by David Fleischacker
Every “classroom” should be a world of discovery and creativity. Below are some practical tips based on these truths.
- Get the child out into the natural world as much as possible, but also on excursions into farms, ranches, towns, and cities, and institutions in these locations.
- For children’s house, much can be setup in a single space that is simple. At this age, the world is one of the immediate senses, and they tend to engage that world. It is the world of the crib, the home, and the neighborhood. It should have spaces for practical life setup as well as quiet areas for reading, carrying out sensorial, math, and language activities, a garden or some space with plants and soil and animals (if possible), along with a space for movement. These need to be freely accessible to the child at any time of the day. The motor-sensory powers of the young child are expanding and differentiating like crazy, and so they need to be able to activate these when the interior need arises. If the teacher does not provide these, or allow a free activation of these activities, the child will become rather disruptive and will come to dislike all that is going on in the room, because it is not nourishing. Likewise, for those who are alive to art and music, these also must be available and free to use when needed. Having these in other places which are then schedule can be ok for some children, but these are not ideal especially for those souls made for these things. When schedule, it is best to give the child a choice when possible. If a child chooses to go somewhere, you will find that they are far more likely to be engaged. All of these things feed the soul of the child and so should be easy to access. However, if possible, bring these “extensions” from outside to inside the classroom environment. This is far more fruitful, and then once a child learns a lesson he or she can go to that space when they choose to do so, and in choosing they will become stronger for what is good, and in the long run more self-disciplined and even comes to enjoy being able to cooperate with others, or carry out the requests of others (which is what is meant by obedience). So, try to setup art corners, music corners, just like book corners inside of the everyday environment.
- For elementary, the space should be increased primarily regarding access to the outdoors and to gardens and movement, with more excursions into the out of doors and into museums, libraries, businesses, and theaters. One could add an acting space as well in the room, or maybe expand the music area. Children during this period are moving from the immediate world of the home and neighborhood into the larger order of society, into history, and into visions of the future. They thus need to experience these things not merely in books or on the internet, but in person. A single room is not enough for this age group, especially as they get older. The standard world keeps them largely in one classroom, with maybe a separate art and music room. This simply cannot feed their imaginations, intellect, and free will enough, hence it hinders the development of virtue in them. I must say that boys and girls are different in these spheres as well. It is good to open the doors for girls to the feminine interests and activities of the culture, and likewise for the boys. The best way to do this is to bring in mothers, grandmothers, and other women into the school, or take the girls to them to see them alive in their worlds. Likewise for the boys. Bring dads, grandpas, and other men into the school or the boys to them. In all cases, show them how to do things. Give them the “ethics” of doing these things. And let them explore with those who are exploring, maintaining, or creating in the world. I have noticed for example, that boys, especially around 8 or 9 years of age like to be more and more with dad and grandpa when this is possible (which is less and less these days!). All children want to become agents in this world, and they thus look for those who they not only want to imitate, but build upon, especially toward the end of the elementary years as they head into the adolescent period.
- For adolescents, the space should be as much outdoors on a farm or ranch, or in a shop or studio, as possible. To be clear, they are not working on a farm or ranch doing the work of the farmer or rancher. Rather, they are transforming the natural resources of the land with their own hands into something of use or beauty. They begin adolescence with a rapidly changing brain, growing body, and changing emotions, and these need to be learned anew similar to what happened to them after they were born. But now, they have in them all the things they learned since they were born, but these now need to be integrated anew with their growing adult bodies and interior beings. For the first two or three years of adolescence, they will spend and need enormous amounts of time moving and talking and developing relationships and their new emotional states. Their learning will be more concrete and experiential. It is the absorbent period of relations and identity. As the first layers of adolescence settles, then the abstract subjects that they have been learning in the elementary years will come forward but with a new intensity centered around self-discovery and what they can be in this world as adults. Any abstract or specialized areas will be within a concern for their entire being and that of the well-being of their friends. This is why upper adolescents (starts about the third for fourth year of adolescence) is a time for what was traditionally called the liberal arts and a growth in explicit self-knowledge. Some will be driven to higher levels of abstraction because of who they are and who they are wanting to become. So, if possible, the following spaces should be part of their environment, preferably located on the farm or ranch land (and they should build these if possible): 1) a studio for math, 2) a studio for languages, 3) a studio for art, 4) a science research area, 5) a music and ensemble studio, 6) a physical education arena, 7) fields and a greenhouse if possible to grow things, 8) a shop in town, 9) a museum space, 10) a dining and cooking area, 11) woodworking shop, 12) metal working shop, 13) barn(s) for animals, 14) a welding shop, 15) a garden shop, and any other types of shops, studios or labs relevant to the region and the culture. Most of the enclosed spaces–or perhaps open if in a warmer climate throughout the year–should be setup with raw materials like studios, workshops, or labs. Many of these could be and should be in the same interconnected spaces to suggest the differentiated unity of all things, leaving more isolated locations and enclosed areas for those needing either complete silence or those making rather loud sounds and noise (such as a music studio or woodworking shop). So, one could have a large indoor space such as one might find in a pole barn or similar structure and setup many of these spaces in that building. Remember though, the heart of learning is not a studio or lab, or the pole barn, but the land itself. Build all the curriculum around these spaces and centers in relation to the work they are doing with the land and shop. By now, many students will be well into the abstract areas of math, science, and language, and so there is not the need to have as many types of hands on and tactile materials for them, but if they have not yet moved from the concrete into the abstract in a particular area, they will be best served if those materials are around (hence materials for math and English, etc., from upper elementary).