A new book, A Gift of Wonder: A True Story About School as it Should Be (Lindisfarne Books, SteinerBooks) by Cape Cod author and Waldorf teacher, Kim Allsup, was just released.
The book chronicles Allsup’s first six years as a teacher at the Waldorf School of Cape Cod during the years when the school was in North Falmouth and then in Bourne. Her story about shepherding the same group of students from grade one through six shows the power of harnessing the unplanned and spontaneous.
In her memoir, Allsup shows why wonder and other forms of intrinsic motivation, rather than rewards, such as praise or grades, are the ideal motivators for children's learning. Kim Allsup said, “I am eternally grateful for the professional autonomy I was allowed as a class teacher at the Waldorf School of Cape Cod. The freedom to develop original lessons and change them dynamically in moment is essential to engaging students. While my memoir is set in a Waldorf school, my hope is that it will eventually influence the evolution of public education by showing the the necessity of teacher autonomy in student engagement.”
Click here to find out more about the book and purchase a copy. Follow Kim Allsup's blog Growing Children to read more of her work.
