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Economic Life
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As very young children become aware of the world around them
one of the first things they do is imitate. The 'education'
of a child begins very early, and we are told by the age of three or four,
the child has already adopted enough of her or his stance to the world and
those around them that much could already be predicted about their
approach to it in the future. Having
warm and secure surroundings with loving parents and caretakers is most important. The above opinions express some elements of the editor's educational leanings. We would like to hear many other's. A discussion of the place of other elements of social life in relationship to the education of children requires a fresh reexamination ... who should decide what the children are taught, and how they are taught? Who should pay for it? How much say does the parent have as compared with government influence?
Any input on these topics will be greatly appreciated! EDUCATIONAL
PHILOSOPHY
Children are very smart. They learn quickly
how the world works, and know keenly what they don't know. They also want to
grow up to feel confident and competent. Kids (natural kids) WANT to learn and
to learn everything. Witness a 2-year-old in action to see what the natural
learning of a human child is. In my experience, this remains, unless it gets
dampened by coercion or testing. Only then does the joy of learning become
dulled. THE
NEW LIBERTY VILLAGE
One of the difficulties surrounding what people think of homeschooling has much to do with parent impression of how "hard" it is. When exploring this, it will generally be found that the parent is thinking "school in the home" rather than homeschooling --- a different animal altogether. And "unschooling" is WAY different from that. Homeschooling, of ANY type, (while it DOES embody the difficulties of personalities immersed in loads of time together) actually can be an incredibly easy project to partake in. I hope that discussion will be stimulated on your site, simply to give parents and children options to explore. Simply feeling there are alternatives can ease up intense schooling experiences for students, even if the choice remains the same. Ellen A good education should support children to grow up to be free and responsible adults ready and able to take their place in society. All elements of the Waldorf curriculum and teaching methods fit together in service of this central objective. Children are children, not miniature adults. They learn in different and quite distinct ways at different stages in their development. For example, pre-schooler's receive the world primarily through their physical senses while grade school children engage the world more with their emotions. Only once they have entered their teenage years do young people begin to think about matters conceptually, as adults do. Waldorf schools teach all subjects in an age-appropriate way that corresponds to the developmental level of the children. Children have different temperaments and different learning styles. A Waldorf teacher is trained to meet the children on each one's own terms in order to provide each with proper guidance. There is no grading and only infrequent testing at a Waldorf elementary school because such methods emphasize uniform retention of content rather than learning. Instead, each child's progress is closely monitored by the classroom teacher who moves from grade to grade with the class. Education should be a wondrous journey, not a race. Learning needs time to take root in a child's growing awareness. This cannot happen if the child is hurried by artificial goals or scattered by a disjointed daily schedule. Imagination is central to the learning process. A good education makes development of the imagination a high priority. Children are whole people. Education that truly serves the child must integrate the intellectual, physical, emotional and spiritual. Story telling is an effective, time-honored method to introduce role models and moral principles. Children love stories that come alive for them through their imaginations. Waldorf schools use story telling to bring choices and values to life. The arts are a critical element in a well-rounded education. They enhance knowledge by linking together inner and outer experience. Music is especially important, and the children at a Waldorf school learn to sing and play both wind and string instruments. Manual arts such as woodworking and handwork help the brain develop the capacity for organized thought. Seeing the physical results of their work gives children a sense of accomplishment and builds their self-esteem and self-confidence. Children, until around age 12 or 14, learn best through the direct experience of their physical senses and their imagination. Experiential learning keeps subjects vital and alive. For example, body movement in rhythmic patterns contributes to a fuller comprehension of arithmetic. In the upper grades science is taught largely through hands-on experimentation and demonstration. Adults learn primarily through concepts and abstract ideas. For young children, however, abstraction is an inappropriate teaching method which confuses a child's growing understanding of the world. Adults often fail to realize how differently a child receives and integrates knowledge. The class is a social unit, not just a series of individuals. Children learn a great deal from each other as well as from the teacher. Sometimes the teacher acts almost like an orchestra conductor, seeing that the whole class moves forward so that everyone benefits. The approach used to teach a given subject and its timing are as important as the content of the teaching. For example, geography is taught starting locally and then spreading to the rest of the world. This mirrors a child's scale of view from the local to the universal. The study of history begins with the oldest stories of humanity and works toward the present. In this way the children acquire a firm sense of rooted-ness. ADULT
EDUCATION Suppliers of new textbooks and curriculum
materials http://www.home-schooling.com http://www.criticalthinking.com http://www.greenleafpress.com http://www.lifetimeonline.com http://www.saxonpub.com http://www.elijahco.com http://www.fiveinarow.com http://www.writingstrands.com ******************************* Suppliers of Used Curriculum Materials http://www.bookmobileonline.com/bookmobile http://www.members.xoom.com/hiswayhome http://www.vegsource.com/wwwboard/curriculum/wwwboard.html http://www.homeschool.crecon/classifieds/classifieds.cgi ******************************* Suppliers of Lesson Plans http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson http://www.members.aol.com/donnandlee http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/index.html http://www.dreamcatchers.net/treasure http://www.staa-homeschool.com ******************************* Electronic Field Trips http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/expltx/eft/eft.htm http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/cmceng/childeng/html http://www.lcsweb.loc.gov http://www.exploratorium.edu http://www.henry.k12.ga.us/pges/virtual_trip.htm http://www.camelot-group.com/tower Virtual tour of the Tower of London ******************************* Cyberclasses http://www.mathstories.com http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/pao/educators ******************************* General Information about Homeschool Sites http://www.homeschoolcentral.com http://www.homeschoolcentral.com/high.htm http://www.hslda.org ****************************** Protestant Sites http://www.cheact.org http://www.sethsa.org ****************************** Catholic Sites http://www.catholic-homeschool.com http://www.homeschoolcentral.com/catholic.htm ****************************** Muslim Sites http://www.home.ici.net/~taadah/Homeschool/muslim.html http://www.arabesq.com ****************************** Jewish Site http://www.snj.com/jhen |
In the safety of the room behind my eyes, where the inspector shade cannot see, I picture the infant room as one widening crater, loud with the sound of erupting creativity. Every subject somehow in a creative vent. What wonderful design of movement and mood! What lovely behavior of silksack clouds! An organic design. A growing living changing design. Unsentimental and merciless and shockingly beautiful. - Silvia Ashton-Warner in her preface to Teacher
Villager's
New
Liberty Village "absurdly easy" to use no sign-up required to read or post |
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