There has emerged in recent years a new and exciting interest
in the education of the young child. A number of things have precipitated
this intere6t. First, the expansion of research dealing with children
from birth to school age, has resulted in never before dreamed
of possibilities for educating the very young. Secondly, the explosion
of knowledge in our time has placed the demand to learn more,
earlier. Thirdly, recent interest in the negro ghetto child and
his intellectual and cultural deprivation has pointed to the necessity
of an intentional focus upon early education.
In view of the need for new and adequate educational structures
for young children, the ecumenical institute has taken upon itself
the task of creating models adequate for such programs. One of
these programs is for one and two year old children. The concrete
imperative of this program comes out of the world in which we
live. In the midst of the scientific, urban and secular revolutions
of the 20th century world, we must educate children able to live
in this world. We will, therefore, in this paper examine more
closely the world in which we live, what a child living in this
world should be like relative to an educational model, and the
ways in which the negro ghetto child and the white middle class
child deviate from this model of the educated child. We will then
talk about education in the 20th century as it applies to one
and two year old children and 16 implemented in the ecumenical
institute's program for these children.
The 20th century is in the midst of a radical shift in the common
sense (scientific revolution), the common style (urban revolution),
and the common symbolic life (secular revolution). This demands
a totally new understanding of what it means to be human and therefore,
what it means to appropriate the gifts of this new age.
In the field of science the Einstinian revolution broke open new
images of what it means to be when you are no longer the center
of everything. The theory of relativity released a new orientation
of how to grasp yourself in a new cosmology that allows you to
participate fully in the scientific revolution. Man has gone through
other radical 6hifts in history but only at this point in human
consciousness has he been able to see that he is in the midst
of a radical transition. What this means in education is that
man no longer grasps himself as striving after some eternal patterns
of how one can fit into society and is therefore a victim of those
patterns. Instead, man sees that he must stand in the midst of
a network of relationships as a dynamic and singular being who
can predict and direct the trend. Man now sees that in a relative
universe, history does not just happen. It is created, either
by decision or default.
By participating in the urban revolution or the shift in human style, man has had to consciously overcome the 19th century style of life, which is essentially the rural mind set. This mind set of simplicity and slow and certain rhythm in terms of pace' parochialism in terms of space, one- toone mutuality in terms of relations, and finding our roots in the past in terms of sociality was adequate to the closed world of the past century. It was possible to be a respon61ble person in a limited area in the 19th
Century, to see justice in the realm of a highly personal society,
to ass1milate knowledge and become educated in generalized areas,
and to understand our heritage in terms of our past history. However,
the urban world we now live in demands by its very nature a cosmopolitan
outlook, a continuous and complex rhythm, an imper6onal struggle
for justice, with our roots oriented in the future, the knowledge,
population, and technological explosion with the resulting complexity
of our social life has created a new way to deal with who, we
have had to become. To pick up the life style the 20th century
demands to have permission to appropriate the power of the urban
life style and therefore of the world.
Finally, the shift in common mood or the secular revolution is
seen in the realization of humanism. Western man, unlike other
cultures, is just beginning to understand that he cannot be human
without a symbolic life. Every man ha6 myths, rites, and symbols
that tell him who he is and how he can find certainty;. Man participates
in the secular revolution by deciding on those destinal images
that allow him to be the predictor, the urban, and the intentional
man.
The Educated Child
Down through the ages man has struggled with first one form and
then another of how to best educate his people. Education has
taken many forms as man has taken into account the changes of
history and attempted to meet the demands of any particular period
in history. However, the emergence of the 20th century has drought
changes so dramatic with such far reaching effects that our educational
proce8s has been called radically into question in a way not heretofore
experienced. The scientific, urban, and secular revolutions of
our time have raised even a prior question: what must the educated
man look like if he 18 to cope with the new world in which he
finds himself? We must have a picture of what kind of man is needed
for 20th and 21st century living if we are to educate people to
live in their actual world. Only in the context of such a picture
of the "educated man" is it relevant to talk about the
educational process needed, much less accomplish such a goal.
What, then, must the educated man look like? In view of the scientific,
urban, and secular revolutions, the educated man must, drawing
on the common sense of our time, be utterly comprehensive. Secondly,
the common life style of which he must partake must be futuric
in kind. Finally, the symbols before which he lives must hold
before him the necessity of being utterly intentional in every
decision he makes.
To be comprehensive, one must have some way of grasping and organizing
the overwhelming amount of data which has suddenly become available
in the 20th century. The educated man must have a model which
indicates the data he needs, and into which he can put the data
that comes to him. Further, if one 16 to be comprehensive he must
have an explicit model with categories that provide the base for
enabling him to appropriate what he knows.
Secondly, the educated man must be futuric. Characteristically,
he would openly receive the infinite variety of experiences and
pictures the urban world brings him and respond 1n view of that
world instead of out of pictures of a rural situation which has
long since passed. A futuric man would also be discipl1ned. This
means he would bring utter control to his life so that he would
de able to do whatever is necessary in any situation. Finally,
viewing the perpetual change of the urban world he would see himself
as the one who creates the tomorrow knowing that when tomorrow
comes the job will be there to do again. Binding himself together
with his contemporaries, he would sense the imperative and the
possibility of assuming full responsibility for the future.
Thirdly, the educated man must create and/or utilize symbol6 which
hold before him the futuric life style he has decided 16 necessary,
enabling him to periodically decide again to de faithful to that
life style. These symbols could take the form of rites, stories,
or particular objects which have relevant symbolic power.
Problems of the Negro Ghetto Child
When one looks at the picture of the educated man in the 20th
century, it is apparent that the culturally deprived child of
the negro ghetto falls far short of becoming that man.
In the first place he is not comprehensive. This is most dramatically
manifest in his language problem, which takes a number of forms.
His conceptual knowledge is extremely limited and he does not
understand relationships sufficiently to follow simpledirections.
The other side of the language problem is manifest in his inability
to articulate in a manner common to the dominate society in which
he lives. His sounds are muffled rather than articulated clearly.
He characteristically speaks in an extremely loud voice or so
quietly that he cannot be heard.
Secondly, the child of the negro ghetto is not futuric in his
life style. His past experiences are limited in kind and' he tends
to de extremely afraid of that which is new to him. He is not
disciplined. In the early years the most characteristic manife6tation
of this is through the use of his body. He either indiscriminately
flop his arms and body or withdraws. He may also sling his legs
in walking and have difficulty in pointing to objects in a direct
manner. Neither 1s the ghetto child futuric in view1ng his urban
world in such a way that he is able to see himself as the one
with power. Instead, as manifest in the young child, he tends
to withdraw or act without direction.
Thirdly, the symbolic life of the ghetto child perpetuates the
"victim image" of his heritage rather than demanding
of him intentionality in embodying the urban life style of the
educated man. The child of the negro ghetto is essentially without
sequential routines and rituals to relate him to the time structures
or the urban world. The implication that he has nothing of significance
to contribute which demands that he be related is ritualistically
held before him. The story that is most typically told him is
that he is a "worthless, no-good kid who is an added burden
and in the way". His blackness is thrust before him as the
ultimate symbol of the fact that he is "no good" as,
for example, through the derogatory use of the words "girl''
and "boy " in referring to the negro.
Problems of the White Middle Class Child
Although the middleclass child is not faced with the severe
educational deprivation characteristic of the ghetto child, he
falls short, in a number of ways, of what the educated man should
look like in the 20th century.
In considering whether or not the middle class child is comprehensive
in his education, one discovers that although there are inadequacies,
this is not the basic problem of the middle clas8 child.
However, in the area of the urban life style the middle-class
child's problem is more serious. The middle class adult hasp neglected
to create relevant images for living in an urban work radically
different from the rural past. In the adult's inability to deal
with the new urban world, h1s stance toward the child has been
one of protection from the present and an attempt to cling to
the past. It might be said in passing that for this reason, seeing
the bourgeois society as the educational solution for the ghetto
child hinders the ghetto child in being educated for 20th
century living.
In terms of life style, the middleclass child, having been
protected in the early years from the variety of images provided
in the urban world, tends to be overwhelmed by the bombardment
of images he eventually encounters. Consequently, the life style
of openness demanded in the 20th century is characteristically
lacking. With regard to a disciplined life style the middleclass
child is relatively disciplined, however, having been reared in
the context of the image of individualism and selfprotection,
his discipline is centered around himself in an attempt to create
a second womb world. Being disciplined for the 6ake of the world
is characteristically and initially quite beyond his imagination.
Finally, the life style of the middleclass child 1s inadequate
for 20th century living because he does not see himself as the
perpetual revolutionary. He does not see the necessity of creating
and recreating the future of the world in which he lives, and
even he drastically underestimates his ability to do so.
In looking at the symbolic life of the middle-class child, one
sees that the symbols out of which he lives are attempts to cling
to the rural past and to run from the urban world with which he
is inextricably bound. The family thrust upon him superficial
rites such as everyone being together for meals and family outing.
Likewise, the myth he lives under is that it is the suburban life
rather than life in the inner city that is, or ever could be,
the "good life." The symbol of such a life style is
for him the split level house and green grass, this symbolic life
holds before the middleclass child a hopeless attempt to
cling to the rural past, hardly relevant to 20th century living.
The Demand
As educators of children in the 20th century world one is thrown
up against the necessity of deciding what kind of person he will
create and how he will do it. We have not dared to come up with
the radical models necessary to deal with these questions. Instead
we have conservatively waited for "the answers" in education
as though waiting for the "right" model constitutes
a neutral position. In the mean time the world goes on and children
grow up to de the living specimen of the "neutral position"
creation - hardly equipped to live in their world. The time has
come for us to embrace the fact that every model 16 relative.
There 18 no ouch thing as an ideal model which we will someday
find. Furthermore, with the rapidly changing world in which we
live, we must be constantly altering our models if they are to
approximate genuine relevance.
Another block to creating adequate models has been our fear that
we would make children neurotic in one way or another. We act
as though it is possible to educate children in such a way that
they would not have neuroses. The time has come for us to acknowledge
the fact that not only will people always have neurosis but that
one's neurotic makeup is his gift to history. We must stop raising
the question in terms of how we can prevent the emergence of neurosis.
Rather, the question we must ask ourselves is how can we enable
one to thrust his neuroses creatively into history?
As educators, then, we have only two choices. Either we come up
with positive models or we answer by default the question of what
kind of person we will create and how we will do it. It would
seem to us apparent that one must take unto himself the risk of
creating models which are only relatively adequate and which will
have to be altered in response to the changing world in which
we live.
In such a context and in view of the world in which we live, it
would seem to us that the educated man of the 20th century must
de comprehensive' futuric, and intentional. Further, such a man
can emerge by providing an education which gives him the common
sense, common style, and common symbols necessary for 20th and
21st century living.
The Theoretical Approach: Imaginal Education
1. Dynamics of Images to teach a child is not a
matter of giving information but one of shaping and changing his
images of his self and his world. All men live by images
images of all that is and how to relate to all that is. In imaginal
education, education is understood as the bombardment of images
that allow a person to selfconsciously live an authentic
life. Images are understood as those operating pictures that enable
a person to thrust his creativity effectively into the 20th century.
To de effective, these images need to include a rational and inclusive
picture of the world in order to operate in the world; futuric
pictures that allow a person to de released from the past and
not de swallowed up by the present; and intentional pictures that
allow him to direct his total energy into history not to
have a comprehensive picture of the universe is to reduce life
to a small area of participation. Not to de futuric is to de helpless
in the midst of external situations not to de intentional
is to be bored.
Image changing is simply the process of being a human being. That is, man is constantly bombarded by verbal, visual, and tactile messages that affirm' clarify or contradict his operating images. When a person hears a message his image is likely to de changed in some degree, and when there is an image change, behavior patterns will de changed. Messages can de considered to de information in the sense that they are structured experiences. The importance of a message is the change which it produces
in the image.
When a message is received three things can happen to the image.
First, the image may remain the same. Secondly, the image may
change in a regular and welldefined way as in simple addition.
Thirdly, the message may cause a revolutionary change, a total
reorganization of the image. If this happens, the image is resistant
to change. To overcome this resistance, repetition of the messages
can eventually revise this image. The final stability or resistance
to change depends on the internal consistency and authority of
the message.
2. Dynamics of Teaching Imaginal Education - for the imaginal
educator, it is necessary to change the existing crippling images
of the individual student, to counteract the overwhelming messages
of our culture, and to create those messages that can explode
the images necessary for the 1ndividual and 60ciety to appropriate
the power of the 20th century world. These image explo610ns can
de anything from odject6 to de observed, trips to de experienced,
and activities in which one can de involved. They must be able
to explode the mind, simple enough to capture the imagination,
and repeated enough to be effective.
Imaginal education can take place only when there are internally
consistent models for the self, 60ciety, and the world, an imaginal
style of teaching, and a self-conscious understanding of images.
The cultural studies curriculum provides the internally con616tent
models in its gestalt of the human mind. Social structures, and
rational constructs, which then become the background for all
questions, comments, and problem solving.
The imaginal style of teaching or "teaching imaginally" is an indirect teaching tool that involves the use of decor, structure of the room, and the schedule of the day as well as the pedagogical stance of the teacher. Using the decor imaginally could include ouch thing6 as changing the major art forms daily to push the child to expect the unexpected, or perhaps to have different cultures represented to provide
Comprehensive information about the world, or perhaps a projected
sculpture of how life may be on the moon in the year 2000. The
structure of the room could be used to explode images by being
divided into an urban world setting, a scientific world setting,
and a cultural symbol setting. The schedule of the day by its
very systematic and formal structures can be used imaginally by
having the different events in the day demand unexpected, creative,
and decisional responses. In the pedagogical role, the imaginal
teacher stands as the image explosion herself. Her presentation
of curriculum events as well as her indirect teaching is directed
by her self understanding of her role as the intruder, or the
one who dares to decide to intrude into the life of the child,
having him encounter new images that allow him to stand before
all situations, and demanding that he see himself as one who makes
his decision alone.
To selfconsciously understand who we are, it is necessary
to see that our basic selfimages include not only knowing
that we live before our limits, our possibilities, and our power
to decide, but can self consciously stand before our knowing.
In understanding your limits, or the givens in your life that
encounter you: you understand that you experience being only when
you dump into nonbeing. But you know who you are only when
you stand before your self as a person who is always finding yourself
running into your limits. If a cat finds himself tangled up in
a rope, he first rebels against the situation and then can literally
strangle himself in the frenzy to get loose' thus letting himself
be swallowed up by the situation. A human being can stand before
the situation of being limited and then take a relationship to
it, thereby having the possibility of objectifying the situation
and therefore, not have to either rebel or be swallowed up by
the event. Imaginal education polishes the mirror of nonbeing
and holds up the demand to take a relationship to it.
The possibility in the midst of our limits is that we can affirm
our situation and take a relationship to being those who can affirm
what ever may come and thus release our particular uniqueness
into history. The task of imaginal education is to always hold
that possibility before the child and hold up his task to de that
one who decided to affirm his possibility in his lucidity.
The life style that flows out of this possibility is the new mutation
in humannes6. Only when the child can see the necessity of always
having to decide can he take a relationship to his being a decisional
being and expose himself in acting out his humanness. The task
of imaginal education 16 to present the demand of being in this
world that requires a new life style and exploding the images
needed to appropriate this style.
The practical Implementation
1. Common sense to know this age as the cultural
revolution is to have a comprehensive understanding of the transitional
stage of our cultural wisdom. Never before has man had such a
radical shift in the common sense of the entire civilization.
It is obvious that man has learned more in the last fifty vear6
than he has in the last 20,000 years. The shift in common sense
has come to man as both a curse and a challenge, causing confu6ion
and creativity. The educational question of our day is how does
a 20th century child appropriate the practical common sense in
a revolutionary time.
For the one and two year old child' it is not enough to de able
to label, distinguish, and categorize objects. The task of children
today is to build these indlv1dual, social, and rational construct's
that enable a child to selfconsciously participate in this
world of complexity, change and creativity.
The very complexity of the 20th century can shape the minds capable
of dealing with the multiple problems. This demands that we understand
the internal dimension of the individual, the social dynamics
in the human community, and the comprehensive grasp of human existence.
The spiral curriculum designed to deal with the total child uses the individual, the social, and the universal pole of the disciplines of the sciences and the humanities.
0n the individual pole, we deal with the science of psychology
as it is examined in its dialogical. social, and rational schools.
In the humanities under the discipline of art we study impressionism,
expressionism, and intentionalism.
0n the social pole, we deal with the science of sociology which
involves the analytical models for the economic' political and
cultural aspects of society. And the humanity discipline of history
that has to do with the objective, rational and existential poles
of humanne6s.
On the universal pole' the natural sciences of biology, physics
and mathematics are placed in relation to the philosophical approaches
in the categories of the analytical. existential and metabilt.
Finally, the curriculum includes a basic image course designed
to deal with authentic selfunderstanding and decision making
through the fundamental images of the limits' the possibility,
and the life style of the 20th century.
To deal with the particular age level of the one and two year old, the curriculum is based on a 13 week session, with three major monthly categories, three weekly categories, and one review week every fourth
Week with an overall review in the 13th week.
Individual Pole
Psychology psychology as a science has three major
fields of study that allow the person to see himself as a total
dynamic relational being. When a child participates in the 13
week curriculum, he is able to see that he is a sociological being
with certain physical drives, a social being with certain drives
toward human relationships, and a rational being who has certain
drives to find meaning in life
| Encounter
Identity from Natural World | Response
Relating Self to Natural World | Drive for Accep-tance | Encounter
Identity from Social World | Response
Relating Self to Social World | Meaning | Encounter
Identity from Irrational World | Response
Relating Self to Natural World | ||||
Art art as the discipline in the humanities enables the child to see that 20th century art expresses itself fundamentally in impressionism, Or viewing life in its external impressions; in expressionism, or viewing life as the expressions of the internal dimensions, and in intentional
Art. Or viewing life in its decisional stance.
Social Pole
Sociology |n the 1;3 weeks of sociology, it becomes
clear that our social life consists of the economic dynamics of
society, the political structures of society. And the cultural
significance of existence.
Structures |
| Respon-sible for Society | Scientific | Urban | Secular | |||
History History, in its most comprehensive form,
is seen as the objective data, the existential participation and
the rational significance of all space, time and events.
Rational Pole
Natural Science Science is systematically organized
for the child to de able to see the dialogical method of classification,
the physiological natural phenomenon, and the mathematical elements
in human thought.
| ||||||||
Philosophy this field of study frees a child to participate in his educational task of becoming the analytical mind, the existential participator and the universal model or metabilt creator.
Method | Utility |
Meaning | Self | Personal Respon-bility | Rational | |||
Imaginal in order to be able to stand before one's
own experiences as a human being, it is necessary to de able to
understand all people as experiencing their own limits through
the world' the society, and the self, only then can any person
see that it is possible to take a relationship to these limits,
and carve out the life style demanded. Thus, the imaginal curriculum
is not only concerned with pointing out the limits, possibilities,
and the life style, but also with the dynamics of taking a relationship
to them.
Daily Schedule
In one day a child might participate in the psychology curriculum
by showing a large toothed alligator how to bite the biting ring
instead of the other children. (we realized that one child understood
the function of the biting ring when the teacher stopped him from
hitting another child, watched him decide not to hit the teacher.
And finally saw him grab and chew on the biting ring and go back
into the group to play.) The art curriculum might de seeing a
ballet dancer present a unique dancing style that the children
could then try to imitate. This entire psy/art curriculum might
take as long as 40 minutes with about 20 minutes of free time
to play, read books, have snack or diaper change before the next
curriculum area.
In the next unit, sociology/history' the children might take turns buying toys in our makebelieve 8tore with pennies or a credit card to illustrate the economic aspect of society in our study of sociology and then watch a Walt Disney presentation of a young African guy learning to play the drums in our history curriculum. One of our first discoveries on the children's potential was in seeing them reproduce a forty minute movie by building a simple African village with clocks and using the diaper pail cans as drums. Even the youngest one year old enjoyed this make-believe by beating his rhythm on the nearest object. Or again. The history curriculum might be a chalk board story on a family of rabbits who had more and more babies but grew the same amount of food and therefore became thinner and thinner, starving themselves to death. When we then showed them pictures of starving people in India, one child asked why they didn't grow more food.
In science the children might learn that if you experiment with a clock, an egg and a magnet, only the magnet will pick up objects and only certain kinds of objects. To learn philosophy one of the favorite
curriculums is learning word symbols, or reading. The teacher's part of the dialogue goes something like this: This is my nose; this is your nose this is a picture symbol for nose; this is a word symbol for nose;
What does this say?" With ten minutes a day the older two year olds have Learned about 15 words in three months and can pick them out of books. While the younger children are learning the verbal labels and the visual symbols at the same time. One unexpected aspect of the reading problem under the philosophy curriculum is the delight of the child when he discovers that to read is to be able to manipulate, create and explore a whole new world. In teaching one child the word "sister" and what that
category meant, since she did not have one seemed to be an impossible
abstraction. The next day, as she was fighting with her "best"
friendship told her, "You ain't my friend no more."
She then turned to me and said "but she's still my sister,"
At the end of the day. We present the imaginal curriculum as the
final image explosion for the day. One they enjoy watching is
having the teacher run into the door and start crying (experiencing
her limits), Have the second teacher tell her she can deal with
it (experiencing her possibilities) and all the children sing
the 'pick yourself up' song (experiencing the life style). The
effectiveness of this kind of bombardment is evident when several
children told one of the younger children that he didn't have
to cry over his broken toy, he could deal with it by picking another
toy.
The presentation of this curriculum every 13 weeks is the beginning
of the crucial educational patterns that offer every child the
possibility to appropriate the power of living in this century
as rational, rhythmic and verbal people.
2. Common Life Style 0ne is capacity to create images and the kind of power one has in the universe is extremely limited at the young age of one and two years. However, it is at this young age that the base of one's life style is formed, it is crucial that the life style which begins to emerge even now de relevant' for it is this life style that will take a more complete form in later years. In the creation of a life
Style, the child learns to openly receive the infinite variety of experiences of the urban world and he must respond to life out of an urban world view. Secondly, he learns to discipline himself. Thirdly, he
comes to see himself as the one who decides the future.
In order that the child learn to receive an infinite variety of
experiences' the mini-school children are thrust into such a pattern.
Rather than protected from it. This is accomplished not only through
the comprehen6lvene6s of the curriculum but also through the methods
and tools used to implement the curriculum. A variety of paintings
are used, including Picasso's Guernica the impact of Guernica
was demonstrated when one child after seeing how it reflected
the difficult aspects of his life, wanted to throw it away. The
children see films ranging in type from documentaries to more
ad6tract ones such as "boogie Doodle" or "Asterisk"
the children as a group become intrigued by these movies. Watching
them for as long as 30 to 40 minutes. Objects and music depicting
a variety of cultures are used. Rather than being offended as
many adults are by the strange sounds and objects ~ the children
respond very matteroffactly by, for example, dancing
to the music just as they would respond to music from western
cultures. The children go on trips where they see animals in the
zoo, the museum of natural history, and electronic and mathematical
displays depicting more complicated concepts. 0bviously, their
comprehension of these experiences is limited. In the future they
will have had an initial encounter w8ich will erase these experiences
as psychologically frightening or intellectually strange. Through
such a variety of experiences at this early age of one and two
years the children reduce the number of possible strange encounters
in the future. However, much more than this happens, for the children
learn intrigue and excitement as the dominant response rather
than fear, this kind of generalized response was apparent the
second school term when some guinea pigs were provided. Although
none of the children in the school were familiar with the animals,
the children who displayed fear were those who had been in the
school only a few weeks. However, the previous term some of the
same children had been very frightened at the playing of a baritone
saxophone. With such a variety of experiences early in life, the
children's stance toward the future is one of openness to the
variety of experiences they will eventually encounter in the urban
world.
The children also need to act out of the existing urban world
view. Consequently emphasis is placed on providing the child with
images of the urban world rather than assuming an emphasis on
the rural as is more typical in our culture.
Heavy emphasis is put upon present day images of our world in
the songs sung at the minischool. For example, to the tune
of the folk song. "I love the mountains" we put the
words:
I love the city
I love the planet. Earth
I love this day and time
I love the universe
I'm always ready to see this world of ours
I tell you man I like it here
I tell you man I like it here. Yes!
This enables the children to understand that their world is the
world of the 20th century, rather than inadvertently giving them
the impression that the rural world is their world. Although characteristically
the one and two year old children do not sing the songs with the
teachers, they sing parts or all of them at other times in the
day as well as request a particular song at times when the group
is together,
In order for the children to learn to be disciplined the structures and routines are carefully planned. Most typically, this does not offend the child. Rather, it enables him to act out expectations of
a disciplined life as well as giving him the security that comes with common structures and expectations,. Many of these routines and rituals are directed toward implementing the curriculum event. Unless dancing or some similar activity is required, the children sit at the table or against the walls during the curriculum events. Asking them to sit in a circle at this age is not as clear a definition for them and is
therefore not so helpful. The teacher then sings a song to get
their attention as a group. The teacher may also ask the children
to put their hands in their laps. Where relevant, the curriculum
event takes place on a stage or shelf which helps to keep their
attention focused. Where verbalization is too difficult or inappropriate
the children are asked to point as, for example, to point to what
they like in the painting. As each child carries out such an individual
task in a curriculum event the other children cheer for him. This
not only rewards the one being cheered for. But also provides
a way for the others to participate while waiting their turn at
the task. Being intrigued by the curriculum event, the children
often want the objects used in the curriculum after the event
is completed. Since there is not usually enough of the object
or objects for each child to have one, the children are asked
to say goodbye to the object naming each particular object. They
have thus made the decision to give up the object and are ready
to move in another direction.
Other routines and rituals are directed toward disciplining themselves to move from one place to another as a group. For example. When they go outside of the minischool they are to stand against the outside wall. As the teacher sings a particular chant or a particular march, they march along together in a close group. If anyone falls behind the others or the group gets too loose, the ones at the front squat down and wait. The children love this and are eager to get to squat and wait. This routine is especially helpful on trips. To move the children into lunch a few are sent at a time to stand behind their assigned chairs. After all are gathered, a particular song is sung; they are then told to sit down and pick up their fork to eat their lunch. The children also have assigned sleeping places and coat hooks so that they can take a decisional part in going to bed and in hanging up their coats. At cleanup time they also help put the toys away. In such routines and rituals the children are given the possibility over and over again to
decide about their participation in the group, thus enabling them
to be the discipliner of their lives. They also learn to hear
and follow particular instructions. At points where they are unable
to make the necessary decision other routines and rituals are
provided. If a child Is crying or does not choose to participate
he is given a special place to sit until he is ready to return.
If a child "feels like biting'' or bites another child, there
is a special biting ring he may go and bite instead.
As the children decide again and again how they are going to live
their lives in each particular situation, they are able to become
disciplined people who make decisions about their lives. The characteristic
extremes of irrelevant body movements or withdrawal of the ghetto
child begin to disappear. The middleclass child is able
to begin directing his discipline toward the group needs, rather
than seeing himself as the central focus in life.
When one has an openness toward the world in which he lives and
is able to discipline his particular life in relation to that
world, he must then have images which enable him to focus his
infinite resources and his particular discipline toward the creation
of the future. For the minischool child the image of his
future is likely to de very immediate; however he can still be
pointed :n the right direction.
For example in the ritual where he chooses whether he is going
to stop crying and play or continue to sit in a "special
place," he soon learns that he is the one who decides what
is going to take place. As it is put in one chant:
I decide what I have to do
At fifth city minischool
How about you?
A song through which the image that they decide the future is
held before them is this song, sung to the tune of "Heigh
Ho":
Free, free, free to decide
What this world is going to be
This imperative is ours
To be free, free, free to decide.
Although one and two year old children can only begin to understand
the implications of such a song, the effect it can have became
apparent in the response of one oneyearold boy: his
mother was about to give him. his bath when in expressing his
objection he said, "Free to decide, Mommy, free to decide."
Another chant which begins to thrust before the child his power and responsibility in the world is this one:
I bend history
When I decide to be
At Fifth City Mini-School
What about you?
It is important not to use the children's limited understanding
of tenses as an excuse for not pointing them in the right direction,
if the groundwork of the vocabulary can de laid now, fuller meanings
and implications have a 6tructure through which to emerge as the
child progresses.
3. Common symbol there are a multiplicity of events, songs,
and other activities that direct the children toward their emerging
as comprehensive, futuric and intentional persons. However, in
order to repeatedly and concisely hold before the children a 20th
century self image, a common symbolic life is crucial.
In the minischool the most highly symbolic events are the
opening and closing rituals which are reinforced through the symbols
of their uniform and the black beret.
Upon each child's arrival he stands before a mirror and the teacher
sings, what is your name? to which he, or his parent on his behalf,
replies "my name is ___," What he has sensed earlier
through his uniform now comes to a focus: his full participation
in the Fifth City MiniSchool has begun. After the children
have arrived and before the first curriculum event the opening
ritual for the group is participated in through song and gestures:
This is the day we have
This is the day we have
We can live this day
or throw it away
This is the day we have.
The context is thus set for the entire day.
The closing ritual of the day is begun by asking the children,
"What did we do today?" The children and/or the teacher
responds to the question, thus experiencing once again the comprehensiveness
of their day. Then the closing song is sung, to the tune of "When
the Saints Go Marching in."
When iron men go marching in,
When iron men go marching in,
there'll de a new day tomorrow
When iron men go marching in.
When City Five has come alive,
When city five has come alive,
There'll be a new day tomorrow
when iron men go marching in.
The Mini-School is the new cool,
The Mini-School is the new cool,
There'll de a new day tomorrow
When iron men go marching t n.
This is the close of our school day
This is the close of our school day.
There'll de a new day tomorrow
When iron men go marching in.
There are several images left with the children in this song. First, that of the iron man as the one who creates tomorrow. Then the children are reminded that they are part of a larger community, Fifth
City, in the creating of that tomorrow. The verse about the minischool holds before them that they are a part of a particular group which will be in being again the next day. In the final verse the end of the day
is announced. The final symbol of who they must be is left with
them by asking "What do you say when you see the black beret?"
To which they reply, "Iron Man."