May there reign here spirit-strength in love;
May there work here spirit-light in goodness;
Born from certainty of heart,
And from steadfastness of soul,
So that we may bring to young human beings
Bodily strength for work,
Inwardness of soul,
Clarity of spirit.
May this place be consecrated to such a task;
May young minds and hearts here find
Servers of the light, endowed with strength,
Who will guard and cherish them.
Back in Nashville, School is starting for my old school, Linden Waldorf. I have many friends who work there and take there kids there. I think I am finally over my falling out with them (a story for another day), and really remember all the great stuff about the school. One of the things I love, is the teachers would begin each day gathering together and holding hands in a circle, and say this verse. I love the last part, and it always brought tears to my eyes, to think of teachers guarding and cherishing young hearts and minds. Such a different way of approaching teaching than most teachers who have been made to think children are all the same and have the same needs and should learn the same thing at the same time...
I was drawn to Montessori for this reason; Each child can learn what he/she needs, when they are ready to learn it. There is no pre-set date or age for a child to learn a subject, all the materials are there, in the room, for the child when they are ready. The teacher is ready to teach when the child is ready, not the other way around...
What I love about Waldorf, the art and play, combined with the Montessori philosophy, that each child will learn when they are ready, set up a pretty decent educational paradigm. Still not perfect, but better than most traditional schools.
There is a guy, Ken Robinson who describes my educational philosophy perfectly. He has given TED talks, and written books, and is also on youtube. Here is a link to one of the best;
hope you enjoy!
Hello, I am really enjoying your blog! I found you because you made a comment on the schooling Dilemma, and I thought wow that sounds just like me :) I have four boys I "home school" ages 2-10, I also own a small Montessori school in FL, and yet even on the days that there are spots for my youngest two to attend, I find that I keep them at home with the group. We do a collection of things, waldorf hand crafts (my boys are very crafty and love to weave, finger knit etc LOL poor guys too much time with mama?), a little montessori (hard to do in a home setting though), charlotte mason for copy work and nature journals, museum based learning (though have fallen out of this some after we moved here to start the school), classical conversations and more. We moved here from charlotte-with a one year break in our home town of Russellville KY-we go back often as both sets of parents live there. It is only one hour outside of Nashville, so I just thought that was neat! Would love to chat sometime-especially if you would be interested in partnering up to do a school in that area! We were going to originally go bigger here in FL so I have classrooms full of montessori materials, educational materials, books, chairs, tables etc but the real estate around our school is in the close to million dollar figures as it is the "historic district". My school runs without me now I just do the basics and I am looking for other challenges! I find it hard to link with others who are interested, but noticed your post about opening a dream school and seeing your discontent with other forms of style I thought we might be a good match so I will put it out there:) And I love that you are in a place that we go through often I loved Nashville- we would go to the children library for their puppet shows, and the art museum has a great family Saturday class, ahhh and Cheekwood is amazing-we did their Easter egg hunt one year. I miss those resources! Our area is nice, but their festivals tend to be for adults and not children related. Not sure if you even check here any more....you can reach me at rastascoob at yahoo.com
ReplyDeleteHi Nicole! How are you doing? Are you still out there?
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