Sunday, February 17, 2008

to educate the whole human

When researching alternative schools i found a alternative boarding school of sixty students outside of London called Brockwood park school. The school follows the the philosophy of Jiddu Krishnamurti. Who was also the founder of the Brockwood school. his vision for the alternative learning establishment was:
  • To educate the whole human being
  • To explore what freedom and responsibility are in relationship with others and in modern society
  • To see the possibility of being free from self-centered action and inner conflict
  • To discover one's own talent and what right
    livelihood means
  • To encourage excellence in academic studies
  • To learn the proper care, use and exercise of the body
  • To appreciate the natural world, seeing our place in it and responsibility for it
  • To find the clarity that may come from having
    a sense of order and valuing silence.
What what i found intriguing about the school was this chunk of their philosophy:

"
The young are inheriting a complex world. It is a world in which rapid technological progress goes hand-in-hand with environmental, social, economic, and political crises.Must the young take the world as it is, accepting an education that enables them to 'fit in' to society, or can they learn to question deeply what they see and respond creatively out of a sense of personal integrity that enables them to meet whatever life may bring?"

the value they place in questioning things is amazing i think its great that they foster that sort of enviorment. Also the school is set on an old English country side manner. there are about 60 students age 14 and over. the teachers go by their first name and they emphasizes that they are a learning family. they also feed their students an organic vegetarian diet. The student body is diverse and multi cultural so there is no typical student. The school emphasizes a strong relationship between the community and student.

I like that this school focuses on the ability to question things and the deep personal lesson that come with it.

Okay so i was reading about a different alternative school and one of the things they said was that you couldn't tell the difference between a student-student realtionship and a teacher-student relationship. HOW IS THAT A GOOD THING?

1 comment:

Jennifer Woods said...

In response to your question - how is that a good thing, I think you'd have to look at what we perceive a teacher's job is - to educate, to impart knowledge, to lead - and what a student's job is - to learn, to question, to follow. But when the relationship is blurred and both student and teacher are learning and teaching, imparting information and questioning that information, etc. then I think that is education at its best.