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I. DESCRIPTION OF TYPE OF SCHOOL The Stelle School is a school in which the
child is free to work as hard, progress as far, learn as much, and enjoy as
much as he is able, never interfering in the environment of others. Pure play
in school is not encouraged. As
an adult, a child needs goals, rewards, variety, responsibility
for himself, and a plan for time—use in order to make the most of his
potentiality, to he a happy person, and to accomplish. In
The Stelle School the children may choose what they
want to study or work at in school. There is a variety of materials in the
way of text books, workbooks, craft materials, games, TV (educational
channel), and the like. There are also (daily demonstrations and activities
planned by the school and weekly field trips to museums, zoos, and other
points of interest. The
students make daily schedules. Schedules are short-term goals, a plan. They
are a road which leads to fulfillment,
accomplishment and success. If a child makes good choices and follows through
with hard work, he remains busy and happy. If he continually makes poor
choices, he becomes fidgety, noisy and unhappy. In the latter case, adults
need to step in and guide his choices, perhaps by suggesting other things which might interest him or giving him a choice
between two things which he hasn’t done much work on for a while. In other
words, it is in his best interests that he be free
to make choices—as long as he is responsible to himself for his growth by making
good choices for learning and work and pleasure, He is expected to keep
occupied with useful activity and study during school hours. The
children of the The
goal of childhood is to become a successful adult who is consciously going on
to perfection and greatness. He doesn’t attain that stature
without making every year of his life count. The parents and school need to
take initiative in making every year of childhood count. A child evolves
pleasantly if he is held to good conduct in behavior
and mental activity. Even if he is held to several hours a day of hard work
in school, there is still time outside of school for him to play, fantasize
and be carefree, which we define as pure play. Success comes through
experience guided by understanding and demanding parents and teachers. II. A. Help children become as self-directed as
possible through such means as: 1. A plan for time-use. 2. Allowing choice of school
work (with guidance, if necessary). 3. Allowing choice in other things, such as: which story? which song? which activity? etc. The
purpose of existence is to grow to the point where you consciously control
your environment and destiny. In other words, the purpose of life is to
become self‑ directed—to reach the point where you are in
control. You are not a victim of any outside force; you bring into your
environment that which happens to you through mental attraction. Now the
issue is to become skillful in controlling your mind so that you have the
sort of environment and life style which you like
and enjoy. You attract what happens to you; do you like what you attract? Is
it what you chose? The
average person in the world is not aware that he can choose his environment
and life style. He labors under the presupposition that fate and circumstance
and even emotion deal with him at their whim. He doesn’t
realize that he chose them. Or that by not choosing
something better, he allowed something worse to come to him. Stelle
children must have a radically different outlook. They must learn that
they choose what happens in their life. And they
must get practice at choosing so that they learn from experience which are
the better choices. They must learn to distinguish between good enough and better,
between better and best. And they need to learn that
they are responsible for their choices. By making choices and enjoying or
suffering the results of them, a child learns responsibility. In
the But there are many choices which the children may
make. There are many opportunities for choice on smaller issues without
interfering in the environment of others, without hurting or inconveniencing
greatly those who touch his life. For example, he can choose whether he
wishes his eggs scrambled or boiled, whether he wants to go to bed now or in
15 minutes, whether he wants to go to the store with Mother or stay home with
the others. He may be allowed to choose which
clothes to wear as he learns reason and taste. He may choose whether he
wishes to play quietly in his room or go outside to
play in the yard while Mother converses with a visitor. The parents often
have to frame these choices for his selection and decision. In
school he may choose what he wishes to work on.
There, it is his choice how he will use his time; it
is then put in his daily schedule for easy reference. Making a schedule helps
the child to anticipate happily his day, gives him something to look forward
to, something to work for, an agenda, a guide. It was discovered that he
accomplishes much more by deciding what he will do, fixing it into a plan and
then doing it, thereby having a greater sense of direction than when he
decides activities one-by-one. As
long as he remains “gainfully employed,” he may use his time as he wishes
getting the help he needs. If he bothers other children, is noisy or does not
follow through on work he has projected, he is given
guidance and discipline until he can re‑establish his
responsibleness. If
the student needs guidance in making his selection of activities, this
is even given within a framework of choice. If a
girl or boy has made poor choices for one reason or another and the teacher
or parent sees that a little help is necessary, she may suggest two
activities which would be appropriate for him, between which he chooses for
the next item on his schedule. “You have been missing out in writing practice
lately. Would you like to work in your writing workbook or learn some letters
which I would write on a sheet of paper for you?” Or
outright suggestions for things to do may be made. “How does ALONG THE STORY
ROAD strike you?” “Have you thought about anagrams lately?” “You are almost
finished with the book you are reading. Perhaps you could finish it today !“ The
teacher should explain why choices in a given area are limited. “You have
seen much TV lately and do not seem to be learning as much as you can from
it, from what you tell me; therefore, you may watch only one TV program this
morning. Let us see if you learn to benefit from the TV program today so that
in the future you may watch any which you might wish
to see. Which one, if any, do you choose to see today?” An
advantage of the children scheduling their day is that the teacher can
schedule his or her day around their needs and wishes. If two children
were counting on the teacher working with them respectively at the same hour,
there would be a problem; the teacher must jump back and forth between the
two, which is unsatisfying to the one not chosen. Scheduling
for each individual child makes individualized instruction possible. Each student has an
agenda to guide his activities. He knows what he is doing today and his
teacher does, as well. If the persons concerned did not have this security, a
much more regimented set-up would be required if much learning is to take
place. He can’t really take advantage of a program
enriched with a great variety of activities unless he makes a plan and
fits these activities into it. A
standard against which the teacher might gauge whether a student is making
good choices
or not would be the successfulness and personal happiness
which the child is exhibiting. If he is short and crabby with peers,
if he is grumpy with adults, if he is fidgety beyond reason, chances are he
is either not being challenged and stimulated
sufficiently, or he fears that he cannot be successful. The
teacher needs to hold him to doing certain things about which he has
anxieties in order for him to come to see that he really can do them when
he keeps working at it. She may say, “Mary, you have put spelling on your
schedule for three days but did not do it. Let us say that today you do it.
Would you like to do it at 9:30 or at 10:00?” Thus
the child has to deal with it, thereby not leaving it to hang fire, for such
things grow out of proportion in the mind of the beholder. It is a worthwhile
lesson to learn—to take on a subject matter which you fear
you will not be successful in and wrestle as Jacob grappled with the
Angel until you prevail. Now
a student may change his schedule later in the day if he wishes; i.e., he may
decide to do work in his language arts workbook rather than do the reading which he had scheduled just before lunch. He may
choose to do something other than what he had originally planned as long as
he follows through with it and doesn’t continually
avoid work when it gets hard. If he is bypassing work because he is afraid he
cannot do it, then it is in his best interests that he be
held to it until he feels success in it. This means that he needs the
security of someone beside him while he goes through the throes of it. It is
a comfort to hold the hand of someone bigger and stronger when you’re in the dark. The B. Help students to gain role identification
and improved self-images through requesting: 1. Appropriate dress (skirts and dresses for
girls, neat pants and shirts for boys). 2. Appropriate manners and behavior (stressing
importance of ways of being ladies and gentlemen). 3. Consideration of the best interests of all
concerned at all times (relative quiet at all times in the school area). A
child brings with him already-formed self-images from home when he comes to this
or any school. The self-image is largely a product of how the child has been seen and interacted with prior to beginning school.
The school continues to shape the student’s self-image since much of his day is spent within the school area. The
school cannot single-handedly shape the child’s self-image, nor can the home,
once the child begins attending classes. Home and school are team members in
the task of training the child for greatness. At
home the youngsters have been acquiring tools for
learning (reading, writing and number facts) as well as matters of character
and personality (personal contentment and security, patriotism, morality and
social relations). Consideration for others in the home will
be taught Stelle children. These qualities are ingrained by the time
the young one is ready for school and must be reinforced in school so that
the child’s continued growth is assured. In Stelle the child is trained to be and appreciate the
optimum. Much is expected of him in the way of
personal development. He comes to view himself as someone who is capable of
attainment of the best. Another
element which is intrinsically related to the child’s image
of himself is wearing apparel. While the body and clothes reflect
the thoughts and self-image, the body and clothing also shape the
thoughts and self‑image. Clothing
is a significant aspect of a young person’s growing awareness of himself as a
self-improving and self-fulfilling individual. It is useful for role
identification, and in Stelle the citizenry will
re-establish the difference between sex roles as an important aspect of the
mental and social health. Much of the mental and emotional distress of our
times derives from poor definition of one’s role as a masculine or feminine
being. Dress is the most immediate and obvious means
of distinguishing—to the eye and to the mind—the function which an individual
has in society. With
this as a background for its thoughts, the school board requires that students
come neatly attired and well-groomed, the girls
wearing skirts and dresses, and boys wearing slacks and shirts. The dress
code applies to parents who participate in school. Being
correctly and pleasingly attired, the wearer shows thoughtfulness for
others. Manners
serve similar purposes. Manners aid the person in learning controls of behavior which may later blossom into virtues. Manners
help make a child or an adult nice to know. They have been characterized as
the lubricant which makes the gears of society move
easily and efficiently. Gears simply cannot work for long without some sort
of oil or grease, and a culture cannot function without consideration of the
different members one for another. C. Help develop tools for higher learning by: 1. Holding
students to finishing books and projects. 2. Holding them to
spending majority of time in school on perfecting and learning skills. There
are times—perhaps it will occur at least once a day in the life of some
children—when a youngster sees something he would like to learn to do. He may
have the ability to learn it but lack the skill and confidence requisite to
tackling it. At such times parents and teachers can either say, “Oh, well, he
will learn it when he is ready,” as is currently popular, or they may say,
‘You can learn to do it and I will help you if you would like to learn.” No
skill is learned without practice which is, at a
certain point, painful. But there is no pleasure as
great as when an individual has conquered an unknown. The
young child who wants to learn to cut out paper objects but can barely hold
the scissors will, when the going gets rough, have the impulse to throw down
the scissors, and frustration will cause him to forget that he chose to learn
that skill. Some understanding is required at this point: “Trying to learn to
cut when you haven’t done it before is pretty hard. But
you will learn sometime, and you will be happy you did because you can have
so much fun and make so many things when you can cut. If you are tired of
trying today, you could put the scissors and paper away and do something
else.” The
desire to learn to cut will arise again on other occasions and frustration
will again set in, and the cutting is laid aside. If
the child experiences too much frustration too often before he learns to cut,
the youngster may learn a sense of failure and feel that he cannot put
confidence in his ability to learn things. The
ideal place for a child to have such a learning experience is close to Mother
or another patient and encouraging adult. The adult in this case would be
giving instructions as to the techniques involved in cutting—how to hold the
paper, how to hold the scissors, whether to use the points or open the blades
wide, etc.—and would give heartening comments when appropriate. Mother or
teacher would also place her hand from time to time over the child’s as it
held the scissors to help a little with a hard-to-cut detail which is coming
up for cutting. The
final product when Mother or teacher helps is “nicer” than it would have been
if the child had been left to struggle with it alone, but the young one will
thereby learn pride in a better job done. And this
moment of learning will be a warm and meaningful one in the building of the
relationship between parent and child and between teacher and child. There
are times when the parent or teacher will realize that it is necessary to
hold the child to finishing the job which he has started
but now lacks confidence to finish. It will perhaps be an unpleasant moment
for the child, but once he knows that the adult is not going to let him weasel
out of it, then he can focus his energies upon the
job. The
youngster will learn the job of hard work well done when he actually does
hard work well. how else will he experience the
supreme joy of accomplishing a great task? In order to teach him, the elders
of the child must be willing to persist with the demanding task of following
through. The child wants to learn, he needs to feel secure in the knowledge
that his parents are going to help him learn that he can do anything he
desires. He can only have this confidence when he is held
to certain things until he has mastered them. Self-confidence is a measure of
skills and abilities. Studies
have shown that the child whose parents do not stand
firm on such issues as accomplishment, good behavior, and the like, does not
learn self-confidence. his self-image is poor
because the adults did not care enough to demand the very best. The
success of Stelle and the 3. Helping
students to learn efficiency and precision. Part
of learning a skill is the evolvement of efficiency and precision. It cannot be said that one has a skill unless he has gained a
certain amount of speed and accuracy at doing that task. Skill comes through
practice, for practice makes perfect. Our goal is to become perfect, but it is accomplished by learning to do small things perfectly
in the present. Acquiring an ability to do something well naturally entails
repetition of the motions or acts involved, and sticking with the project
until one can gain a degree of self-confidence. The nature of textbooks and
workbooks is to give this methodical instruction and plenty of practice and
repetition. Parents
and teachers must maintain expectations that the virtues of Efficiency and
Precision be developed. It requires the utmost
follow-through on the part of the elders. It means that the adults themselves
must be precise in checking children’s work, and they must set an example of
efficiency and precision. While
both home and school hold efficiency and precision in high regard, ideas of
accuracy and neatness tend to differ. Clearing up any discrepancy in this
area is a matter of coordinated effort between parents and teachers. In Stelle we will work at building teamwork for the sake of
the child’s development, A child’s ‘team” is composed of his parents, his
teachers, and himself. D. Help youngsters develop self-expression
through such things as: 1. Conversation,
expression of personal impressions, writing accounts of matters of interest,
tape recordings. 2. Instruction in
arts and crafts, movement, music. 3. Group activities which
necessarily entail interaction and involvement, such as field trips, science
experiments, etc. The
need for teaching children through course material how to express themselves is reduced as the variety of meaningful stimuli
and activities in their environment is increased. A youngster who has a rich
home environment is already expressing himself with animation and extensive
vocabulary by the time he begins school. The school gives him skill instruction which allows him to sharpen whatever competence
and abilities he has developed. If a child knows how to hold a paint brush, and you teach him how to make perspective,
texture, depth, etc., you have given him tools with which to express himself
more accurately. The
more the child reads, the more he converses with adults, the more he fantasizes
on his own, the better prepared he is to experience a situation more deeply
and convey that experience to others. The more words he teams the more
accurately and colorfully he can speak. The more interesting activities and
events he participates in, the more he has to tell. The more he recounts, the
better he is able to recount. There
are opportunities in The Stelle School for learning skills and tools with
which to express oneself, such as painting and crafts, report-making,
lunchtime conversation and the like. And there are
many events which add to the children’s experiences so that they have more to
tell. As they enlarge their background of experiences, they get more out of
the events in which they participate. But the greatest and most important training and
events which make for ability to express the self come from the home. It is the parents who listen with interest as the child
recounts the happenings of the day. It is the home which
has already given the vocabulary, the practice in speaking, the basic skills,
the personal interaction. A person tends to see what he has
been given words for. If he has been taught
the difference between shades of hues, he will see a yellow-orange instead of
just orange. If he has been taught about how wheels
make a car go, he sees not only the general shape of an automobile, but also
the visible moving parts. The home has already set the stage for the school child and continues to provide stimulating
material. The school also does its part to continue this development. E. Help Stelle children learn the Lemurian
Philosophy by: 1. 2. Answering questions and discussing
concepts of the Philosophy as they arise in the course of the day. 3. Scheduling from
time to time a special lesson in history, morality, lives of great persons,
etc. The
Lemurian Philosophy is based largely upon the idea
of the perfectibility of man (THE ULTIMATE FRONTIER, p. 56). The school board
has carefully researched THE ULTIMATE FRONTIER to discover the ideas which could apply to education in order to base its
evolving philosophy of education upon those ideas. In
“the Book” it is pointed out that the purpose of civilization is to further
the spiritual advancement of the component individuals which produce it
(Ibid., p. 145). Then again the book makes it clear
that “The schools in the community and in the To
give children the moral training THE ULTIMATE FRONTIER calls for, two basic
approaches are used. One is the “daily occurrence” method, and the other is a
curriculum insuring that certain important ideas are
covered at some point in the child’s education. Both means are in
order, and the one without the other is not sufficient for the children’s
need for moral guidance. At
this time, we use material based upon Bible stories, THE ULTIMATE FRONTIER
and The Sun Rises as a regularly “scheduled activity.” In the future,
we hope to write parables and other stories dealing with the application of
the Virtues and the Philosophy in a child’s life. While
the child’s character and moral structure is already
established by the time he comes to school, the youngster does need
more and more information relating to history and morality, and the school provides
education in this field. A. Upon arrival, review of schedules,
preparing of needed equipment, clarification of expectations, etc. B. Work upon projects, lessons, view TV, etc.
as projected per schedules, the teacher helping as need arises. C,
Lunch: break bread, have conversation, perhaps hear stories and sing. D. Continuation of
lessons as per III B. above. As
the children arrive, they may converse a bit, have a hot drink on a cold
morning, or show something to the other children which they have brought to
share. The child usually brings his schedule from home already made out, and
thus the home is aware of what the youngster is doing in school. Each child’s
plan-for-time-use is subject to the teacher’s approval. The
morning and afternoon are filled with the work which each child has
designated for himself. TV programs are viewed together by as many students as desire to see
them, and occasionally a couple of students mutually schedule the playing of
a particular game together. Otherwise, each child “does his own thing.” The
fact that each student works at his own pace coupled with the breadth of age-span
within one class helps to prevent excessive pressure and competition. Trying
to outdo one’s own former effort is more in keeping with the type of
competition which The Stelle School wishes to encourage. As
the school grows in size and enrollment, there may be more
working together of the students. When students have covered basic
subjects and learned the basic academic skills, they may wish to work
together on group projects. Some who are working at the same level in the
same subject matters may enjoy the companionship of working together at the
same hour. Perhaps they will help each other solve problems, or they may wish
to make a game of seeing who can finish first. Since
lunchtime is about the only time at the present in
which all the students are in a group without some other focus, singing
around the table once a week after the meal gives us a chance to sing “Stelle
songs.” These songs refer to the Philosophy, the beauty of Creation, to our
cities of Stelle and Trip
day, once a week, is atypical. There is a viewing of slides or a movie to
begin the day and wait until traffic has cleared a bit after rush-hour. This makes a leisurely start to an otherwise
exciting—and sometimes, hectic— day. Then we launch ourselves into the
outside world to visit a museum factory, zoo, or some such repository of
information. Whenever possible, lunch on trip days has been
enjoyed in inexpensive but somewhat exotic restaurants, giving the
children opportunity to try different cuisines. All in all, no school day seems
dull to students or faculty! IV. TEACHER’S RESPONSIBILITY A. Maintain atmosphere conducive to learning. B. Expect and secure behavior control of
anyone who needs it. The
atmosphere in each classroom in Stelle will reflect what its teacher considers
helpful for his particular class. A child deeply absorbed in his own work
will contribute to an environment which is conducive
to learning. The teacher’s job is to promote this sort of concentration in
the classroom. If he has a group of children who work well to music, possibly
he will play music from time to time while the students work. If his group
can focus attention on its work, there will likely be low conversation and
other low—decibel noise permitted. Behavior
which intrudes on the environment of another when he is focused upon learning
is inappropriate in any setting—be it that of home or school. The teacher’s
responsibility is to see that each student is unfolding at his optimum
capacity during the time that the youngster is in school and to protect him
from interferences in his environment. Behavior which might
be judged disturbing to another’s environment might be: excessive
noise, production of repetitive sounds or offensive smells, untidiness, interruptiveness. A child must be
protected from his own weaknesses so that he may learn to function at
maximum capacity. If he is lax, the teacher reminds him to get to work. If he
continues in laxity, other steps may be necessary to help him learn
efficiency. If he lacks confidence, the teacher offers encouragement, help,
and perhaps even a push—until the fledgling tries his own wings and discovers
that he can fly. If he is noisy, he is usually isolated from the others until
he learns greater serenity. Many
such problems require communication and cooperation with the home so that
more self-enhancing behavior patterns are developed. C. Check students’ work for completeness,
accuracy, neatness and general quality in accord with the ability of the
particular student. D. Be a judge of correctness of children’s
choices in work, TV programs, time-use, behavior, etc., relative to the
development of each individual. Above
are listed the expectations for Stelle teachers and the type of things into
which they will channel their expectations for their students. One teacher
may lean toward science while another may be strong on art. One teacher may
require more quiet in the class than another, but
the children will be responsible to whatever expectations she outlines for
them. By the time a student has passed through the entire system, he hopefully will have learned something in particular from
every teacher he has ever had. No one teacher is a perfect and absolute
judge, but she is a judge of whatever material she has mastered, upon which
she bases her judgment of the students’ work. A student doesn’t
know how well he has learned something until it is judged (evaluated) and he
has corrected whatever needed correction. It is an important part of the
learning experience. He will learn to judge his own work when he has seen it
judged. He cannot learn discrimination and judgment until he has seen it in
example and felt it in experience. The
learning of self-evaluation or judgment is germane to Egoic growth. The
Brothers will not force Egoic advancement upon us—we must elect it and judge
ourselves as to our progress. They will offer guidance if
asked for it, but after the age of 21 years we must be the judge of our own
thoughts, words and actions. Hence persons
destined to advance Egoically must get an early start at developing useful
habits of making choices which are in their own best interests. This is
learning to be self-directing. The
ability to make wise decisions may be acquired in
part through training rather than relying solely on trial and error. Rather
than waiting, a child can be guided to make the
right choices until he can make them on his own. The adult must frequently
choose how he will “bend the twig,” and this can be
fruitfully done through offering good alternatives between which the
“twig” may choose, any one of which will be in the child’s best interests. |
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