e r i e - c a n a l :: p a r t - t h r e e

Our day began with his request to read his library books. He enjoyed time alone, rocking in his favorite chair, reading- the way a child who cannot yet read to himself reads! And then, we had an invitation from friends to frolic at the beach. A pleasant time indeed. Which led to a brief dialogue about the Pacific Ocean, where we live, and the Atlantic Ocean, where the Erie Canal is. Later in the day, we enjoyed reading our books together.

We also took some time to document what we have learned so far. And later in the evening, Isaak and the Mr. worked together to represent his understanding of the canal & lock system with Legos. Complete with sliding doors to the lock area as well as a canal boat.

We ended the day reading a few chapters from Paddle to the Sea. I have not yet read this book, but I am already in love with it. And so is Isaak. He was so engaged with each word read, and breathed in every detail of the illustrations on each page. Although this book is not about the Erie Canal, it does include information about the Great Lakes, leading to the sea as well as a boat. I look forward to observing how Isaak puts all this information together and where our project will go next.

As mentioned in the erie-canal :: part one post, as we go through this learning experience I will be contrasting the Charlotte Mason and Reggio Emilia approaches to education. Mostly, for my own education. But also, for those interested in the whys and hows of what we do as we school.

In addition, as I mentioned in the erie-canal :: part two post,

I felt the need to clarify that this is going to be a difficult task, comparing these styles of education. There is simply an enormous amount of material that cannot be covered in such a condensed way. So please know that this is hardly a detailed description or a complete account of each method. I am sharing what strikes me, personally, as I go through certain aspects from each educator. So please, read in the knowledge that there is so much more to be digested! Thank you.

Let's take a look at ::

THE ROLE OF THE TEACHER

Charlotte Mason ::

"We who teach and they who learn are alike constrained; there is always effort to be made in certain directions; yet we face our tasks from a new point of view. We need not labour to get children to learn their lessons; that, if we would believe it, is a matter which nature takes care of. Let the lessons be of the right sort and children will learn them with delight. The call for strenuousness comes with the necessity of forming habits; but here again we are relieved. The intellectual habits of the good life form themselves in the following out of the due curriculum in the right way. As we have already urged, there is but one right way, that is, children must do the work for themselves. They must read the given pages and tell what they have read, they must perform, that is, what we may call the act of knowing." -Charlotte Mason

"Education is an Atmosphere, a Discipline, a Life.' By this we mean that parents and teachers

should know how to make sensible use of a child's circumstances (atmosphere), should train him in habits of good living (discipline), and should nourish his mind with ideas, the

food of the intellectual life.

" -Charlotte Mason

"Education is a life. That life is sustained on ideas. Ideas are of spiritual origin, and God has made us so that we get them chiefly as we convey them to one another, whether by word of mouth, written page, Scripture word, musical symphony; but we must sustain a child's inner life with ideas as we sustain his body with food. Probably he will reject nine-tenths of the ideas we offer, as he makes use of only a small proportion of his bodily food, rejecting the rest. He is an eclectic; he may choose this or that; our business is to supply him with due abundance and variety and his to take what he needs. Urgency on our part annoys him. He resists forcible feeding and loathes predigested food. What suits him best is pabulum presented in the indirect literary form which Our Lord adopts in those wonderful parables whose quality is that they cannot be forgotten though, while every detail of the story is remembered, its application may pass and leave no trace." -Charlotte Mason

"Our part is to remove obstructions, to give stimulus and guidance to the child who is trying to get into touch with the universe of things and thoughts. Our error is to suppose that we must act as his showman to the universe, and that there is no community between child and universe except such as we choose to set up." -Charlotte Mason

Reggio Emilia ::

"We must move beyond just looking at the child to become better observers, able to penetrate into the child to understand each child's resources and potential and present state of mind." -Loris Malaguzzi

"Our task is to construct educational situations that we propose to the children... It's okay to improvise sometimes but we need to plan the project. We need to produce situations in which children learn by themselves, in which children can take advantage of their own knowledge and resources autonomously, and in which we guarantee the intervention of the adult as little as possible... We don't want to give them thoughts that they can come up with by themselves. What we want to do is activate within children the desire and will and great pleasure that comes from being the authors of their own learning... And this may seem to be passive, but it is really a very strong activity on our part" -Loris Malaguzzi

"We need to define the role of the adult, not as a transmitter but as a creator of relationships- relationships not only between people but also between things, between thoughts, with the environment." -Loris Malaguzzi

"We teachers must see ourselves as researchers, able to think, and to produce a true curriculum, a curriculum produced from the children." -Loris Malaguzzi

I may have bit off more than I can chew in attempting to compare teaching methods of such depth! I am a bit overwhelmed. But continuing to enjoy this fascinating journey.

I have seen some key thoughts in both methods that seem to agree upon the role of the teacher. Mostly in the thought that children are capable & need to learn on their own accord and that teachers are not merely deliverers of knowledge. I do, however, see some differences in the view of setting up learning opportunities. Although both seem to believe that children will learn from relations, it seems that CM believes this is achieved without direction from the teacher. That we do not have to "set up" and "act as his showman." As opposed to RE which places a big emphasis on setting up & even planning such opportunities/environments in which to learn, putting children in specific situations in which to draw from and be challenged by. In addition, CM places a huge emphasis on ensuring that the teacher is providing intellectual sustenance in literary form. Wow. A lot to digest, indeed.

I

look forward to hearing your thoughts...