by Andy
Today I was driving into the Twin Cities and I flipped on the radio. Wisconsin Public Radio had just started the second hour of a program called "To the Best of Our knowledge." The second hour of this week's program focused on the importance for humans of forming a deep connection to a specific place and was titled: "Finding Home".
The program echoed much of what many of the Montessori adolescent programs around the country have been saying about the importance of rooting education in a specific place. Ohio Montessorian Pat Luddick is promoting something she calls "the Pedagogy of Place." In the Pedagogy of Place, history, science, math, social studies, everything is all taught through the lens of the specific place where the school is located. In thinking about adolescent education as an introduction to social life, we come to the idea that direct engagement in the community is the best way to prepare for a life of direct engagement in the community. It is a paradigm shift from a classroom-centered, state-standards-centered sort of education and it requires a leap of faith. In fact once you shift, you discover a depth of opportunities for learning within the context-rich place-centered learning. For a person to care for a place, it helps if that person knows and loves the place first. Adolescent practitioners have seen time and again that the students become engaged as young activists as a result of place-based curriculum.
It might be enough if we just give the children a specific place to know and love.
I offer the link to the radio program so you can listen for yourself.
http://www.wpr.org/webcasting/audioarchives_display.cfm?Code=bok
Click on the link for 6/19/2011 at 1 pm
No comments:
Post a Comment