Big History primary education

Once upon a time…..there was a story to be told……

The children are aged approximately six years and their teacher tells them the story because s/he thinks it is the best story of all time. And strangely enough, despite being a truly wonderful story, it is almost never told to the children! Most adults do not even know it! The teacher thinks that’s very sad, because s/he believes that every child and every person living anywhere on earth, rich or poor, white, yellow or black, has the right to hear and to know this story. It’s a long, exciting story and it will be unfinished when the children leave school at the age of twelve, but most of them will be able to continue writing and telling the story . Shall we just listen for a while? Read more….
 

In relation with everything

Inspired by the lines of life, designed by Jos Werkhoven, I have developed a framework to survey the totality of space and time. This framework shows the relationship between four levels of origin, namely universe, humanity, culture and individual self in past, present and future. This results in a framework with
16 starting points that are interrelated and all contribute to development. To quote Bateson, the 16 points of departure form a connecting pattern that shows itself as a dance of interacting parts. Read more …

Montessori, an example of Big History in primary education

In 2014 teaching Big History in primary education was named as one of the topics for the next Big History conference. As promised, Jos Werkhoven and  Anne-Marie Poorthuis started a study with a group of Montessori teachers and trainers around the question: how can we bring the child from 0-12 year in questioning space and time? During the study we developed a framework Big History and cosmic education based on the lines of life (Jos Werkhoven 1997) and we formulated several sub-questions around the facets of a cosmic approach. In this special issue we present research and practice in papers and pictures. The group of teachers and trainers involved, has become a Dutch Montessori platform for cosmic education and they will continue their study in the coming years. Read more in Origins, the bulletin of the International Big History Association