Reading Writing Arithmetic
Methods of Learning Reading Writing and Arithmetic
I taught pre-school while in college because I thought I was going to become an Elementary School Teacher. I’d probably have lasted 3 minutes teaching in a public school.
I went to public schools in New York growing up and lost interest in tedious, monotonous, tiresome learning in First Grade. My brain/IQ was advanced and my teacher wanted to advance me to Third Grade but the Principal refused. I became increasingly bored and the Class Clown.
Then in 6th Grade, they decided I was a Genius (due to my IQ test) and put me in the Smart Class in Junior High. By then and being an adolescent girl who wanted to be attractive to boys in the 1960’s, I did not want to be in that class so I got myself kicked out of it. I don’t recall how I did that but it definitely had an impact on my life.
In college, I took a lot of Education courses. Eventually, I had to change my major when I found out that I would have to teach for ONE ENTIRE YEAR WITHOUT PAY. It all worked out. I changed my major to Communications, journalism was my way of getting published as a reporter and editor for various newspapers.
During the Education courses I took, including Child Development, Children’s Literature, Math and more, I visited various private schools to see how they taught.
I was fascinated with the Montessori method seeing young children interacting with the subject they were learning.
My pre-school teaching changed for the better after a teacher showed us how to set up the classroom properly. I had 18 boys and 3 girls who were 3 years old. Getting them to do activities together was like herding cats. Horrible.
But after I set up my classroom as the teacher taught us to do, peace and harmony reigned. The children were free to roam and do whatever activity they wanted to do: write on the chalkboard, play dress-up, play with toys, do the weekly assignment, read a book, create works of art, and/or listen to books being read for story time.
Home Schooling
Most of my friends home schooled their children due to restrictions at public schools and various situations. Several of the parents traveled around the world so their children learned about other cultures, religions, foods, practical matters and geography firsthand.
There was also a school in LA at the time where the students traveled via van to museums, parks, aquariums and other places to learn. Mobile classroom learning outside the regular classroom, everything was experiential and interactive.
Nowadays with all of the COVID restrictions, masks and jabs and their devastating impact upon children and more opportunities for learning, many parents are returning to these methods.
Interesting that Jon Rappoport talks about Summerhill… I read that book when I was 13 and decided to go to Camp Somerhill in a tiny town named Athol, in the Adirondack mountains near Lake George in NY that summer because of that book and the camp was supposed to be based upon it. It was definitely different from other regimented camps that we had visited. We were free to choose the activities that we wanted to do.
The staff also taught ceramics, jewelry making, acting, archery, sports, arts and crafts, photography, wood shop, horseback riding, fencing, dancing, music and more. Campers also could go on weekend canoe and camping trips. Once a week, we went in Larry’s red truck to Lake George to go to the movies or bowling. We also had the option to go to hear music at popular festivals. At the time I went there, it was a teenage camp but later became open to campers of various ages.
Twenty years later, one summer (1983) while I was still in college, I became a Camp Counselor at Camp Somerhill with Larry Singer (now deceased). I taught Sewing classes, teaching camps how to make name pillows, using nylon stockings to create dolls, jeans to create handbags, crochet items and other popular activities.
Jon Rappoport
The human heart not vaccines
VITALITY.
I offer a revolutionary book for your consideration. It was written 60 years ago by AS Neill. It is called Summerhill, which was the name of the boarding school Neill founded, in the 1920s, and ran in England. It shows a way out of this education lunacy.
When the children did learn at Summerhill, they did so in rooms where no coaxing was necessary, where no teacher needed to make lessons fun or interesting. Because when children at Summerhill went into the class room they wanted to be there.
Summerhill was a school that was based on PLAY and THEN LEARNING. The teaching was straightforward, competent, minus social frills and aids.
A little child might play with his friends (no adult supervision) on school grounds every day until he was 10 or 12; and then decide he wanted to come to class for the first time in his life. He then learned to read, write, and do arithmetic…
Schoolwork was not compulsive. It wasn’t a framework forced on to the spirit of the child.
School-learning was waiting for the child to choose it. In freedom.
AS Neill was no New Ager. He was a no-nonsense tough character. In the book, he tells the story of a boy who, at 16, having never attended a class, walked into his office and said he wanted to become an engineer. In no uncertain terms, Neill told him he’d have to apply himself in the classroom every day—the boy said he was ready.
In two years, starting from scratch, the boy graduated from high school.
Later, the boy, now a young man with a degree, was working for a company in London. The boss called him into his office and asked him: “Why are you different from all my other employees?”
And the young man immediately answered: “Because I’m not afraid of you.”
SPIRIT. VITALITY. HEALTH. POWER. THE UNIQUE INDIVIDUAL.