Education for Life Methods

The goal of education is the same as the goal of life: to help children become, on every level—heart, mind, body, and spirit, more balanced, mature, effective, harmonious, and happy. We call our approach to achieving this goal, Education for Life, a philosophy that has been practiced for thirty years at Living Wisdom Schools.

Underlying all of our academic efforts is the understanding that happy children make the best learners. Children who feel respected, cherished, included, and safe relax into the learning experience in a more expansive way. They can afford to take risks. They rise to greater heights. This is true for all children, even the most precocious, who might easily navigate a more traditional educational system.

The main principles may be summarized, but the actual practice of each is rich in nuances and applications. These principles are the focus of most of our teacher training. Each principle is followed by a link to more information.
 

Principles of Education for Life

1. Maturity can be defined as the ability to relate appropriately to realities other than one’s own. The goal of Education for Life is to help children grow toward maturity through the expansion of their awareness in all areas.
    

2. Living by time-honored, universal truths, such as honesty and love, leads to happiness. Children are guided to live by these truths because they lead to happiness. Lessons are based on personal experience, not dogma.
    

3. There are four Tools of Maturity:  Body, Feeling, Intellect, and Will. Teachers strive for balance of  all four areas with the awareness that at different stages of development the emphasis is on different Tools. About the Tools of Maturity
    

4. Individuals usually learn best and experience the most joy through a particular Tool of Maturity. The teacher makes every effort to appeal to each student through his or her dominant Tool. Identifying a Child's Preferred Tool
    

5. Children (and all people) manifest energy-fields as well as physical forms. Energy levels vary on a continuum from heavy to ego-active to light. Teachers vary approaches to motivating individual students according to the energy level (Specific Gravity) the individual is manifesting at any given moment. About Specific Gravity
    

6. Teachers work with the energy of groups of students in a similar manner, using the techniques of Flow Learning.  Flow Learning is a method of working with group energy in these stages:  Awaken Enthusiasm, Focus Attention, Direct Experience, and Share Inspiration. About Flow Learning
    

7. Curriculum in an Education for Life School should be integrated as much as possible. The six broad areas of curriculum are Our Earth/Our Universe, Personal Development, Understanding People, Cooperation, Self-Expression, and Wholeness. The Education for Life Curriculum
    

8. The most important aspect of the curriculum is the teacher because of the importance of the teacher's magnetic influence. An Education for Life teacher is committed to personal growth and spiritual development and loves the subject taught or, in the case of a teacher of young children, loves childhood itself! Qualities of an Education for Life Teacher