You might have read me bitching about schooling on this blog before (at least on Why the school system is dangerous). I do think schooling is bad for our children when only the traditional systems and ignoring the children´s interests is behind the scenes.
Fortunately, there´s also good schooling. Some alternatives to the traditional schools are around, like Montessori, Waldorf, Reggio Emilia, The Sudbury School, Summerhill School and Homeschooling, you can find information on some of these inspired methods here (and please add any other you know in the comments section to spread the good information).
These schools usually have a different and changeable curricula, age mixing, order and discipline (forget accusations on mere anarchy), values on education, holistic philosophies, pluralism and political neutrality.
When a school uses ideas of group learning and intrinsic motivation, I am all about it.
When I was couchsurfing in San Jose, I met Sharon, a ¨fundamentalist¨ unschooler. She was instructed enough with studies and experience to talk about the topic and made strong impressions on me.
She criticized parents saying that their children love school. ¨Well¨, she said, ¨if you are so sure, you should ask your child every day if she wants to go to school¨. When not given the choice of not going, you can´t really say that is the child who wants it. Fair point.
Well, I´m happy that Luísa is attending a Waldorf kindergarten here in Costa Rica, that she undoubtedly loves going to. She also loved the kindergarten in Brazil, but given the chance to stay home, she wouldn´t miss that. But now, I can even use school to make her ready to leave, I say: ¨As soon as you´re finished with that, we can go to school¨, and ready she gets.
Waldorf education is all about producing individuals ¨who are able, in and of themselves, to impart meaning to their lives¨, it´s about educating the whole child ¨head, heart and hands¨.
This is definitely out of traditional schooling, where there is absolutely no ¨heart¨ involved.
While traditional schooling is about making the individuals fit in the roles of existing paradigms (aka-getting jobs as soon as they are out of it), Waldorf is about preparing the children to be contributors members of society, care takers of OUR world.
For the present system it´s ok to have starvation and people left out of decent living standards. We are obviously more concerned in producing more goods to sell than to take care of human beings without any profit involved.
I remember learning in my traditional school about Economy on how having 10% of an unemployment rate was an ok figure to handle. Something about having a good number of people needing jobs was good for the Economy. I remember studying all the wars. In traditional school, we learn to conform to all the scary shit going on and there is not much room to think differently. To pass the tests you have to memorize how things are the way they are.
Traditional schooling prepares people to fight in a competitive world, while alternative schooling is all about forming community.
We need to work together. And if Luísa can learn this in school, like she is learning now, than I´m happy about it.
In Luísa´s school, parents are invited to collaborate and choose an active role in the school. Parents are advised to meet and know the other families well, for them is vital to create a community around the children. It makes sense.
When children are respected and encouraged to think for themselves, they can become writers, scientists, socio-thinkers and all you can think and cannot think of. Try watching this 8-minute TED talk given by a 12-year old girl on ¨What adults can learn from kids¨ and you´ll be surprised at how far children can go when given support and a relevant education.
When school is good, it can stimulate children to reach their full potentials. It gives them space to develop their individuality, to think for themselves, to be problem solvers and ultimately to make the world a better place.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Awesome Marilia! I’m in kinda that same place trying to decide what we’ll do with our daughter for school because while I disagree with a lot of the ways traditional schools are run I also think the communal aspect of learning that it provides is so benificial. It sounds like you’ve found the best of both world for your little cutie! Congratulations.
Thanks Jenna, yep, we found a very nice alternative here.
Wow, that sounds so great!!!!
Thank you, Kelly.
As a mom of a 10 year old who is passionate about education and attachment parenting, I have really mixed feelings about schools and we’ve tried them all including top Waldorf, Reggio Emilia and Montessori and even a small private school on a 30 acre farm with a teacher trained in Monetsori AND Waldorf.
There can be some advantages to school ( like language immersion which has been our prime reason to use schools as we are primarily unschoolers at heart) but if I had to do it all over again…I am not sure that I would use any schools. I can see a BIG difference in my child when she has been in ANY school and it takes their privacy,freedom and self initiation away. The main things all schools teach is to follow their rules which is perhaps the last thing 21st century kids need.
Despite having sent my child to some amazing and special schools, I still think that self led home education is the best method by far and the only truly “awesome” school.
There are so many things that I truly love about Montessori, Reggio Emilia, and Waldorf, but I also found them VERY dogmatic, controlling and thinking their way is the ONLY way.
There is no REAL flexibility in either program. They force kids to fit into their molds ie my daughter taught herself to read at 2 …which freaks Waldorf peeps out a LOT . LOL. Yet, that was the natural course for HER! She could do the puzzles of the 6 year old Montessori kids at 15 months…did a bunch..self-led when we first toured the campus in that room in moments, but they would keep that from her in the toddler program. ( Not age appropriate according to THEIR dogma not an individual child).
When you put your child in a group situation then your child is not allowed to do her very own self led learning and no teacher will love your child like you do.
I saw clearly when I assisted weekly in my child’s small K class of only 6 kids that ( with a teacher and me helping) that even with those great odds of teacher to kid ratio, she did not get any where NEAR the benefits of one to one learning..strictly for her at her pace.
I think one also has to watch attachment issues as kids tend to attach to peers when in school instead of parents. There are too many kids for the teachers to watch them all. or handle bullies ..and I watched my toddler from a window at a distance get beat up by an unruly boy before the teacher saw it or helped ( tiny, excellent, award winning, super expensive Montessori school) and my baby was also bit severely in the face in a small, well supervised Waldorf school ( it happened to be the teachers aggressive male child who was being raised by 2 long time waldorf teachers and experts).
That said, I think one can dip into excellent schools carefully from time to time and they are good for immersion while traveling. But I would NEVER put a child in a school…ANY school full time for any length of time. They ALL teach compliance and mediocrity.
Here are a few great videos that I have found on schooling and you might like the teachers perspective of Gatto who is an award winning teacher who has taught at many, many schools private and public:
http://www.soultravelers3.com/education.html
Thanks for sharing so much of your story here, Jeanne. I´ll watch the videos on your page that I haven´t watched yet, I really like the Sir Ken Robinson one, it really makes you think how schooling is damaging.
Yes, language immersion is the best and I also consider unschooling ideal, but since many parents can´t watch their kids full time, we have to pick second best, and that´s where good schools fit in.
Personally, I found schooling Luísa really beneficial because I had (have) an issue with discipline. I´m learning to be more assertive and firm, but I was mostly too indulgent and the school has helped me and Luísas big time in the respecting area.
Maybe this is something about being a single parent and not having any help in the day-to-day routines, so school takes a good part in a needed discipline, and so it´s good to find methods like Waldorf that use positive discipline.
I think that when Luísa is a bit older, around 6 or 7, I might consider unschooling her, since she will be easier to share my time with (having a bit of time to work intelectually with her next to me).
It´s not simply the positive discipline what I like about the Waldorf school, but all the arts, singing, games and story-telling that they do everyday. If I had Luísa all for myself, I wouldn´t be doing all those nice activities with her. In a general overview it´s always hard to develop the individuality in a child being in a group and it´s impossible to prevent them from hurting each other from time to time, but there are lot of pros at it and the teachers do try their best to respect their individualities.
When Luísa started attending kindergarten at two, she was the one biting other children. I´m thankful that the teachers took the time to train her in attending the victims and her aggressive behavior stopped. I´m thankful to the parents that had the patience to let her bite their children every now and then and not make a big deal out of it, just like Luísa had been bitten the next year by the new ¨Luísa¨ in the group…
I need help in educating Luísa, it´s too hard for me to do it all by myself. Was she with me all day and a big part of it I´d be trying to get rid of her to do my own things, impatient of her lack of understanding… Now she is in school for only 4 hours and when she is home, I´m all hers, ready for lots of outdoor activities and to be interrupted whenever.
I also believe that unschooling is the future of education as people find different ways of making money (rather than 9-5 jobs) and have more time available for taking action in their kid´s education.
Wow! Thank you for this article Marilia. I really like some points of it, but I agree with Jeanne a bit about school.
My son, who is in a Montessori school, has a hard time with it. He gets a lesson, “gets” it almost immediately, and then wants to move on. But the model they use in the classroom is that the kids pick their works (within what the teachers approve) and then continue to do them over and over again, probably because of the idea that repetition can help students learn. My son, however, learns things quickly and then gets bored with his works.
The teachers have been awesome, but I don’t think any type of school is a good choice for us. Next year, I want to unschool him and then go from there.
One thing that I absolutely do not like about any school is that students are taught to be compliant and they always have to follow a schedule and a set of assignments that the teachers give. Schools also tend to teach kids to be “good workers” and that they must listen to all authority figures, no matter what. It is not necessarily healthy.
I do like Waldorf and Montessori over public schools, of course.
But those models don’t serve my son and our beliefs about education.
Yes Beth, I guess no model of schooling can serve an unschooler at heart like you. And I know you had to choose to put your son in school so you could have more time to work, it´s a tough decision.
The world will change fast as we see unschooling taking over more and more families. What a nice change we are about to see, more independent thinkers and creators of their own realities around
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