and reach thousands of daily visitors
26 APRIL 2010
NO 1569
The whole child
Three ideas describe for me the bulk of what the Ark is about. The first is the attempt to find and carry out a 'whole' or integrated approach to life. Second is the effect of space on a child's growth. The third idea is the incorporation of the fact that all of us are still growing, into the working and learning atmosphere of the Ark. The twenty-five children on the register are divided into two groups. Little Ark includes children from about two years old to around four years old, the older children being in Big Ark. I taught in Little Ark, and my comments are probably different from what they would be if I had been teaching the older children.
Bread
When a child first opens the Little Ark door in the morning, he or she
looks across a room and sees a woman sitting at a table making bread. On
a simple wooden table, she pours whole wheat flour in a circle, and in
the middle of the circle she pours warm water, sugar and yeast. With
this ritual – ritual in the full sense of the word – we begin our day.
As the teacher concentrates on this very elementary bread-making,
children arrive. They either get involved in bread-making, or painting
with another teacher, or one of their own activities, but generally – having taken the cue from that quiet, concentrating bread-maker – they
are quiet and calm about what they start doing.
The bread-making is only a small part of what we do at the Ark, but I think it symbolizes what we are about. For children who are struggling to grasp what is going on around them, the daily participation in (or just exposure to) a process such as the making of bread gives them some feeling of continuity. By growing a little wheat in our garden, harvesting it, milling it, making bread, eating bread, giving the crumbs to the birds or hens, we give children a chance to get caught up in a very rich cycle of life. Gradually they grasp a little of the complex interconnections of life, by having a share in cycles like this one. Part of what we are doing in this process has to do with the idea of sequence, and how a child learns about that. Another part is exposing children to the fact that almost everything in this world is connected in some way. This connection extends to many things. Dylan getting pinched for taking Eliza's book is another kind of connection. Does this sound vaguely child-flowerish? It seems common sense to me that people should learn early in their lives that there is a connection between what they do, what others do, what grows in the garden, and what gets eaten at elevenses.
Space
Some ideas that I would lump together under the term 'space' are
discussed frequently at the Ark. Along with the meaning of physical
dimensions, the word holds other meanings. One of these is the space a
child is allowed to have his own reactions to, and interactions with – space for experiences of things and people. We have found that children
generally indicate what things or activities they require to help them
towards full development. If we watch carefully, and try to build
give-and-take relationships with children, they will tell us in their
own ways how we need to help them.
When I started concentrating on receiving the sometimes startlingly clear messages a child sends about his needs, I realized I was directing and interfering too much with that child's activities. Of course, as adults we know there are things children should not do, and at the Ark we do have rules that govern all of us there. By directing and interfering less, I mean I stopped using one theory or another to orchestrate the children's activities. In eliminating the theoretical orchestrating, I hope I am giving the child more space to carry his activities out to his own conclusions.
Space, and freedom to make one's own discoveries, is all well and good. But for a small child, entering such an environment is probably a bit staggering. In order to contain a child's fear, we try to make the Ark seem a familiar place to him. One of the simplest ways of doing this is to introduce a steady routine. We can never lose sight of the fact that coming to the Ark is probably one of the biggest steps he has taken in his short life. If he sees that each day we make bread, bake it, eat it, wash up afterwards, go out to the garden, do some singing and dancing, eat lunch, have a rest, and then go back to the garden again, he can feel reassured. Even if his world does seem a bit shaky without mum around, at least things still seem to be going on as usual in a familiar, unstartling way. When I put space and routine together in these terms, there is a minimum of panic or nervous fear or excitement interfering with a child's getting on with his own exploration of life.
ELIZABETH AND OTHERS
Carol. (1974).The whole child. In Head, D. (Ed.).
Free Way to Learning: Educational alternatives in action.
Middlesex, UK. Penguin Education. pp. 93-95.
