facebook writing

I've sent a mail to someone at facebook that I want to share here:

Hi, I'm a mom living in the Netherlands and recently created a group/platform who say education can improve to be more motivating.
In Dutch:
http://www.zinvolonderwijsnederland.nl/
I also write in English at
http://schmiodile.blogspot.com
There are examples of education that is cooperative (Freinet started this last century and this influenced education already but not enough), democratic and makes use of creativity. One of the keys of Freinet education is that children get to express thoughts freely and to share their thoughts. This faced opposition one century ago but is widely accepted now in many countries around the world.
Children expression is considered a healthy regular development method.
I watched a DVD about the Freinet movement just yesterday, but I didn't encounter a translation yet. It's in French...
this is a pitty because it shows directly in practice how fresh and participating children can be at school. Active and happy learners, what parent or educator doesn't want this for their child?

L’école buissonnière

Célestin Freinet was a schoolteacher in France in between the first and second world war. He was a school reformer who had a notion of education that many of us today take for granted. Before the second world war the ideas did spread rapidly among educators, but were not accepted by many authorities. Especially he recognized the need of children to express themselves at school. He was an avant garde, this means he had novel ideas that would get picked up later by a large portion of the population, but were not yet considered 'normal'. Indeed today his ideas have found their way into normal education. Many schools have a school paper. Free expression is considered a basic need for children in many societies.

What if there are inspiring new ideas now that will change education in the future? Can I recognize them?

A little bit of brainstorming:

Conceptual teaching, technical education that starts at kindergarten, different educational trajectories, internet education, world education, psychological education, moral leadership education, auditive lessons, visual internet lessons, kinesthetic Wii school, musical learning, sand and clay learning, multitasking or monotasking working style practicum, …

What methods will we share with each other? What discoveries will change the way we work with children and how can we make the world better? What should we stop doing and why or for whom? Changing schools changes society.

One conclusion I've reached in past years is that education can change aggressive children in happy children, but unfortunately it can also work the other way round. We need education that fits children. How can we educate children better?

L'école buissonnière means the bush school and refers to the habit of Freinet of going out to the fields with the children and teaching them on the way of discovery.

Now how to get creativity

In this you tube, Pythagore and maths.

save creativity, change education

What do you think? Is it important to rethink education to adopt a new conception of education that favorises creativity?

Improve your singing ele-mentally

This element song is a multitask to refresh your knowledge of elements, improve English diction and enjoy singing at the same time. What to think about this? Is learning the lyrics same as thinking? Is learning a list of names thinking? Why do we need to have basic knowledge.
How can you use this song in your life?



Now if everything would be just chemical, why sing?
Makes me think of Poincaré's essay; a complex structure doesn't happen at random. Makes me think love, as a result of chemicals if a higher hierarchy of love would require a higher hierarchy of chemicals?

(a quiet laugh here, caused by a complex of chemicals that didn't randomly organize but come to think of it you can read in my chemicals that it was an ironical laugh)

Imagin multiplication

This technique of multiplication is not only visual, it's also a way to puzzle out the relationship between numbers and spatial relationships.

an example of Vygotskian learning

How can you teach your child a foreign language? In this english speaking video a father teaches his japanese son to speak spanish.

autism awareness and acceptation

What movements do I accept? I think of myself as a tolerant curious person. How do I react when someone next to me flaps his arms? I think based on past experience I would be surprised but accepting it. For raising autism awareness this well observed view of someone with autism on the behaviour.

dvd's about (deep) learning

Yesterday I found myself searching for DVD's about Piaget and Freinet, educational thinkers. I'm sure there are other interesting dvd's to be found on educational thinkers, e.g. Feuerstein. If you know any I would appreciate any information.
The dvd's from Piaget cost more than I budgetted (250 $) but contain original classroom material of his method. I'm going to think very long if I really need it. From Freinet I found a dvd called "l'école buissonnière" about Freinet in a dramatized commedy. The dvd also contains extra documentary material. I'm waiting for the dvd to reach me by mail. It will be an extra opportunity to teach the children French, ethics and history.

Freinet's method has characteristics in common with unschooling - a recent educational development that makes me curious. Both methods have in common that there is room for deep learning as opposed to superficial learning. For more understanding, this article may provide more ellaboration on the concepts of deep learning versus superficial learning. I wonder if I can observe deep learning in the dvd's of Piaget? I expect so because of his emphasis on thinking.