My thoughts I

I wonder how we will all turn out if our education system is not what we know it is. Would we have become what we are today despite the education we received or for that matter would the world be what it is today?

If you think of it, our political, economic and social systems are products of thinkers from their respective disciplines and thus how our lives are shaped was influenced by the schooling that these thinkers received to a certain degree.

Now, if economists think that there is no cost of money, then there would be no interest rate; that would certainly make a significant part of what we know of economics break down. Things would be at their real price of what people value them to be. Now, wouldn't that be a beautiful life?Instead, we have a complicated web of financial and economic systems that can ride on something that doesn't even exist as long as someone find it profitable.

Which makes us come to the question of ethics. As a result of secularisation, most schools now are stripped of not only 'religious' practices but even symbols. We try to replace them with moral and civics on a purely abstract level that leaves the spiritual essence of the child empty. Our children are told to leave their beliefs at the school gates and live half their day as a separate social entity.

Diversion

I have recently decided to take a break from Montessori to learn more about the Waldorf method. Technically however, I realise that I'm just learning something else on top of Montessori. *:>*
Can they work with each other, yes, but at the expense of going against some very core opinions.

One does not have to delve deeper than on when the child should learn how to read. If the child is exposed to reading skills in Montessori schools as young as three, Waldorf educators believe that such an act is detrimental to his holistic growth no less.

Academic learning starts only after the child has lost his teeth, usually around the age of seven. For only then does the child has the 'energies' available for such activities that have been freed from being inputs for the child's basic physical or spiritual growth, for example.

Then there is the area of play, specifically imaginary play, that puts Montessori and Waldorf poles apart. In Waldorf play, the 'toys' are made in the most simple and natural manner so the child's imagination can play an architectural role in how the play is to be carried out.

A doll, for one, shouldn't have too much details about it. None of those fancy painted eyes that shut and open when you want them, sounds of crying or laughter nor lifelike features. Like any toy in Waldorf, it should be simple and natural. Better without an expression for the child to imagine one for himself.

I can help thinking about Hello Kitty and Miffy... were they Waldorf inspired?

Where Montessori believed that 'imaginary play' in a young child is a phase not to be encouraged; one shouldn't make a stick a horse but go out there and see a real horse....It's perfectly fine in Waldorf for the child to imagine any stick or flower to be horses or fairies, in fact it's healthy.

I have just read "Children at Play" where there was a section on how a child deprived of imagining her rolled up nightie to be a doll has created an imaginary doll. Montessori believed that children imagine things because of an unsatisfied need and if this need is satisfied this 'make believe' will go away. Two parts of the same coin?

One platform that brings Waldorf and Montessori together is respect for the child and the importance of creating a sense of awe in learning. All those nature walks, admiring the skies above, learning things from nature....then there's the Head, Heart and Hand.

I am enjoying this journey of discovery every minute. I must say it has been a smoother and more beautiful journey since I incorporated the two methods into our homeschool.

Current Projects

These are the projects I'm working on now. My plan is to work on three subject areas over 1 or 2 weeks according to the lesson plans by Montessori R&D. That takes away a lot of the planning:)

1. Parts of a plant and its extensions

2. Geometric Cabinet 4-6

3. Level 1 Chemistry experiment cards.

Btw, the books I bid on ebay finally arrived after almost 3 months. Somewhere between Seattle and Portland they took more than two months before finally arriving in Singapore. Hmm.... I cannot complain about our postal service anymore....Will, InsyaAllah, review them when I'm done.

Book Review: Waldorf Education by Christopher Clouder and Martyn Rawson

This is a great book to read as an introduction to the Steiner Waldorf School of thought. No, I'm not deviating from Montessori, but it has been such an enriching experience. This is especially so because the Waldorf school is 'radically child centred and is based on the on-going study of the developing human being.' Gasp! that sounds like the Montessori philosophy.

If Montessori has 'Cosmic Education', the Waldorf school also seeks to assist the child in finding meaning in life for 'it is a central task of education to give children not only a sense of identity but a profound sense of purpose'.

I also find it intriguing how they stress on creating deep impressions for 'the more profound and true to the being of the phenomenon the young child's experience is, the more profound the conscious knowledge in later years.' Ka-ching again....

I can go on. There are of course differences in approach and methods. However, what I am most attracted to is their 'sense' based education that is translated in their programme which is very arts based such as music, dance, drama and the visual arts.

I have always had a soft spot for the arts. Having reconciled somewhat, my artistic tendencies with Islamic values, I have come full circle from reviling in art as defined by the West, throwing it aside and returning to art with a new, more Islamic, perspective. I want to share that with my children, especially Umayr who is more artistically inclined.

The arts are so much apart of the Waldorf school. I am not for the fairy tales and myths but the artistic angle is an attraction that I'd like to incorporate in my Montessori teaching with my kids. Montessori herself did not feel the need to dabble in art curriculum for she felt that it was already doing a great job!

It is certainly a much easier read than what you can find at www.rsarchive.org which provides a lot of literature online on the Waldorf school. Darn, even Montessori doesn't have that. However, if you want an academic read, it is a very good website.

On Imagination

In my spare time, I am currently reading Montessori's Spontaneous Activity in Education. What I think she was trying to convey on her chapter on Imagination today really struck me. Montessori stressed on how important it is to let the child's mind mature on the imagination platform instead of us encouraging the raw nature of imagination that is in the child for 'illusions' are the beginning of false reasoning, and the concomitants of delirium.

Simply speaking, if you want to teach a child what is a horse show her a horse in all its true form not a lego block of squares. Adults easily fall into the trap of encouraging the child, for the sake of making them imaginative, in flights of fancy. Just like how we make up fables with witches and warlocks and fairy godmothers who grant wishes when things get impossible , just to name a few.

However, Montessori argued that such a propagation does not breed imagination but is instead an act of arrest(ing) artificially a stage of development for our own amusement. Our role is not to let this transient stage become an artifice for the child needs to grow into an adult.

For all its worth, my sons love Lego and it is true how an unsatisfied need create an illusion. For not being able to play with toy guns, my second makes them out of anything. Children in fact, are very capable in that sense to come up with alternatives. However, Montessori warned against them being too deprived of what they desire for it would begin to create fantastical thoughts but he who possesses something attaches himself to that which he possesses to persevere and increase it reasonably.

Imagination can only have a sensory basis, not?

On Montessori

1. In what ways was Maria Montessori a pioneer for women's rights?

Maria Montessori was a pioneer for women's rights in her fight to pursue her beliefs despite the barriers facing women in Italy then. She was very much a pioneer through example, refusing to follow the normal path that women followed then by first wanting to be an engineer and studying in a technical school and then pursuing medicine when no woman has ever done that before in Italy.

When she met up with the head of the medical faculty to discuss the possibility that she could enter the faculty but was spurned, she left with the parting words of , “ I know I will be a doctor.” She continued this persistence by matriculating for the medical faculty and finally getting into it.

Her exemplary fight to pursue what she wants despite the place that women had in society then was portrayed in her struggles during her studies where she was treated coldly by her male compatriots. She not only persisted to excel but won over many of her critics. Dr. Maria also had to fight her personal inhibitions with the rigours of her medical studies as shown in the episode when she first had to work in the mortuary.

Montessori's fight for women's rights continued soon after her graduation when she became the Italian representative for a conference on women's rights in Germany. There she impressed much with her spontaneity and insight into the issues facing women in those days. Throughout her fight to do what she believed was right, Montessori did not see any reason to part from her feminine nature. stamping her own version of a liberated woman.

2. In what ways did she lead an important educational movement for reform?

Dr. Montessori's wave of reform started from her work with the disabled where she called for changes to how they are being taught. She believed that they become a liability to society only because the system they were put into did not teach them to be more than what they are because society has already perceived them as lesser beings.

Montessori stated in the Pedagogical Congress in Turin in 1898 that “the intellectual idiot and the moral imbecile are capable of being educated and have instincts that can be used to lead them to the good.”¹

She later translated her opinions in her work at the Orthophrenic School for two years which she called her first and indeed my true degree in pedagogy. She achieved a breakthrough when the children who were thought to be of no hope to learn anything were able to read and write, with some passing the national examination, then the average level of education of Italians, after being taught at the school.

Montessori brought scientific pedagogy to a new level. She not only furthered Itard's and Seguin's work, she also brought in her medical and anthropological background into education and began a pedagogical revolution where the child, not the teacher or anything else became the center of learning. “ The subject of our study is humanity; our purpose is to become teachers. Now, what really makes a teacher is love for the human child...” ²

• 3. In what ways to you feel she was "human"?

Despite her privileged upbringing, Montessori never saw herself as being above the less well-off. As a child, she befriended a hunchbacked child and went for walks with her. She was often a champion for the underdogs; women, the disabled and of course, children.

Montessori also continued to live in Spain and not return to Barcelona after her visit to the United States in 1915 so that her son will not be conscripted into military service which would have conflicted with her stand against war and militaristic nationalism.

In her speech on “ Education and Peace” , Montessori talked about how important it was that human instincts must keep up with the advancement of technology which in the wrong hands could have catastrophic consequences for “if the sidereal forces are used blindly by men who know nothing about them with the aim of destroying one another- the attempt will be speedily successful.”³

• 4. How did her humanity impact her role as a world leader both positively and negatively?

One of the strongest negative impact of her humanity on her role as a world leader was how she agreed to go along with Mussolini in his support for the Montessori movement which was in truth for his own fascist ambitions.

In her stand that she was apolitical and that the “cause of the child” superseded ephemeral distinctions of party and nation. She believed that despite the brutalities of the regime, it was far better that she is in the system taking charge of the education of the children and hence for the betterment of society in future.

Those unstable times however also brought opportunities for her work to be carried out among the victims of war. Out of her plea for the establishment of the White Cross to treat the children of war, Montessori classes were set up in almost thirty cities in France for children who had been the victims of war.

She also contributed to other war relief efforts such as the Haus der Kinder in Vienna, pumping in support from England towards the school that was built to serve the destitute children who were victims of war.

The world wars also made her an advocate for peace around the world and she was even nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize thrice. Her work brought her around the world for the most part of her life such that her country is a star which turns around the sun and is called the Earth.

5. What is the greatest contribution of her life to the world?

Dr. Montessori's gave to the world her philosophy and method of education where the child can discover for himself and is able to apply what he learns to new situations in a school. Through this she has freed the child from the slavery imposed in schools where the child is confined to the chair and table and made to repeat lessons.

6. What would you like to add about the story of her life?

More than half a century after Dr. Montessori's death, her work has continued to enjoy a continued renaissance and has spread throughout the world.

My hope is that this love for the child is brought into public education so that a majority, if not all the children will be able to discover their true self and their role in this life. There is lack of spirituality in the education of the masses which at times has been made into a factory for the economic growth of the future.

An education should not only be about being number one, but to love knowledge and to live by a code of conduct that would bring good to society at large because if education is always to be conceived along the same antiquated lines of a mere transmission of knowledge, there is little to be hoped from it in the bettering of man's future.”

1Kramer, R. (1988). Maria Montessori A Biography, p.75

2 Ibid, p.98

3Ibid, p. 302

.

What I have learned from My Montessori Foundations Course

When I first came into contact with Montessori's methods 5 years ago, it was like an encounter with a totally alien concept. How can learning be carried out when children are left to walk around choosing their 'lesson' for the day without the adult guiding them step by step?

From then it has been a journey of discovery. I even took up a distance course locally which I though was already such an interesting journey. However, when I took up the course with Montessorilive, I realised how narrow my earlier course was and how academic centred it was, not much unlike our local school system where children are pressured to do their best to bring up their school ranking in the country and how we are always competing to be the best in the world testing and examinations standards.

I know see the bigger picture for If education is always to be conceived along the same antiquated lines of a mere transmission of knowledge, there is little to be hoped from it in the bettering of man's future. The children are not factors in production lines to be assigned their different lines based on the paper tests that we give them much like how the industrial revolution in Germany played a role in how schools are organised today.

Instead, I shall now try to humble myself, like the secret hinge on a door as we teachers can only help the work going on, as servants wait upon a master. This will be a great struggle, for we adults, especially as I am not only their educator but also first and foremost their mother, always see ourselves in a position of authority.

Preparation of the Educator

6. What is the essential “hidden hinge” within the educational process of the human child?

The hinge is an almost insignificant part of the door that one tend to forget its role completely when in actual fact without the hinge, the act of opening of closing the door would be a more complex concern. Hence, such should be the position of the educator in the Montessori environment; he should humble himself to such an insignificant position as the hinge.

Only by allowing the child to take centrestage, will he be able to reveal his inner being to the educator who can then tailor to the needs of the child and ease the process of him opening the door to knowledge that exist beyond.

9. Define the horticultural terms “thriving”, “wilting”, and “stunted” as they apply to the learner.

When a child is thriving, the learning environment is helping him to go to the next stage of his development as is ordained by his inner being. He not only performs at the level that he is supposed to be at but is capable of working towards what is beyond his current level of skills and knowledge.

A student who is stunted is not as easily detected for they might seem to be thriving when in fact they are not moving any further than where they are at already. This can be seen when the child is able to do her work with much ease and can easily lead to boredom and detachment from the learning process.

A wilting learner, is digressing away from what he is actually capable of and this might be the result of either putting him at a level way beyond his reach or a deficient environment. Hence, when a student is wilting or stunting there has been a mistake in how we are responding to what he actually needs and is capable of doing. There must have been something slacking in how the child has been observed and analysed or there might have been a mismatch in approach.

7. Why did Dr. Montessori say that she had to become a “nobody” when she was there with children?

There was a need to be a 'nobody' for only then will the natural phenomenon of the child reveal itself to the educator. In standard schools, it is the teacher that becomes the centre of attention that all the students need to observe but in a Montessori school, the reverse is true.

To study the phenomena of the child, the educator must be 'invisible' so that the child can carry out his work out of his own inner will and decision. Every child has different needs in him that makes him see the same thing in a different way and this will be reflected in how he responds to the environment around him and how he is called out to the materials.

Being the centre of a class would interfere in the natural learning process that the child is going through for the teacher would then be the 'command centre' where all instructions come from. However, in such an environment, how are we to know that what the child is doing is reflective of his psychic being. It would almost be like a bias in an experiment.

By observing what for example calls out to the child and how he works with it, the educator can decide where the child is in his stage of development and what his natural inclinations may be. He can then find areas to widen the scope of work that the child is working on or decide on the next work that the child is ready to do.

11. What did the children learn about writing after they had their first “exploded into language”?

When the children first 'exploded into language' they were fervently writing and deciphering whatever words were around then. Dr. Montessori however showed them that there was an even more meaningful part to language and that was 'communication'. She wrote on the board ' if you can read this, hug me' and when the children who were able to read saw that they came to her and embraced her.

From there they realised that language was a powerful tool that they could use to express their thoughts to one another and gain a response from. They soon started writing to each other and were truly enjoying language as a human experience.

17. Why must a Montessori educator become a storyteller or actor?

A Montessori educator needs to capture the spark in the child when he presents the material to him. This is done through the carefully sequenced acts and expressions which is almost dramatic. When this is translated in other areas of educating the child that does not use that much physical or didactic material, the words become the material and there is an even greater need to express oneself very well as the concept becomes more abstract.

Hence, the educator needs to be a great storyteller or actor for his stories or scenes are what that must capture the child's interest and imagination. The experience will not only be easier to remember but it will leave a deeper impression in the child and hopefully spurs him to further discover what has been introduced to him.

Montessori Beginnings

This is my man on the road attempts at academic greatness....some of the lines don't make sense to me at all after I handed in my assignment. Oh well, I'm trying to learn.....

1. What is the distinction between a methodology and a philosophy of education?

Philosophy means the love of wisdom. John Dewey went a step further in defining philosophy of education as the process of forming fundamental disposition, intellectual and emotional, toward nature and fellow-men, philosophy may even be defined as the general theory of education. Unless a philosophy is to remain symbolic—or verbal-or a sentimental indulgence for a few, or else mere arbitrary dogma, its auditing of past experience and its program of values must take effect in conduct (MW 9: p. 338).

A less radical approach would be that the philosophy of education is the study of the purpose, process, nature and ideals of education. This can be within the context of education as a societal institution or more broadly as the process of human existential growth, i.e. how it is that our understanding of the world is continually transformed via physical, emotional, cognitive and transcendental experiences.It can naturally be considered a branch of both philosophy and education.

( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_education )

Methodology of education can be defined as a set or system of methods, principles, and rules for regulating a branch of pedagogics dealing with analysis and evaluation of subjects to be taught and of the methods of teaching them.

( http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=methodology )

The methodology of education can be taken as a subset of the philosophy of education which is concerned with the principles and procedures of inquiry in gaining knowledge. Henceforth, the philosophy of education is the basis of the system which is the method.

When one carries out a method, it must thus be guided by the philosophy as in the case of the Montessori method which is for example, is always guided by the philosophy of following the child. We can make the child work on a didactic material but to have insisted that the child do a particular exercise would have gone against the philosophy of following the child and thus be in conflict too with the method of presenting the material when the child is ready to do so, for example.

4. Would you describe Montessori's philosophy of education as being metaphysical or existential? Explain your opinion.

The teacher must derive not only the capacity, but the desire, to observe natural phenomena. The teacher must understand and feel her position of observer: the activity must lie in the phenomenon. (The Montessori Method, ch. 5 )

Montessori's method can only be described as existential as they are based on her observations of the children. It does not seek only to explore ideas of what a child is but is based on pursuing personal meaning in existence because education is a natural process carried out by the human individual, and is acquired not by listening to words, but by experiences in the environment.” ( Education in a New World )

From the beginning, even in her work with the less able students, Montessori had made extensive observations from which she would produce the didactic materials and the learning environment. Her 'method' thus came about as a response to what she has observed of the child and not purely from a theory that seeks to be applied to the child.

By observing the child, a teacher would know how and what is best to be presented to the child to capture the spark that would lead him to pursue knowledge because we are here to offer to this life, which came into the world by itself, the means necessary for its development, and having done that we must await this development with respect.

Perhaps the strongest sense that we get that Montessori's philosophy is existential can be seen in her words that "There was no method to be seen, what was seen was a child...acting according to its own nature." ( Secret of Childhood, p.136 )

7. What is the role of a child's intentionality in Montessori's understanding of education?

Intention begins to exist in a child when he is able to act out of his own accord. It is not something that suddenly exist in a child but needs to be developed in accordance with the laws of nature.

In the beginning, the child acts more out of instinct. To awaken his will, the child needs to go through a slow process that evolves through a continuous activity in relationship with the environment. The consciousness of choice needs to be constantly used and practiced before it can be fully developed.

The process however, can be a painfully long one if the educator tries to bend the will of the child to her own, seeing it as an expression of rebellion. Here, Montessori links the will or intentionality of the child with obedience. She believes that a child is not able to comply to instructions when she has not mastered the skills needed to do so.

Instead, the educator must realise that the child goes through three stages of obedience where at first it is dictated purely by the hormic impulse, then it rises to the level of consc, and thereafter it goes on developing, stage by stage, till it comes under the control of the conscious will.

He begins by being able to obey at times and moves on to the second stage where he is more able in his actions and can act according to not only his will but that of another. At the third stage, he obeys not only because he wants to but because he is in awe of the person who instructs him.

9. What influences did the anthropologist, Sergi, and the French physicians, Itard and Sequin, have on Montessori's way of educating children?

Sergi's most significant influence on Montessori was the idea of turning anthropology 'from the classification of abnormalities to the discovery of ways of preventing the abnormality, through the establishment of a scientific pedagogy based on the anthropological study of children' Montessori basically applied his methods of scientific observation to understanding the learning behaviour of children.(Maria Montessori , A Biography p. 71)

These scientific observations are however not the essence of how we should educate the child, according to Sergi, but it shows us the way to do so for we cannot educate anyone until we know him thoroughly '(Ibid, p. 98)

Itard, best known for his work on the Savage of Aveyron, was influential in the area of sensorial education where he set out to educate the mind through sensorial exercises in gradually increasing levels of difficulty. We can see this in Montessori's primary sensorial materials such as the rough and smooth boards and the baric tablets.

Itard's work on the mentally and physically challenged was to be continued by Seguin, his student, who would further develop the methods in educating these children in the belief that their inadequacies can be overcome somewhat by training. This was seen in Montessori's opinion that mental deficiency presented chiefly a pedagogical, rather than mainly a medical , problem ( The Montessori Method p. 31)

Another revolutionary aspect that could later be seen in Montessori's work was Seguin's unique treatment of the child for to him respect for individuality is the first test of a teacher. ( Idiocy & It's treatment by the Physiological Method p. 33)

6. What influences did Montessori's beginning educational work with idiot and wounded children have on her understanding of the learning process?

Montessori believed that children are the product of the educational system that they were in. When she began to be interested in the deficient children, she believed that they were at the lowly state they were in because there was nothing in the asylums that stimulated their already wounded mind and body.

The success of her methods with them, some of whom learnt to read and write and even passed the national exams, convinced her that even more could be achieved if the same methods were used with the normal children as they contained educational principles more rational than those in use' and ' that similar methods applied to normal children would develop or set free their personality in a marvelous and surprising way. ( The Montessori Method pp.32-33)

Montessori's work with the deficients were the building blocks of her work with the normal children such as the principle of the education of the senses and then the intellect, as seen in the walking exercises to the later programme of learning how to read from raised letters and teaching a skill by having the child repeat an exercise that prepares him for it, as in the practical and sensorial exercises found in Montessori classes that precedes writing.

References

www.montessorilive.net

Education for a New World

Maria Montessori, A Biography, Kramer, Rita

The Absorbent Mind

The Montessori Method

The Secret of Childhood, Montessori, M.,

my remaining two-thirds for week 3 of my foundations course

Jean Piaget

1. What is significant in Montessori’s move from mathematics and engineering to the study of the mind and the science of psychology?

There were interesting parallels in the life of Montessori and Piaget. Montessori moved from engineering to a more biological faculty of medicine, while Piaget who was encouraged by his mother to enter the religious order moved to Zoology.

It is for both of them while in the fields of medicine and zoology that they developed an interest in the growth of human: Montessori through the field of embryology and Piaget through his studies of mollusks and clams. While Montessori also got into the field anthropology before moving on to psychology, Piaget's study of mollusks and clams got him interested in psychological analysis and through his readings, began to be interested in human intelligence and how it develops.

While Montessori was given the opportunity to carry out her observations and test her theories through her work first with the mentally handicapped, Piaget had the pleasure of observing his own children.

Their work thus sprang both from the scientific observation of the child and eventually produced their own scientific pedagogies where the child's growth is divided over stages. Montessori developed the Sensitive Periods while Piaget produced the Cognitive Theory of Development. They both believed that in order to develop the child holistically, we must first respect the stage of development the child is in and duly respond to it.

Rudolph Steiner

2. Based on his deep understanding of the needs of the growing child what basic areas of the human child did Steiner purpose his education to develop?

A Waldorf education should develop in the child a clarity of thought and a balance of feelings that also produces someone who has a strong sense of self and the people around him. Steiner also strove to develop the child's conscience and initiative.

This is done in a school that stresses on the arts as it touches a part of the child in the most intimate sense for 'reverance awakens in the soul a sympathetic power which would otherwise remain concealed.'

There is a higher man in every child that only when he is awakened, will the child be able to attain supersensible knowledge. This knowledge is made clear to the child when he is given the opportunity to contemplate on his past experiences with the ideas from men who are already knowledgeable.

It is however not developed in a vacuum but is to be related to the world around him. In fact, Steiner believes that a child's aim in learning is not for himself but to see how he can be a productive contributor to the good of the earth.

Here we see a similarity to Montessori's cosmic education where the child is aware of his place in life. Being that he sees the reason for his existence in connection to the rest of life, work becomes a source of life to him.' For now he knows that his labor and his suffering are given and endured for the sake of a great, spiritual, cosmic whole. Not weariness, but strength to live springs from meditation.'

This becomes a spiritual motivation for the child to endeavour in his work as he has innate realisation that this work is essential for the inner man in him, or what Steiner called the work-a-day man, to be actualised so that he can perform his cosmic role.

References

www.montessorilive.net

www.comnet.ca

www.uea.ac.uk

www.rsarchive.org

Vygotsky

I wish I've read Vygotsky earlier, now he's my other favourite Russian writer, besides Chekov. Then again, if I've read him in secondary school like I did Chekov, there would not have been any love lost, there was nothing in children then that I would have found to be of any interest or relevance to me.

Here's one-third of my second assignment due this Friday ( which is Thursday there, thank God for the time difference).

Lev Vygotsky

1. Explain Vygotsky's key concepts: Zone of Proximal Development, Scaffolding , Play. How do such relate to educational practice?

Vygotsky defined the zone of proximal development as ' the distance between the actual development level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers.'

He gave the example of two children with the standardised mental age of an eight year old. One though can solve problems up to that a 9 year old can do while the other up to the difficulty level of a twelve year old with guidance.

He concluded that they are not of the same mental age after all and that their learning would eventually have to take on a different rate. Whatever the child can already do is learning that has already matured but those functions in their embryonic stage that are still maturing is what Vygotsky called the zone of proximal development.

Educators thus need to identify two levels of the state of a child's development: 'the actual development level and the zone of proximal development'. It is in this zone where the child can achieve his potential with the guidance of an adult or his more capable peers. The ability to cater to this part of a child's development not only ensures that he is not bogged down and turned off by things he has already internalised but allows him to reach a higher level of development.

Scaffolding is ' the gradual withdrawal of adult control and support as a function of children’s increasing mastery of a given task.' based on the ideas of Jerome Bruner. The educator is like the support that gives the children an extra boost as he finds his way to a new stage of learning. However his role is eventually diminished as ' what a child can do with assistance today she will be able to do by herself tomorrow.' ( Vygotsky 1978 p87)

Vygotsky sees the function of the educator in the process of scaffolding more as that of 'a facilitator of cognitive development'. While acting in this role he should be a collaborator in this process who together with the children work towards accomplishing joint goals.

Play creates a zone of proximal development in a child where he is capable of behaving beyond his age. It contains 'all developmental tendencies in a condensed form'. Where two sisters cannot be models of behaviour in real life, when they play sisters they strive to be what they believe is the ideal that is expected from each of them. Though it arises from their imagination, that is initially very close to real life, they subordinate their immediate impulses to the rules of the situation if it was real.

It is thus a strong tool in assisting the child in his development. Opportunities for play should be created in the learning environment to enable this process to take place. Contrary to ensuring that the child is constructively occupied all the time, time off to play can have a very positive effect on the child. Not only does he runs through his experiences, he recreates this in his own controlled environment and characters with real life rules, bridging what he is already capable of and what he can be and eventually becomes capable to function in the role he has played out

References

www.comnet.ca

www.uea.ac.uk

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Change in angle

I have decided to change this blog from a first person account of homeschooling to be dedicated instead to different educational philosophies or methods especially Montessori, although I'm not so sure now after learning about others but I shall focus still on Montessori where there is an integration of sorts, though that may be because I've only just read on the philosophers who influenced her, and a 'method'.

I'll start by sharing my short write-ups for my Montessori Foundations course that I'm currently taking from www.montessorilive.net. I love the short lectures, the interactive chats and the angle of the whole course. It has made me realise how much 'deeper' the Montessori school of thought is, so unlike the technical concentration on presentation that I'm swamped with in the course I took locally.

Here's my first write-up on the Early Reformers in Education. Do not these are the writings of a layman over a period of a few days and are thus not in depth and not necessarily right: )

Week 1 Assignment: Early Reformers in Education

Jean Jacques Rousseau

4. What did Rousseau's philosophy of education stress? What did he advise was the role of the educator of the child?

   Rousseau divided education into that which is from nature, man and things. However as

nature is beyond our control and things only partly, we can only take hold of the education of man. All three must work in harmony to produce a well-educated man who will achieve his goal in life and is at peace with himself.

This ideal is however prevented by the norms and demands of life or societal pressures such as that of authority and prejudice. From the start, Rousseau believed that we thwart the true education of children by for example not providing him with the care of his mother and the swaddling the infant that he is unable to fulfill his physical needs.

To overcome this, education should persevere ' to preserve the 'original perfect nature' of the child by means of careful control of his education and environment, based on an analysis of the different physical and physiological stages through which he passed from birth to maturity.' (Stewart and McCann 1967: 28).

Herein, come the role of the educator who is but a facilitator in the whole plan. He must not only be a model to the child but ' prepare his surroundings, so that nothing shall strike his eyes but what is fit for his sight.'

The ideal setting for this scene to Rousseau is the countryside where there is greater control over what the teacher thinks the child should learn and is far removed from the evils of urban life. Apart from providing the right environment, the teacher must also decide on the best education plan for the child which should spring from what the child is inclined to. To find this out, the teacher must ' take time to observe nature; watch your scholar well before you say a word to him; first leave the germ of his character free to show itself, do not constrain him in anything, the better to see him as he truly is.'

John Henry Pestalozzi

3.What were the elements of the human child that Pestalozzi insisted be in balance for healthy education to take place?

Pestalozzi believed that education should be holistic in that it not only imparts knowledge that already exists but to equip the students in such a way that they become autonomous beings. Central to this process was the need for the 'hand', 'heart' and 'head' to be in equilibrium.

In fact he said, 'the most fearful gift that a fiendish spirit has made to this age is knowledge without power of doing and insight without that power of exertion or of overcoming that makes it possible.'

'Head' was referred to by Pestalozzi as 'man's ability to detach himself through reflection from the world and his confused impressions thereof by developing concepts and ideas.'

In reality however, man's sensitivity is constantly challenged and 'brings him closer to his fellow men in the struggle to control nature through work' (ibid) of what he defines as the heart. Torn between the ideal and reality, man works towards the formation of his own self of what is the 'hand'.

The three elements are however not three separate faculties but one which should be integrated in every educational activity. For example Pestalozzi wrote, ' This A B C of limb exercise must, naturally, be brought into harmony with the A B C of sense exercises, and with all the mechanical practice in thinking, and with exercises in form and number-teaching.'

In his four-step course of the arts, he begins with the correct mastery of a skill and 'at the end of the development there is 'freedom and independence', i.e creative mastery.'

Friedrich Froebel

3.What were the three elements Froebel thought as necessary for the education of the whole child?

Froebel's work was based on three principles; (1) all existence originates in and with God; (2) humans possess an inherent spiritual essence that is the vitalizing life force that causes development; (3) all beings and ideas are interconnected parts of a grand, ordered, and systematic universe. There is an internal spiritual essence- a life force- in every child at birth that seeks to be externalized through self-activity.

'The purpose of education is to encourage and guide man as a conscious, thinking and perceiving being in such a way that he becomes pure and perfect representation of that divine inner law through his own personal choice; education must show him the ways and meanings of attaining that goal.' ( Friedrich Froebel 1826 Die Nenschenerziehung, pp.2)

Froebel shares the Idealist viewpoint that every child has in him from birth all that he is to become. From providing the right environment, the child will then grow into what they were meant to be which was also the basis of the Kindergarten.

We can however only know the inner child from his outer manifestations and he believed that a major part of this is seen in play for 'Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood for it alone is the free expression of what is in a child's soul.'

John Dewey

8. What did Dewey mean by his saying that 'education is life itself'?

'Education is a social process; education is growth; education is not a preparation for life but is life itself.'

In order for life to continue there needs to be a continued process of self-renewal that ensures the survival of the being. As for social life, this role is taken up by education which Dewey sees as the means through which this can be realised.

Education does this through the process of transmitting the 'ideals, hopes, expectations, stantdards, opinions, from those members of society who are passing out' to the young.' If this is not carried out it could mean the demise of the social life of that community.

Life itself too is education for the process of living together ' enlarges and enlightens experience; it stimulates and enriches imagination; it creates responsibility for accuracy and vividness of statement and thought.

This is translated in practice where students would be involved in real-life lessons and challenges such as learning math in cooking and simulations of historical events. This closed the gap between real life and abstract learning from textbooks as information and society progressed at a fast speed.

References

Rousseau, J. J(2004). The Project Gutenberg Ebook of Emile. #5427,

UNESCO (1994) Prospects: the quarterly review of comparative education, vol XXIV, no. ½,,p.297-310).

Pestalozzi, J.H (1894), How Gertrude Teaches Her Children, http://core.roehampton.ac.uk/digital/froarc/peshow/index.htm

www.heinrich-pestalozzi.de/en/documentation/fundamental_ideas/education

Dewey, J. (1997).The Project Gutenberg Ebook of Democracy and Education.#852