Q: “We believe that all learning begins with the self and moves outwards. If children can think about themselves and their relationships to others in complex and meaningful ways, they will more easily make the transition to understanding complex relationships in math, literature, and history.”
Often people will debate about how much a particular “style” of teaching or learning should be implemented. How much social/emotional intelligence education? How much character education? How much content instruction? Natural questions that arise as a result of these conversations usually revolve around how much one type of teaching or learning will “take away” from another type. Reading the quote above and the rest of the Explorer Elementary philosophy highlights for me how artificial these divisions really are. Every type of teaching and learning (social/emotional, intellectual) is in some way an interaction between the self and the world, the world and the self. While focusing on this interaction ostensibly is a focus on social and emotional learning, it is really much more than that. It is the basis for all learning.
Q: “Mindful Practices of Explorer Elementary Charter School:
Independence/Interdependence, community connection, multiple perspectives
, empathy, contribution, mindfulness, reflection, analysis
, observation/evidence/proof, flexibility, thinking before acting (impulse control), voice, ownership, risk-taking, self-awareness, communication, imagination, creativity, ingenuity, hypothesis, inquiry, unanswered questions, perplexity
, curiosity.”
Another of the many artificial differences we construct is the difference in needs between children in elementary school and those in middle school, high school or even adults. That is not to suggest that there are no developmental differences between learners at different ages. Yet, most of the best pedagogy persists no matter what the age of the learner. The “mindful practices” above could be listed for any middle school, high school, college or graduate school course and would serve the same purpose. It is nice to be reminded that we all continue to develop and learn about ourselves and others after elementary school.
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