29/10/2012
What Makes Us Different
The Prepared Environment
A room of much beauty.
Activities that attract the child.
Tactile equipment – children need to “touch” in order to learn!
Order of the room and each activity – order is craved for by the child!
Teachers that are specifically trained in observation so they know when to present the “next” step.
A room of much beauty and thought is prepared with materials displayed on open shelving for the child to obtain, after introductory lessons are given, and used to gain the different skills. The room is large enough to accommodate a group of approximately 30 children, grouped in age groups, in order that a true social setting can form, with the younger being inspired by the older role models and the older assisting the younger, thus learning the graces of compassion and acceptance of levels of abilities. Something we as adults may need to be reminded of!
A group of this size can better expose the child to learning activities of a wide range and level of ability, thus inspiring and leading the child to the next step quite easily and naturally! It is through exposure that children “absorb” and that can mean through observation of an activity prior to an actual “hands on” learning.
The structure of the flow of this setting allows the child the opportunity to allow what nature has set in place to continue. Children flow through “sensitive periods” where the learning of a particular ability is simply done with tremendous grace and ease. In this setting is where the child is individually introduced to materials by the “directresses”, who are trained in the skill of observation in order to best present these “lessons”, as they are called, where an activity is presented with great care to the young child. The child is allowed to move from activity to activity, thus enabling him to stay attuned to this inner director that guides him to the purposeful work that nature has set forth for him. In such a setting, of freedom within limits, he is able to learn at a much accelerated rate, for nature has a plan that, if followed, allows for this development to happen earlier than if we, as the adults, try to second guess “mother nature”. Just as it is not we who decides when the child walks or talks, it is true of learning of all sorts.
