– Previously we said that ideally, a group should consist of eight to ten children at most, with not one, but two or even three instructors working with them.
– I think that a group of ten children with two instructors is the optimal set up.
– Should one of the instructors always be with the children or should they alternate?
– I think they should alternate. Of course, children feel more comfortable with one instructor, but getting used to things limits them, creating standards that are perpetuated from one day to the next. Instead, we should constantly “pull the rug” from under the young person’s feet so he constantly has to piece his world together like a puzzle. This will make his orientation more accurate. He will have to figure out in which direction and in what way he should position himself with friends and with instructors, and how he should act under the new circumstances.
That is, we have to bring him up to be as flexible as possible, and permanent instructors do not cater to this issue.
I think that with many educators in a large group simultaneously, it can feel that way. But still, this is a rather limited space. The best approach is for everything to change all the time, including the setting, the mixture of children, and the instructor that’s next to each of them.
– How many instructors are we talking about in this rotation? Is it ten people or is it a new person every time the children meet?
– The most important thing is that they alternate. It’s best to have four pairs of educators who constantly alternate in a group of ten children. They move from one group to another, and these pairs change, as well.
Then there will be sufficient alternation of the setting, and the dynamics will be observed. Additionally, the children’s group mixes, as well.
They have to feel that all of us—all the people on Earth—are participating in a single, integral, global community. And I don’t care who exactly is next to me, I have to be able to understand everyone and to establish a relationship with all.
There must be as few boundaries as possible, whether qualitative, quantitative, temporary, or human ones. The topics must constantly change, as well. Absolutely everything must change!
That way a person will feel how there are constant changes happening within him. He will be forced to constantly reevaluate the setting, himself, and others, to revisit the criteria that previously seemed clear and correct, and to which he has already grown accustomed. Habit is not good. There must be non-stop creativity.
– You have just essentially suggested to remove all of the resources on which pedagogy relies.
– That’s because it’s easier for the pedagogues. They build a stagnant setting or system for themselves because they feel comfortable in it. But what room for creativity does that leave?
– In that case, where will a child get resources? From this general system?
– Yes. How else can it work? There are seven billion people around me and I have to feel comfortable being together with all of them. I have to be willing to absorb all of their images within me.
If I am willing to do that with just a small team, then I will never come out of my home, playground, or kindergarten. In principle, this is what is happening to people today. They experience pleasant things in their childhood, and sometimes in their later youth (although by then their circle of friends becomes considerably narrower), and then they don’t want to go anywhere.
Why is the “Classmates.com” network so popular? What are people drawn to? They don’t have anything! That’s why they only want to return to their playgrounds and schools. Why? It’s because there they had boundaries and felt good. “So let’s become children again,” they think. In other words, they are still children. They never grew up. And they did not receive any tools for entering the world and finding their bearings in it.
But what are the attributes by which I choose my friends at “Classmates.com”? When I was young, I was friends with them. But today I am grown up and I don’t have anyone. So, I’ll go back to them.
Where have we arrived? Essentially, a person never left childhood and he misses it. But what kind of childhood was it? It was also limited by the boundaries of a rigid system. The system did not teach him to be flexible, so he wants to at least return to it in order to feel comfortable. He is a small cube in a small box, and feels good there.
– For the first three years of a child’s life, he is next to his mother and is in close contact with her. Suddenly, a drastic change occurs as the child begins to mingle with others. How can we make this transition comfortable?
– It has been preplanned by Nature. We see how suddenly, at age three, a child starts playing with others. Previously he did not even feel the existence of others. All he had was himself, his mother, and his toy. That was it; he didn’t have any social drives.
But then he starts to feel, “I want to play with someone,” “I want to look at that person and learn to do something together.” He begins to observe other children. This happens automatically and we start to develop this drive as soon as it appears.