Re: Kid Age Differences
From: Michael Mariner (maikanoidcomm.com)
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 1997 13:46:17 -0700 (MST)
George said

>I have a theory that our strongly age segregated school and after school =
>activities are an artifact of a mobile/wealthy society and that =
>throughout most of the history of mankind and in large parts of the world =
>today children grew/grow up in small villages with a range of older and =
>younger playmates. I remember the lament of the loss of the one room =
>school, that the older kids taught the younger ones. Can't kids benefit =
>from age diversity just as adults can?

Absolutely!  I agree with your theory and lived it while teaching in an 
alternative school in inner city Denver in the 70's.  At Strawberry 
Fields School we had kids from 5 to 12 and sometimes had older kids 
visiting for brief spells.  We would work with kids in small groups 
(somewhat age segregated) in the mornings so that kids at various skill 
levels worked together.  Then in the afternoons kids of all ages 
played/learned together with a lot of synergy happening between the mix 
of older and younger.  Kid-generated plays happened very frequently with 
all ages participating and we had a kid's Rock 'n' Roll band with an 8-yr 
old girl lead singer, an 11 year old lead guitarist and a 6 year old 
drummer, plus other kids singing in chorus or playing percussion.

I feel that homeschooling (unschooling) and afterschooling activities 
could/should be an organic part of cohousing sites that have kids.  
Cohousing can provide a rich, safe environment where other adults could 
augment the parent's homeschooling skills, knowledge and resources.

Having at least a few kids of each age would be ideal, but not at all 
necessary.  At Nyland, the few teenagers felt very isolated and one 
family moved early on because their teen wasn't happy socially.  Now 
there's a teen room in the Common House that wasn't being used to great 
advantage.

Michael M
Boulder, late of Nyland

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