Teacher and educational performer, ChristopherJames’s discusses different education systems that have been introduced throughout time in his latest book, Teacher Presence: 12 Habits to Create Space for Accelerated Learning. James, himself, is a Montessori and Steiner trained teacher.With his decade-long experience in teaching, James has compiled some of the most effective techniques and methods to help teachers make a mark in their classrooms and produce efficient results with students. The evolution of education systems discussed in the book is one of the most comprehensive accounts I’ve read. If you are just beginning your career as a teacher or just looking to brush up your skills, this book is the perfect guide for you.
The Waldorf Education, which James writes about in his book, is an education system that was founded over a hundred years ago by Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian philosopher, and visionary. This education system focuses on engaging the head, heart, and hands. Integrating practical skills and arts with academics. As per the Sunbridge Institute, here are several benefits of the Waldorf education system:
· Children enjoy an unhurried childhood.
Visit a Waldorf school and watch the students at play. You’ll see children who delight in being allowed to live in the moment, who are free to explore nature and to go where their wide-eyed sense of wonder and imagination takes them. In our frenetic world, where pushing children to “hurry up or fall behind” has become the norm, Waldorf Education takes the point of view that childhood is something to be savored. By being free to develop according to their own natural rhythms, Waldorf-educated children enjoy full and rich childhoods, gaining the experiences they need to become healthy, self-actualized individuals.
· Learning is hands-on and age-appropriate.
You won’t find young children hovering around a computer in a Waldorf school classroom or missing a walk in the woods or a trip to the farm in order to sit and cram for a standardized test. In Waldorf Education, learning is an experiential activity. It’s not a matter of doing without certain experiences, it’s a matter of introducing children to each experience at the right time in their development. When it’s time to teach the merits, uses, and hows of technology, Waldorf school teachers do so. And the knowledge, self-awareness, and problem-solving skills children develop through years of hands-on inquiry is of far greater value to them as learners and as human beings than anything they could have picked up by sitting at a screen.
· An in-depth study enriches learning experiences.
The advantages of block learning have long been recognized in Waldorf Education. In their daily morning (or “main”) lesson, Waldorf students from first through twelfth grade spend up to two hours concentrating on one subject which rotates every 3-4 weeks among the academic disciplines. Students have the chance to study each subject thoroughly and from a number of vantage points, which contributes to their enjoyment—and their understanding—of the subject matter.
· Students learn how to take an active role in their own education.
From discovering the alphabet in the first grade to discovering anatomy, algebra, and U.S. history in the eighth grade, and all the way up through their high school studies, Waldorf students take part in the learning process by creating their own textbooks—beautifully-drawn journals containing stories, essays, poems, maps, illustrations, lab descriptions, and math equations. Rather than relying on pre-digested material presented to them in conventional textbooks, the act of creating their “main lesson” books allows children to absorb the lessons their teachers bring them and to make learning their own.
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