Thursday, September 2, 2010
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Rudolf Steiner
I am amazed that I just discovered this fellow yesterday. He was a fabulous intellectual from Germany that gave over 6,000 lectures and wrote many books. One of his books: "The Philosophy of Freedom" is being rediscovered today. I feel he was about 100 years ahead of his time. He left us with a wonderful educational concept known as Waldorf Schools. There are several in America and throughout the World. When I was reading about him I was thinking that his principals were very similar to Maria Montessori. Well, as I kept on reading, I discovered that they had studied the same philosophers and had individually arrived at the same conclusion.
That conclusion is that children need to learn in natural environments. They both believed in Holistic education where several subjects are acquired at the same time. They both made the connection between music, art, performing and the ability to remember more information as well as be able to transfer the information from one application to the other.
We need this now more than ever because as evolution speeds up we will need people that are capable of solving problems quickly, morally, and accurately.
That conclusion is that children need to learn in natural environments. They both believed in Holistic education where several subjects are acquired at the same time. They both made the connection between music, art, performing and the ability to remember more information as well as be able to transfer the information from one application to the other.
We need this now more than ever because as evolution speeds up we will need people that are capable of solving problems quickly, morally, and accurately.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Pragmatism and the Future of Education
There are many ways to look at Pragmatism. For me the easiest definition is practical and progressive. There are many people still in the world that live by myths and the misguided notion of certitude. The truth is that very little is totally certain and we live in a constantly evolving World.
When President Bush passed NCLB (No Child Left Behind) I am sure his motivation was to get each student in America as far as they could go according to their own attributes and natural talents. Sadly, what we have come to understand is that when each local school makes there own curriculum what then is the point of judging the schools system by National Statistics.
Recently there was a meeting of the minds to adopt such a National standard and at the conclusion of the meeting 48 States + the District of Columbia voted to tentatively accept the standards. Voting against were the States of Alaska & Texas. Now the reason I say tentative is because the standards are now published on the Internet with an invitation for anyone to provide feedback on any or all of the document.
Here is where I would like to employ a pragmatic goal.
The Conservative mindset protects the status quo and does not want any change because the way things are benefit the status quo.
The Liberal mindset never saw a change they didn't like no matter the cost of implementation.
As a Pragmatist I am saying that what we need to do is learn from the demonstration of circle of influence. Draw a circle and label it community. Draw another circle with about a third of the area of the new circle overlapping the first circle. Label the second circle Self. Now this system shows how we all integrate when it comes to relating to others.
Returning to the Conservative - they are circle #1 and the Liberal is #2. What we refer to as moderate I would say is also Pragmatic. The moderate is the one who sees the wisdom of both extremes and is most comfortable where the circles overlap. They are the ones that get everything done because they work by compromising and they understand that the debate can not go on forever.
As far as educating the children, the future of America: we must go further out to the Liberal & Progressive Theory but balance it with fair and unbiased credit to history and heritage. It is not fair of us in this 21st Century to return to a previous time and judge them by the standards we now have. Remember we will also be judged by people 30 to 100 years from now. 30 years from now there will be 5 times the number of individual businesses we now have in the world and we today would only recognize about 10%.
Change is coming and it is coming faster each year. Unless we push the student more to the future instead of the past they will not be able to attain the same or better lifestyle that we now enjoy.
Love & Peace, Deborah
When President Bush passed NCLB (No Child Left Behind) I am sure his motivation was to get each student in America as far as they could go according to their own attributes and natural talents. Sadly, what we have come to understand is that when each local school makes there own curriculum what then is the point of judging the schools system by National Statistics.
Recently there was a meeting of the minds to adopt such a National standard and at the conclusion of the meeting 48 States + the District of Columbia voted to tentatively accept the standards. Voting against were the States of Alaska & Texas. Now the reason I say tentative is because the standards are now published on the Internet with an invitation for anyone to provide feedback on any or all of the document.
Here is where I would like to employ a pragmatic goal.
The Conservative mindset protects the status quo and does not want any change because the way things are benefit the status quo.
The Liberal mindset never saw a change they didn't like no matter the cost of implementation.
As a Pragmatist I am saying that what we need to do is learn from the demonstration of circle of influence. Draw a circle and label it community. Draw another circle with about a third of the area of the new circle overlapping the first circle. Label the second circle Self. Now this system shows how we all integrate when it comes to relating to others.
Returning to the Conservative - they are circle #1 and the Liberal is #2. What we refer to as moderate I would say is also Pragmatic. The moderate is the one who sees the wisdom of both extremes and is most comfortable where the circles overlap. They are the ones that get everything done because they work by compromising and they understand that the debate can not go on forever.
As far as educating the children, the future of America: we must go further out to the Liberal & Progressive Theory but balance it with fair and unbiased credit to history and heritage. It is not fair of us in this 21st Century to return to a previous time and judge them by the standards we now have. Remember we will also be judged by people 30 to 100 years from now. 30 years from now there will be 5 times the number of individual businesses we now have in the world and we today would only recognize about 10%.
Change is coming and it is coming faster each year. Unless we push the student more to the future instead of the past they will not be able to attain the same or better lifestyle that we now enjoy.
Love & Peace, Deborah
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