ERDKINDER
ADOLESCENCE / ERDKINDER
The Adolescence / Erdkinder programs are extensions of already-existing, well established Montessori Primary and Elementary programs. The goal of this program is to produce adults who are equipped with the confidence in themselves and actual skills to live in the real world.
The Erdkinder method, empowers adolescents with the knowledge that they must take responsibility for their own care and that their activities, pursuits and actions have a very real effect on their fellow students, instructors, home and community. Lessons about economics, environmental sciences, domestic arts are acquired through hands-on work and the intellect is developed by reading, by community discussion, by enriching interactions with art, music and nature.
Primarily, setting up young adolescents for success in high school comes down to incorporating creativity and choice, collaboration and the social nature of adolescents, and strengthening growing independence through organisation and time-management skill building.
These include day and overnight field trips, student-directed studies, apprenticeships, long-term projects, student-run businesses, and an enriched program of academic studies focused on great literature and the humanities.
SUMMARY
Overall, what makes this method of learning so different compared to the conventional form of education we have today,
is that the teacher does not stand in front of the class and teach each child the same lesson all at once.Each child is allowed to learn at his own rhythm
in a way where he feels as though he is in fact not learning or being taught.
Montessori called this way of teaching "preparing the child for success".
The teacher is there to guide the child through small Exercises in which the child will succeed.
Through time, the Exercises rise in difficulty but because the progression is so well thought out, the child never feels as though learning is a struggle.