PLAN I.
Keyword: Comenius' idea of general, elementary school, what to teach, how to teach, what 12-year-olds can know after general school, Comenius' idea of books, book titles for 6 grades, anthroposophy and its idea of curriculum in brief
Anthroposophical approach:
The horizontal curriculum is an attempt to describe the didactic coherence of different subjects in a particular developmental period of a child and young person.
The vertical plan can be expressed: to draw on the unity of spirit - that is, on the knowledge of the "doctrine of man".
Primary level: (lower and middle)
lower 1-4 year (class)
middle level 5-8 years (class)
and higher grade 9-12
1- 3 class:
/ drawing of forms: harmonious forms that are assumed in the inner man - by moving parts of the body, the whole body, drawing
/ mother tongue: grasping the quality of vowels, rhymes, rhythm and the meaning content of letters (more in the special article on writing), 1st year - uppercase letters, 2nd - lowercase letters, 3rd - writing letters
/ foreign languages: equivalent to mother tongue
/ storytelling: fairy tales, fables, old testament in stories
/ elementary: 3rd year - field work, building a house (practically)
/ mathematics: basic qualities of wholeness and distinctiveness through 4 number operations to written representations of number operations
/ painting: with watercolour paints - experience the inner "tone" of colour
/ music: mood quintet (pentatonic), flute, children's canteen, lyre, then diatonic music
/ Handmade: crochet
4 - 6 year:
From the world where the child forms a homogeneous whole with him, the world becomes the surrounding world.
/ languages: temporal differentiation, thinking into which we bring grammatical rules
/ foreign languages: beginning of writing
/ music: music grammar - time values of music, cadence - practically
/ mathematics: parts that have a lawful relationship to the whole - fractions, causal thinking - trinomial, percentages, mathematical exploration of cause, algebra
/ forms: beauty with precision - freehand geometry
/ painting: cause and effect - black and white drawing
/ local history: economic conditions of the wider surroundings
/ geography: general view of the homeland, social aspect of geography - coexistence of nations with nature
/ astronomy: description of astronomical phenomena that are observable
/ natural science: the study of animals begins with the observation of man, - he is unspecialized in his organism, but individual species of animals create specific characteristics
/ the plant world: from lower to higher (as an example of the mental development of a child), the relationship of the plant with the earth and the sun, mineralogy
/ history: ability to develop time concepts - ancient Indian, ancient Persian, Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Greek period, Rome, Middle Ages
/ physics: causality, experiences of physical phenomena - acoustics, optics, thermals, magnetism, static electricity, mechanics (the concept of gravity - for the experience of puberty - so that one is not overwhelmed by gravity)
/ Cultivation: the relationship between time and space in plant development
/ handwork: cross stitch and interlaced patterns, knitting with five needles, sewing fabric animals
/ craft: experience of adequacy - wood and tool, sawing, carving, rasping, sanding
/ gymnastics: movement games, relay race, exercise equipment, athletics, swimming
/ narrative: a "new" motif - stories from a substance yet to come (e.g. history)
7th - 8th grade
A period that is negatively burdened today. But the child is entering into a whole new relationship with the world. Physically, the figure is transformed, the inner transformation is this: 'One works one's way through the respiratory and circulatory system to the connection of the muscles, to the bones. He works his way completely to his periphery and, with sexual maturity, breaks through to the outside world. Only then does it stand in the outside world. It's a transition from an imagined past to an imagined future. " (R.Steiner)
/ chemistry: the world of substances, understanding of objective reality, inorganic "dead" world, fire and burning processes, lime burning, acids, bases, man - organic "living" natural phenomena, life processes, formation and change of substances
/ physics: dead topic - mechanics
/ geography: focusing on the cultural phenomena of those continents that have not yet been discussed
/ science: human - nutrition and healthy lifestyle (this is the last year when a child can still selflessly observe a human), cultivation and origin of food, anatomy
/ history: exploring new continents, Renaissance thinking, industrialization, industrial revolution, man as a creator of social orders
/ Drawing and painting: the parallelogram used in the Renaissance (perspective), painting according to the great masters - the element of structure and regularity
/ mother tongue: emotions - expression of feelings (in the period when a young person is "speechless"), own and choral recitation, both in bound speech and prose, search for a "new" language - temperaments in sentence structure
/ Foreign languages: referáty in a foreign language
/ narrative: interest in foreign peoples extends to the whole Earth - develops understanding of differences
/ astronomy: geocentric and heliocentric view (metaphysical for teachers)
/ geometry: practicing proofs - congruence of triangles, Pythagorean theorem...
/ music: orientation - playing and singing and listening are equivalent
/ gardening: the challenge of being exposed to different weather conditions throughout the year - the practical experience of a whole gardening year
/ handmade: making shoes - to represent them artistically according to their use and their wearer
/ physical education: experience of self-denial - jumps, tools, endurance, running, ball games, 1.differentiation with sexual maturity - for boys strength and for girls physical flexibility
/ class work: a selected topic is prepared throughout the year and practically, consulted with a designated teacher and presented to teachers and audience (e.g. own production of a football, etc.)
Jan Amos Komenský
Idea of school GENERAL - elementary: 6 - 12 years
The purpose and aim of the common school will be that all young people between the sixth and twelfth (thirteenth) years of age learn what they need throughout their lives.
Id:
/ I. - to read all things in one's mother tongue, both printed and written
/ II. - to write first legibly, then quickly, and finally correctly according to the rules of the mother tongue., it will be necessary to give them these rules as clearly as possible and to give them exercises according to them.
/ III. - count in writing and by heart as needed
/ IV. - to measure correctly in any way lengths, widths, distances
/ V. - to sing all the usual hymns, and the more able pupils may also learn the beginnings of figural music
/ VI. - to learn by heart most of the psalms and holy songs
/ VII. - Let them know perfectly the main sayings of the Holy Scriptures
/ VIII. - the doctrine of ants, summarized in rules and explained by examples according to the understanding of the age
/ IX. - let them know enough about the economy and politics to understand what they see happening every day at home and in the village
/ X. - they should know the main features of history, how the world was created, corrupted, restored and governed by divine wisdom until today
/ XI. - from the description of the world, let them learn the main things about the vault of heaven, the roundness of the earth, the ocean, how everything flows around, how the seas and rivers turn, the works of the world and the main kingdoms of Europe, especially let them know the cities, mountains, rivers and all other sights of their homeland
/ XII. - finally, let them know the main things about the crafts, everything in general, either only in order not to show a gross ignorance of what is going on in human life, or also to make it easier to see later on what everyone is naturally inclined to do (VD 277).
And what will they know after they graduate from comprehensive school?
"And if all these things are properly taught in this common school, nothing will seem so entirely new to the young men (children) which they have not already tasted here, whether they go to the Latin school, or whether they go to the farms, shops, and trades, because of all that will later be learned in their trade, or what they will hear in holy sermons and elsewhere, or read in any books, will be but a more abundant explanation or elaboration of the things which they have known before, and they have so truly known for themselves that they can understand, do, and judge more correctly of it all." (VD 278)
The means to achieve this goal are as follows:
The pupils of the common school, who must be kept there for six years, shall be divided into six classes (separated, if possible, by space, so that the children may not interfere with each other).
Books should be appointed for each class separately, exhausting all the teaching of the class in question, so that, as long as they are kept in these enclosures, no other books will be needed, but that they may be brought to the point unmistakably. For it will be necessary that these books should exhaust the mother tongue, namely, all the names of things which children can understand according to their age, and the principal and most common ways of speaking.
So there will be six books, and they will differ from each other not so much in content as in form. For they will all treat of everything, but each of the earlier books will give things more general, more familiar, and more easy, while the later will lead the mind to things more strange, more unknown, and more difficult, or will give some new way of thinking about the same things, and this will give the mind new pleasures, as will soon appear.
For care must be taken that everything here is in keeping with the spirit of a child, which by its nature inclines to what is pleasant, cheerful and playful, but shrinks from everything that is serious and severe.
These books should also be given titles that would attract young people and at the same time express the whole content nicely. Such, I hope, will be the headings taken from the kinds of gardens which are the most pleasant possessions. For a school, too, why should not a book for the first grade be called a violet bed, for the second a rose bed, for the third an orchard, etc.?
Komenský also wrote these textbooks, but nothing of them has survived. He writes that he was unable to complete them and because of the impossibility of the work of rebuilding schools in his homeland he did not finish them. He writes only the titles:
1. The violet bed of Christian youth, containing the most fragrant flowers of school education
2. Rose bed of Christian youth, containing bunches of fragrant flowers for a nice continuing education
3. an orchard of education and wisdom for the school youth, in which whatever beautiful things heaven and earth contain, and what is to be known and believed, are charmingly set before the eyes of boys (children)
4. Labyrinth of wisdom of school youth, in which useful problems taken from the holy books and elsewhere are presented in the form of riddles to sharpen the wit and support the memory
5. The spiritual balm of Christian youth, in which is shown the beneficial use of the manifold things of man and the arts, and indeed of all that it behooves man to know or do in this life. Prepared for the level of the youth of the fifth school year
6. The Paradise of the soul of Christian youth, containing the core of the whole holy scripture (VD 280).
An easy method of giving these books to young people:
- Only four hours a day, two in the morning and two in the afternoon, should be devoted to public instruction.
- The morning hours be devoted to the training of the mind and memory, the afternoon to the exercise of the hand and voice.
- In the morning the teacher will read and re-read the task of the lesson, everyone will listen and the teacher will explain as clearly as possible if something needs explanation, so that they have to understand it. Then they are called in turn to read it again, and while one reads clearly and distinctly, the others will look at their books and read quietly with him. And if this goes on for half an hour or more, the more gifted will try to repeat without reading, and finally the less gifted. For the tasks must be short, appropriate to the time of an hour and to the comprehension of the child's spirit.
- This learning is strengthened still more in the afternoon lessons, in which nothing new is to be discussed, but only the same things repeated, by copying the same printed books, and by competitions to see who can remember more quickly than the other what has been discussed before, who can repeat it, or who can write, sing, count, etc.
There's a special school every six years:
0 - 6 years: mother's wedge
6 - 12 years: elementary school or general school with mother tongue
12 - 18 years old: Latin school or gymnasium
18 - 24 years: academies and trips
Finally, an excerpt from the document on the Educational Plan of a Classical Public School:
- selection of words used: connotation, competence, output, obligation, by decree, part of the form, InspIS, IVP, PLPP, CSI and many others....
- "The Act and the Ordinance should be read together, Section 16 has several provisions which clearly imply your obligation - firstly, the pupil has the right to the provision of support measures, where the IVP is one of a number of support measures. The provision of IVP is dealt with in section 3 of Decree 27/2016, and in relation to your query is paragraphs 2, 5 and 6. You should also read §16a), where you are obliged to document why you, as a principal, do not provide a support measure, or the whole matter with the uncooperative school principal can be dealt with through the CSI. The word "may" in §18 of the Education Act then has different connotations. "
Here we need to get a clear picture of the "liveliness" and "meaningfulness" of it all. Furthermore, words and phrases such as: artificial teacher, robotization, digitalization, etc., appear in the new introductions of the current regulations.
(I have no desire to elaborate any further.)
In the next Part II of the Plan the higher stage according to Anthroposophy and the Academy according to Comenius will be described.
Part III of the Plan will talk generally about development and the Plan.