Perlas Advocates Child Centered Education

This blogpost originally came out at Ordinary People, Ordinary Day Blog:

"Education should be child-centered. We should not put the child into a framework early in his or her life," says Nicanor Perlas during the Youth 2010: Ako ang Pagbabago Presidential Forum.

Nicanor Perlas is one of the ten candidates for President of the Philippines. He is not that popular and has no machinery but has vast knowledge on various issues most prominent of which is the environment.


Little do people know too that Perlas is an advocate of Waldorf education. This educational idealogy is a pedagogy based upon the educational philosophy of the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy.

Learning is interdisciplinary, integrating practical, artistic, and conceptual elements. The Waldorf approach emphasizes the role of the imagination, developing thinking that includes a creative as well as an analytic component. The overarching goals of this educational approach are to provide young people the basis on which to develop into free, moral and integrated individuals, and to help every child fulfill his or her unique destiny. Schools and teachers are given considerable freedom to define curricula within collegial structures.

Perlas added that if a child-centered education is done it is best to use regional language or dialects during the early stage of development, Filipino during the formative years from 8 and above and then English thereafter.

He stressed that most of us can readily learn local languages rather that focusing on developing a pure English-based education and curriculum.

In fact to back this up it was found out by the Department of Education that a Cordillera-based school outperformed any other school in the Philippines. This Cordillera school used local language in their curriculum development and classroom instruction.

When put at par with other candidates an education under a Nicanor Perlas administration will prepare a student for life and not only for work and for jobs. The student's skills will enable him/her to have excellent life skills rather than just work skills.