Facilitation

How to teach this curriculum — in a classroom, a community circle, or alone. Written for the human holding the space, whether a credentialed teacher, a parent, or a self-directed learner.

The stance: inquiry, not creed

You are not delivering answers to be accepted; you are inviting wonder and thinking. The curriculum’s deepest commitment (philosophy.md §11) is that big questions — origins, meaning, right and wrong — are held as questions. Your job is to keep them open, not to close them.

• Say “scientists tell this story because…”, not “this is the truth.”
• Honor other peoples’ stories alongside scientific accounts; do not rank them.
• When a learner asks what you cannot answer, say “I wonder too. Let’s find out together.”

Voice: speak and write to the learner

Lessons are written to the learner (“you”). Read the ## Procedure aloud for younger learners; older and self-directed learners read it themselves. Your guidance as facilitator lives in each lesson’s ## Facilitator note.

Anchor to the learner’s life

Before you teach the abstraction, give the learner a concrete, recognizable example from their own world — a kitchen, a field, a market, a game, a relationship. Each lesson’s ## Connection does this; let it guide where you begin. Keep the example faithful to the real concept, and adapt it to the life in front of you.

Holding difficult topics safely

The curriculum does not avoid the hard parts of the world; it introduces them at a depth the age can hold (development.md). When a heavy topic arises:

• Stay calm and honest; name feelings before facts (“this is a big, sad thing”).
• Offer age-appropriate scaffolding; never dump adult despair onto a child.
• Always connect difficulty to agency and hope — something the learner can do.
• Respect a learner’s right to pause or step away.

Assessing without ranking

Assessment serves the learner (philosophy.md §8). Observe what a learner can do, not how they rank. Prefer portfolios, performances, and growth over scores. Celebrate mastery; never turn learning into competition.

Low-tech and low-resource

Every lesson has a materials_low_tech path. If you have only paper, voices, bodies, and the outdoors, you have enough. Adapt first; enrich when you can.

Facilitating self-directed learners

A learner working alone reads the procedure as “you,” does the activity, and uses the assessment and self-assessment to check understanding. Encourage them to write or talk through their thinking — the act of explaining is the learning.

When to instruct, when to inquire

Use explicit instruction, worked examples, and guided practice for foundational skills (reading, arithmetic, novice knowledge). Use inquiry, story, and wonder for concepts, meaning, and motivation. Neither is a dogma. For class size, multi-grade, and no-facilitator contexts, see docs/contexts.md.