The Kindergarten/Preschool of the School of Total Education is held in a charming old timber building in a beautiful garden setting. It is part of the school grounds, but is fenced off and some distance from the rest of the school.

Because of this proximity, regular contact is kept up with early primary school grades. Some excursions are taken together so that they get to know each other. Secondary students come one at a time and join in with the activities of the little ones. This develops a family feeling in the School and fosters a protective approach in the older children and greater respect in the younger ones.

If a child shows an interest in something, the teacher will follow that interest through with the child. New topics are introduced when a child shows a need for stimulation. Imaginative play is catered for, but not used as crowd control, so that a child’s problem behaviour is dealt with and he or she makes progress, rather than the problems being “swept under the carpet”.

So, the emphasis is neither on entertaining the children nor on having a group with everyone on their best behaviour, but rather on giving the children the security of an environment where they can show their natural behaviour — both good and bad. Then the teacher can deal with the aspects of the child’s personality which are holding him or her back and which can become inhibiting factors in the future. There is a need for children to be in an environment where they can find their innate talents and qualities — maybe through art work, cooking, music, woodwork, etc.

A very young child may need to express something e.g. acting out a particular role hundreds of times before he or she has satisfied what they wanted from the role play, and then can move on to greater maturity. If this stage is suppressed because it is boring or inconvenient to adults it can emerge later as negative behaviour.

For this process to take place, a very secure and patient environment is required where the adults have a deep love for the child. For the Kindergarten/Preschool to nurture the first steps towards a happy and fulfilled adult life, a low teacher-student ratio is essential — 1:10 or less.

The School of Total Education has a close connection with a farm property with a creek and large areas of virgin bush. The children are taken there from time to time to foster in them a love of nature. Time for just walking along a creek bank and throwing stones into the water is of great help to an angry child.

At the completion of the Kindergarten/Preschool stage, a comprehensive report of each child’s progress — character, academic, and physical — is given to the parents, and also to the Grade One teacher. At School the child is ready to go ahead with a minimal settling-in period needed. Academic work and physical skills can be taken up at the point where they were left off at Preschool.

Parents are not usually involved in fund-raising activities, but help with regular cleaning and join the teachers for end-of-term cleaning bees and maintenance of the gardens. All this is regarded as part of caring for the child. Children see parents and teachers working together for their good. There are weekly parent education programs at the School which are not compulsory at the Kindergarten/Preschool level but are very helpful if parents wish to attend them, as are regular meetings with the teachers.

Lorraine Las Gourgues is a trained primary teacher with extensive experience in the early years of learning. She has been a kindergarten and pre-school teacher at the School of Total Education for many years.

This article was written as an introduction to early childhood education at the School of Total Education. (Published on web site: September 2001)

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