A New Experience of School
I see great change in my kids since beginning in Nyeredzi School. Kudzi my oldest, began his schooling at a formal school. He was having many challenges at school and didn’t enjoy going at all. As a mother I noticed that the school dimension was separate and far from the education at home. At home Kudzie was complaining about what was happening in the school. He is someone who is playful. There was a lot of discipline at School and the two things were not matching and were thus generating problems.
He has been at Nyeredzi now for almost a year. Here the learning happens to a large degree through play, I am noticing a lot of gifts in him and I see an increasing of interest in learning new things. Especially in doing practical work. Now he has done different project like a hat, a scarf and other crocheting objects. He is now even showing interest in calculation and reading, things he never liked.
I am seeing through my own children, that whenever a child is given a learning space through play and free spaces they have the possibility to fully express and develop their gifts, talents and creativity. At our school, the children are given much more free space to develop and explore their learning capacity.
If I observe my second born, Mukudzei, that has never gone to a formal school. He joined our Waldorf pre-school as a young child. I am seeing that he is free to ask and learns things easily, probably because he was not imprinted by a strong, structured and limiting education method.
I feel and observe that Kudzi is in a process of unlearning things. One of the strongest things he is unlearning, is the fear of making mistakes. Kudzi is often careful of what he says and does because he is afraid that it is not the “right” thing. In Nyeredzi school there are a lot of presentations and festivals where the kids have the chance to challenge and present who they are in front of parents and other people. This is helping him to be self-confident and to overcome his fear of being judged.
As a mother, I am learning that education is not about giving a fixed structure and to feed set knowledge into the mind of my child, but rather it is to give and offer a safe and fertile space where I can respond and support my child’s needs, questions and explorations.
Thank you Nyeredzi
