The Oneness - Family School

In their early years, children?s natural senses of wonder, curiosity and imagination are cultivated. For them, learning is a fun, natural process that fosters independence, concentration, and physical coordination. The best environment for very young children is one in which they have an opportunity to safely explore and learn about themselves and the world. They learn from their relationships with friends and the environment. This leads to a growing awareness of, and appreciation for, life and the world around them.

In the Peace Garden, we believe that education is an art. To truly educate a child, his or her heart and will must be touched, as well as his or her mind. By honoring the child?s natural gifts, we believe we are being true to Maria Montessori’s declaration, “Follow the Child,” as well as fulfilling the complex needs of the modern student.

Our program offers a unique blend of Montessori and Waldorf philosophies as well as techniques gleaned from other educational approaches. Presenting materials and ideas in a variety of ways enables us to address the many different learning intelligences represented in the class. While a traditional Montessori approach offers a well-rounded preparation for academics, we feel it is balanced by acknowledging the child’s needs for fantasy and imaginative creativity. Using aspects of various educational philosophies, we have developed a rich creative arts program to compliment the broad range of skills that Montessori education imparts.
Students come to the Peace Arbor classroom with incredible curiosity and enthusiasm for the wonder of life, for their rapidly expanding abilities, and for their new learning environment. They have reached a new level of development; physically evident in the growth of permanent teeth, and intellectually evident in their savvy communication, quick witted senses of humor, and delightful, imaginatirence. They are more aware of the larger world around them, and they are very eager to find their place in that world.

In the Children’s Peace Garden (3-6 yr olds), students were mainly involved in working with concrete materials. Now students are ready to begin their journey towards the abstract thinking and understanding that will carry them as adults. In the Peace Arbor, students still rely heavily on hands-on materials, but also are introduced to the more abstract concepts those materials symbolize. Students at this level are also ready to use their maturing imaginations to understand life’s complexity. They are excited to learn all about everything, and a common question at this age level is, “What is that?” They want to know it all.

Peace Arbor students strive to master everything around them. They begin to assume more responsibility for themselves and their classroom. Students at this level are very social, and are better able to help each other in their daily activities. Students at this stage of development are also very sensitive, imaginative, and eager to understand and develop values and communication skills. Fairness becomes very important, and the children need and want to learn how to cooperate better, and how to resolve conflicts fairly and peacefully. The Peace Arbor classroom eases the children into academic studies while continuing to develop life skills, creativity, and personal growth.
In the Peace Garden, students were dealing completely with a concrete world, the world of their senses: things they could hear, smell, taste and touch. As they grew, they were able to use concrete materials to understand more and more complex concepts; in the Peace Arbor, they used math manipulatives to understand concepts of multiplication, division and even pre-algebra. Now, in the Peace Academy, they are developing abstract thinking. Now they are ready to use the concrete materials as a jumping off point for their own journeys into the abstract. Their imaginations are primed and ready to muse over universal problems and historic dilemmas. Their focus is widening, able to comprehend and grapple with issues of social justice and personal belief. They are beginning to understand their own role in society, the global society, as well as their own classroom’s role.

Students at this level may seem more disorganized outwardly, but this is because they are concentrating on developing inner order. They need time to try out roles, and get feedback. They need to research many different ways and options of how to live life. They need structure and guidance, but they need to feel that they have power over their life and their learning. Studies need to be relevant to them. They need to exercise choice over the topics they research; they need to shoulder increasing responsibility for their work and for their community. They need to discuss their beliefs and the beliefs of others in terms of current events and philosophies, so to better refine their own inner values. They need to be held accountable for their actions, and yet held in patient and high esteem as they stumble through the many mistakes that will help them learn poise, tact, and grace in social situations.

Peace Academy students are growing physically as well as emotionally and academically. Sometimes their growth spurts make them seem awkward, and they often do not know their own strength. They need to practice using their new, developing bodies. They need to get out and do things. They also need to get out of the classroom and interact with the world because of their widening worldview and need for relevant, purposeful work. And they need desperately to interact with each other, to learn to get along with their peers, to problem solve in a group setting, to shift their support system away from their parents and onto the age group that are, and will continue to be, their workmates, colleagues and partners