Growing from Nine to Ten to Eleven Years of Age
Picking up from last week, we remember that the child from nine
years of age on has a new look in the eye, a kind of perception
of the surrounding world that cracks the dream consciousness in
a few places. Now the child's mind can begin to apply and absorb
abstractions like the rules of grammar; and to deal in the arithmetically
flexible idea we call a fraction. Growing from nine to ten to
eleven years of age, the child expands and elaborates this capacity:
the ability to grasp the historical chronology has ousted the
dream/mythological sense of time entirely by the age of twelve.
Now can begin the processes that result in natural science: observation
and characterization of processes in mechanics and heat, in chemistry
and botany. Arithmetic can grow to mathematics by the introduction
of algebra and geometry. At the same time physical co-ordination
has improved to the point where manual crafts demanding body strength
and precision may be taught: woodwork joins needlework as a promoter
of right development. In the age between nine and twelve years,
the growing child passes through a period of beautiful equipoise
akin to the grace and perfection of Greek sculpture.
However, the teacher does not look for it in the child's physique
and musculature as one sees it in statuary. In children, you will
find it instead in their movement. Very young children lack weight
and strength; pubescent youngsters, on the other hand, cannot
move gracefully with their newly acquired shape and size; but
if you watch an eleven year-old playing games, running or jumping,
you will see a naturalness of coordination that is a most beautiful
interplay between weight and lightness. In the mind, too, there
is a happy balance of imagination and logical thought. Model-making
in the world of objects, with its exact observation and reproduction
of details, is accompanied by model-making in the world of human
values: the child's imagination forms ideals, models of strength
or courage, insight or compassion, from the biographies of important
men and women. Perfection is wrought from imperfection, a half-conscious
process of moral absorption characteristic of children in the
twelfth and thirteenth years. By this age, too, children can be
expected to think 'logically' - that is, with an appreciation
of cause-and-effect chains - about the world outside; that kind
of thinking should now be deliberately developed as a skill, just
as the aural skills of the musician must be developed. Exercises
in thought are needed; and the realms of mathematics, the inorganic
sciences such as astronomy and the grammar of languages, native
and foreign, serve excellently for this purpose. Rules and laws
that govern these phenomena can be objectively discerned and objectively
used, and the reliability of such laws should give confidence
in the world - before the earthquake to come.
Next week: 'The Earthquake of Puberty & Adolescence'.
- Merrill Badger, Principal
|
Happening This Week:
November TUTORING:
Grades 3-7 from 3-4 PM.
Monday, Nov. 15
Wednesday, Nov., 17
Also:
Monday, Nov. 2
Monday, Nov. 29
Friday, Nov.,19th
Morning Tea Garden. Join us for refreshments and community time.
All School Assembly at 6:30 pm at Mile-Hi Middle
School downtown. Please speak with your teacher for details.
|
MOS Board Scribe Needed
How would you like to help our MOS Board by volunteering your
time at their bi-monthly meetings to act as the MOS Board Scribe?
Your role is vital and you will be responsible for taking the
minutes at each meeting which is both a record of the topics discussed
and a key way to keep our MOS parent community updated on what
is going on in the planning and decision making at our school.
Please let Tracie or Beni know if you are interested. Many Thanks!!!
Human-I-Tee's
Please support MOCS by having your child participate in this
fund raiser. By now, every child should have brought home an ordering
packet. Please look through this and help your child take orders
from family and friends. Orders are due on Nov. 15th and items
will arrive in late November. We hope to have every child or family
order this year, so your participation is really appreciated!!
|
Parents and Students:
Please check the LOST AND FOUND bucket in the office. It is located
in the Parent Room and it is overflowing with jackets, hats, gloves,
backpacks, toys and other personal belongings. Thanks to all the
parents who bundle up their children for the crisp autumns mornings.
Let's make sure all those clothes go home every afternoon!
|
