Whether for play, observation, appreciation, scientific exploration or purposeful activity—time outdoors is absolutely essential to learning and child development.
Middle school has a particular reputation, and it’s not necessarily a good one. The "elemiddle" K-8 environment is proving to be much better for students.
The benefits of providing students with opportunities to volunteer in service to community has a far-reaching impact -- not only to the recipient but on the students themselves. Giving back empowers students, broadens their worldview, and strengthens their connection to the peers they serve and in the larger community.
We are emerging from a time in history when many of our daily life activities have been dictated by urgency and crises. As we begin to see an end to necessity driving this certain way of being, it becomes all the more important for us to slow down and engage in inner work for the children in our schools, for our colleagues, and for ourselves.
Educating the whole child by offering an education environment that helps students stay balanced and thrive both academically and emotionally needs to become a mainstay of school culture and curriculum. Schools should develop communities where children are individually known and supported through strong adult and peer relationships and ensure students' days are filled with social emotional learning and activities that promote wellbeing.
Learning to be comfortable in solitude is a life skill with many far reaching benefits in both education and well being overall. Cultivating this skill, in ourselves and our students, is also a crucial precursor for creative thinking.
Engaging in our differences constructively is incredibly valuable. Civil discourse can grant insight, improve decision making, and connect our students with one another and the larger world. It is also an essential skill for our next generation of leaders and citizens of a diverse democracy to develop.
Research indicates allowing schools to be places of distinct culture, rich curriculum, and varied, but effective pedagogy is a way forward to collective academic success.
Artistic teaching demonstrates bringing together internal intention with external influence, engaging students deeply in the learning process, and producing a relevant and worthwhile result.
Empathy is a skill that can be learned and mastered, and we are gaining a better understanding of how to teach it in the classroom.
About This Blog
Essentials In Education: exploring topics that matter to educators, researchers, policy experts, and thought leaders - from a Waldorf education perspective.
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