Edition 0.1
Table of Contents
1.3.2
Secondary Student Volunteers
1.3.4
Continued Education Volunteers
1.3.5
Long-Term Dependant Volunteers
2.1.2
Intellectual Interactions
4.3
Work Ethic over Money Ethic
Preface
This system will understand each child as belonging to one of several groups based on their current stage of social interaction. Social interaction is the defining characteristic because the way children interact with their teachers and their peers determines how best they can be taught and cared for. As there is often not a common relationship between academic and social development, for an education environment perspective it is reasonable to emphasis social development.
Babies are totally dependent on their elders. At this stage they will need and expect their needs to be met by others. Their role is mainly that of observer. They will watch what is going on around them and learn by beginning to experiment with things, though generally through what is brought to them.
As children age they will begin to take a more active role with their interactions in school and at home. Those that they respect they will imitate and help. Those that they see as authority figures they will test, to learn the boundaries of acceptable behavior. In general their role is an imitative one. They will learn to act by observing the behaviors and more importantly the intentions and emotions of those around them. Their behavior and attention is focused on elders, on adults and older children, even their interactions with similarly developing peers will mostly be experiments in imitating their elders. The idea of having an invested mutual relationship with a peer is only just developing.
As children begin to develop their skills and learn the rules of society their attention will begin to shift from elders to peers. At this stage of social development children are more interested in bonding with children their own age and discovering their role in the various social situations they find themselves in. As children begin to see themselves as a member of a peer group they resent being seen as dependant or subservient to non-peers. They will tend to seek the approval of respected elders less and often they will even rebel against their elders. During this phase they are struggling to learn how to work together and manage themselves as a cohesive peer group. If children are unable to advance beyond a codependent mindset they can develop a pathological kind of codependence where the group becomes so important that they would do almost anything to remain a part of that social interaction.
As children develop their interactions with peers, their individual identity will become more and more important. Advancing to an independent mindset is difficult but essential in a democratic and capitalist society. Many children may find themselves stuck trying to impress their peers. If the atmosphere is right and a sense of responsibility and independence is given to the children, they will begin to become aware of themselves as individuals in the community, as opposed to mere extensions of that community. Their focus shifts from a need to impress others, to a need to impress oneself. They focus on personal accomplishment and self-gratification, which for an emotionally healthy human includes caring for loved ones and recognizing the need for social interdependence.
Children who are full time members of the Primary Care Institution are those that have not yet passed the Primary Graduation Examinations, or that are not socially or emotionally ready to advance to Secondary Care.
Children who have advanced to Secondary Care are those that have passed the Primary Graduation Examinations and have decided that they are ready to move on to the Secondary Care Institution. Such children are still involved at the Primary Care level though in a different way than Primary Care children. Their involvement in the institution is described later.
An Apprentice will often begin as a student teacher attending a higher education institution. When the Apprentice has adjusted to their environment they should be considered second in authority only to the Head of House and should hold the respect of volunteers. The apprentice acts as tutor and educational facilitator, helping children with their individual activities and leading small group activities. Apprenticeship will generally last for many years, and often when the Head of House retires the apprentice will take their place. Apprentice should be a paid position.
A Journeyman is essentially a visiting Apprentice. The Journeyman is mainly an observer, occasionally facilitating both the Head of House and the Apprentice in their activities. Journeymen travel to other schools to gain a more diverse perspective on education. Journeyman should be a paid position, or at the very least room and board should be provided for the Journeyman throughout their stay.
The Head of House is the central adult figure for a group of children while they are in the childcare facility. They are responsible for all aspects of managing their portion of the facility. They are responsible for managing both paid and unpaid assistants within their portion of the facility. They are responsible for ensuring the well balanced education and care of the children both belonging to and visiting their portion of the facility. This responsibility does not mean that they do all the work themselves. When things are going well they will simply be participating in the well functioning institution as if they were just another assistant. However, when things go wrong they play the role of disciplinarian or leader, laying down the law and delegating what actions need to be taken to get things back on track. The Head of House will also generally take a lead role in organizing and executing large projects and lectures which may involve most or all of their children. Each Head of House will generally have one specialty, and therefore act as Specialist for that subject. Doing so encouraged students to mingle between Houses. A Head of House is discouraged from having more than one specialty as the extra duties would likely take too much of their time.
The assistants help children with simple problems and questions. They teach smaller groups of children lessons. They provide an extra set of eyes to watch the children, making sure that nothing bad happens. Finally they add to the diversity within the house.
Most Heads of House will have a specialty and will act as the specialist for a given field. Subjects for which no Head of House is Specialist may require a paid Specialist Assistant not belonging to any particular House. Specialists are those with somewhat more advanced and complete knowledge in a given field of study or skill. It is the job of the specialist to answer more advanced questions and provide a more advanced education within their field of specialty. This means that as children develop more advanced skills and knowledge they will spend more time with a more diverse cross-section of the staff. Specialists that are not Head of House may have more than one specialty.
Independent children generally advance to Secondary Education, though their involvement at the Primary Care institution need not end. They should continue to take an active part in the community of their House as long as they have time. They may simply be doing homework there, or hanging out there with their friends. Whether they are actively involved in the care of the younger children or not, their presence adds to the atmosphere and, again, at least provides another set of eyes and an occasional helping hand. This involvement would be great for older children that may want to be teachers later in life, or simply desire the experience for when they will have their own children some day.
Secondary children may get involved in this either through simply continuing to spend time at their old house, or if they never attended the facility through some kind of secondary level club or organization. It may even be worthwhile for such a program to be part of the education for all secondary level children.
Some adults may wish to volunteer in a House. So long as the space is not already too crowded with children and volunteers, they should be accepted. However, the head of house should make certain that the adult volunteers are generally educated enough to be helpful to the students.
It is an unfortunate truth that many adults come from educational backgrounds that are poor to say the least. This can mean a constant challenge throughout life, struggling with what society or their parents failed to give them and what they did not successfully pursue independently. Currently there is little prospect of a “do-over” for people from such backgrounds. However, there doesn’t seem to be any reason why such adults should not get a second chance at their education, if they really want one.
Schools that follow this plan should be encouraged to accept adults from poor educational backgrounds as volunteers. This gives these people a second chance in a way that respects them as adults and can minimize their embarrassment over their background or past mistakes. These individuals also add to the community of the facility. They can provide diverse perspectives. They give students more opportunity to explain what they know as these volunteers learn it along-side them; increasing the chance the children will understand and retain what they learn. Their presence also reduces discrimination and ignorance by exposing children to the fact that society is not perfect, raising awareness of concerns of poverty and discrimination, and showing the children that these problems are not to be ignored.
Some people with particularly special needs may never become fully independent members of society. As children these people may have a lot of trouble overcoming challenges like Primary Graduation Examinations. For such people there is no reason not to extend their stay at the Primary Care Institution beyond the normal expectations for the age at which one advances to the next level of education. As these children get older and it becomes apparent that they will never be fully independent, their role can shift from that of student to that of assistant. While they might be taken advantage of in adult society, here they can comfortably participate in a kind of community that they are well adjusted to. Having learned basic skills and concepts they can teach other children, and often in creative or unique ways. Many such children are particularly talented in one area. Continuing to stay with their Primary Care Institution gives them the luxury to pursue that interest while the children benefit from their great expertise in that field. Even if such an individual does not have a field of particular expertise, it would not be too costly to keep them with the institution and provide for their needs, and they would add to the atmosphere of the institution furthering the sense of diversity.
The elderly are an important part of child rearing in many societies. Elderly people who are no longer able to contribute economically to society and even those who rely on others to help fill their needs can still play a positive role in child rearing. The elderly have a whole lifetime of experience and for many that experience leads to wisdom which can be shared with the children. Even if they lack wisdom, merely sharing their experiences with the children can be very beneficial. The presence of the elderly also helps children grasp the cycle of life, helping them to understand that their actions have far reaching consequences. Also helping to fulfill the needs of the elderly can be a significant challenge for the children, and can teach them responsibility.
The involvement of the elderly is beneficial for the elderly as well. It gives them something to live for and provides them with daily mental and social stimulation. The children can also help to fulfill the needs of the elderly, potentially making involvement in such an institution cheaper than a nursing home.
The Head of House is the administrator for their House. The primary care facility as a whole may be administered by the same administration as the secondary care administration that it is associated with. By the current model this would be the school district administration, generally a school board.
Children in each stage of social development benefit from the presence of and interaction with children from other stages of social development.
The more individuals present in the community of a Totally Dependent child the more individuals they have to watch and take care of them. This is important in early development as it grants the child a wider range of personalities and types of interactions to observe.
Partially dependent children need elders to help and admire. They also need elders whose boundaries they can test. A greater variety of elders means a more open perspective on social roles and emotional attitudes. By including older children in the lives of the partially dependent there is a more varied atmosphere and a portion of the pressure is taken off of the adults. Conversely, when partially dependent children only have older peers they can become spoiled and self centered because there is no other child needier than they are, thus there is no reason that they should not receive the most attention. The presence of totally dependent children offsets this and can provide the partially dependent children with examples of care and love that are focused on someone else, and someone more fragile and needy.
Codependent children, while focused on their peers, see older children as peers more than elders. So while they have a tendency to rebel against the will of adults that they have long admired, they will continue to admire and follow the lead of respected older children. The presence of independent children can help lead codependent children toward an attitude of healthy independence rather than rebellious obedience to peer society. Meanwhile they are now old enough to begin to help care for the younger more dependent children. This responsibility teaches them that they are more than just a part of a social clique, further helping them to advance towards a mindset of independence.
Finally the older children who have begun to reach a state of independence will need younger children to care for, so that they can learn healthy social attitudes rather than become absorbed in selfish pursuits of money, fame, or knowledge. Having a complete community will help them recognize the interconnected nature of mankind and the continuum of life. This helps them perceive their role in democracy and capitalism as one of participation instead of social and economic manipulations. The resulting healthier attitude towards democracy and capitalism will in turn lead to a healthier democracy and capitalism.
So far the emphasis has been on the importance of social interaction among children of all ages, but intellectual interactions are also beneficial. Clearly younger children benefit from the presence of older children. In their most basic capacity the older children can provide the younger children with help when they are troubled. This is especially beneficial as older children have a better perspective on how to make sense of the material as they have learnt it more recently than the teachers. While the teachers may be knowledgeable, the way one stores knowledge is often very different from how one attains it. The help of older children could be more than supplemental. Older children, if they were taught well, should be able to provide a majority of the education that younger children need. This frees up time for the staff to perform other duties, such as evaluating children and preparing more complex group instruction and projects. The older children are not getting the short end of the stick here either. Often one of the best ways to really get something ingrained in one’s mind is to teach it to someone else. Even as the older children are helping the younger children, they are also helping themselves by making that knowledge and those skills easier to recall and use for themselves. There might be concerns of bad information circulating among the children, but remember that the teachers now have the time to deal with children on a one-on-one basis more regularly, so such myths and misinformation can quickly be identified and corrected.
Ideally there should be an atmosphere of mutual respect between the staff and the children under their care. The staff should not appear dominating or uninvolved. It is also important that while the staff should bond with the children, they should always recognize that their role is at most as surrogate mother or father. A sense of ownership on the part of the staff or belonging on the part of the children is harmful in several important ways. It can cause tension between parents and staff. It can result in inappropriate emotional responses, particularly as the children get older and leave. Finally a sense of ownership and belonging is counter to the desired outcome, which is a sense of equal footing, that we are all people, and that we are all on the same level in the eyes of society.
All of the Heads of House, Specialists, and Assistants all need to be in constant communication. If a child is spending too much time engaging in one activity it is likely the specialist of that activity that will notice this first, and they should discuss the potential problem with the Head of House for that child. Assistants are also likely to be among the first to notice a problem since they engage in closer interaction with the children. It is also important that the various teachers have regular discussions because they may have disagreements regarding certain philosophical views, while this is acceptable (see below), the disagreement should be understood by both parties so that the children cannot manipulate the differences to their advantage.
It is important and desirable that teachers disagree. Teacher disagreement should be public and in front of the children so that the children can learn how reasonable adults argue. The teachers need not tone down the disagreement. The children should not be sheltered and should understand that their teachers are flawed and human, and they should see their teachers loosing their temper. They should also see their teachers swallowing their pride and apologizing when they do. We do not want the children to be meek and cowardly, we want them to be strong and passionate individuals, but we also want individuals who can admit when they are wrong and who are willing to see and understand the views of others.
Teacher disagreement can and should often lead to open-ended philosophical discussion among the teachers and the students.
Disagreement should be seen as a right, and all teachers and assistants, no matter how novice, have that right. If a teacher makes a mistake it is vital that the assistant be courageous enough to correct the teacher’s mistake before the children get thoroughly confused, and again it is not the job of the teacher to appear perfect. It may happen that the assistant is wrong when pointing out the teacher’s mistake, this should not result in the assistant being punished or embarrassed, it is an opportunity to teach and an opportunity to show the children how mistakes are an opportunity to learn and not the cause of embarrassment and ridicule.
Children from different Houses should be encouraged to interact with each other. The House is merely the center of the child’s universe, not the child’s universe as a whole. Just as children should be encouraged by their parents to get out of the house and interact with neighborhood children, so should the Head of House encourage the children of their House to interact with children of other Houses. In fact some children may spend much of their day at a different House. This is acceptable and especially encouraged when it comes to pursuing interests which one Head of House is more specialized in than another.
OLD:
Competition is a word that seems to commonly be misunderstood. Competing does not mean winning at all costs. Competing is a means of judging oneself against the abilities of another. When two swordsmen compete they fight within a set of rules to see who can score the most hits. When one swordsman pulls a gun, he is no longer a competitor. The competing swordsman does not seek victory, he seeks judgment, he seeks to see how he compares with his competitor. This principle can be applied to capitalism. Greed is the blind pursuit of economic victory. Greed is without honor, and without respect for both competitors and rules. A greedy company will embezzle, manipulate, forge, and steal until they are as close to a monopolistic entity as possible. In this way capitalism in the face of greed becomes something other than capitalism. Capitalism does not run on greed, it dies with greed. Capitalism instead runs on competition. Competition involves two competing entities whose objectives are not to win, but to receive judgment through success or failure. A competitive corporate entity runs its business well, and does it’s best to fulfill it’s role in society. It seeks to legitimately maximize profit, by increasing efficiency and selling a better product. It does not seek to manipulate the environment so that people think it is better, it wants to be known for what it truly is, and when an opponent is troubled by problems unrelated to the competition, a competitor does not kick them when they’re down. A competitor wants every opponent to be at the top of their game, because that is where the real challenge, and the real honor lies.
Why does a person work? People work to make money. Why do people want to make money? People want money because it improves their quality of life. This statement, regardless of its truth, implies something very important. If a person has money, they would not necessarily work. A person who follows this statement does not have a work ethic they have a money ethic. In order to have a work ethic you must desire to do work, not just desire to have the monetary benefits of the work. Someone with a work ethic will continue to work, in one form or another, even if they win the lottery. But what is work? Work is not merely occupying you. Nor is work simply expending energy. In physics Work is Force times Distance. In order to have done work one must have applied a force and ended up somewhere different than the starting point. So clearly the busybody attitude of “It doesn’t matter what the results are, I just need something to do” is not work. Work in society is any activity that results in a change for that society. Work is done with an objective, with a goal, a direction, and working is pushing in that direction. So someone with a real positive work ethic would continue to work even if they won the lottery, even if they didn’t have to.
Children should not be punished for their misdeeds. Punishment is motivated by revenge. Punishment implies that the child deserves to suffer because of what they did or what they failed to do. Children do not deserve to suffer, they deserve to be taught. When a child misbehaves the objective of the caregiver should be discipline and rehabilitation. In particularly self-discipline, rather than mere obedience, must be the ideal if a spirit of democracy and capitalism is to be instilled in the children.
Teachers should also be encouraged to study child psychology and other human psychology so that they are better able to cope with the children.
What follows is not a recipe for how to turn bad children into good children. Rather it is a series of suggestions with an emphasis on the attitude that the caregiver should have when dealing with misbehaving children.
The first thing a teacher should do when observing behavior that is “bad” is to stop the child and ask them why they did it.
If the child is willing to discuss then the teacher should attempt to convince the child that the act is “bad” but should not be arrogant, and should be willing to listen to the child’s explanation as to why it was not “bad”.
If the child is unconvinced that the action or inaction is “bad” then the teacher should attempt to demonstrate to the child why it is bad, instead of just using reason. The teacher should attempt to continue to teach the child until the teacher is convinced that the child did nothing wrong, the child agrees with the teacher sincerely, the child refuses to talk anymore, or the child seems unable to understand.
If the child seems unable to understand, either take a break from explaining it so that you can think about it more and understand it better yourself, or ask someone else to try and explain it.
If at any point the child refuses to talk and refuses to be reasoned with, they should not be immediately punished. It may just be that the child is having trouble coping with being wrong. We all know that sometimes when we do something wrong it can be very difficult to admit to it, and forcing the child to admit he is wrong only makes him feel inferior, and encourages an approach to life where winning is more important than being right. Remember that you are trying to raise a healthy and independent human, not just a human that does the right things out of fear of being wrong, and not the type of person that only cares about winning, not in the greater wisdom and the greater good being served.
If the child has refused to talk or be reasoned with but continues the “bad” action or inaction, then more extreme steps may be needed then just reasoning with the child.
Eliminating the ability of the child to engage in the “bad” behavior while continuing to reason with them. For example if a child always destroys the building block structures of other students, keep the child away from the building blocks so that they cannot commit the crime, and every time they want to go play with the blocks, talk to them about why they can’t until they seem to understand.
If they’re behavior is causing strain on the whole community then excluding them from the community can be a powerful tool. This does not mean separating them from the community. If they are away from the community while they are being excluded, then they will only become resentful. They need to watch, from the outside, the community working correctly, they need to see how the absence of bad behavior and the presence of good behavior lead to a healthier and happier community.
If you have already explained things to them, which you should have, then there should be no reason to explain what they did wrong at this point. If you have their respect, and the other children have assimilated exclusion as part of their social procedures then there should also be no need to command the child to exclude themselves. Once you and all the other children start ignoring them they will understand their situation, suffer through it for a while, and then come to terms with it. This allows for natural exclusion that starts when they behave in what they know to be an unacceptable way and ends when they have been forgiven. This also means that the child must take responsibility for his own actions, literally he must respond to the consequences of his actions. By commanding the child to exclude themselves, putting them in a chair in a corner or whatever tactic is used, you take responsibility out of the child’s hands. Furthermore you teach the child obedience more than good behavior. Democratic and Capitalist principles rely on understanding of principles not obedience to them. With that said, the mechanisms for successful natural exclusion are not likely to exist at first, and it may be necessary to command exclusion. However, teachers should always work towards incorporating exclusion into the social procedures of the institution, reducing the need for commanded exclusion.
Getting the advice of an expert such as a child psychologist.
Sending the child to a school that specializes in REHABILITATING children with that problem. They should NOT be sent to a school that punishes them, and they should NOT just be drugged. Only in the case of SEVERE emotional or physical problems should drugs be used, and for rehabilitation purposes only (as long as rehabilitation is physically possible).