Education

Introduction
Learning Styles of Indigos and Crystals
Schools / Learning Institutions
Books / Resources

Introduction
Here we present information about teaching and learning, schools and other learning institutions, as well as articles and information from and for parents and teachers of Gifted and Talented, Indigo, Crystal and others who benefit from a specialized learning environment.

Please share on our Elayna Community Discussion Board additional resources and experiences with schools that work and things you have learned that facilitate your child’s learning.   Please also feel free to send your recommended resources for inclusion here directly to Elayna.

back to top

Learning Styles of Indigos and Crystals
It is generally acknowledged that the Indigo and Crystal children do not learn in the same way that other children do.  In her book, The Children of Now, Meg Blackburn Losey, Ph.D., tells us (page 55), “The Children of Now have brains that work differently.  Instead of using linear logic, they think compartmentally.  In order to visualize this, imagine that the brains of these remarkable kids have lots and lots of little drawers in them, and each one of these drawers holds different types of information.  The drawers open categorically, often with many opening at once.  The child does not seem to stay on any recognizable track, jumping from one thing to another, often at an impressive pace.”

And it’s not only different methods of teaching that these children need, but also a different environment in the school.  In The Children of Now Dr. Losey describes these children as (page 218), “So sensitive that the stark and often chaotic institutional environments in our public and private schools make them very uncomfortable.  To these kids, chaos is literally painful.  Rooms filled with children of all different backgrounds and attitudes make it difficult for them to adapt and thrive.” Losey also acknowledges that this is true for many other children, as well.  She continues, “The clutter and chaos in the typical school environments is just the beginning of the problem.  Institutional and overly regimented environments are detrimental as well.  Hard corners, rough surfaces, and too much visual or audio input are all like fingernails on a blackboard to these kids.  Fluorescent lighting is harsh and causes eye problems and headaches in some these children.  All of this, plus EMF emissions from ceiling lights, computers, and other equipment in the schools can drain necessary energy.” 

Dr. Losey also tells us, “Crystalline children feel it all right to the core, and will want to “fix” everything so that everyone is happy.  Star Children will most likely zone out in a book or something else that interests them intellectually and ignore everyone...Others will move completely into negative behavior.”

And some will be misdiagnosed as having ADD/ADHD. In the Complete Idiot’s Guide to Indigo Children, authors Wendy Chapman, Dir., MA in Ed. Psy., SRMT, and Carolyn Flynn, describe potential learning styles of the New Kids.  They list (page 176-177) questions to ask yourself about your child regarding his/her thought process, memory type, listening style, and whether he/she is a visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learner.  They also describe the kind of intelligence your child potentially possesses, as well as Gregore’s Mind Style Theory, “which shows a duality in learning preference.” 

The book, Seven Kinds of Smart by Thomas Armstrong is a seminal book which builds on Howard Gardner’s theory, to help the reader identify and learn how to develop the seven kinds of intelligences, namely:  Word Smart, Picture Smart, Music Smart, Body Smart, Logic Smart, People Smart and Self Smart.  Armstrong cautions (page 221-222) that, “Each person possesses all seven intelligences and has the ability to develop each one to a reasonable level of proficiency.....In the final analysis the concept of seven separate intelligences is somewhat misleading.  Howard Gardner suggests that these seven categories are actually fictions and that in real life they’re always linked together in complex ways.  Chess players look at the game board with a spatial and logical-mathematical mind.  Mechanics fix carburetors by drawing on spatial and bodily-kinesthetic intelligences.  Even something as simple as cooking a meal requires several intelligences:  linguistic for reading the cookbook, logical-mathematical for dividing a recipe in half, bodily-kinesthetic for measuring, mixing, and pouring, and the personal intelligences for planning a menu that appeals to different tastes

Chapman and Flynn’s Complete Idiot’s Guide to Indigo Children provides (page 179) guidelines for evaluating a school for educating an Indigo Child.  Not surprisingly, Chapman and Flynn tell us to look for a school that is  child-centered, flexible, honors individuality, offers choices, teaches responsibility and is constantly evolving.  The schools listed below meet these criteria.  These criteria would also be applicable to helping your own public school to adapt to your child’s needs.

back to top

Schools / Learning Institutions
Introduction
U.S. Education – High School dropouts at 30%; No Child Left Behind Act
Gifted and Talented Children (G&T Children)
Differences between G&T Children and the New Kids
Sudbury Schools
Universal School of Life
Waldorf Schools
Montessori Schools

Intoduction
Jan Tober and Lee Carroll, authors of two major books on Indigo’s, The Indigo Children
and Indigo Celebration, discuss schools on their website:“Not all public schools are poor for Indigos, and we have actually seen tremendous changes of awareness in isolated (usually smaller) schools due to an advanced thinking superintendent, or a system which allows the teachers great flexibility.  We celebrate these efforts, but alas, this is not the norm. We told you that ultimately we'd like to have a list of schools all over the world, listed by country and city. This web page is a start to that, providing a way to view expanded or NEW information.”  You will also find good resources for home schooling, alternative schools and Consciousness-Based Education at their website.

back to top

U.S. Education – High School dropouts at 30%; No Child Left Behind Act  
It’s no secret that the U.S. public school system is badly broken in many places.  A Time magazine article (Special Report, “Dropout Nation,” April 17, 2006) tells us (page 32), “An increasing number of researchers are saying that nearly 1 out of 3 public high school students won’t graduate.”  Further that, “For Latino’s and African Americans, the rate approaches an alarming 50%.”  They continue (page 32), “The numbers have remained unchecked at approximately 30% through two decades of intense educational reform and the magnitude of the problem has been consistently, and often willfully ignored.” 

Alarmingly, the Time magazine article (“Dropout Nation,” April 17, 2006) also reports that these youth who drop out will not be able to find jobs, as there are not enough blue collar jobs to go around, so these kids will likely wind up on the poverty statistics.”  Further, “If their grandparents’ generation could find a blue-collar niche and prosper, the latest group is immediately relegated to the most punishing sector of the economy, where whatever low-wage jobs haven’t yet moved overseas are increasingly filled by even lower-wage immigrants.  Dropping out of high school today is to your societal health what smoking is to your physical health, an indicator of a host of poor outcomes to follow, from low lifetime earnings to high incarceration rates to a high likelihood that your children will drop out of high school and start the cycle anew.”  

What can we do?  We can recognize that we have a serious problem.  We can get involved.   We can come together with others in our communities, and with our children to dialogue about it and collaborate to discover creative solutions we can identify and start implementing.  We can contact our Congressional Representatives to ask them to make school reform a top priority.  We can be a strong voice in our local PTA’s.  We can get elected to our local school boards.  We can get more involved in our children’s education.  We can vote for people who acknowledge that our education system needs reform and who are motivated and able to take action.

back to top

Gifted and Talented Children (G&T Children)
Indigo and Crystal children are often categorized by schools as Gifted and Talented (G&T), and many schools provide supplemental curriculums for G&T students.  However, there is no one definition among U.S. school districts as to the characteristics of G&T students.  Reviewing the list of “typical factors stressed by educational authorities as being indicative of giftedness,” as published in a study by the Council for Exceptional Children, Reston, Va. (ERIC Clearinghouse on Handicapped and Gifted Children, Reston, Va.; prepared with funding from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement),  we see that many of these characteristics also describe Indigo and/or Crystal children.  The authors also tell us that “obviously, no child is outstanding in all characteristics.”

• Shows superior reasoning powers and marked ability to handle ideas; can generalize readily from specific facts and can see subtle relationships; has outstanding problem-solving ability.
• Shows persistent intellectual curiosity; asks searching questions; shows exceptional interest in the nature of man and the universe.
• Has a wide range of interests, often of an intellectual kind; develops one or more interests to considerable depth.
• Is markedly superior in quality and quantity of written and/or spoken vocabulary; is interested in the subtleties of words and their uses.
• Reads avidly and absorbs books well beyond his or her years.
• Learns quickly and easily and retains what is learned; recalls important details, concepts and principles; comprehends readily.
• Shows insight into arithmetical problems that require careful reasoning and grasps mathematical concepts readily.
• Shows creative ability or imaginative expression in such things as music, art, dance, drama; shows sensitivity and finesse in rhythm, movement, and bodily control.
• Sustains concentration for lengthy periods and shows outstanding responsibility and independence in classroom work.
• Sets realistically high standards for self; is self-critical in evaluating and correcting his or her own efforts.
• Shows initiative and originality in intellectual work; shows flexibility in thinking and considers problems from a number of viewpoints.
• Observes keenly and is responsive to new ideas.
• Shows social poise and an ability to communicate with adults in a mature way.
• Gets excitement and pleasure from intellectual challenge; shows an alert and subtle sense of humor.

back to top

Differences between G&T Children and Indigo Children
So how is an Indigo child different from a Gifted and Talented child?  Some of the books on the New Kids state that the main differences between an Indigo child and a child who is classified as Gifted and Talented are their advanced spiritual awareness, and according to Chapman and Flynn (page 135), “a strong sense of intuition, seeing angels or ghosts, hearing voices or having out-of-body experiences, and to an awareness of other dimensions.”  Several adult Indigos have also told me that they have an unusual effect on electrical appliances, computers and/or streetlights when they are in their presence.  Chapman and Flynn state it this way (page 135):  “Electrical devices are fragile or erratic in your presence.  Watches stop working, or streetlights got out.  Circuit breakers kick off, or electricity surges through your house.” 

The G&T programs in U.S. schools are affected by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB 2001) program.  In the Journal of Professional School Counseling, (2006, Vol. 10 Issue 1, p.73-81, 9p.), Marcia Gentry, a Gifted-education researcher, discusses the potential effects of No Child Left Behind (NCLB 2001) on gifted children and adolescents.  She states, “These are troubled times in education, and even more troubled times in gifted education, with the narrow focus brought to education by NCLB 2001. ... Students drop out at alarming rates in a system that focuses not on their possibilities but on their weaknesses. The first step to solving a problem is recognizing the problem. Intervention for individual students and quality education for identified gifted, at-risk, and under-identified gifted and at-risk students begins with one educator and one child at a time.” One Indigo adult told me that the IT Department in her company is stymied by her effect on computers.  Frequently they have to replace her computer because the mouse starts working by itself and not under anyone’s control, and they can’t fix it.

back to top

Sudbury Schools
The knowledge that there are over thirty Sudbury schools operating across the globe educating our children from ages 5 to 19 is thrilling to me. The learning environment they provide sounds ideal for the New Kids (and many other children).  “At Sudbury Valley School, students from preschool through high school age explore the world freely, at their own pace and in their own unique ways. They learn to think for themselves, and learn to use Information Age tools to unearth the knowledge they need from multiple sources. They develop the ability to make clear logical arguments, and deal with complex ethical issues. Through self-initiated activities, they pick up the basics; as they direct their lives, they take responsibility for outcomes, set priorities, allocate resources, and work with others in a vibrant community.  Trust and respect are the keys to the school’s success. Students enjoy total intellectual freedom, and unfettered interaction with other students and adults. Through being responsible for themselves and for the school’s operation, they gain the internal resources needed to lead effective lives.”

Here’s how they describe a small sample of the types of students who thrive in a Sudbury School environment: “(1) Right-brained students who are intuitive, nonverbal, curious, artistic and struggle with rigid structures. (2) Shy/sensitive students who need extra space and time to learn to cope with others and speak up for themselves. (3) Unmotivated students who appear uninterested, or who don’t seem to be living up to their potential. (4) Focused students who are passionately engaged in one or more subjects and wish to customize their curriculum.”

And they describe their values this way:  “In a nutshell, Sudbury schools value individuality, responsibility, initiative, empowerment and trust."   They describe the principles that inform their values: "Children are born with an intense drive to understand and master their environment.   Learning happens all the time, in whatever we do. The best way for children to learn responsibility is for them to practice responsibility from a young age.  Individuals should have a voice in decisions that affect their lives. Growing up in a mixed-age community gives children a beneficial blend of backgrounds and perspectives."

back to top

The Universal School of Life
Michael Deunov founded the Universal School of Life for Indigo children, following the birth of his daughter, in the early 1980’s in Quebec, Canada.  I met with Mr. Deunov in 2006 at a program he presented in the U.S. to educate people about the school and to proudly show a new DVD that he had made about it.  I also met his Indigo daughter, then in her twenties.  Michael told me that he hopes to start five new Universal Schools of Life in the United States. 

The school is a residency school and not only do students reside there, but whole families move onto the school property and form the community and learning environment for all the children.  Deunov feels strongly that parents need to be intimately involved in their childrens’ education.  There are all kinds of living quarters available for all sorts of families.  The community is partially self-supporting -- it runs five companies, including a bakery.  They grow their own organic food and selling the food and their bakery products are also one of their businesses.

The school teaches the five major religions.  They see one of the roles of these children to become mediators and peace makers, so they need to learn the beliefs of all religions.  A central part of their teaching is the Sephirotic Tree of Life in the Jewish tradition of the Kabbalah.  As part of understanding the Tree of Life, they teach Astrology.  You can read more details about the school’s values and principles, as well as Deunov’s experiences in the over twenty years he has been leading the school in his book, A School of Life for Indigos.

Waldorf Schools
According to Waldorfanswers.org, “Waldorf, or Steiner education, is an 80 year old educational tradition, of European origin, that in a number of respects differs from public education. Today (2005), it is practiced at some 870 schools world wide, c. 160 of them in the U.S.”  WaldorfWorld.com updates the number of schools in the U.S. to be 177.  This site also contains Waldorf teaching resources and home schooling resources.

WhyWaldorfWorks.org contains a quote from Willy Brandt, former Chancellor of West Germany who was and also a Waldorf parent and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate: "The advent of the Waldorf schools was in my opinion the greatest contribution to world peace and understanding of the century."  This same site shows the results of a survey of Waldorf graduates, which indicates that Waldorf Education is achieving the following in its graduates, all of which fit the needs of today’s children:

• Multiple Intelligences and Cross Disciplinary Learners
• Global Consciousness and Sustainability
• Basis for Moral Navigation
• Creative Problem Solving
• High Levels of Social Intelligence
• Environmental Stewardship
• High Levels of Emotional Intelligence
• Thinkers Who Think Outside the Box

Additional Waldorf links:

• Worldorworld.net contains many resources and a list of the Waldorf Schools all over the world. 

back to top

Montessori Schools
The International Montessori Index tells us that, “Montessori is a revolutionary method of observing and supporting the natural development of children. Montessori educational practice helps children develop creativity, problem solving, critical thinking and time-management skills, to contribute to society and the environment, and to become fulfilled persons in their particular time and place on Earth. The basis of Montessori practice in the classroom is respected individual choice of research and work, and uninterrupted concentration rather than group lessons led by an adult. Group lessons are seldom found in a Montessori classroom, but learning abounds.”  This International Montessori Index site, tells us, “The name Montessori is not legally protected, and can be used by anyone, for any purpose; it is vital that anyone searching for a good Montessori school or teacher-training center be aware of this. Most of the Montessori sites on the Internet today exist to advertise one particular Montessori organization, school, or training center. The International Montessori Index was created to provide detailed comparative information in order to help in the search for a school or training center.

Wikipedia contains a large amount of information about Montessori, including its history, philosophy, methodology, concepts, criticisms, beliefs, and much more about Montessori schools.  This site explains, “The Montessori method is an educational method for children, based on theories of child development originated by Italian educator Maria Montessori in the late 19th and early 20th century. It is applied primarily in preschool and elementary school settings, though some Montessori high schools exist. The method is characterized by an emphasis on self-directed activity on the part of the child and clinical observation on the part of the teacher (often called a "director", "directress", or "guide"). It stresses the importance of adapting the child's learning environment to his or her developmental level, and of the role of physical activity in absorbing academic concepts and practical skills.”
The Montessori International School site describes the environment thus:  

• Encourages children to create themselves through exploration.
• Provides children with the tools that they need to achieve independence.
• Fosters love for learning by nurturing sparks of curiosity, creativity, and intelligence.
• Encourages children to develop the skills that they need to become contributing members of the larger society.

back to top

Click here to go to the Elayna library of books and resources relative to Education.