Comments for sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/post/quis-custodiet-ipsos-custodes

Comment #655

2007-03-30T18:20:30Z

Many thanks for your comment, Tim. Checking out the Hilltop Children's Center site, I can see that the parents may well have known what they were getting in for. Nonetheless, even I -- who would have been utterly dismayed to the point of removing my children immediately had this happened to us -- even I find many things attractive about the school's approach. I'm willing to bet at least one family got more than it bargained for. They might have been fooled, for example, by the following statements, taken from the school's philosophy as delineated on their website:

Teachers observe children’s play and listen carefully to children’s questions so they may support emergent projects and creations that come directly from the children instead of the teachers. [The Lego project came directly from the teachers' interference in the children's play]

You’ll seldom (if ever) see us involved in didactic teaching with the children [Certainly not never: see especially the moral dimension of "didactic"]

As we undertake in-depth project work with children, we foster investigation, building relationships, and appreciation of diversity and divergent thinking. [Except that the teachers did not appreciate the children's thinking when it showed itself to be diverse and divergent in a direction they did not like]

Comment #654

2007-03-30T16:06:45Z

Hullo SursumCorda (and kind friends)!

Regarding the parents, I'd assumed -- (a) since Queen Anne (where Hilltop is located) is an wealthy near-urban neighborhood in a notoriously "progressive" city (Seattle), and (b) since Hilltop Children's Center website reeks of "we're progressive" ("children are valued for their ability to do meaningful work... and ability to play") that the parents probably generally accept or even endorse these political tenets.

I just think it's sad the church wasn't offering a similar program, but from a more JudeoChristian-value-oriented point of view. But, alas, many urban churches aren't that different values-wise.

joyful: YES, great point! A bit like Camazotz, L'Engle's dystopian opposite of Kennedy's Camelot. (Wrinkle in Time was written around 1962.)

Comment #653

2007-03-29T15:43:52Z

Wow. Haven't they read A Wrinkle in Time? All houses the same, all children bounce the ball and jump the rope exactly the same. How can they possibly think that their point system trading game is a reflection of or the same as a capitalist society or even the original "Legotown" play? I have thoughts reeling, but not time to express them. Insane!