Do you give your child an oil massage? Do you play with him or her? Do you talk to him or her? Seetha Anand Vaidyam, in a workshop for parents and early educators at the Bhoomi Learning Community, spoke about the need to slow down and live life; not to run a race. “Parenting is not rocket science. It is a beautiful opportunity to become conscious of oneself and become better. How lovely is it to have someone living with you who can correct yourself?” she asks.
A holistic early childhood resource person, a remedial therapist and founder of Ananda Foundation, which works in education, health and environment, Seetha says the more quality time parents spend with their children, the better it would be for their overall development. The pressures of mainstream schooling puts a lot of stress on the child and it is the duty of the parents to not add to the stress, she says.
The workshop, which was on the Waldorf kindergarten system, discussed a holistic approach to education, which gave ample scope for the child to grow intellectually, emotionally as well as physically. The Waldorf system is based on the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, which focusses on a child’s artistic and creative instincts rather than the conventional academic brilliance.
Seetha, a former Waldorf educator, works with schools that are open to more child-centred approaches. Based in Hyderabad, she conducts workshops across the country and has organised workshops in Dubai and Nepal as well. She, however, works with schools that follow a mainstream curriculum as well. She believes there needs to be a better nomenclature for different approaches to education. “Alternative education could suggest that it is a deviation from the “normal” education. This is why I prefer the term holistic.”
A holistic approach can make academic learning a joy and not a burden. It opens up possibilities of self-learning and can go miles in a child’s personal growth.
Mainstream schools, unfortunately, lay stress on rote learning, which can kill a child’s natural instincts to learn. “Before the fall of milk teeth, reading and writing are not what is expected of children. This system was practised in early India. Children went to school at a later age. This, however, changed since the British rule,” Seetha says. Children live in an extremely stressful environment today and even activities that are meant for relaxation tend to be competitive in nature.
The pluses of holistic learning is that it makes children learn through movement, music and play. The learning happening thus is subconscious and stays longer with the children. In the early years of education, teachers need to focus on sensory integration and development of the physical body and not just on academic learning, she says.
Concepts are introduced only according to the age of the children. “Fractions, for instance, are introduced only at age nine, when children can understand them better. Same with certain topics in history and science.”
Teaching in such a system, says Seetha, is guidance. “We merely nudge each child to discover, invent or self-learn concepts. Ready-made answers or imposition of existing knowledge is not done.”
Since children in Waldorf kindergartens do not read and write (the alphabet is introduced only in Class One), parents often are concerned about their integration in a mainstream school. “He or she could take a while to adjust and get used to the new system. But it is not impossible or it need not necessarily be stressful. It depends on how the parents prepare the child.”
The thrust therefore is on stress-free education and the need to protect children from early intellectual academic learning. “I find students from holistic schools to be creative, able to think for themselves and shaping into emotionally strong individuals.”