Alternative education
I don't think we've had a thread lately on alternative education (e.g. homeschooling, alternative schools, different teaching methods, etc.). So I thought it might be interesting for people to talk about different types of educational styles they've read about, or have done with their children.
Way back in another life, I took Early Childhood Education for a year, and it was incredibly interesting learning about the various types of pedagogical styles that are out there. I guess because there isn't much of a public system of day care (outside of Quebec), day care pedagogy isn't quite so standardized as elementary and secondary schooling tends to be.
So there are a lot of different types of day care / nursery school learning styles, from the very structured type like Montessori to the completely unstructured type like open concept learning, and everything in between.
I was kind of promiscuous when it came to picking favourites of the styles I learned about. I really liked the open concept child-led learning style, felt very freeing and child-centric to me, and the mix of ages appealed too. But then, I also thought the Montessori method was pretty neat, too, because of how incredibly well-planned and goal-centred it was, and because a lot of children actually really do thrive on structure.
As someone without much money, my son didn't go to any wildly creative day care centre. He went to a very good one, with a subsidy since we, his parents, were in school, but it wasn't ideologically set to any one teaching style - it was a mish-mash of various methods, segregated by age group.
And now he goes to elementary school, just a normal, mainstream school. He chafes a bit there, because he's moved around a bit, he's had family issues (divorce), and he's bright with a bit of a rebellious streak (can't imagine who he gets that from). But for the most part, he's fine there, and his early years of elementary school were bliss for him - he loved school up until last year.
When he was a baby, I thought about homeschooling, thought about "unschooling". I knew it wasn't realistic, not only because it would be incredibly hard to afford to stay home with him, but also because my marriage was on the rocks, and I think it would be pretty close to impossible to homeschool a child in the midst of a separation. Besides, I didn't know if I was the kind of person who could handle it, if I had the right temperament for it. It's one thing to fantasize about doing something like that, another thing to actually do it!
But I've still always found it fascinating reading about it. I particularly find "unschooling" intriguing. I like the idea of the child learning at his or her own pace, according to their interests, socializing with a wide variety of people instead of being artificially segregated into groups of children the exact same age, etc.
Anyhow, here's an interesting opening to the subject of homeschooling: Unschooling Undefined
And also, when searching for an old thread on homeschooling, I ended up finding this podcast on the RPN about unschooling! I haven't listened to it yet, and I really need to get to bed before I turn into a pumpkin, but I will link to it here so that I can come back to it tomorrow.
One thing I find interesting is that the Toronto District School Board has various "alternative schools" under their wing, which I believe accommodate different learning styles, different focuses, etc.
And outside of the TDSB, there are also, I believe, non-profit alternative schools. A friend of mine was really involved in trying to get one of them off the ground.
I'll be back with links in a bit.
One of the more intriguing schools we studied when I did my B.Ed. was Summerhill
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summerhill_School
http://www.summerhillschool.co.uk/
I volunteer with a program here in Vancouver through UBC which runs a non-credit humanities course for economically and socially compromised individuals--our approach is very close to unschooling, I think, Michelle. Especially the "de-humanizing" section.
Because many of our students have experienced or currently experience poverty, we are very conscience of not repeating the structures of poverty and need. So, no line-ups, faciliatators and discussion leaders sit beside the students during lectures and build relationships with the students as equals. We try to reduce as many barriers as possible from transportation, meals and accessibility issues. We are conscious of how power manifests itself in traditional educational institutions and if we can't eliminate those hierarchies, we at least try to remain aware of them while we work.
What's amazing about the course opposed to normal University-level courses I've taught is how enthusiastic all the students are--they've been given license to talk about whatever interests them no matter what the actual course material. Their opinions on enivronmental politics, feminism, philosophy, literature just come all out in a torrent. Usually, with undergraduates, it's like pulling teeth just to find out if they liked a freakin' poem or not. Plus, the things we learn are usually rooted in subversive strategies which undermine traditional power structures--so the implications of what we're learning have immediate resonance and real-life impact for these students. Learning deconstruction was particularly wicked!
I have to say that I owe a huge thank you to Remind who turned me onto the Waldorf schools. They are so facinating and as close to unschooling that I have found, and I am a big believer in unschooling. The Waldorf schools also have values which I agree with completely, they operated out of South Africa during the apartheid with both POC and white students attending and when their funding was taken away because of it they kept going anyway. Right now they have a school in Israel where both Jewish and Arab kids attend. They believe in social awareness, not pushing the children to learn and teaching through creativity.
This is where my child will be attending. I will also apply some of the unschooling principles as well.
Waldorf is an interesting model, I agree. It's very calming and soothing. And I'm more comfortable with routine, so I like the fact that Waldorf does have a gentle and predictable routine to it.
It's not what I think of as unschooling, though - reading about unschooling, I never really got a sense that it was all that big on routines. I thought it was more about kids doing almost completely self-directed learning (with parents as resource people). Waldorf seems a lot more structured to me.
I loved this description of a Waldorf school for preschool and kindergarten.
P.S. Refuge, I hope you win the lottery before you have to pay the tuition to send your kids to the Waldorf school in Toronto! :) $13,500 for the tuition, a $1,500 mandatory "donation" per year, plus a $3,000 "new family fee". Almost makes the $100 application fee seem like peanuts!
The Waldorf school would have been this families first choise too. However the Toronto Waldorf school is about 120 km from here and as Michelle pointed out a bit pricy. We have a bit of a connection to that school, my partner went to a Waldorf school as a child.
We have currently also a german exchange student here who normally attends a Waldorf school in Germany. The funny thing is he prefers the structure and clarity of the local high school that he attends here with my two youngest. He is a total internet jungky, spends about five hours a day on the net and skyping with his friends in Germany. He came with a laptop preloaded with 120 german movies. I am not sure if that is a result of Waldorf or of parents that are to busy with their jobs.
In BC, there are a growing number of First Nation (FN) run schools on reserve that are accepting "non native" students from off reserve. A transition is taking place in which FNs are governing themselves - to a degree, anyway - in education. This is called a jurisdiction process or the jurisdiction journey.
One such school is with the SNUNEYMUXW FIRST NATION around Nanaimo, BC (on Vancouver Island). The Snuneymuxw FN are a Coast Salish people who speak the Hul'íqumi'ínum lanquage.
See qwam qwum stalicut school.
I the mid-seventies my siter attended an integrated pre-school of children with down syndrome and children without. It was a wonderful lesson in diversity and empathy for her.
Bubbles, I think it's probably just a product of your exchange student being a kid in today's wired environment. My son also loves to play with his friends online, especially when he's away from them. But he also likes going to the park too. :) And the German movies are just a taste of home, that's all.
In a way it scares me a bit to see kids so wired to the internet. It is difficult for me to project into the future what the results might be of these wired kids. What are the effects going to be of being so dependent on being wired to the internet? In away it will change the whole educational experience for our kids. Are we transfering our brains and judgement into 'the cloud'? It seems to be so easy to censor, change our understanding of our culture, if we become so attached to the net. Even here on babble, you can insert a little program and basically change the conversation by deleting the input of some individuals.
Your talking the Waldorf school that is downtown, that one is a bit pricey. The one in Richmond Hill is still pricey, I think 10,000 for Kindergarten then upwards of 15-17 for the upper grades but they do have a tuition adjustment that goes on your income level if you apply for it - makes sense too because if they were a school that wants to be inclusive and socially responsible it does not make sense to disclude students that can't pay.
Also the Waldorf school out in Durham is only 4,500 a year and it goes down by almost half and more than half as you have your second, third etc child attend. And there are bursaries for children who can't even afford that as well.
edited to add:there is also a Waldorf inspired classroom called the da Vinci School that is run through the Toronto District school board. I am a little bit uncertain because they can't follow all of the Waldorf ideas because they are a part of the regular school system and seems much more school type structured than a Waldorf school but it is tuition free. I think it only goes up to grade 3 or 4 because they add one grade each year but eventually I think will get up to grade eight. **Finished Edit
To me it reminds me of unschooling because of the self directed learning - children will make their own textbooks and do a lot of self choosen and directed projects in the upper grades and in the lower grades the kids learn from the example of the teacher rather than the teacher telling them to do certain tasks. Also in the lower grades there is a big emphasis on story telling and using that as a way to learn so it is picked up more naturally. There are a lot of skills which are learned hands on like gardening rather just learning about composting or taking trips to learn about marine biology hands on instead of just reading it out of a book. A basic philosophy is if a child isn't ready to learn it they don't teach it which reminds me very much of unschooling - when the child is ready they will learn it. They don't actually introduce formal reading into the program until grade three - most kids have picked it up naturally by then so it is much more like unschooling than a typical classroom where reading is being drilled into their heads in Kindergarten now and if they aren't reading first term grade one the teacher has to give them an F (thanks to the "new" report card system where the teacher reports what the students are doing and the report card automatically assigns a grade.).
In terms of the structure most unschooling things I read there is an actual "routine" to the day. I have read about some people who don't do anything but most of the time the things I have read do have some type of structure for the children it just isn't the same as a school routine, the structure just allows more child directed learning and time than parents formally setting in rules of okay now we are going to sit down and learn this, now you have to do these pages like a typical homeschooling environment might be. From what I have read it just follows a more natural home like structure and the planning involves things like trip days etc to expose the kids to things outside the home like the farm or apple orchard rather than a school like structure and Waldorf falls in with more of a home like structure to the day than a school like structure.
From what I have read Waldorf actually asks parents not to have any TV / computers etc on during the work week and to limit it on the weekend because they see it as taking time away from the child being creative. So as long as the school is following a true Waldorf philosopcy it sounds like it may be more to parental influence than Waldorf.
If he spends so much time on the internet it also does not surprise me that he prefers a typical school environment because a lot of content on the internet is instant and passive for learning and that is what the typical school system tends to favour - don't question what is being taught to you, just write it back out on the test and we will pass you. There are very few sites like Rabble that actually challenge you to think and question.
In Toronto I know of at least one preschool that integrates children with down syndrome and children without that is running in Toronto currently and I have heard of attempts to do the same with children with Autism but have yet to hear of any successes with the children with Autism.
I just bought the Green Parent and saw an article where the parents unschooled for many years and then made the decision to have their children in school. They searched for a school which matched their unschooling values.
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