Editor’s Choice
We have selected the following articles for our Editor’s Choice series. These were chosen for their heightened relevance for today’s Educator.
Click the title for the article, and use your browser's back button to return.
The ‘After School’ School at San Cipriano
Lella Gandini
An inspiring story about the struggles and triumphs in a school in a rural area north of Naples, Italy. Many of today’s teachers may relate to overcoming hardships as illustrated in the article. OUTLOOK #4
Education Through the Environment
Ronald W. Colton
Colton hoghlights the differences between educating “through” the environment, and the standard education “about” or “in” the environment. OUTLOOK #37
The Visual Language of Children: Expression in Pictures and Models
Mary Eisenberg,
Published in Eisenberg’s exploration of childrens’ explorations through drawing. Richly illustrated.
OUTLOOK #8
A Pentagon Paper
Barry Kluger-Bell and Jane Richtmeyer
The humble pentagon acquires worlds of meaning when it teams-up with others like it, and with other shapes. The photos alone are worth the price of admission.
OUTLOOK #14
Daryl: Becoming Part of a Group
Kathe Jervis
Jervis illustrates her experience as an observer in an urban 2nd and 3rd grade classroom. Kathe focuses her observations on the teacher’s emphasis on relationships in the classroom. She looks at the classroom relationships through the lens of a child named Daryl, who, at the beginning of the school year, has difficulty entering into relationships with others, but with the support of his teacher begins to become part of the classroom community.
OUTLOK #49
Education and the Quality of Experience
Lilian Katz
Katz expresses her opinion on the problems that are caused by applying manufacturing concepts to education. She points out the negative aspects of creating larger class sizes in order to save money, and she argues that the problems that arise from creating larger classes actually cost schools more in the long run than they save. Although Katz wrote the article in the early 1970′s, this debate continues in many school districts throughout the country to this day.
OUTLOOK #10
Starting Off: September in an Open Classroom
Maja Apelman
Drawing from her experience in the second grade classroom at Lincoln elementary school in Boulder, Appleman describes interactions between teachers and children concerning materials. She chronicles the teachers’ preparations of well-thought-out routines for the children’s use of the wide variety of materials available in their classrooms.
OUTLOOK #11
Don’t Ask Me What I Think
Tim Barclay
Barclay describes conversations with children concerning their scientific concepts. The children are debating with one another about concepts such as whether or not fire is alive. Berkeley, their teacher, questions their theories without providing corrections based in the world of adult science. Instead, he honors their theories and their sense of wonder.
OUTLOOK #11
Maureen’s Family
Marget B. Shewmaker
A sensitive teacher engages a child who is uncomfortable in her first day at school. The child creates artwork depicting her family, using a variety of materials, as she opens herself to her Teacher, and becomes more accepting of this new environment.
OUTLOOK #12
Balancing
Sally Blaney
The importance of play and exploration, for Teachers themselves, is described. Blaney has just completed a summer workshop on Balance, at the Mountain View Center. She discusses both her own discoveries made during the workshop, and the ways she introduced the concept of Balance to a group of children with whom she worked over the summer.
OUTLOOK #22
Bubbles and Children: A Small Ethnography Of Cross-Cultural Learning
Dowell Smith
Smith describes both his work on the Pine Ridge Oglala Sioux reservation, and Francis Hawkins’ first encounter with this Native American population. He also explores cultural differences between himself and Native Americans, and how these differences affected his work with both students and teachers.
OUTLOOK #26
On Not Discouraging Ourselves
David Wheeler
Wheeler reminds teachers that optimism plays an important role in their work. Beliefs about their own profession, and about the capabilities of their students, shape teachers’ work, and school systems as a whole.
OUTLOOK #28
Supermarket Botany
Ronald Colton
Colton, noting that many children don’t know the origin of the vegetables they eat, gives helpful ideas for teachers on ways that many fruits and vegetables bought at the supermarket can be grown by children in their classrooms.
OUTLOOK #36
Continuity and Diversity in the Classroom
Sandra E. Williams
Sandra Williams reflects David Hawkins’ statement “If we lay down wholly separate curriculum for reading and writing, math and science, social studies and art, we cannot thereafter by any magic bring them fruitfully back together.” Williams notes that curriculum in most schools is either developed well ahead of the actual class in which it is taught, or from pre-made instruction kits from an external source. She suggests a balance between teaching the subjects separately, and unifying their concepts, as an alternative.
OUTLOOK #37
Writers, Artists and Philosophers: Thoughts and Actions in a Primary School Classroom
Michael Armstrong
In this article Michael Armstrong chronicles a year spent in a British classroom of 9 and 10 year old children. He shares journal entries, which illustrate his point-of-view. ”In seeking to understand the understanding of children we begin to appreciate the deep seriousness and significance of their own intellectual endeavors and achievements, the worth of what they have to say.”
OUTLOOK #27
We have selected the following articles for our Editor’s Choice series. These were chosen for their heightened relevance for today’s Educator.
Click the title for the article, and use your browser's back button to return.
The ‘After School’ School at San Cipriano
Lella Gandini
An inspiring story about the struggles and triumphs in a school in a rural area north of Naples, Italy. Many of today’s teachers may relate to overcoming hardships as illustrated in the article. OUTLOOK #4
Education Through the Environment
Ronald W. Colton
Colton hoghlights the differences between educating “through” the environment, and the standard education “about” or “in” the environment. OUTLOOK #37
The Visual Language of Children: Expression in Pictures and Models
Mary Eisenberg,
Published in Eisenberg’s exploration of childrens’ explorations through drawing. Richly illustrated.
OUTLOOK #8
A Pentagon Paper
Barry Kluger-Bell and Jane Richtmeyer
The humble pentagon acquires worlds of meaning when it teams-up with others like it, and with other shapes. The photos alone are worth the price of admission.
OUTLOOK #14
Daryl: Becoming Part of a Group
Kathe Jervis
Jervis illustrates her experience as an observer in an urban 2nd and 3rd grade classroom. Kathe focuses her observations on the teacher’s emphasis on relationships in the classroom. She looks at the classroom relationships through the lens of a child named Daryl, who, at the beginning of the school year, has difficulty entering into relationships with others, but with the support of his teacher begins to become part of the classroom community.
OUTLOK #49
Education and the Quality of Experience
Lilian Katz
Katz expresses her opinion on the problems that are caused by applying manufacturing concepts to education. She points out the negative aspects of creating larger class sizes in order to save money, and she argues that the problems that arise from creating larger classes actually cost schools more in the long run than they save. Although Katz wrote the article in the early 1970′s, this debate continues in many school districts throughout the country to this day.
OUTLOOK #10
Starting Off: September in an Open Classroom
Maja Apelman
Drawing from her experience in the second grade classroom at Lincoln elementary school in Boulder, Appleman describes interactions between teachers and children concerning materials. She chronicles the teachers’ preparations of well-thought-out routines for the children’s use of the wide variety of materials available in their classrooms.
OUTLOOK #11
Don’t Ask Me What I Think
Tim Barclay
Barclay describes conversations with children concerning their scientific concepts. The children are debating with one another about concepts such as whether or not fire is alive. Berkeley, their teacher, questions their theories without providing corrections based in the world of adult science. Instead, he honors their theories and their sense of wonder.
OUTLOOK #11
Maureen’s Family
Marget B. Shewmaker
A sensitive teacher engages a child who is uncomfortable in her first day at school. The child creates artwork depicting her family, using a variety of materials, as she opens herself to her Teacher, and becomes more accepting of this new environment.
OUTLOOK #12
Balancing
Sally Blaney
The importance of play and exploration, for Teachers themselves, is described. Blaney has just completed a summer workshop on Balance, at the Mountain View Center. She discusses both her own discoveries made during the workshop, and the ways she introduced the concept of Balance to a group of children with whom she worked over the summer.
OUTLOOK #22
Bubbles and Children: A Small Ethnography Of Cross-Cultural Learning
Dowell Smith
Smith describes both his work on the Pine Ridge Oglala Sioux reservation, and Francis Hawkins’ first encounter with this Native American population. He also explores cultural differences between himself and Native Americans, and how these differences affected his work with both students and teachers.
OUTLOOK #26
On Not Discouraging Ourselves
David Wheeler
Wheeler reminds teachers that optimism plays an important role in their work. Beliefs about their own profession, and about the capabilities of their students, shape teachers’ work, and school systems as a whole.
OUTLOOK #28
Supermarket Botany
Ronald Colton
Colton, noting that many children don’t know the origin of the vegetables they eat, gives helpful ideas for teachers on ways that many fruits and vegetables bought at the supermarket can be grown by children in their classrooms.
OUTLOOK #36
Continuity and Diversity in the Classroom
Sandra E. Williams
Sandra Williams reflects David Hawkins’ statement “If we lay down wholly separate curriculum for reading and writing, math and science, social studies and art, we cannot thereafter by any magic bring them fruitfully back together.” Williams notes that curriculum in most schools is either developed well ahead of the actual class in which it is taught, or from pre-made instruction kits from an external source. She suggests a balance between teaching the subjects separately, and unifying their concepts, as an alternative.
OUTLOOK #37
Writers, Artists and Philosophers: Thoughts and Actions in a Primary School Classroom
Michael Armstrong
In this article Michael Armstrong chronicles a year spent in a British classroom of 9 and 10 year old children. He shares journal entries, which illustrate his point-of-view. ”In seeking to understand the understanding of children we begin to appreciate the deep seriousness and significance of their own intellectual endeavors and achievements, the worth of what they have to say.”
OUTLOOK #27
