Education for Life: Preparing Children to Meet
the Challenges
Introduction
Much of today's efforts to educate children and young people are aimed
at the development of body and intellect only. Moral and spiritual values,
without whose appreciation no one can approach happiness, are often lacking
in the formal curriculum.
The following guide is a summary of the practical and profound book 'Education for Life: Preparing Children to Meet the Challenges'. Besides offering proven methods for teaching children (and adults) the art of living by harmonizing book learning with direct life experience; it also describes the different stages of maturity from childhood to adulthood. To help children mature properly through these stages it gives practical methods we can all use to empower them to become well-balanced and capable young adults.
Its author J. Donald Walters has kindly placed the whole book on the internet for free. For those who prefer their own hard copy, it can be bought in the US directly from its publishers Crystal Clarity or through Amazon via the link opposite.
Education for Life has largely been written with educators and academics in mind. In the summary via the links below we have attempted to summarise and simplify parts of this remarkable book so that parents, guardians and particularly those who may not have English as a first language may more fully benefit from it. Wherever possible we have tried to quote directly from the author.
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Chapter 3: Reason
Must Be Balanced by Feeling (An
excellent explanation why)
Chapter 4: How Progressive, Really, Is “Progressive”?
(Education needs to help children progress from immaturity to maturity
throughout the different stages of their lives)
Chapter 5: Every Child’s Real Self
(And the characteristics of greatness)
Chapter 6: Punishment and Reward (Maturity
comes not by commandment, but by gradual recognition. How to wisely guide
children so they learn from life's lessons and grow naturally in maturity)
Chapter 7: 'To What End?' (Where does encouraging right
behaviour and maturity ultimately lead?)
Chapter 8: Humanizing the Process (Making subjects more
immediately human. Particularly useful for teachers)
Chapter 9: The Importance,
to Understanding, of Experience (Practical
methods of teaching the art of living)
Chapter 10: True Education Is Self-Education
(The four different types of students according to their temperaments
as well as developing the many characteristics of their nature)
Chapter 11: Progressive
Development (A
simple but effective guide to determine a child's spiritual maturity and
basic methods to increase a child's happiness)
Chapter 12: Every Child an Einstein? (A
practical guide to drawing the best out of classrooms of children with
all different specific gravities and hence potentials.)
Chapter
13: The Case against Atheism (Children
need to encouraged to strive for the highest potential they can imagine
for themselves)
Chapter 14:
The Tools of Maturity
(Explanations of what each of these tools are as well as the weaknesses
in character that can emerge when they are underdeveloped and / or unbalanced
with one another)
Chapter 15: The Stages of Maturity
(An explanation of the four phases of a child's development and what they
need to mature through each stage)
Chapter 16: The Foundation
Years (Practical ideas and methods
for teaching children through the physical years: the first six years
of a child's life)
Chapter 17: The Feeling Years
(Practical ideas and methods for
teaching children through the feeling years: the years six to twelve of
a child's life)
Chapter 18:
The Willful Years
(Practical ideas and methods for teaching young people through the willful
years: the years twelve to eighteen of a young person's life)
Chapter
19: The Thoughtful Years (Practical
ideas and methods for teaching young adults through the thoughtful years:
the years eighteen to twenty-four)
Chapter 20:
The Curriculum
(A fresh way of looking at schools subjects to breath life back
into them)
Chapter
21: Ananda Schools ('Education
for life' as nearly thirty years of reality)
Chapter 22:
Making It Happen
(And where does all this lead too)
Afterword
(What's happened
since this book was first published and how to get further information)
© Shanti Lion Children's Trust: 2006, 2007
This Web page may be linked to any other Web sites. Contents may not be altered.