Educational
Treatise
Education from the Child’s perspective

We believe in the following:

1.        Social and emotional learning is vital to the development of a well
rounded citizen and should be addressed by our society at large and not left
to families alone.

2. Children have access to “ways” of thinking  that are squelched by
standard formal education.
“We all desire to be what we are but are all too often prevented from acting
out our being” as quoted from Mihaly Csikzentmihaly book The Evolving Self.
He also states that children “flow” much more often than adults and after
awhile in standard educational institutions they flow less and less.
“Flow” as described by Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi . is an optimal state of being
when you can use your mental resources to their fullest;
it is also a state of great happiness.
These “ways” that lead them to “flow”  should be nurtured and  allowed to
continue so that they can  benefit the individual into adulthood.

3.        Focus on language acquisition and development and reading will
follow. If you have language you have thought, if you have thought you have
everything. You understand your concept.

4.        Recognize fear is the biggest obstacle to learning  - fear that you won’t
be able to understand something - fear of failure)*
(Positive emotions enhance memory; negative emotions interfere with
memory.)

5.       Bring positive emotion to the learning experience whenever possible:
a major factor that effects  the  ability to absorb information -emotions;


6.        Help parents understand how  children  learn  and  avoid the stress of
learning to read-

They all have the natural ability to learn how to read and to learn all the other
things we wish to teach them. Worry isn’t necessary.

Children think;“ Oh no I cannot do it - I’m not going to be able to do it _ I am
afraid everyone will be mad at me, disappointed in me” - fear! How many of
us are still plagued by it even today in our adult lives -how much more
effective would we be if this obstacle wasn’t in our way!

(Parents should be educated that they don’t have to worry about how fast
their child learns certain things - as long as they are working on it and you
are helping them there should be no fear anxiety, pressure  -

7. Stress and anxiety are “contagious”

The standardized tests and all the ramifications of success and failure of the
class as a whole can create an atmosphere of tension in the classroom.
This is in no way conducive to learning.  Stress is transmitted non-verbally
and can be likened to a parasitic meme* infecting much of our institutional
education and even home schoolers.  Parents' fears and worries  about the
children’s future can end up having a  more powerful effect on their    
children’s learning  than their love




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As a society we are not good at capitalizing on our exemplary teachers who
create islands of spectacular learning - we give them an award and then go
back to our regular work

We should use them and study their methods and use their ideas in as many
classrooms as possible nationwide!; most like scientist converge on a
person with a rare natural immunity to discover and use  it to help all
mankind.

*Educational benchmarks should not be communicated to the child or even
to the parent (parents anxieties will transfer directly to the child in short
order) - only used for the teachers reference that this student may need
some more one on one time in a certain area



A” meme” as described by Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi .  is the smallest unit of cultural
information; analogous to a gene.

THE EVOLVING SELF; Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi (Author of FLOW).. especially page 191