Initiation
Early childhood is the initiation of a child into a way of being in the world. All of a child’s early experiences teach him how to navigate the social context into which he is born. For example, Martin Luther King Jr. was well prepared by family nurture to acknowledge and address the injustices of his time.

Indoctrination
The process of initiation is also one of indoctrination, not in the pejorative sense of brainwashing, but in the old, historic definition: “to instruct especially in the fundamentals or rudiments,” or, more simply, “to teach.” In the earliest years, children learn the fundamentals of how to be human.

Indwelling
Every child is born into the story of a family and community. She becomes a character in a living story, and thus indwells a story – as Ruby Bridges did from an early age in the struggle for civil rights.