Summerhill School

Summerhill School, founded in 1921 in Hellerau near Dresden, Germany by A.S. Neill. Today it is a boarding and day school currently located in Leiston, Suffolk, England, serving primary and secondary education in a democratic fashion. It is now run by Neill’s daughter, Zoe Readhead.

Summerhill is noted for its influential and groundbreaking philosophy that children learn best with freedom from coercion. All lessons are optional, and pupils are free to choose what to do with their time. Neill founded Summerhill with the belief that “the function of a child is to live his own life — not the life that his anxious parents think he should live, not a life according to the purpose of an educator who thinks he knows best.”

In addition to taking control of their own time, pupils can participate in the self-governing community of the school. School meetings are held four times a week, where pupils and staff alike have an equal voice in the decisions that affect their day-to-day lives, discussing issues and creating or changing school laws.

It is upon these major principles, namely, democracy, and equality, that Summerhill School operates.

Summerhill has had a less than perfect relationship with the British government, and is still the most inspected school in the country. During the 1990s, it was inspected nine times. In March of 1999, following a major inspection from OFSTED (The “OFfice for STandards in EDucation”), the then Secretary of State for Education and Employment, David Blunkett, issued the school with a notice of complaint, which took issue with the school’s policy of non-compulsory lessons. Failure to comply with such a notice within six months usually leads to closure; however, Summerhill chose to contest the notice in court. The case went before a special educational tribunal in March 2000, when four days into the hearing, the government’s case collapsed, and a settlement was agreed. The pupils who were attending the hearing that day took over the courtroom and held a school meeting to debate whether to accept the settlement, eventually voting unanimously to do so.

See also

• Democratic school

Books about Summerhill

• Summerhill School: A Free Range Childhood, by Matthew Appleton ISBN 1870258460 (UK) ISBN 1885580029 (US) A recent first-hand account of life as a member of staff at Summerhill.

• Summerhill, by A.S. Neill ISBN 0140209409 A book about the school and its philosophy, by the school’s founder

• Summerhill: For And Against, by various authors ISBN 020712633 A collection of essays, arguing both in favour and against the schools approach.

External links

• http://www.summerhillschool.co.uk (English)
• http://summerhill.paed.com (German)
• Erich Fromm: Foreword, in: A.S. Neill “Summerhill” (1960)
• Summerhill: education for democracies

Sudbury Valley School

The Sudbury Valley School was founded in 1968 in Framingham, Massachusetts. There are now over 40 schools based on the Sudbury Model in the United States, Canada, Denmark, Israel, Japan, Netherlands, Australia, Belgium and Germany. The model has two basic tenets: educational freedom and democratic governance.

Central to the school is the weekly School Meeting, based on the traditional New England town meeting. Students and staff are invited to participate in the running of the school, with equal votes. This applies to all aspects of the school, including finances, new rules, and the election of staff. The school is attended by children from 4 to 19 years old.

The school’s philosophy asserts that by giving children trust and responsibility at an early age, it is much easier for them to learn what they want, how they want it, and how to achieve this. Students at the school are free to choose how to spend their time.

Of the many books and videos available on Sudbury Valley, Free at Last, by Daniel Greenberg, is a good book with which to get acquainted with the school’s philosophy.

Contents 1 Staff 2 Curriculum 3 Alumni 4 See also 5 External links

Staff

There is no tenure at Sudbury Valley School — an election for staff is held each year. The current staff have been involved professionally with the school for ten to thirty-seven years.

• Daniel Greenberg
• Hanna Greenberg
• Mimsy Sadofsky
• Joan Rubin
• Scott David Gray
• Mach Bell, singer with mach 5, formerly with Thundertrain
• Mikel Matisoo
• Morningstar Medaye
• Denise Geddes
• Paul Duddy

Curriculum

The school is non-compulsory, so there are no required activities. Students are free to spend their time as they wish.

Alumni

Sudbury Valley School has published two studies of their alumni over the past thirty-five years. They have learned, among other things, that about 80% of the students continue to study at other schools after graduating from Sudbury Valley. Most of them have been accepted at the university of their first choice.

See also

• Sudbury model
• List of Sudbury Schools
• Democratic school
• Education reform

External links

• Official website
• List of Sudbury Schools worldwide

Special education

Special education, describes an educational alternative that focuses on the teaching of students with academic, behaviorial, health, or physical needs that cannot sufficiently be met using traditional educational programs or techniques.

This article will focus mainly on the teaching of students with disabilities; see Gifted education for more information on that subject.

Contents 1 History 2 United States 3 United Kingdom 3.1 Scotland 4 Australia 4.1 See also 4.2 References 4.3 External links

History

Children with disabilities have always been part of our communities. In the past, some “special” education was provided to individual children on a one to one basis, such as Jean Itard’s work with Victor, the “wild child of Averyon”. As formal education became established, welfare or religious groups for the care of children with disabilities often became involved in their education. Government provision of special education services generally followed after voluntary groups had shown what could be done.

Progress in Special Education saw a major reversal as the eugenics movement took hold. Under this theory, it was irresponsible to care for and educate people with disabilities as it would “weaken society”. The outcome of this – the mass murder of people with disabilities in Nazi Germany – as well as the more scientific approaches, such as behaviourism, to studying disability, led to a new understanding of special education and the vision that all children could learn, no matter what diagnosis they were given.

Initially education was provided to children of school age – about six or seven. In the 1970’s research into Early Childhood Intervention, the provision of special education from birth or first diagnosis, showed that the earlier special education was provided, the better the outcome for the child and the entire family.

Special Education changed with Wolfensburger’s theory of Normalisation - that all people with disabilities have the right to lead “normal” lives, including being part of a family, attending a local school, and holding a job in the community. This theory led to the concept of Inclusive Education, where schools no longer provide “regular education” and “special education” but provide a service which includes every child, no matter what he or she needs at the time.

Special Education services now extend past school-age into adulthood, as a better understanding of life-long learning has been gained. It includes school-based activities as well as family and community activities, and has become a major testing ground for better teaching for all children, not simply children with disabilities.

Special Education has a different quality in different countries. The political, economic and social pressures in each country has led to a different form of Special Education, with different sets of policies and practises.

United States

Special education programs in the United States were made mandatory in 1973 when Congress passed the Education of the Handicapped Act (EHA) in response to discriminatory treatment by public educational agencies against students with disabilities. The EHA was later modified to strengthen protections to disabled pupils and renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

The two most basic rights ensured by the IDEA is that every disabled student is entitled to a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment (LRE). To ensure a FAPE, a team of professionals and parents meet to determine the student’s unique educational needs, develop annual goals for the student, and determine the placement, program modification, testing accommodations, counseling, and other special services that the student needs through the development of an Individualized Education Program (IEP). The educational agency is required to develop and implement an IEP that meets the standards of federal and state educational agencies.

The LRE mandate requires that all students’ educations be with their nondisabled peers to the greatest extent possible, while still providing a FAPE. The LRE requirement is intended to prevent unnecessary segregation of the disabled. Some special education services (such as speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, etc) may be provided within the mainstream class and these services are outlined in each child’s IEP. Students in Special Education will also need a transition plan, focussing on their life after school.

The article Special Education in the United States deals with the full system of review and implementation in more detail.

United Kingdom

The education systems of the united Kingdom vary between the four nation states. In schools in England and Wales, special education is referred to as SEN (Special Educational Needs.) Each school is required to have a Special Educational Needs Co-Ordinator, or SENCO, whose responsibility it is to ensure all pupils in the school with SEN receive the appropriate support to facilitate their successful education. According to Teachernet, a UK government website set up to aid teaching staff, The current SEN Code of Practice came into force at the beginning of January 2002, replacing the original version dating to 1994.

To qualify as having SEN, a student must be assessed by a professional, usually an Educational Psychologist, Doctor or Psychiatrist. If a disability or difficulty is identified which it is considered, presents a significant challenge to what is considered normal learning patterns, and education, a recommendation or application can be made for the issue of a Statement of Educational Need, which entitles the student to the appropriate learning support.

Disabilities that may merit the issue of a statement include, Physical disbility, e.g. the lack of functioning or loss of limbs or movement, Motor or fine motor disability, Learning difficulties or disabilities, developmental disorders, mental illness or incapacity, or behavioural difficulties. With the correct support, many students with SEN have the potential to develop into productive, successful and fully integrated members of society, as has been proved the case on numerous occasions.

Scotland

In Scotland the term SEN was in use until very recently when it was replaced with the term addition support needs in 2005. The new concept of ‘additional support needs’, introduced by the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004, refers to any child or young person who, for whatever reason, requires additional support for learning. Additional support needs can arise from any factor which causes a barrier to learning, whether that factor relates to social, emotional, cognitive, linguistic, disability, or family and care circumstances. For instance, additional support may be required for a child or young person who is being bullied; has behavioural difficulties; has learning difficulties; is a parent; has a sensory or mobility impairment; is at risk; or is bereaved.

There will be many other examples besides these. Some additional support needs will be long term while others will be short term. The effect they have will vary from person to person. In all cases though, it is how these factors impact on the individual persons’ learning that is important and this will determine the level of support required. [1]

Australia

The model of Special Education in Australia followed British patterns quite closely. “Asylums” and “Schools” for children were begun in the late 1800s by charitable organisations. The government began to provide special classes from the 1920s, but it was not until the 1980s that a comprehensive system for educating all children, no matter their disability, was taken on as a government responsibility. This initially meant supporting children in Special Schools or separate classes.

Newcastle and Macquarie Universities were two influential universities in promoting Early Childhood Intervention and Inclusive Education from the 1970s until today. Special Education teachers are still trained at those institutions.

In 1996 an influential report by David McRae, known as the McRae report, found that the way children with disabilities had been catered for had changed very little over the years. He proposed government funding be tied to the child rather than the setting in order to encourage more inclusive education. While not all of his recommendations have been heard, this report resulted in a change in funding and an increase in the number of children with disabilities being included in their local schools. Today most children with disabilities are educated in their local schools, although the majority have mild disabilities. There are also small special classes attached to local schools, and special schools, which accept children who have moderate, severe, or profound disabilities. The Distance Education unit also provides special education to students who live in isolated regions.

To gain Special Education support, children need to have a diagnosis provided by a paediatrician or a psychologist. Families have the right to choose their own placement - special school, special class, or local school - dependent on places available. It is a requirement that an IEP (Individual Education Plan) be written with the family at least once a year so that goals for individual children are agreed upon by all those working with the child. Provisions differ enormously state by state - for example, NSW is the only state which does not provide therapists (speech, physio) for students. Western Australia has Education Support teachers working to support students in school, while Victoria relies a great deal on untrained integration aides.

See also

• Special school
• Educational psychology

References

External links

• Council for Exceptional Children
• U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services
• Special Education and Medicaid KnowledgeBase
• Education and Advocacy for Children
• Special Education Questions Answered

Sudbury school

The Sudbury model of democratic education is named after the school that pioneered it - Sudbury Valley School. Since it was founded in 1968, the Framingham, Massachusetts school has been a source of inspiration for dozens of schools and institutions, and there are currently over 40 Sudbury schools around the world.

Certain facets of the model separate it from other democratic schools and free schools, although there are evident similarities. One central defining aspect is the non-compulsory nature of the model and the equal, non-judgemental treatment of all activities (within the bounds of school rules regarding behavior and conduct) which results in a great de-emphasis of classes and other activities normally emphasized for their educational value. This attitude stems from the basic belief of the educational model, that every individual learns what they need to know through life and that there is no need to try and design a curriculum that will prepare a young person for adult life. Another facet that often separates Sudbury model schools from other democratic schools is the limitation - or total absence - of parental involvement in the administration of Sudbury schools. Sudbury schools are run by a democratic School Meeting where the students and staff participate exclusively and equally. Lastly, Sudbury schools do not arbitrarily separate the students into age-groups, emphasizing free age-mixing as a powerful tool for learning and development in all ages.

Although there is currently no official doctrine or association governing a Sudbury school, many schools have independently and voluntarily adopted the title of Sudbury school. The schools maintain good communication with each other, and recognize a loose camaraderie.

Contents 1 School Meeting 2 Judicial Committee 3 Age Mixing 4 Individual Freedom 5 Alumni 6 See also

School Meeting

Every Sudbury School is run by a weekly School Meeting sometimes in conjunction with an annual assembly. These meetings are modeled after the traditional New England Town Meeting. Most of the schools run this meeting using Robert’s Rules of Order, with an elected Chairperson presiding over the meeting and a Secretary recording the minutes.

All aspects of governing a Sudbury School are ultimately determined by the School Meeting. The weekly agenda may range from changes to the school’s rules, to spending money within the budget, to hiring and firing staff persons. All present members receive an equal vote and most decisions are determined by a majority vote. Students and staff receive equal votes.

Several aspects of running a Sudbury School are often delegated to other parties so that School Meetings do not get bogged down with the minutiae of detail. These may include elected administrative clerks (who may be chosen from staff or students), committees of volunteers, and corporations/cooperatives formed by the School Meeting for a specific are of activity that a group is interested in organizing, such as sports, art or computers.

Judicial Committee

When a school member has infracted against a school rule, such as by harassing or hitting another member, or by mismanaging a delegated responsibility, most Sudbury schools have some form of a committee to handle these situations. This is commonly through a Judicial Committee, made up of drafted students and staff, or through a modified Judicial School Meeting of volunteers.

Usually, there is a set procedure to handle complaints, and most of the schools follow guidelines that respect the idea of due process of law. There will usually be rules requiring an investigation, a hearing, a trial, a sentence, and allowing for an appeal.

Most Sudbury schools have developed a law book that outlines the school’s policies that have changed over time. All such laws are subject to School Meeting review, and cover such things as rules regarding safety, personal behavior, and school management.

Age Mixing

Sudbury schools generally accept children and teens, usually between ages 5-19. They do not segregate students by age, so that students of any age are free to interact with students in other age groups. Thus, for instance, School Meetings may be chaired by seven year olds, and classes will be organized by students’ interests and abilities, rather than by age. One effect of this age mixing is that a great deal of the teaching in the school is done by students.

Individual Freedom

A central tenet of the Sudbury model of education is that each student should be free to develop his or her own curricula. The model contradicts the idea that there is one set curriculum that everyone should learn in order to become a successful adult. Believing there are many ways for students to learn, and not judging individual choices of subject matter, students are free to design their course of study from day to day.

Classes and other planned activities are always voluntary and optional, and may be led by staff or students. Many students may choose never to take a class. Often, areas of the school are designated for a particular use, such as an art room, a music room, or a library. Although most areas would normally be free for any students to use, some items or activities may require a student to have completed a certification process to demonstrate their ability to use the item safely. Most of the schools have several certifications, such as to use a sewing machine or wood-working equipment.

Alumni

Sudbury Valley School has published two studies of their alumni over the past forty years. They have learned, among other things, that about 80% of their students have graduated from college, and that they have gone on to become successful in many areas of life. There have, as yet, been no formal studies of graduates of other Sudbury schools, but anecdotally, they seem to have similar results.

See also

• Sudbury Valley School
• List of Sudbury Schools
• Democratic school
• Free school

Student voice

Ontario’s Student Voice

Education reform has long been the domain of parents, teachers, school administrators and politicians. In some nations, however, there is a trend beginning to encompass a much larger element of student participation in scholastic affairs. A student voice on district school boards was mandated in 1999. As part of changes made to the Ontario Education Act, legislation mandates that students of each one of the 72 provincial school boards elect a student trustee to represent their needs and concerns in discussions with the school board administration and the province.

The Ontario Student Trustees’ Association - l’Association des élèves conseillers et conseillères de l’Ontario (OSTA-AECO) has since become Ontario’s chief student stakeholder dedicated to representing the 1.9 million students in Ontario’s public education system. OSTA-AECO, through its General Assembly of student trustees, represents elementary and secondary students from the four sectors of publicly funded education (English Catholic, English Public, French Catholic, French Public). It provides professional development to its members and advocates for students’ educational interests.

Ontario’s Student Voice will be strengthened, pending passage of the legislation, by measures presented by Minister of Education Gerard Kennedy. They include a mandated non-binding vote for each student trustee.

The Society for Democratic Education

An emerging organization in Toronto that includes many aspects of heightened student inclusion in education reform policy is The Society for Democratic Education.Founded in early 2005 by Bianca Wylie, The Society has published several essays and position papers that discuss the importance of wide-scale education reform, especially in how it applies to secondary level education and civic education.

Other Proponents of “The Student Voice” in Canada

A prominent and established voice for students, albeit for post-secondary issues, is the Canadian Federation of Students. Other Toronto-based groups made up of student-aged members include The Toronto Youth Cabinet and Canada 25, though these organizations also focus on broader policy both within the city and the nation.

Socratic method

Platonism

Platonic idealism
Platonic realism
Middle Platonism
Neoplatonism
Articles on Neoplatonism
Platonic epistemology
Socratic method
Socratic dialogues
Theory of forms
Platonic doctrine of recollection
Individuals
Plato
Socrates
Discussions of Plato’s works
Dialogues of Plato
Plato’s metaphor of the sun
The divided line of Plato
Allegory of the cave

Socratic method (or method of elenchos or Socratic debate) is a dialectic method of inquiry, largely applied to the examination of key moral concepts and first described by Plato in the Socratic Dialogues. For this, Socrates is customarily regarded as the father and fountainhead for ethics or moral philosophy.

It is a form of philosophical enquiry. It typically involves two speakers at any one time, with one leading the discussion and the other agreeing to certain assumptions put forward for his acceptance or rejection. The method is credited to Socrates, who began to engage in such discussion with his fellow Athenians after a visit to the Oracle of Delphi.

“A Socratic Dialogue can happen at any time between [two people] when they seek to answer a question [about something] answerable by their own effort of reflection and thinking [starting] from the concrete [asking] all sorts of questions [until] the details of the example are fleshed out [as] a kind of platform for reaching more general judgments” [1].

The practice involves asking a series of questions surrounding a central issue, and answering questions of the others involved. Generally this involves the defense of one point of view against another and is oppositional. The best way to ‘win’ is to make the opponent contradict themselves in some way that proves the inquirer’s own point.

Plato famously formalised the Socratic debate in prose - positing Socrates as one of the principal interlocutors - in some of his early dialogues, such as Euthyphro or Theaetetus, and the method is most commonly found within the Socratic dialogues, which generally portray Socrates engaging in the method and questioning his fellow citizens about moral and epistemological issues.

Contents 1 Method 2 Application 2.1 Law school 2.2 Psychotherapy 2.3 Lesson plan elements for teachers in classrooms 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

Method

Elenchos (Greek: ἔλεγχος, a cross-examination for the purpose of refutation), sometimes spelt ‘elenchus’, is the central technique of the Socratic method.

In Plato’s early dialogues, the elenchos is the technique Socrates uses to investigate, for example, the nature or definition of ethical concepts such as justice or virtue. According to one general characterisation (Vlastos, 1983), it has the following steps:

1. Socrates’ interlocutor asserts a thesis, for example ‘Courage is endurance of the soul’, which Socrates considers false and targets for refutation.
2. Socrates secures his interlocutor’s agreement to further premises, for example ‘Courage is a fine thing’ and ‘Ignorant endurance is not a fine thing’.
3. Socrates then argues, and the interlocutor agrees, that these further premises imply the contrary of the original thesis, in this case it leads to: ‘courage is not endurance of the soul’.
4. Socrates then claims that he has shown that his interlocutor’s thesis is false and that its contrary is true.

One elenctic examination can lead to a new, more refined, examination of the concept being considered, in this case it invites an examination of the claim: ‘Courage is wise endurance of the soul’. Most Socratic inquiries consist of a series of elenchai and typically end in aporia.

Frede (1992) insists that step #4 above makes nonsense of the aporetic nature of the early dialogues. If any claim has shown to be true then it can not be the case that the interlocutors are in aporia, a state where they no longer know what to say about the subject under discussion.

The exact nature of the elenchos is subject to a great deal of debate, in particular concerning whether it is a positive method, leading to knowledge, or a negative method used solely to refute false claims to knowledge.

The Socratic method is a negative method of hypotheses elimination, in that better hypotheses are found by steadily identifying and eliminating those which lead to contradictions. The method of Socrates is a search for the underlying hypotheses, assumptions, or axioms, which may subconsciously shape one’s opinion, and to make them the subject of scrutiny, to determine their consistency with other beliefs. The basic form is a series of questions formulated as tests of logic and fact intended to help a person or group discover their beliefs about some topic, exploring the definitions or logoi (singular logos), seeking to characterise the general characteristics shared by various particular instances. To the extent to which this method is designed to bring out definitions implicit in the interlocutors’ beliefs, or to help them further their understanding, it was called the method of maieutics. Aristotle attributed to Socrates the discovery of the method of definition and induction, which he regarded as the essence of the scientific method. Oddly, however, Aristotle also claimed that this method is not suitable for ethics.

Application

Socrates generally applied his method of examination to concepts that seem to lack any concrete definition; e.g., the key moral concepts at the time, the virtues of piety, wisdom, temperance, courage, and justice. Such an examination challenged the implicit moral beliefs of the interlocutors, bringing out inadequacies and inconsistencies in their beliefs, and usually resulting in puzzlement known as aporia. In view of such inadequacies, Socrates himself professed his ignorance, but others still claimed to have knowledge. Socrates believed that his awareness of his ignorance made him wiser than those who, though ignorant, still claimed knowledge. Although this belief seems paradoxical at first glance, it in fact allowed Socrates to discover his own errors where others might assume they were correct. This claim was known by the anecdote of the Delphic oracular pronouncement that Socrates was the wisest of all men. (Or, rather, that no man was wiser than Socrates…)

Socrates used this claim of wisdom as the basis of his moral exhortation. Accordingly, he claimed that the chief goodness consists in the caring of the soul concerned with moral truth and moral understanding, that “wealth does not bring goodness, but goodness brings wealth and every other blessing, both to the individual and to the state”, and that “life without examination [dialogue] is not worth living”. It is with this in mind that the Socratic Method is employed.

The motive for the modern usage of this method and Socrates’ use are not necessarily equivalent. Socrates rarely used the method to actually develop consistent theories, instead using myth to explain them. The Parmenides shows Parmenides using the Socratic method to point out the flaws in the Platonic theory of the Forms, as presented by Socrates; it is not the only dialogue in which theories normally expounded by Plato/Socrates are broken down through dialectic. Instead of arriving at answers, the method was used to break down the theories we hold, to go “beyond” the axioms and postulates we take for granted. Therefore, myth and the Socratic method are not meant by Plato to be incompatible; they have different purposes, and are often described as the “left hand” and “right hand” paths to the good and wisdom.

Law school

Socratic method is widely used in contemporary legal education by many law schools in the United States. In a typical class setting, the professor asks a question and calls on a student who may or may not have volunteered an answer. The professor either then continues to ask the student questions or moves on to another student.

These subsequent questions can take a few forms. Sometimes they seek to challenge the assumptions upon which the student based the previous answer until it breaks. Further questions can also be designed to move a student toward greater specificity, either in understanding a rule of law or a particular case. Finally professors use the Socratic method to allow students to come to legal principles on their own through carefully worded questions that spur a particular train of thought.

One hallmark of Socratic questioning is that typically there is more than one “correct” answer, and more often, no clear answer at all. The primary goal of Socratic method in law schools is not to answer usually unanswerable questions, but to explore the contours of often difficult legal issues and to teach students the critical thinking skills they will need as lawyers.

Sometimes, the class ends with a quick discussion of doctrinal foundations (legal rules) to anchor the students in contemporary legal understanding of an issue. In other classes the class simply ends and students are forced to figure out for themselves the legal rules or principles that were at issue. For this method to work, the students are expected to be prepared for class in advance by reading the assigned materials (case opinions, notes, law review articles, etc.) and by familiarizing themselves with the general outlines of the subject matter.

Psychotherapy

The Socratic method has been adapted for psychotherapy, most prominently in Classical Adlerian psychotherapy and Cognitive therapy. It can be used to clarify meaning, feeling, and consequences, as well as to gradually unfold insight, or explore alternative actions.

Lesson plan elements for teachers in classrooms

A skillful teacher can teach students to think for themselves using this method. This is the only classic method of teaching that was designed to create genuinely autonomous thinkers. There are some crucial lesson plan elements to this form of teaching:

• The teacher and student must agree on the topic of instruction.
• The student must agree to attempt to answer questions from the teacher.
• The teacher and student must be willing to accept any correctly-reasoned answer. That is, the reasoning process must be considered more important than pre-conceived facts or beliefs.
• The teacher’s questions must expose errors in the students’ reasoning or beliefs. That is, the teacher must reason more quickly and correctly than the student, and discover errors in the students’ reasoning, and then formulate a question that the students cannot answer except by a correct reasoning process. To perform this service, the teacher must be very quick-thinking about the classic errors in reasoning.
• If the teacher makes an error of logic or fact, it is acceptable for a student to correct the teacher.

Since a discussion is not a dialogue, it is not a proper medium for the Socratic method. However, it is helpful — if second best — if the teacher is able to lead a group of students in a discussion. This is not always possible in situations that require the teacher to evaluate students, but it is preferable pedagogically, because it encourages the students to reason rather than appeal to authority.

More loosely, one can label any process of thorough-going questioning in a dialogue as an instance of the Socratic method.

See also

• Aristotle
• Institutional memory
• Maieutics
• Marva Collins
• Plato
• Socrates
• Socratic irony
• Dialogue

References

• Vlastos, Gregory (1983) ‘The Socratic Elenchus’, in Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 1: 27-58.
• Benson, Hugh (2000) Socratic Wisdom (Oxford: Oxford University Press)

External links

• Discourse.net - ‘Be Socratic In Class — Get Sued’ (March 24, 2005)
• Philosopher.org - ‘Tips on Starting your own Socrates Cafe’, Christopher Phillips, Cecilia Phillips
• UChicago.edu - ‘The Socratic Method’, Elizabeth Garrett (1998)
• AAINW ‘Adler and Socrates: Similarities and Differences’, Henry Stein
• SocraticMethod.net - A Socratic Method Research Portal
• Teaching by Asking Instead of by Telling, and example from Rick Garlikov
• Project Gutenberg: Works by Plato
• Project Gutenberg: Works by Xenophon (includes some Socratic works)
• Project Gutenberg: Works by Cicero (includes some works in the “Socratic dialogue” format)
• The Socratic Club

School refusal

School refusal is a term originally used in Great Britain to describe refusal to attend school, due to emotional distress. School refusal differs from truancy in that children with school refusal feel anxiety or fear towards school, whereas truant children generally have no feelings of fear towards school, often feeling angry or bored with it instead. The term was coined as a more general alternative to school phobia, which can be used to describe school refusal caused by separation anxiety.

Approximately 1 to 5 % of school-aged children have school refusal, though it is most common in children aged five, six, ten and eleven. The rate is similar within both genders, and there are no known socioeconomic differences.

Children and adolescents with school refusal are likely bound to suffer from other problems such as anxiety, mood disorders, social phobia or clinical depression. The longer a child stays out of school the harder it is for them to go back, so it is best to try to get the child back into school as quickly as possible. However, it may be hard to accomplish as when forced they are prone to temper tantrums, crying spells, psychosomatic or panic symptoms and threats of self-harm. These problems quickly fade if the child is allowed to stay home.

Whereas some cases of school refusal can be resolved by gradual re-introduction to the school environment, some others may need to be treated with some form of psychodynamic or cognitive-behaviour therapy. Some families have sought alternative education for school refusers which has also proved to be effective. In extreme cases, some form of medication is sometimes prescribed but none of these methods have stood out prominently as solutions to the problem.

See also

• bullying

External links

• Scared of School - Site for teenagers who like to learn but are scared of school for various reasons

School

For other uses, see School (disambiguation).

A school is most commonly a place designated for learning. The range of institutions covered by the term varies from country to country.

In many countries, including as the United States and United Kingdom, a school may also be a partially autonomous or indeed entirely separate institution, not necessarily a part of a system of compulsory public education at all, dedicated to learning within one particular field, such as a school of economics (e.g. the London School of Economics), a school of dance, or a school of journalism.

Contents 1 Schools around the world 1.1 Europe 1.2 United Kingdom 1.3 North America 1.4 United States 2 Bullying 3 See also 4 External links 4.1 Pro-school 4.2 Against school

Schools around the world

Europe

In much of continental Europe, the term school usually applies to primary education, with primary schools that last between six and nine years, depending on the country. It also applies to secondary education, with secondary schools often divided between Gymnasiums and vocational schools, which again depending on country and type of school take between three and six years. The term school is rarely used for tertiary education, except for some upper or high schools (German: Hochschule) which are more accurately translated as colleges.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, the term school refers primarily to pre-university institutions, and these can, for the most part, be divided into primary schools (sometimes further divided into infant school and junior school), and secondary schools. School performance is monitored by Ofsted in England, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education in Scotland, and Estyn in Wales.

North America

In North America, the term school can refer to any institute of education, at any level and covers all of the following: preschool (for toddlers), kindergarten, elementary school, middle school (also called intermediate school or junior high school, depending on specific age groups and geographic region), high school, college, university, and graduate school.

United States

In the United States, school performance through high school is monitored by each state’s Department of Education. Many of the earlier public schools in the United States were one-room schools where a single teacher taught seven grades of boys and girls in the same classroom. Beginning in the 1920s, one-room schools were consolidated into multiple classroom facilities with transportation increasingly provided by kid hacks and school buses.

Bullying

Bullying can be a real common problem within many schools, which can sometimes create emotional problems. Programs to target bullying have often been introduced, and some states have changed laws to make it illegal. Many schools now use some form of peer support to help those being bullied. Sometimes, this support is not given and the pupil (victim) commits suicide. This is the result in no support.

See also

• Adult education
• Alternative school
• Alumni association
• Boarding school
• Cram school
• Day school
• For-Profit School
• Homeschooling
• Lesson
• List of colleges and universities by country
• List of schools by country
• Music school
• Prep school
• Primary education – Secondary education – Tertiary education – Quaternary education
• Private school
• Religiously affiliated schools
• School and university in literature
• School activities
• School bus
• School counselor
• Public education
• School discipline
• School sports
• School week
• School zone
• Shut down period

External links

Pro-school

• greatschools.net
• eschoolsearch.com
• Free educational pictures to color and print.

Against school

• John Taylor Gatto, former New York State & New York City Teacher of the Year
• School Survival - Support site for kids who hate school
• Scared of School - Site for teenagers who like to learn but are scared of school for various reasons
• Ami’s Anti-School Zone

Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner (February 27, 1861 – March 30, 1925) was an Austrian philosopher, literary scholar, architect, playwright, educator, and social thinker. He is best known as the founder of anthroposophy and many of its practical applications, including Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, anthroposophical medicine, and new artistic impulses, especially eurythmy.

Steiner advocated an ethical individualism that evolved to include a strong spiritual component. In his epistemological works, he advocated the Goethean view that thinking itself is a perceptive instrument for ideas, just as the eye is a perceptive instrument for light.

He characterized anthroposophy as follows:

“Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge, to guide the spiritual in the human being to the spiritual in the universe… Anthroposophists are those who experience, as an essential need of life, certain questions on the nature of the human being and the universe, just as one experiences hunger and thirst.”

-Rudolf Steiner, Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts (1924)

Contents 1 Goethean scholar, philosopher, phenomenologist of spirit and sense perception 1.1 Childhood and education 1.2 Writer and philosopher 1.3 Spiritual research 1.4 Separation from the Theosophical Society 1.5 Cultural activities 2 Practical initiatives 2.1 Education 2.2 Social activism 2.3 Architecture, eurythmy and free spiritual culture 2.4 Weleda and biodynamic farming 2.5 The renewal of religious life 3 Breadth of activity 4 Steiner criticism 4.1 Steiner and science 4.2 Steiner on a pedestal 4.3 Steiner and Christianity 5 Bibliography 5.1 Works by Steiner 5.2 Works about Steiner by other authors 6 External links

Goethean scholar, philosopher, phenomenologist of spirit and sense perception

Childhood and education

Steiner’s father was a huntsman in the service of Count Hoyos in Geras, and later became a telegraph operator and stationmaster on the Southern Austrian Railway. When Rudolf was born, his father was stationed in Murakirály in the Muraköz region, then part of Hungary (present-day Donji Kraljevec, Međimurje region, northernmost Croatia). When he was two years old, the family moved into Burgenland, Austria, in the foothills of the eastern Alps.

Steiner displayed a keen and early interest in mathematics and philosophy. From 1879-1883 he attended the Technische Hochschule (Technical University) in Vienna, where he concentrated on mathematics, physics, and chemistry. In 1891, with his thesis Truth and Knowledge, he earned a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Rostock in Germany.

Writer and philosopher

In 1888, Steiner was invited by Grand Duchess Sophie of Saxony to edit the complete edition of Goethe’s scientific works in Weimar, where he worked until 1896. During this time he also collaborated in a complete edition of Arthur Schopenhauer’s work. Steiner also wrote numerous articles for various magazines, including a magazine devoted to combatting anti-semitism, during this time. Steiner was one of the early defenders (with Emile Zola) of Alfred Dreyfus, a Captain in the French army falsely accused of treason because he was Jewish.

Steiner wrote his seminal philosophical work, Die Philosophie der Freiheit (The Philosophy of Freedom) in 1894, which advocated the possibility that humans can become spiritually free beings through the conscious activity of thinking (see section on ‘Philosophical Debate’).

In 1896, Friedrich Nietzsche’s sister, Forster-Nietzsche, asked Steiner to set the Nietzsche archive in Naumburg in order. Her brother by that time was no longer compos mentis. Forster-Nietzsche introduced Steiner into the presence of the catatonic philosopher and Steiner, deeply moved, subsequently wrote the book Friedrich Nietzsche, Fighter for Freedom.

In 1897, Steiner left what was for him the somewhat sterile environment of the Weimar archives and moved to Berlin. He had purchased a literary journal, the Magazin für Literatur. Steiner had hoped to find here a readership sympathetic to his spiritual philosophy, but discovered that the artistic circles that were associated with the journal had little interest in what was increasingly becoming the center of his own existence. This was a crisis point in Steiner’s life.

A turning point came when, in the August 28, 1899 issue of this magazine, he published an article entitled “Goethe’s Secret Revelation” on the esoteric nature of Goethe’s fairy tale, The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily. This article led to an invitation by the Count and Countess Brockdorff to speak to a gathering of theosophists on the subject of Nietzsche. Steiner continued speaking regularly to the members of the Theosophical Society, eventually becoming the head of its German section. It was also within this society that Steiner met Marie von Sievers, who was to become his second wife.

Spiritual research

Beginning around this time, c. 1900, till his death in 1925, Steiner articulated an ongoing stream of “experiences of the spiritual world” — experiences he said had touched him from an early age on. Steiner sought to apply all his training in mathematics, science, and philosophy in order to produce rigorous, intersubjectively testable presentations of those experiences. He also sought to bring a consciousness of spiritual life and non-physical beings into many practical domains—medicine, education, science, architecture, special education, social reform, agriculture, drama, among others. Steiner held that non-physical beings were in everything, and that through freely chosen ethical disciplines and meditative training, anyone could develop the ability to experience such beings, and thus be strengthened for creative and loving work in the world.

Steiner sought to be phenomenological. Like Edmund Husserl and Jose Ortega y Gasset, but preceding them, Steiner was intimately familiar with the philosophical work of Franz Brentano - with whom he had studied - and Wilhelm Dilthey, both central precursors of the phenomenological movement in European philosophy. Steiner was also deeply influenced by Goethe’s phenomenological approach to science.

Separation from the Theosophical Society

Like the theosophists, Steiner encouraged the development of artistic efforts within the Society. Steiner, however, strongly objected when the leaders of the Theosophical Society declared that Krishnamurti was the new World Teacher (Krishnamurti himself later repudiated the attempt to make him into a messiah, shocking many Theosophists).

Steiner quickly denied Krishnamurti could be a reincarnation or second coming of the Christ, and held that Christ’s earthly incarnation in Jesus was a unique event. Steiner held that what trained spiritual vision could discover about most of the rest of humanity — namely that the human being goes through a series of repeated earth lives — did not apply to the spiritual being Christ. Christ, he said, would reappear in the etheric — the realm that lives between people and in community life — not in a single individual. This and other doctrinal differences fuelled a confrontation between Steiner and the Theosophical leader Annie Besant which eventually led Steiner and most of the German branch of theosophists to separate from the main body of this group, and found the Anthroposophical Society in 1912.

Cultural activities

The society grew rapidly. Fueled by a need to find a home for their yearly conferences, which regularly included performances of plays written by Eduard Schuré and Steiner himself, the decision was made to build a theater and organizational center. In 1913, construction began on the first Goetheanum building, in Dornach, Switzerland. The building, designed by Steiner, was built to significant part by volunteers who offered craftsmanship or simply a will to learn new skills. Once World War I started in 1914, the Goetheanum volunteers could hear the sound of cannon fire beyond the Swiss border, but despite the war, people from all over Europe worked peaceably side by side on the building’s construction. In 1919, the Goetheanum staged the world premiere of a complete production of Goethe’s Faust. In this same year, the first Waldorf school was founded in Stuttgart, Germany.

The Goetheanum developed as a wide-ranging cultural centre. On New Year’s Eve, 1922, the first Goetheanum building was burned down by arsonists. Unwavering, Steiner began work on a second Goetheanum building — this was to be finished in 1928, three years after Steiner’s death.

During the Anthroposophical Society’s Christmas conference in 1923, he founded the School of Spiritual Science, intended as an open university for research and study. This university, which has various sections or faculties, has grown steadily; it is particularly active today in the fields of education, medicine, agriculture, art, natural science, literature, philosophy, and economics.

Practical initiatives

Education

As a young man, Steiner already supported the independence of educational institutions from governmental control. In 1907, he wrote a long essay, titled Education in the Light of Spiritual Science, in which he described the major phases of child development and suggested that these would be the basis of a healthy approach to education.

In 1919, Emil Molt invited him to lecture on the topic of education to the workers at Molt’s factory in Stuttgart. Out of this came a new school, the Waldorf school, and Waldorf Education — sometimes known as Steiner Education — which has grown to be one of the largest independent schooling systems in the world.

Social activism

For a period after World War I, Steiner was extremely active as a lecturer on social questions. A petition expressing his basic social ideas (signed by Herman Hesse, among others) was very widely circulated. His main book on social questions, Die Kernpunkte der Sozialen Frage (available in English today as Toward Social Renewal) sold tens of thousands of copies. Today around the world there are a number of innovative banks, companies, charitable institutions, and schools for developing new cooperative forms of business, all working partly out of Steiner’s social ideas. One example is The Rudolf Steiner Foundation (RSF), incorporated in 1984, and as of 2004 with estmated assets of $70 million. RSF provides “charitable innovative financial services”. According to the independent organizations Co-op America and the Social Investment Forum Foundation, RSF is “one of the top 10 best organizations exemplifying the building of economic opportunity and hope for individuals through community investing.”

Steiner suggested that the cultural, political and economic spheres needed to develop independently and without mutual interference for each of them to thrive. He suggested that the resulting Threefold Social Order would dissipate tensions that otherwise would lead to serious conflicts in the years to come.

Architecture, eurythmy and free spiritual culture

Steiner designed some seventeen buildings, each unique in style. The most significant of these are the First and Second Goetheanums. These two structures, both built in Dornach, Switzerland, were intended to house a University for Spiritual Science. Steiner’s architectural style has been variously associated with the organic style of architecture and expressionism

Within the Society, Steiner met his wife Marie von Sievers, with whom he developed a new artform (that also has therapeutic uses) known as Eurythmy (German: “Eurythmie“) — sometimes referred to as “visible speech and visible song”. Eurythmy is a work in progress; Steiner could only introduce foundational principles that continue to be developed today. The underlying idea is that there are archetypal movements or gestures that correspond to every aspect of speech - the sounds, or phonemes, the rhythms, the grammatical function, and so on - to every soul quality - laughing, despair, intimacy, etc. - and to every aspect of music - tones, intervals, rhythms, harmonies, etc.

Eurythmy performances are still held at the Goetheanum in Dornach, and at various theatres throughout the world. There are now a number of Eurythmy schools where a full four-year training is given.

As a playwright, Steiner wrote four “Mystery Dramas” between 1909 and 1913, including “The Portal of Initiation” and “The Soul’s Awakening”. They are still performed today.

As a sculptor, his primary work was The Representative of Humanity (1922). This enormous work carved in wood is still on display at the Goetheanum in Dornach.

Weleda and biodynamic farming

In 1921, pharmacists and physicians gathered under Steiner’s guidance to create a pharmaceutical company called Weleda, which now distributes natural medical products worldwide.

In 1924, a group of farmers concerned about the future of agriculture requested Steiner’s help; Steiner responded with a lecture series on agriculture. This was the origin of biodynamic agriculture, which is now practiced throughout much of Europe, North America, and Australasia. Biodynamic farming is not merely organic — in addition it works with the movement patterns of the stars and the moon, and with the non-physical beings in nature, and seeks to do testable research on how agriculture can produce the best quality food.

The renewal of religious life

In the 1920s, Steiner was approached by Friedrich Rittelmeyer, an eminent Lutheran pastor with a congregation in Berlin. Rittelmeyer asked if it was possible to create a more modern form of Christianity. Soon others joined Rittelmeyer - mostly Protestant pastors, but including at least one Catholic priest. Steiner offered counsel on renewing the sacraments of their various services, combining Catholicism’s emphasis on a sacred tradition with the Protestant emphasis on freedom of thought and a personal relationship to religious life. Steiner made it clear, however, that the resulting movement for the renewal of Christianity, which became known as The Christian Community, was a personal gesture of help to a deserving cause. It was not, he emphasized, founded by the movement known as “Spiritual Science” or “Anthroposophy,” but by Rittelmeyer and the other founding personalities with Steiner’s help and advice. The distinction was important to Steiner because he sought with anthroposophy to create a scientific, not faith-based, spirituality. For those who wished to find more traditional forms, however, a renewal of the traditional religions was also a vital need of the times.

Breadth of activity

Rudolf Steiner is certainly remarkable for the breadth of his achievements. The school movement he founded has become as successful as those of Maria Montessori. Biodynamic agriculture is one of the two pillars of the modern organic farming movement, and is easily as important today as the ideas of the other founder of modern organic agriculture, Albert Howard. Anthroposophic medicine has achieved as broad a range of medicinal remedies as Hahnemann’s homeopathy; in addition, a broad range of supportive therapies - both artistic and biographical - have arisen out of Steiner’s work. The homes for the handicapped based on his work are as successful as those of L’Arche. His paintings and drawings have been exhibited in museums and galleries, and his pupils include Joseph Beuys and other significant modern artists. His two Goetheanum buildings are generally accepted to be amongst the masterpieces of organic architecture, and other anthroposophical architects have contributed thousands of innovative buildings to the modern scene. The first institution to practice social banking was an anthroposophical bank working out of Steiner’s ideas (GMB-Bochum, Germany). This list could be extended considerably.

Steiner’s literary estate is correspondingly broad. Steiner’s writings are published in about forty volumes, including essays, plays (’mystery dramas’), mantric verse and an autobiography. His collected lectures make up another approximately 300 volumes, and nearly every imaginable theme is covered somewhere here. (Steiner’s complete works in German are searchable at the Rudolf Steiner Archive). Steiner’s drawings are collected in yet another, independent series of volumes. Many publications have covered his architectural legacy and sculptural work.

Steiner criticism

Steiner and science

There are scientists acquainted with the topics Steiner touched upon who regard his methodology as irreproducible and thus unscientific, and therefore completely disregard his works. However, a number of trained physicists, biologists, medical doctors, architects, philosophers, and other scholars claim to find creative genius in Steiner’s comments on detailed aspects of each of their fields. Research centers staffed by trained professionals in various fields of study do research along lines suggested or inspired by Steiner’s ideas. Some of the better known scientists and scholars who have been deeply influenced by Steiner are listed below. There are some scientists and intellectuals who admire Steiner’s efforts to transform ordinary thinking gradually into a higher thinking that is at the same time a perceiving of the spiritual world. Examples of books and authors profoundly influenced by Steiner: physicist Henri Bortoft’s The Wholeness of Nature, physicist Arthur Zajonc’s Catching the Light, physicist Georg Unger’s Forming Concepts in Physics, physicist Stephen Edelglass’ The Marriage of Sense and Thought, biologist Craig Holdrege’s Genetics and the Manipulation of Life, theoretical chemist Jos Verhulst’s Developmental Dynamics in Humans and Other Primates, theoretical chemist Georg Kuehlewind’s From Normal to Healthy, biologist Wolfgang Schad’s Man and Mammals: Toward a Biology of Form, medical doctor Robert Zieve’s Healthy Medicine, medical doctor Victor Bott’s Introduction to Anthroposophical Medicine, philosopher Owen Barfield’s World’s Apart, philosopher Richard Tarnas’ Passion of the Western Mind, cultural critic Theodore Roszak’s Unfinished Animal. See also computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum’s comments on Steiner, or those of Albert Schweitzer.

See also the collection of scientific articles edited by physicist Arthur Zajonc and architect David Seamon, Goethe’s Way of Science, A Phenomenology of Nature.

Steiner on a pedestal

The high regard in which Steiner is held within the Anthroposopical movement, which sees his teaching as foundational, has prompted some critics to see Steiner as a founder of a religion, not as a philosopher in the usual sense of the word. The idea, if there is a degree of truth to it, evolves from overzealous students, not from Rudolf Steiner.

Steiner frequently asked his students to test everything he said, and not to take his statements on authority or faith. He also said that if it had been practicable, he would have changed the name of his teachings every day, to keep people from hanging on to the literal meaning of those teachings, and to stay true to their character as something intended to be alive and metamorphic. Nor was Steiner shy about saying that his works would gradually become obsolete, and that each generation should rewrite them. Individual freedom and spiritual independence are among the values Steiner most emphasized in his books and lectures.

Though the emphasis anthroposophists place on individual freedom and thought limits the tendency toward group-think and prevents anthroposophy from turning into a cult - if a cult is something that deprives its members of spiritual and intellectual freedom - a critical approach to the works of Steiner is not as common as some would like and not always welcomed within some Anthroposophic circles. Given Steiner’s clear statements about political democracy being the proper kind of State for humanity, his consistent and emphatic support for liberty and pluralism in education, religion, scientific opinion, the arts, and in the press, not to mention his rejection of the idea that the State should take over economic life - one cannot justly link Steiner or his movement with a totalitarian intent; rather the reverse, for his whole philosophy is based upon individual freedom.

Steiner and Christianity

Steiner’s views of Christianity have been criticized as heretical. Only a very simplified account of those views can be given here, because though they only amount to about 4% of his total works, that 4% still amounts to about 15 volumes of books and lectures — and many of the other 335 or more volumes contain additional scattered comments on Christianity. Steiner said that anyone could develop disciplined spiritual vision and that such vision could see that there were two Jesus children involved in the Incarnation of the Christ (one child descended from Solomon, as described in the Gospel of Matthew, the other child from Nathan, as described in the Gospel of Luke— this might seem a bit less strange when one recalls that ‘Jesus’ was a common name in biblical times); that the divine “Christ Spirit”, the Son-God of the Trinity, incarnated in the Nathan Jesus at the moment of the baptism by John; that up until the moment of the baptism by John in the Jordan, the Nathan Jesus was a very great holy man, but not yet the divine Son of God; that “the Christ Being” is not only the Redeemer of the Fall from Paradise, but also the unique pivot and meaning of earth’s evolutionary processes and of human history; that Yahveh (Jehovah) dwelt in the moon, but Elohim in the Sun; and that the second coming of the Christ meant the Christ would, for slowly increasing numbers of people, become manifest in the etheric realm beginning around the year 1933. (Steiner was not referring to the hypothetical ether of 19th century physicists, and on several occasions carefully distinguished his own use of the term from their use of it.)

Bibliography

Works by Steiner

The style and content of Steiner’s works can vary greatly. Therefore, while it might be stimulating to read a single lecture or book by Steiner, it would probably be a mistake, having read even four or five of his books, to suppose one has a representative picture of the whole body of his work. Out of the 350 volumes of his collected works (including roughly forty written books, and over 6000 published lectures), some of the more significant works include

• Truth and Science (doctoral thesis)
• Philosophy of Freedom (1894)
• Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe’s World-Conception (1886)
• How to Know Higher Worlds (1904-5)
• Theosophy (1904)
• The Education of the Child (1907)
• An Outline of Esoteric Science (1913)
• Four Mystery Dramas - The Soul’s Awakening (1913)
• Study of Man (1918)
• Practical Advice To Teachers (1919)
• Toward Social Renewal (1919)
• Man as Symphony of the Creative Word (1923)
• Anthroposophy and the Inner Life (1924)
• An Autobiography (1924-5)

Works about Steiner by other authors

• Davy, Adams and Merry, A Man Before Others: Rudolf Steiner Remembered. Rudolf Steiner Press, 1993.
• Hemleben, Johannes and Twyman,Leo, Rudolf Steiner: An Illustrated Biography. Rudolf Steiner Press, 2001.
• Lissau, Rudi, Rudolf Steiner: Life, Work, Inner Path and Social Initiatives. Hawthorne Press, 2000.
• Seddon, Richard, Rudolf Steiner. North Atlantic Books, 2004.
• Shephard, A.P., Rudolf Steiner: Scientist of the Invisible. Inner Traditions, 1990.
• Shiller, Paul, Rudolf Steiner and Initiation. Steiner Books, 1990.
• Tummer, Lia and Lato, Horacio, Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy for Beginners. Writers & Readers Publishing, 2001.

External links

• Goetheanum
• Rudolf Steiner Overview
• Rudolf Steiner and Criticism
• The Anthroposophy Network
• The Calendar of the Soul
• The Rudolf Steiner On-Line Archive
• Steiner Books
• Rudolf Steiner Foundation
• Camphill Association
• Weleda
• The Christian Community
• See photos from Motzstraße 30, Schöneberg, Berlin, where Rudolf Steiner lived from 1903 to 1923.

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Ropes course

A Ropes course is a challenging outdoor personal development and team building activity which usually consists of high and/or low elements. Low elements take place on the ground or only a few feet above the ground. High elements are usually constructed in trees or made of utility poles and require a belay for safety.

Contents 1 Terminology 2 History 3 Modern courses 4 High course 5 Low course 6 Purpose 7 Research 8 See also 9 External links

Terminology

Ropes courses are referred using several different names, including Challenge Courses, Ropes Challenge Courses, as well as more idiosynchratic names such as Challenging Outdoor Personal Experience or Challenging Outdoor Physical Encounters (COPE) course (used by the Boy Scouts of America). Other related terms include Obstacle Courses, Assault Courses and Commando Courses, although these terms also have have slightly different meanings, often more associated with military training than with education and training for the general public.

History

It is unclear where and when the first ropes course was created. Obstacle courses have been used by the military to train soldiers as far back as the ancient Greeks. These courses, however, were primarily used for the training of extremely fit individuals and not necessarily aimed at the development of the whole person as is common practice on ropes courses today. The use of belay and risk management systems on such courses was limited or often non-existent.

Many practitioners cite George Hébert as the originator of the “modern” ropes course. A French naval officer in the early 1900’s, Hébert developed his own method of physical education, apparatus, and principles to train in what he called the “Natural Method,” which included the development of physical, moral, and “virile” qualities in an outdoor environment. Drawing from his naval background, Hébert patterned some of his obstacles on obstacles found on the decks of ships. “Hébertism” grew during and between the World Wars, becoming the standard for physical education training for the French military. Many ropes courses and challenge course programs in French Canada and Europe are still known as Hébertism courses today.

Marble, Colorado, the site of the first Colorado Outward Bound course is cited by many as the location of the first ropes course in the USA, although this is highly unlikely. Patterned after a military obstacle course and similar to the course in use at the Outward Bound school in Aberdovey (Wales), the course was constructed of hemp ropes. Belay systems were minimal or non-existent (Rhonke, Wall, Tait, & Rogers, 2003, p. 4). There is evidence, however, that the USA military was using commando stlye courses similar to the modern day ropes course prior to World War II and annecdotal evidence pointing to camps in New England using ropes course type elements as early as the mid 1920’s.

Modern courses

Since the 1960’s, ropes course sophistication has evolved considerably. Modern ropes courses incorporate sophisticated belay and safety systems using wire rope, friction devices, and climbing harnesses to manage what before were unmanaged risks. Recent technological advances in pole hardware and climbing equipment along with industry-accepted installation and design practices have greatly reduced the risk to end users and to the natural environment. Modern courses make use of a variety of materials other than trees, including utility poles and steel structures. Today’s courses can be found in a variety of locations, including wooded areas, open fields, or inside heated buildings.

A recent trend of themed courses (i.e. ropes course meets Disney World) has created a whole new genre of challenge course aimed at recreational pay-to-play users. New, mobile ropes courses and climbing walls built on flat bed trucks have made challenge courses more readily available to the public for recreational purposes and are generating increased publicity. Recent estimates by builders on the ropes-online listserv estimate that there are more than 7,500 challenge courses in the USA and that an additional 200 to 400 are built each year.

High course

A High Course can be a pre-fabricated course, built of utility poles, cables, and bolts, that is built by a contractor, or it can be a course that is hand built in a wooded area, where ropes and wire is attached to different trees.

Ropes courses can also be described as static or dynamic. With a static course, participants are attached to an upper wire, belay cable, with ropes and carabiners for safety. If the participant dangles, they will be caught by the wire. On a dynamic course, participants are connected to a rope, which someone on the ground will be holding onto and belaying the participant on the course. Advantages of a static course include the ability to need less facilitators, and to be able to get more participants up on the course at one time. However, a dynamic course allows for participants to be lowered to the ground much more easily.

Usually participants must sign a waiver before being allowed to participate on the course. Some participants may have a hard time completing the course due to its height and the physical challenge. Courses usually range from 25 feet through 50 feet tall. In order to climb up onto the course participants usually must climb, such as by using a cargo net, ladder or an artificial climbing wall.

Low course

Low ropes courses consist of a series of real and imaginary obstacles designed to challenge groups and individuals to work together to accomplish a task. The classification of low ropes courses can be further broken into several types of activities:

Cooperative Game, Socialization Activity, Ice-Breaker: a fun activity designed to reduce inhibitions and break down barriers. These activities are often not based on a defined task but on a sequence of events. Users are often placed in positions where they are encouraged to try new things that may place them outside their normal comfort zones. Examples include: name games, people to people, raccoon circle…

Group Initiative: problems involving real and imaginary ground-based obstacles (either natural or constructed) that challenge a group to pool their resources and work together to find solutions. Success is achieved only when all members have contributed to the outcome. Examples include: The Muese, Spider’s Web, Carpet Maze, Crocodile Pit, Whale Watch, Peanut Butter River, Ragging River, T.P. Shuffle, Nitro Crossing, and Group Wall

Trust Activity: activities designed to provide members the opportunity to demonstrate their trust in other members of the group through a series of sequenced actions. Examples include: Willows in the Wind, 1:2 Trust Fall, Trust Fall

Low Ropes Elements: a series of cables, ropes, and obstacles strung between trees or poles, 12 to 18 inches above the ground, low rope elements present tests of physical strength, stamina, agility, balance, and flexibility, and invite participants to confront such emotional issues as the fear of falling, the fear of failure, and the fear of losing control. Risk is managed by group members who assume critical spotting roles. Examples include: Swining Balance Beam, Triangle Traverse, Tire Swings, and Mohawk Walk.

Definitions from “A Facilitator’s Guide to Adventure Challenge Programming” by Mike Smith and David Brassfield.

Zig Zag

Mowhawk Walk

The Wall

Purpose

Ropes course programs can be designed to meet a number of educational, developmental, and recreational goals. High ropes course and climbing programs generally focus on personal achievements and ask participants to confront their personal fears and anxieties. Challenges may be physical and/or emotional. In certain cases, high element programs involve the development and mastery of technical skills to manage rope belay systems used to secure other climbers as they move through the course. In such cases, outcomes often include exploring the fundamentals of trust, craftsmanship, and coaching. Programs using low ropes course elements or group initiatives are most often designed to explore group interaction, problem-solving, and leadership. Some of the commonly claimed outcomes include enhancement of:

• Cooperation
• Decision making
• Self confidence
• Positive Risk Taking
• Cohesion
• Trust
• Self esteem
• Leadership
• Goal setting
• Teamwork

Research

Despite the rapid development of ropes course programming during the latter part of the 20th century and the increasing sophistication and professionalism in ropes course construction, there remains a lack of clear scientific consensus about the many claimed psychosocial training benefits of ropes course participation. A key resource is Aram Attarian’s 88 page annotated bibliography of research on ropes challenge courses. [1] (large pdf)

See also

• Climbing
• Group-dynamic games
• Outdoor education
• Team building

External links

• A Primer for Building a Ropes Course - Adventuresmith
• Challenge Courses Worldwide - Frappr map
• List of Ropes Course Providers
• Ropes Courses (Rope Challenge Courses) - Wilderdom