Inspired Learning! Lesson One Comparing Experiential Approaches to Learning

Welcome to Lesson One of Inspired Learning! In this lesson, we will be exploring various experiential methods of teaching and learning. To help you in this discussion, I have created a summary sheet, “Comparing Approaches,” as your Handout. I suggest you either print this out or have it handy as we jump in! In this lesson, we will be comparing four different methods of experiential learning for both the early childhood and elementary years. The names of these methods are probably familiar to you, but how much do you know about the methods themselves? My goal here is to present to you a side-by-side comparison of the Waldorf, Montessori and Charlotte Mason methods with a brief description of Reggio Emilia as well. By the end of this lesson, you should have a good grasp of the history, philosophy and approach of each of these methods. In Lesson Two, we will dig deeper into the unique aspects of Waldorf education in particular. I think it’s important to keep in mind that most of these methods were created for the classroom. As we all know, classrooms and homeschools are very different animals, so part of our job as homeschoolers is translating teaching methods we find compelling into the home setting. I often wish that we could ask the founders their thoughts. What would Steiner say about Waldorf-inspired homeschooling in the 21st century? But alas, we don’t have that luxury, so it’s up to us! For any of you who are new to homeschooling, and even for you seasoned veterans, here’s a best-advice tip: do not try to recreate a classroom (of any of these methods) at home! Homeschooling does not have to look like school at home. For our comparison, let’s begin with the question: what is experiential learning? All of these methods consider the learning environment and hands-on activities to be important aspects of the learning process. They are each informed by a philosophy of education that values experience as critical to learning, rather than just rote learning (such as memorization) or direct instruction (like a lecture), alone. Experiential learning “is the process of making meaning from direct experience.” This approach goes all the way back to ancient times; Aristotle said, “for the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.” This reminds me of a saying I often tell my composition students: “the best way to learn to write is to write, and then write some more.” For a more formal definition of experiential learning, I consulted the

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Association for Experiential Education: “experiential education is a philosophy…in which educators purposefully engage with learners in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills, clarify values and develop people’s capacities to contribute to their communities.” All four of the methods we are comparing today fit this description. In my twenty years of homeschooling, I have used and explored some materials from each of the methods I’m comparing here in this workshop, with the exception of Reggio Emilia; I have only observed in a Reggio classroom. Let me give you a brief recap of my personal experience with these methods so that you know where I’m coming from as we explore. Our experiences always bias our research and explanations, so I wanted to share mine from the onset. When I was in graduate school for my Master of Arts in Teaching in the mid-1980s, Montessori schools were mentioned only briefly during my studies, but none of the other methods were mentioned at all. After graduation, I taught high school English in a public school and was so discouraged at the lack of “creative spark” in my high school juniors and seniors, that after one year, I decided to “go back to the beginning” and figure out where and how that spark had disappeared. The only “experiential, hands-on” approach I knew of at the time was Montessori. So off I went to work as an assistant in a Montessori 3-6 year old classroom. I learned a lot that year and was incredibly exhausted at the end of every day! A few years later when I was pregnant with our first child, my husband and I were the sales reps for a friend who made beautiful, handmade Montessori materials. In our travels, we visited many Montessori schools. I loved the materials but continued to have questions about the method, especially where young children were concerned. At the same time, we had some friends who lived on a farm in rural Tennessee who (loosely) used an Oak Meadow curriculum to homeschool their many children. Oak Meadow publishes curricula influenced by Waldorf methods and so my investigation into Waldorf began. I fell in love with Waldorf and have been inspired by this approach most directly for over 20 years now. We have used some Montessori materials over the years, and as my children neared middle school, we have also found some of the Charlotte Mason methods and materials to be quite useful. So where do we begin in comparing these methods? First a little history, and then the comparison. You’ll see on the “Timeline” that the Charlotte Mason approach was the first of these methods to be created. Charlotte Mason was a British educator who worked with parents to create home programs for their children and later classroom programs. In 1886, she

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published a book, Home Education, for parents of children up to age 9, and later came her publication, School Education, for children ages 9-12. Maria Montessori was an Italian medical doctor (one of the first female doctors in Italy) who opened the first “house of children,” Casa Dei Bambini, in 1907 in the city of Rome. Montessori developed her method based on scientific observations of children with mental disabilities initially, and later with children from low-income families. Rudolf Steiner was a German philosopher and educator who founded the first Waldorf School in Stuttgart in 1919 for the children of the workers at the Waldorf-Astoria Cigarette Factory. And our fourth approach, Reggio Emilia, was created in the 1960s by an Italian educator, Loris Malaguzzi. Let’s start with the general similarities of these methods. The three main methods we are looking at here – Charlotte Mason, Montessori and Waldorf – were really all developed in response to the mainstream practice of “industrialized schooling” in the early 1900s. By this I am referring to the practice of identifying, at a very young age, the occupation a child would pursue, and then training them solely for that occupation. In contrast, the founders of Waldorf, Montessori and Charlotte Mason methods each felt strongly that ALL children deserve a complete education, so each of these founders developed a liberal arts approach. They share the educational philosophy of respect for the whole child as a spiritual and creative being. And they each also honor nature study as a way to connect with ourselves, each other, and something larger than ourselves. Now it’s time for the Lesson One Video where I will show you some examples from each of these methods.

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