Creative Teaching, 1 Summary and Analysis

Organic Reading is Not New

Sylvia Ashton-Warner is an advocate of organic teaching—that is teaching which is simplistic and whose fundamentals are most recognizable or meaningful to those being taught. This approach provides the basis for an education that will grow and flourish from that familiar beginning. For example, a teacher in a famine area, hoping to connect with his pupils, would not begin with words other than "crop," "soil" or other such relevant term. It is the basic kind of teaching method that is necessary to successfully bring a child from one culture to another. Most importantly, organic teaching is a bridge from the known to the unknown and from the inner man to the outer man. It is a first word—it is reading one's first words.

The significance of first words is not...