Free Progress Education

An important feature of our Integral Education program is the Free-Progress Method. In order to meet the individual needs of each child, embracing their whole being - mind, vital (emotions and character), body, and psychic (soul) -, it is essential to provide students with opportunities to learn in a structured, yet free, environment that facilitates their maximum progress. This means that Integral Education does not stress Freedom at the expense of Progress, nor Progress and the expense of Freedom. Moreover, it does not place greater emphasis on academics at the expense of the arts, nor on arts at the expense of academics.

A Free-Progress Method allows students to excel in areas where they show special promise and have greater interest, while encouraging them to develop their whole being. The ideal to be aimed at is that education must serve the needs of soul of the child, allowing it to follow its own unique and special rule of existence, what in India is called, Dharma. According to the Mother, the goal of such a Free-Progress Method is "a progress guided by the soul and not subject to habits, conventions or preconceived ideas."

To make this approach practical and meaningful at CIE, our Free-Progress method embraces the following principles and practices:

Children learn in a dynamic, flexible, innovative, and engaging learning environment. This means that students will have greater flexibility in choosing specific topics in all areas of study. The students will meet and exceed the entire scope of the California State Standards, but they may do so in an entirely different sequence. This flexibility in curriculum implementation creates for the learner greater meaning, and thereby sustains greater interest and diligence in the learning process. The learning environment is rich in resources, providing a variety of hands-on activities, books and literature, audio-visual media, and computer technology. The school is structured, not with classrooms with desks in rows, but rather with stations and centers where students can gain first-hand experiences that are rewarding and enjoyable. Within a Free-Progress setting children find that there are many opportunities for explorations and healthy experiences of all kinds, both in the classroom and in the community at-large.

The learning process honors individual differences and cultural diversity. While respecting the individual needs of students, the Free-Progress Method allows them to explore unity in the diversity found in the world, and do so both individually, and within in groupings that transcend individual and cultural differences. An appreciation of what it means to be a Global Citizen is fostered throughout, and a respect for the cultures and traditions of the world is nurtured. Celebration of what it means to be a progressive, evolving human being, manifesting the highest and greatest good, is modeled and encouraged at all times.

Teachers respect the developmental needs of each student. All learning that takes place in a Free-Progress setting is achieved as developmentally appropriate for each individual. This means that children are not forced to prematurely develop skills for which they are not ready. At the same time, they are encouraged the "push the limits" of their growth and abilities where they demonstrate the readiness and capacity to do so. The tendency to push a child prematurely can result in the child becoming turned-off to the school experience, and thereby learn the wrong lesson, namely, that learning is not fun, not rewarding, and not interesting. By respecting their true needs, as evidenced by the students' behaviors, interests, and capacities, the teachers help them to discover the joy of learning and to eventually become entirely self-motivated learners.

Fosters the development of consciousness, inner power, and the joy of learning. By providing a dynamic, flexible, innovative, and an engaging learning environment, honoring individual differences and cultural diversity, and having teachers that respect the developmental needs of each student, the Free-Progress Method allows children to experience a more natural, harmonious, and joyful emergence of their potentialities, and interests. And this brings greater joy in their exploration of Self and World. They enter into a school environment that is a portal to the World, rather than an artificial setting, isolated from real-life explorations. They become students of life, through the development of Self-Awareness, by discovering their deepest values and cultivating the self-discipline to follow those values, and by experiencing that life-long learning is the essence of a happy, productive, and rewarding life.

The Free-Progress Method meets and exceeds California State Standards. The learning standards of the society in which we live are not neglected. How those standards are met, however, will occur in a much different way than is commonly found in schools, private or public. Here the curriculum, rather than being a mile wide and an inch deep, goes into much more depth of meaning, develops more refined capacities in the learners, and helps them to become the master of their own existence by providing the freedom for them to discover and manifest their own respective Dharma.