Posted: August 18th, 2010 | Author: Jennifer Patton | Filed under: Teachers | Tags: childhood, cognitive research, early childhood, kindergarten, salary, teacher education, Teachers, teaching method, Waldorf education | No Comments »
A few weeks old, but I just caught wind of this article in the New York Times business section. It presents research based on adult outcomes rather than test scores about how an excellent Kindergarten teacher can have an excellent long-term effect for education.
Early this year, Mr. Chetty and five other researchers … examined the life paths of almost 12,000 children who had been part of a well-known education experiment in Tennessee in the 1980s. The children are now about 30, well started on their adult lives.
On Tuesday, Mr. Chetty presented the findings — not yet peer-reviewed — at an academic conference in Cambridge, Mass. They’re fairly explosive.
This is right in line with our thinking as we develop el Rio – one of our main core values being teacher support, empowerment, and professional development.
I don’t know about $320,000 salaries – we’ll have to sell a LOT of birds. 
Posted: July 1st, 2009 | Author: Joan Jaeckel | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: achieving, appreciation, challenge, curriculum, growing child, left brain, right brain, teaching method, Waldorf education | No Comments »
Growing children think, feel and act in the way that growing children do, not like adults. The big idea behind Waldorf education is to reflect the growing child’s state of thinking, feeling and acting in the curriculum and teaching methods. In that way, each child feels appreciated and achieves whatever he or she is truly capable of achieving every moment of the day and throughout their education. The children are neither prodded to achieve beyond their grasp nor unchallenged to stretch. Recent research into why so many young people are depressed, shows that when a young person cannot disengage from pursuing unreachable goals because of pressure from home and school, severe depression can be the consequence. It’s making news that working hard to attain achievable goals is not just warm and fuzzy, but effective.
By helping student to reach high for truly achievable goals, the Waldorf educational approach leads to positive success in life:
- THINK. Waldorf education can awaken a focused mind (right brain) and an agile, creative imagination (left brain).
- PLAY. Waldorf education can nurture inner calm, resilience and relationship skills.
- DO. Waldorf education can instil discipline, self-motivation, initiative and a sense of responsibility.
