The Homeschooling Handbook_ From Preschool to High School - Mary Griffith [30]
Rudolf Steiner and the Waldorf Schools
Waldorf education is named after the cigarette factory whose director asked the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner to develop a school for the children of his workers. Steiner divided children’s development into three stages: to age seven, children learn primarily by imitation; from seven to fourteen, feelings and emotions predominate; and after age fourteen, the development of independent reasoning skills becomes important. Waldorf education tends to emphasize arts and crafts, music, and movement, especially at younger ages, and textbooks are eschewed in favor of books the students make themselves. Waldorf theories also maintain that the emphasis should be on developing the individual’s self-awareness and judgment, sheltered from political and economic aspects of society until well into adolescence.
Montessori and the Prepared Environment
Italian physician Maria Montessori’s work emphasized the idea of the prepared environment: Provide the proper surroundings and tools so that children can develop their full potential. Montes sori materials are carefully selected, designed to help children learn to function in their cultures and to become independent and competent. Emphasis is on beauty and quality, and that which confuses or clutters is avoided. Manipulatives are made of wood rather than plastic, tools are simple and functional, and television and computers are discouraged. As important as the materials themselves is their arrangement, ready for use when needed; children will not learn from even the best materials if they cannot find them to use them.
Charlotte Mason: Guiding Natural Curiosity
Charlotte Mason was a nineteenth-century educator who advocated informal learning during the child’s early years, in contrast with the Prussian system of regimented learning then in vogue. She recommended nature study to develop both observational skill and an appreciation for the beauty of God’s creation and extended that approach to teaching history and geography through travel and study of the environment, rather than as collections of data to master. She felt children learn best when instruction takes into account their individual abilities and temperaments, but she emphasized the importance of developing good habits to govern one’s temperament and laying a solid foundation of good moral values.
Holt and Unschooling
Educator John Holt wrote extensively about school reform in the 1960s, but by the late 1970s he had concluded that no reform would make schools effective places for children to learn. Although he originally proposed the word unschooling simply as a more satisfactory alternative to homeschooling, unschooling now generally refers to a specific style of homeschooling, in which learning is not separated from living, and children learn mainly by following their own interests. Children learn best, he argued, not by being taught but by being a part of the world, free to explore what most interests them, by having their questions answered as they ask them, and by being treated with respect rather than condescension.
Gardner and Multiple Intelligences
Psychologist Howard Gardner argues that intelligence is not a single unitary property, proposing the existence of “multiple intelligences.” He identifies eight types of intelligence: linguistic, musical, logical-mathematical, spatial, naturalist, bodily kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. Because each person has a different mix of these intelligences, learning is best tailored to each individual’s strengths, rather than emphasizing the linguistic and logical-mathematical approaches traditionally used in schools. A bodily kinesthetic learner, for instance, might grasp geometric concepts presented with hands-on manipulatives far more easily than she would if they were presented in a more traditionally logical, narrative fashion. A teaching approach that recognizes a variety of learning styles might encourage many individuals now lost by conventional methods.
The Practice of Learning
Theories are all well and