Experiential Learning

KONOS is a hands-on curriculum filled with concrete activities. The KONOS curriculum puts life into learning through experiential activities. KONOS has admittedly overemphasized experiential learning in hopes of bringing the educational "see-saw" back in balance. While we do subscribe to the necessity of seatwork and drillwork, we do not consider these to be the major emphasis of true education. In the KONOS curriculum you will note many multi-sensory, participatory activities.

In Volume II, for example, while studying Wisdom, Carole Thaxton worked with the older boys. They dressed like George Washington (three-cornered hats, cotton wigs, knickers), learned how to plot and survey like Washington did, re-enacted the Revolutionary War, and discussed the wisdom of Washington's tactical decisions. In the car on the way home from the field trip, they worked crossword puzzles of Revolutionary War facts. Meanwhile, Jessica Hulcy read D'Aulaire's George Washington to the younger boys, asked neighbors to dance the minuet with them, dramatized a fox hunt after a stray dog ("Tally ho and away!"), discussed the wisdom of taking snuff, and "crossed the Delaware" (on a log pile with stick oars). The activities in the KONOS curriculum are designed to internalize, i.e., to make real, whatever the child is learning and to have fun doing it.

In response to the current problem of lowered academic proficiency, there is a trend in education that is a departure from traditional educational practice. The trend is toward introducing abstract learning concepts at an even earlier age. The assumption is that by introducing certain abstract concepts earlier they will be learned better. But earlier does not equal better. Head Start and other pilot projects have demonstrated this. Children have not become better readers by introducing the alphabet earlier, have not used mathematics better by introducing drill cards earlier, and have not become better writers by completing language workbooks earlier.

While agreeing that older children today are less proficient in abstract skills than in previous years, the KONOS solution to this problem is different. We choose to raise the age of abstract skill development instead of lowering it and to use these earlier years to provide more concrete, real-life, hands-on, multi-sensory experiences. Providing concrete experiences with much manipulation of tangible objects over a prolonged time in a real environment is the only demonstrated way to develop abstract skills.

The following illustrates how a child progresses from the concrete to the abstract. A three-year-old learns the concept of the number "5" by setting the table with five spoons, five forks, five knives, five plates, etc. Later, when he is introduced to the symbol "5" it will have meaning and will be usable. A five-year-old, on the other hand, might comprehending the meaning of addition by manipulating match box cars. Although he can now perform on command "5 + 4 = 9", he is still referring to tangible objects like cars, blocks, or fingers when he makes this calculation. He will eventually wean himself away from concrete experiences to abstract thinking.