least there's not as much of the spoiled brat thing as the Indigo theory.

Of course all of us boomers were spoiled rotten too.

[j_source]

Yeah, somebody told me about this.  The proper response is "What a bunch of crap."

[dolljepopp]

The proper response is "What a bunch of crap."

Indeed.

But now that I know there are people gullible enough to believe it, in the future, when someone objects to my behavior, I shall give them a condescending look and say as faux-humbly as I can, "I'm sorry -- you see, I was an Indigo child."