Square Pegs, Solutions, Part 2

No parent is sure if their child will be turned into a square peg when kindergarten begins, although pre-school might give indications. But, if the uniform elementary school does its damage, then an immediate need arises for the child to be transferred into a learning environment re-setting emotional and academic foundations, restoring to the child his natural instincts to take responsibility for learning and his trust in his own way of knowing. An ungraded, open classroom, responsibility based learning community for children age’s five to eleven is well suited to do all that for our square pegs. And it fully satisfies the learning environment criteria set down last week.

First, it must be acknowledged that emotional readiness to accept a learning task comes well before the task. Forcing a task when a child feels angry, powerless or stupid, as do our square pegs, just frightens, discourages and deepens helplessness and failure. Formal learning re-setting emotional readiness to learn must provide a time for healing, a time of taking off the pressure, of reassurance, as in time our children will gain the energy and the courage to accept any task. As sustained, self-selected imaginative play is the best means of taking off the pressure, of providing a healing time, the open classroom, accordingly, would provide suitable spaces with lots of materials like Lincoln Logs and blocks, games and puzzles, sand and water tables, costumes and theatrical makeup, paints and crayons, newsprint and paper, books and magazines, etc. There would be performance spaces and kitchens, store/home props and appliances. There would also be indoor/outdoor playgrounds. Children would engage in imaginative activity, individual or group, organized or ad hoc, self or staff initiated, for as long as they wish. Although principally intended to re-set emotional readiness these activities re-set academic readiness as well in that such activities as block building, cooking/baking, exchanging play currency, drawing/painting, acting, even shooting baskets, tap applications in Geometry, Arithmetic Functions, Measurement, Chemistry, Physics, Language, among others, providing children an experiential base from which to build their academics. Children feeling ready would, then, engage the resources of the Academic Stations which would center on the learning skills of Literacy, Language and Calculation and in subjects of Earth, Space and Life Sciences, History and Geography. Teachers working closely with each child would help each develop readiness and academic goals.

Although the course of elementary study would be individualized to each child, as each engages the open classroom through his distinctive interests, abilities and learning styles, a common goal for all would be the development of competency in receiving, processing and communicating written, oral, graphic and numerical information re-setting academic readiness for secondary education. These competencies would emerge through a need to gain additional tools to explore more of the academic resource rich open classroom than through mandated mastery on or before a time or an age certain. And, finally, children have the capacity to fully participate in school governance and along with staff make policy for their community. Community norms as well as methods dealing with their violation, or graduation requirements allowing youngsters to pass out from the primary program are examples of policy items determined by staff and students together. Indeed, this healing and empowering primary school environment is desperately needed for our youngest square pegs.