Steiner Education

Rudolf Steiner was an Austrian Philosopher.  He was born on February 25, 1861 and died on March 30, 1925.  He is also a social reformer, architect and esotericist.  In the 20th century he founded Anthroposophy.  There is an education that was based off of the educational philosophy of Steiner.The education is based off of Steiner's theories of child development.  He states that early childhood learning is imitative and sensory based.  Then during elementary school learning is imaginative and artistic.  And adolescence it is developing intellectual understand and social responsibility.  The first Waldorf school was founded in 1919 for children of the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart, Germany. As of today, there are 1025 independent Waldorf schools, 2000 kindergartens and 629 institutions for special education located in 60 countries.

Thanksgiving and Columbus Day

When I was little in elementary school and they told us we had no school because of thanksgiving.  The main thing that went through my mind was that I get a day off!! But the teacher told us that thanksgiving is a "time of thanks"  we then had a lesson about pilgrims and Indians and I think that is exactly what should be done.  We did arts and crafts including turkeys and pilgrims and Indians.

Also, I remember Columbus Day, we had to sing, and it was a song about Christopher Columbus and how he "sailed the ocean blue".  I think the elementary schools do a good job trying to instill in the children that this isn't just a day off, it is a day off for a very good reason.  They also teach you that it is a time of family.  In the Elementary School Issues they state that it is the job of the educator to help the students understand the importance of the holiday.

"Hopeful, Joyful, Kind, Visionary"

Schools are always trying to find a way to make education fun.  When students are young they are always so excited about school and when you ask a kindergartner they will tell you that they love school.  They will have such enthusiasm in telling you what their favorite thing to do in school is.  They are full of gratefulness and learning.  If you ask your average high school student if they love school and they most likely will disagree with you.
In the article Rethinking our classroom is states that an organized classroom should make the child/student happy and willing to succeed and learn.  I agree that unless the students feel as if they are in a safe environment they will not be as open to sharing their thoughts and ideas.  As a student I feel as if in my high school I had the best and the worst.  Sometimes I really enjoyed going to class and other times I didn't.  It mostly depended on the class.

Mitt Romney and Education

Since today is the big voting day, I feel as if everyone is as irritated as I am.  What does it all mean?  You hear one person saying something bad about the other and vise-versa.  Education is a big thing in the election.  What stood out to me the most was that Mitt Romney says that states who have chosen to adopt the Common Core States Standards would be on their own to implement it.  “If you have chosen it, congratulations.  Work on it and do it within the resources of your own state.”  He seems to want to take away from the public schools.
Mitt Romney thinks mostly about money, he seems to not understand that not many people have money.  Therefore public schools are the best thing for middle to low class families and if that is taken away people will be very unhappy.  Thus, I believe that Mitt Romney is completely wrong in trying to do that.