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You
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An Alternative School in Ecuador
In Ecuador, in the valley of Vilcabamba, there is a new type of education for children! On a beautiful farm in the southern part of Ecuador known as "the valley of longevity" we enjoy spring weather all year long. Here, we embrace new forms of relations in all aspects of our daily life. We develop many other activities with a similar outlook: morning exercises, eating, organic agriculture, architecture, regenerations, group interaction, meetings, lectures, etc. Our first big step was creating a school for children ages 3 to 12. The name of the school is "The School of Refreshment" and you will see why. We are about new forms. Therefore, let's jump right into our activities by looking at an example of a four day teaching schedule; objectives and philosophy will come later. The following activities were organized for children of 3 ½ to 5 years. Everyday, a Jeep and trailer transports our children to our school from three small villages. Children look forward to the invitation "to play" at our school.
Singing unknown sounds
MONDAY 4
8.15 AM - "Known and Unknown sounds or vowels":
We sing songs or vowels that first come to mind , one sound at a time. The teachers tape the sounds and the children listen and repeat only the unknown sounds of the language.
9.00 AM - "Agricultural activity from a different point of view":
We take a walk in nature and look at nature at ground level from the perspective of a small insect. One of the teachers writes down all the children's observations and then makes a poem using only the comments that the teacher finds unusual.
10.20AM - "A table with surprises":
There is a table filled with food and the children choose the food they want to eat and the amount. Then they close their eyes, choose a number all together, and move to the right that number of seats, then open their eyes and eat what somebody else has chosen! (Children are more open to play.)
11.20AM - "Drawing known and unknown sounds and vowels":
The teacher sings all the sounds or vowels from the 8.15 AM activity. The children will then draw the sounds or vowels as they feel them, then the teacher will write down the conventional letter beside what the child has drawn and the teacher is challenged to draw the unknown sounds.
12.30PM - Back home.
"Eating textures" with parents participating
THURSDAY 7
8.15 AM - "Sing and dance":
Expressing the light, the sky, and the view of the valley.
9.00 AM - "Modern mathematics":
10.00AM - "Eating textures":
One at a time a blindfolded child is presented with a variety of raw fruits and vegetables from which he chooses one to eat, purely from the sense of touch.
11.10AM - "Painting sensations and feelings":
The children are encouraged to express their feelings and sensations without any preconceived notions of the form or color they should take, using red, yellow, blue, green, water color and using 4 different mediums of craft paper. The teacher asks the children to paint "hot and cold", then "happiness and sadness". An invited teacher from the government asked "Miguel" after finishing the work: "You painted "hot" using green? "The child answered: "yes, it is a little hot!" (the yellow-brown paper heated the green color used).
12.30PM - See you tomorrow children!FRIDAY 8
8.15 AM - "Knowing each other differently":
With eyes blindfolded and with no talking and only laughing permitted, the children move around mixing with everybody, touching each other until they get together in a calm touching relationship.
9.15 AM - "change your name for a while":
In pairs, facing each other, taking turns... each child executes free movements. The activity consists of each child observing what is behind the movement of the other and invents a name that relates to this impression… a name that (s)he will keep for a while.
10.30AM - "Eating colors":
Many fruits are on a low table and the children have their eyes closed. The teacher claps, and the kids open their eyes quickly. The teacher then asks them which color they saw; then they eat this color (which will be a fruit or vegetable). The teacher repeats this activity a few times.
11.15AM - "Paint and sing the light of the other":
Two children with a big piece of paper and water color paint and sing the light of each other. They then go out to play for a while and when they return, they do the same, often seeing new colors.
12.30PM - The Jeep is leaving, "Don't forget your home work!" (home work: sing the morning light just with one vowel or sound in your bed when you wake up on Saturday and when you wake up on Sunday do it with your parents in their bed if they want, and memorize it, because on Monday we will sing it together at the school).FRIDAY 15
8.15 AM - "Journey":
The objective of this trip is to drive off to the Quinara Valley (the valley beside Vilcabamba) and become ''lost". The goal is to find "natural treasures" and objects "left behind, forgotten, or lost" (these objects can be artificial or natural). During this activity, in a "master drawing notebook" children paint and draw, naming their findings by putting their own invented names and commentaries. (the teacher is a big help in this part of the project!) The recovered objects are then kept and taken to the school to be used to make a special sculpture on Monday.
Going home
In the school, the tendency is "to slip", on purpose,
into the unknown of the known,
into the perceptible of the imperceptible
into the memory of the forgotten,
and above all, into the new of what comes.We think that we live in an overloaded reality of opinions, beliefs and quite a few crystallized positions, all of which are frequently cradled in a personal experience or based normally in the relative results of some other person or adopted program. If we just become accumulators of information with solidarity to an idea, we are often pushed into conflict, competition, and/or inflexibility. For us, this reality is interesting, as a complement of a necessary inductive reality. If that doesn't happen, something is missed: the capacity to communicate in new orders of reality that surge constantly, redefining our unpredictable world. The work of our school is to simultaneously discover and construct reality, which we refresh by constantly displacing ourselves from our system of reference. "Without bad or good," and without interpretations that distort, we are pushed beyond by unusual activities, getting immersed into the new of what is coming.
Always putting this reality in check, we happily accept reconfirmation, renewal, or continual change. When this happens or when a reality begins to exist, we need to use new names and communicate with a new language. Of course this new language is combined with traditional language. We discover with children that reality needs to be continuously redefined; names last as long as they last, and sounds and words, "refreshed" in our interaction, are always a new beginning of life and human relations (the children, through games and activities, continually change their names, and this greatly excites them.) The children in the school develop a creative and objective intelligence, free of fear. They become generous because they learn to give and to receive having gone beyond their own personal, social, and cultural experience. It is interesting to see that their perceptions and emotions become free and they can enjoy relations without complexes, first benefiting life, and then others, and then themselves We always offer simple activities presented in diverse ways. By this approach all the children can participate in relation to their capacities.
Because our school is acknowledged by the Ecuadorian Ministry of Education, we are required to meet yearly academic standards. The school is dedicated to teaching all children, regardless of their economic situation.
For more information contact Fasila Carter or Pedro Padilla, e-mail: option3@netexplora.com or option3@hotmail.com. You can view their web page at : www2.netexplora.com/option3
Or contact them via air mail:Hacienda Altamira
Lista de Correos
Vilcabamba, Loja
Ecuador.A note from Fasila and Pedro: "We are continually searching for foreign financial resources because we are helping many poor children (any suggestions regarding our efforts in this area are very welcome) For those who are interested in our project and would like to visit or stay and participate, we have many rooms available. In addition, for those who are interested in a longer involvement, we have 50 hectares, where you could choose to construct (the building cost of a small earth cabin using natural materials, including workers and materials, approach 2000 or 3000 USD!?). Awaiting you with open arms… see you soon. "
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