preschool philosophies
I've been looking for a preschool for my son, and often I wonder, "what exactly was that philosophy again?" It's hard to figure out if you're a Waldorf or an Ananda Marga person if you don't know which one frowns on TV. If you'd like to provide some additional information, corrections, or just your own point of view, please email me. Many of my summaries borrowed information from Scholastic's Preschool 101 site.
Ananda Marga
"Ananda Marga ("Path of Bliss") schools worldwide foster personal spiritual development, academic learning, artistic creation and community service." Ananda Marga is based on a yoga philosophy, and a quick reading of their social statements seems like a version of mystical, spiritual socialism. They believe that utilization of human resources, from the material to the spiritual, should be distributed according to the common good and the will of the "collective body" "for the prosperity of all."
Ananda Marga was developed in India in 1955 by Prabhat Rainjain Sarkar, known by his spiritual name of Shrii Shrii Anandamurtijii.
Montessori
The Montessori Foundation seeks to "develop the human potential" by the three goals of "inspiring academic excellence, nurturing curiosity, creativity, and imagination, and awakening the human spirit." Montessori believes that children should learn on their own, and that the best teacher of a young child is a somewhat older child. Thus, their student:teacher ratios are usually larger than at other schools, and they group children into classes that span several years.
Montessori also believes in "creating a culture of consistency, order, and empowerment" and thus encourages parents to send their three-year-olds to preschool five days a week. As part of the belief that children learn best when allowed to create their own environments, preschool-aged children have no lesson plans and few classes, but are allowed to explore their environment - including preparing their own snacks and cleaning up after their own messes - so they can learn to "focus their intelligence" and "concentrate their energies for long periods of time."
Reggio-Emilia
The Reggio Emilia philoposhy is centered on the belief that "the curriculum is not child centered or teacher directed. The curriculum is child originated and teacher framed." The teacher is a "researcher," co-learning along with your child, with the classroom as the third participant in the child's education. Reggio-Emilia is considered to be a project-based philosophy.
There are four central tenets to Reggio-Emilia's structure. The "Emergent Curriculum" builds upon the interests of children, with topics "captured from the talk of children, through community or family events, as well as the known interests of children." "Project Work" includes "in-depth studies of concepts, ideas, and interests" and are considered as an "adventure" that might last a week or continue throughout the school year. "Representational Development" uses graphical representations "as tools for cognitive, linguistic, and social development." This could mean that art, construction, drama, music, puppetry, and shadow play could be all part of teaching concepts. Finally, "Collaboration" through group work is "considered valuable and necessary to advance cognitive development."
Waldorf
"When children relate what they learn to their own experience, they are interested and alive, and what they learn becomes their own. Waldorf schools are designed to foster this kind of learning." Waldorf schools try to create a "nurturing, home-like environment" that stimulates your children's "bodies, spirits and souls." Waldorf believes that creative play, imitation and teamwork and togetherness are the best tools to help your child learn.
Preschool-aged Waldorf students learn to concentrate, be interested, and love learning. They'll likely be singing, cooking, playing dress-up, doing lots of art projects, and have storytime. The natural environment is emphasized and media is heavily discouraged - Waldorf parents are usually asked to eliminate TV and computer use from their children's lives as much as possible, and will never see plastic toys in the preschool.
This article, written by a Waldorf convert, describes the differences between Waldorf and Montessori. Waldorf seems to be more structured, "rhythmic" and group-oriented than Montessori.
