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2. What do you emphasize in your programs? 3. What is the role of the teachers in the learning process? 5. Does
this mean that you don't have academic standards? What does the
6. What does Free Progress mean? 7. What kind of environment facilitates this kind of learning? 8. Are you a religious organization? 9. This is all very interesting. How can you sum it all up?
1. You say that Integral Education seeks to meet the individual needs of each student. How is this accomplished in practice? To begin with, the Integral classroom is a small classroom with about an 11 to 1 student-teacher ratio. Each teacher is tasked with having a deep understanding of every student in order to encourage each student's own capabilities and uniqueness. An Individual Learning Plan (ILP) is developed for each student, with the teacher, the student, and the parents all contributing to this plan's development. This approach allows for students to learn at their mental and emotional development level, rather than being forced to match the general common denominator level of their peers.
Our focus is on the educational Process and not the Product. Instead of focusing on exam results or degrees earned, the emphasis is on how students learn and their personal development. Where student show special interests and abilities in certain areas or subjects of study they are given ample time to explore them. Students learn the art of critical thinking through observation and analysis. They work with their teachers and other students in creating real-world demonstrations of what they have learned and mastered through a more authentic assessment of their learning outcomes. They learn the joy of discovery and develop a lifelong curiosity and desire to learn. They become students of life.
Teachers are guides who facilitate the process of self-discovery. Teachers ask open-ended questions which help the children to think outside the box. They engage students in exploratory dialogues in which current understandings, assumptions, and misperceptions about a subject are revealed. Through this process the students are guided in the generation and development of essential questions that are used for further discovery. In doing so, the teachers help the students derive greater meaning in their learning. This is in line with three principles of true teaching: that nothing can be taught but all can be learned; that the mind must be consulted in its own growth; and that we must work from the near to the far, from that which is to that which will be.
Instead of rote memorization the focus is on gathering and processing information in order to learn how to learn. This is often accomplished through hands on experiences, projects, and field trips where children are allowed to become very familiar with what they are learning. We use authentic assessment methods that are based upon real-world applications of knowledge and skills. Students create tangible evidence of learning that is kept a portfolio, or they demonstrate their new knowledge and skills through dynamic presentations for others to observe. These can take the form of dramatic plays, artistic expressions, technology-based presentations such as slide presentations or web pages, readings of creative writing, written reports, and so on. Creativity is emphasized rather than requiring students to "fit in" by showing that they know what everybody else knows or "should" know.
Our Integral Education program has academic standards and expects results that meets or exceeds those of comparable academic institutions. Each grade level will have what is called a "minimum common syllabus" incorporating the essentials of what is normally accomplished at other academic institutions, but leaving out some of the unnecessary repetition and irrelevant studies sometimes found at those institutions that can lead to disinterest. The curriculum incorporates social studies, reading, language arts, mathematics, life sciences and the arts, including music, dance, drama and visual arts. Learning by doing means children build, care for animals, paint, sing, learn to play instruments, garden, use math manipulatives, learn other languages, and experience different cultures.
The Free Progress method encourages the freedom of the students take greater responsibility for their learning and requires them to make significant progress as well. We do not emphasize freedom at the expense of progress, nor progress at the expense of freedom. Given our low student-teacher ratio and the individual attention given to each student, the minimum syllabus is generally easily and comfortably met during the school year and the children are able to create an individual syllabus that incorporates studies they choose themselves with the teacher's guidance. The Integral Education Free Progress method recognizes that meaningful interest is the basis for concentration, and that by allowing the children to explore their own unique interests, their concentration, as well as their learning and their joy in learning, increases significantly.
Environment can actually be seen in several important ways: psychological, physical, and spiritual. A non-competitive psychological environment encourages questioning and intellectual risk taking. In fact, in an environment where children are not afraid to make mistakes it is often found that the greatest learning and understanding takes place through trial and error. The physical environment is designed to provide a rich source of intellectual and creative inspiration, freedom of movement, and ample resources for the students to draw upon throughout the learning process. The spiritual environment is cultivated through the consciousness and aspirations of the teachers, administrators, and the students and their families. We expressly acknowledge the inner truth and being of everyone who comes through our doors and seek to allow all, children and adults alike, to make the deeper connection between their inmost selves and the world around them.
Integral Education means that the children are being educated in a way that integrates the modern aim of world knowledge with the ancient aim of self-knowledge. Education in self-knowledge allows students to truly discover who they are and to begin to know their inner spiritual beings, as well as to help them to discover their life purpose. At the same time they will also be developing world knowledge by cultivating their mental, emotional, and physical capacities and skills. This will prepare them to interact with the world around them in creative and meaningful ways. The Integral Education Free Progress method of developing the whole being allows children to learn not only what are considered traditional academics, but also to learn to be responsible for their own happiness and emotions. They learn how to overcome moods, develop conflict resolution skills and the art of friendship, as well as empathy and team building skills. Integral children develop self esteem, independent responses, a relatedness to others, a sense of identity, the ability to think, solve problems, make judgments, to reason, and to acquire and organize information. To sum it all up, the children learn not only how to get along in the world materially, but also how to become resilient, happy people with a solid inner strength and sense of purpose. |
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An aimless life is always
a miserable life. Every one of you should have an aim. But do not
forget that the quality of your life will depend upon the quality
of your aim. Your aim should be high and wide, generous and disinterested;
this will make your life precious to yourself and to others.
Essentially there is but one single true reason for living: it
is to know oneself. We are here to learn – to learn what we
are, why we are here, and what we have to do. And if we don't
know that, our life is altogether empty – for ourselves and
for others.
This means to be conscious of one's inner truth, conscious
of the different parts of one's being and their respective
functions. You must know why you do this, why you do that; you must
know your thoughts, know your feelings, all your activities, all
your movements, of what your are capable, etc. And to know oneself
is not enough: this knowledge must bring a conscious control.
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