Right-Brained Children in a Left-Brained World
Right-Brained Children in a Left-Brained World by Jeffrey Freed and Laurie Parsons, explains why some people fit into school, and some do not.
Special Needs or Just Special?
By Mary Gold
It was going to be his first day on the mountain and my old anxieties were creeping in. With his brand new snowboard tucked under his arm and his first-ever season lift ticket hanging from his neck, my 12 year old son, Conor, was off on an adventure of his own choosing. He seemed to be ready to tackle it all, but I wasn’t so sure. What was I thinking, letting him try this on his own? Did he understand he would have to read signs, ask directions, negotiate ski lifts, and navigate his own way down the slopes? Was he aware that he’d have to manage his own boots and bindings, order and pay for his own lunch and call me for a ride home when he was through. “Are you sure you’ll be okay?” I asked for the third time. And then he said it, words to make my heart sing. “Don’t worry, Mom, I’ll be fine.” I knew at that moment that he was right. He had overcome too many mountains in his life to let this little mountain get in his way.
I had always known he was special. But, of course, all mothers think their children are special. I had also realized early on that Conor could be quirky and a little out of sync with other children.
Does School ‘Socialise’ children?
By Susan Wight, Bendigo, Victoria
One of the meanings of the term “socialisation” is the process by which the accepted culture is passed on to the next generation. For centuries this process was a natural one performed by families and an increasingly wider circle as children grew to adulthood. Children learnt about the world by living and working in it. The culture passed on was always relevant to the particular child and the community in which he/she lived. The industrial revolution changed all that. Huge numbers of people flocked to cities and a time of unprecedented social change ensued. The Factory and Education Acts in the nineteenth century defined children as a separate, non-adult population and excluded them from adult work and adult work-places. With the advent of school a large portion of children’s time came to be spent outside the home and important social links were lost by the removal of children from their full-time place in the family.
The Down Syndrome Family
By Barbara Frank
Until 1993, we were your average homeschool family. We had been happily homeschooling our older two children for five years, and had an adorable little toddler who kept us busy and made sure we weren’t getting too set in our ways. In addition, we were expecting baby number four.
Joshua was born shortly after midnight one rainy March night. He was a little woozy, but as cute as a bug. I spent his first day cuddling him. He wasn’t too interested in eating, and while the nurses seemed concerned, I wasn’t. I figured he was just worn out from the birthing process, and would probably be more energetic the next day. Such is the confidence of a fourth-time mom.
He was about 18 hours old when he started having trouble breathing. We had just sent him to the nursery so that we could eat the fancy dinner the hospital provided each couple. I was biting into a chocolate eclair when a man I’d never seen before came into the room and told us that he was Dr. So-and-so, and that our son was having trouble breathing, and his heart wasn’t working right. He said they’d put him on oxygen, but he really needed more help than they could give, and they wanted to transport him to a bigger hospital. Then he added a little p.s.: “We think he might have Down Syndrome.”
Out of the Archives - Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi
In this edition we begin a new series looking at some of the educational figures and theories throughout history. In our reading we have found it interesting to notice the aspects that have been taken up and those that have never achieved popular appeal.
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi
(1746-1827)
Johann Pestalozzi believed “education in the family is crucial, for love is the central emotion within the familial context, and it is this which enables the child to foster its original good will.” Education, he said, should begin in family life, where the main goal is to open the hearts of children by satisfying their basic needs.
Born in Zurich, Pestalozzi took up Rousseau’s ideas and explored how they might be developed and implemented. His early experiments in education ran into difficulties but he persisted and what became known as the ‘Pestalozzi Method’ came to fruition in his school at Yverdon in 1805.