The
education of the children of the world effects each one of us
whether we have children or not. How children are taught and WHAT
children are taught impacts our lives in a most profound way. It
behooves us to learn what we can of the educational systems
available in our country and support those systems that support our
values.
Just
as in many other fields of human endeavor we are standing in the
midst of transition in the field of education. Technology is a
strong factor in driving this change but not the major motivating force. Our search for spiritual meaning
in our own lives is pushing us to look at how
and what our children are being taught at home as well as in school.
We have come to
a new level of understanding about how we learn and this understanding
is changing how we teach. There are schools that are already working
toward this sort of change. "These visionary schools are actively contributing to progressive
change. Change that produces soul growth. Change
that is expanding consciousness and transforming lives. The teachers and
students of the schools featured here are paving the way."
"It
[a school] will then be able to give the kind of education that allows the pupil's body to develop healthily and according to its needs, because the soul (of which this body is the expression) is allowed to grow in a way consistent with the forces of its development."
Rudolf Steiner
Education is more than memory training
and more than informing a child or student as to the past and its
achievements. Those factors have their place, and the past must be
understood and studied, for out of it must grow that which is new, its
flower and its fruit. Education involves more than the investigation of a
subject and the forming of subsequent conclusions leading to hypotheses
which, in their own turn, lead to still more investigation and
conclusions. Education is more than a sincere effort to fit a child or
adult to be a good citizen, an intelligent parent and no charge upon the
state. It has a far wider application than producing a human being who
will be a commercial asset and not a commercial liability. Education has
other objectives than rendering life enjoyable and so enabling men and
women to achieve a culture which will permit them to participate with
interest in all that transpires in the three worlds of human affairs. It
is all the above, but should also be much more.
Education in the New Age page 4
A.A.Bailey
"Let
us put our minds together and see what life we will make for our
children" Tatanka Iotanka (Sitting Bull)
"Two major ideas should be taught to the children of every country.
They are: the value of the individual and the fact of the one humanity."
A.A. Bailey,
Education in the New Age
The transformation of learning into education paralyzes
man's poetic ability, the power to endow the world with his personal meaning.
Man will wither away just as much if he is deprived of nature, of his own work,
or of his deep need to learn what he wants and not what others have planned that
he should learn.--Ivan Illich
Cooperative goodwill is surely the first idea to be...taught in our schools, thereby guaranteeing the new and better civilisation. Loving understanding, intelligently applied, should be the hallmark of the cultured and wiser groups, plus effort on their part to relate the world
of meaning to the world of outer efforts... World Citizenship as an expression of both goodwill and understanding should be the goal of the enlightened everywhere and the hallmark of the spiritual man, and in these three, you have right relations established between education, religion and
politics.
Education in the
New Age
Class Dismissed Bill Wetzel is
helping young people reform education
By Sharon Lerner, Utne Reader
...On his Web site (www.youth
power.net),
through flyers, and in street-corner discussions, Bill Wetzel advises young
people (a term he prefers to "kids") to organize their own
classes, meet with or even join the local board of education, and generally
claim the education system as their own.
Wetzel finds it absurd that "experts sit around and talk about how the
schools should be run" without eliciting or paying attention to
opinions from young people. "It's like an architect building a house
and the people who want the house built having no say in what's going on.
Maybe he's building a geodesic dome and they want a Victorian," he
explains.
Although such complaints about our education system are common, there's
something special about hearing them from a person who has so recently
suffered the indignity of a hall pass. Wetzel's high school wounds are
fresh; the mere mention of a hall pass is like a slap on the face, it seems.
Were it not for the fact that he has immersed himself in positive
alternatives to high schools like his, he might be bitter.
To
read this article in its entirety please click
here.
-- Sharon Lerner
From Utne Reader
"There is now a call not just for restructuring but for a real
transformation of education." Dee Dickenson
When I imagine the best ways to educate children, I am always drawn to a
vision of communities built around the concept of learning at the very
heart. It is a costly vision, rich with ideals. But as caring for our youth—as well as the need for lifelong
learning—move higher on our social
agendas, I know it can become a reality in the decades ahead. I know this
because my vision is based on seeds being planted today at schools
throughout the world, seeds that are already bearing some fruit. In this
vision, education begins in the home, supported by early childhood/parenting
centers. These programs might be inspired by the pioneering Family and
Intelligence projects in Venezuela, the remarkable early childhood schools
of Reggio Emilia in Italy, or Parents as Teachers and other fine
parent-education and preschool programs in the United States. Future
community learning centers with supportive child/family services might
replace today's schools, and Lighthouses of Knowledge, inspired by those now
existing in Curitiba, Brazil, might evolve from existing public libraries.
New, low-cost educational technologies are already becoming more available
throughout the world.
What follows, then, is my vision of the places, teachers, and technologies
that will educate our children—and ourselves—some 50 years from now. I'll
start my tour with the newer educational structures for adults and parents
and then move on to the child's classroom of the future.
Lighthouses of Knowledge
Welcome first to a Lighthouse of Knowledge, a large, modern facility once
known as the local library but that has transformed into a community focal
point. It is made of transparent, shatterproof material. Like glasses that
darken in the sunlight, the windows here cut glare when the sun is shining
but otherwise let light pour in. As you can imagine, when the Lighthouses in
all neighborhoods are lit up at night, the view is inspiring...
Dee Dickinson is the founder and chief
executive of New Horizons for Learning, an international education network
based in Seattle and in a virtual building on the Internet at www.newhorizons.org.
She has taught at all levels—elementary through
university.
"More educators are beginning to understand as well that emotional
intelligence is even more important to success in school and in life than
IQ, and they are not only discussing but learning how to include the
spiritual in education. In essence, they are beginning to focus on how to
create a system that engages students emotionally, cognitively, physically,
socially, and spiritually in a humane environment." Dee
Dickinson
In the same way that the Industrial Revolution transformed Western society,
so too is our way of life being irrevocably altered by the advent of the digital
age. The impact of computers, the Internet, on-line technology and video screens
has not only changed the way we do business, but entertainment and leisure have
also been dramatically affected.
At the same time that information related technology is transforming how we
relate to the world, the increasing inter-connectedness of global financial
markets and national economies also signifies a radical break with the past. To
survive and prosper, countries have to open themselves to outside forces and
compete in an intensely competitive and hostile international environment.
What is the impact of such forces on education and what will schools look like
in the 21st Century?...
To
read this article in its entirety go here:Website
"Our aim is not merely
to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorize, but
so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his inmost core." Maria
Montessori
"Let
us put our minds together and see what life we will make for our
children" Tatanka Iotanka (Sitting Bull)
The transformation of learning into education paralyzes
man's poetic ability, the power to endow the world with his personal meaning.
Man will wither away just as much if he is deprived of nature, of his own work,
or of his deep need to learn what he wants and not what others have planned that
he should learn.--Ivan Illich
of meaning to the world of outer efforts... World Citizenship as an expression of both goodwill and understanding should be the goal of the enlightened everywhere and the hallmark of the spiritual man, and in these three, you have right relations established between education, religion and
politics. 
Welcome first to a Lighthouse of Knowledge, a large, modern facility once
known as the local library but that has transformed into a community focal
point. It is made of transparent, shatterproof material. Like glasses that
darken in the sunlight, the windows here cut glare when the sun is shining
but otherwise let light pour in. As you can imagine, when the Lighthouses in
all neighborhoods are lit up at night, the view is inspiring...
"More educators are beginning to understand as well that emotional
intelligence is even more important to success in school and in life than
IQ, and they are not only discussing but learning how to include the
spiritual in education. In essence, they are beginning to focus on how to
create a system that engages students emotionally, cognitively, physically,
socially, and spiritually in a humane environment." Dee
Dickinson
