OVERVIEW OF THE FOUR PLANES OF DEVELOPMENT

The operation of the Human Tendencies help the Child construct herself. They help her learn about her environment: what it contains, how it works, what it’s for, how she can use it, and what her place is inside it. The Adult can best help this Child by putting those Tendencies in relation to the stages of the Child’s development within her construction process.

The process of Human Development from Birth to Adulthood goes through four distinct Planes. The Child shows different characteristics depending upon these phases of development, and must be treated according to the specific needs of each stage. Because the Child changes the process of education cannot continue along always the same lines, and it necessary to view the Child herself as the guide for what is needed at each particular level. The Adult cannot put a pre-conceived plan into place, and try to mold the Child to it.

DIVISION OF PLANES

The Child relates to her environment according to many different constitutions. She grows in stages, each of which having its own tasks and foci. Because these different phases carries with them specific needs and patterns, and because the characteristics that define the stages are more or less static for six-year periods, development can be divided accordingly. We can call each six-year period its own “Plane” paying homage to the relative characteristic homogeneity within it. The path of the Child from Birth passes through four of these Planes, the Human almost universally developing to full Adulthood in 24 years.

Complementary Planes

Provided the needs of her Development are met, the Human will have developed to full Childhood at or around the twelfth year. The first two Developmental Planes constitute Childhood—0-6 and 6-12, the period of Human Life wherein the Being is first formed and adapts itself to the Environment.

Some twelve years later, around the twenty fourth year of Life, the Human progress to complete Adulthood. The Third and Fourth Planes of Development—12-18 and 18-24—comprise Adulthood, the maturation phase of Life wherein the Person develops and realizes her Self.

Parallel Planes

This Development that the Human goes through occurs in phases. Recognizing the characteristics of each phase, these Planes are remarkable according to the relative changes within. Consequently, parallel tendencies can be seen between certain groups of the Planes.

The years from birth to six show a great change in the Child, physically, intellectually and spiritually. The Child begins her life as a newborn babe, limited in communication, locomotion and manipulation. By the time she is six, however, the Child can walk, talk and effect the environment according to her will. The Child at the age of six hardly resembles the same Child newly born.

Conversely, progression between ages six and twelve is less marked by growth. Surely the Child changes and matures, but all growth—physical, mental or spiritual—demonstrates little more than linear progression. The Child at twelve, in contrast to the First Plane, greatly resembles the earlier Child, the only difference being one of relative scale. She has grown in height, but the change is in no way dramatic.

Again another major transformation takes place in the next Plane. Between the years of twelve and eighteen the child undergoes puberty, the end result being that the Child of eighteen is fully metamorphosed into her own Adult body.

But whereas she is almost altogether a different person at the end of this Third Plane, the Fourth Plane, like the Second, see very little change in the person indeed. She matures further, and is said to come to full Adulthood, but this progression does relatively little to redefine who the Person is or how she relates to her world.

There can be seen, therefore, a parallel between the First & Third and Second & Fourth Planes, respectively. The Planes that occur between the ages of 0-6 and 12-18 are creative periods, characterized by great change. The Person at the latter ends of these Planes has transformed so dramatically from the Person she was that she can hardly even be identified as the same individual. The Planes subsequent to each of those, however, are periods of little change. The years 6-12 and 18-24 are ages of crystallization. These are Planes of stability and capability, and because the Child has reached this plateau, these are also periods of great strength. The children and adolescents within these age groups exhibit amazing intellect and curiosity, and their bodies are strong.

SUBPLANES

As the development of the Child is divided into distinct Planes, so too can the Planes themselves be subdivided into particular halves. Each Plane has its own progression of creation and then crystallization, and they tend to find their divide in roughly three-year quanta. The First Plane is therefore divided into the years 0-3 and 3-6; the Second into 6-9 and 9-12; the Third, 9-12 and 12-15; and the Fourth, 15-18 and 18-24. The earlier halves of each Plane are the periods of growth and creation, and the latter: periods of crystallization.

ROLE OF THE ADULT

The Adult, with this understanding, does not educate, that is the task of the Child. The Adult can only aid the process. There is a power within the child working for the progress of Human Life and Education, and the Adult must trust to this power. “[E]ducation is not something which the teacher does, but it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being.”¹ The only role of the Adult is therefore, as always, to “help the Child help herself.”

Observation

To play this role, the Adult must observe the Child at all times. He must study not a curriculum for education but the psychological characteristics and Human Tendencies and watch how they apply to the Child in his care. If the Adult can “trust to the spontaneous organizing power of the Human Intellect” that is inherent within the Child, she will show him her path.

From this same diligent observation, the Adult will be able to ascertain when the Child is moving from one Plane or Subplane to the next. The Planes of Development serving as guidelines for the division of classrooms, it will be important that the Adult be aware of the Child’s growth. As each Plane begins, dramatic changes mark the passage from one to the next. The ages that are set as guidelines to delineate the Planes are not exact, but judging from circumstance the Adult can readily gauge a Child’s progress.

PREPARED ENVIRONMENT

It is the Human Tendencies that drive the Child, therefore the Adult must pay heed to these. The Adult is not responsible for all that the Child learns, for learning will come from within herself. Therefore, the Adult does not have to spoon-feed the intellect, but rather provide an environment that will foster its growth. The Adult must make the environment so interesting that the mind cannot help but to want to know more. Keeping in mind the Tendencies, the Child’s place should be orderly and beautiful to draw the Child to explore her own Tendency to Work. The Adult must also be keenly aware to remove any obstacles from the environment—physical, psychological or intellectual—that might get in her way. This is the Adult’s chief role.

The delineation of the classrooms according to the Subplanes, however, shouldn’t be so evident as the Child’s distinct changes between them. There should be a freedom of flow between stages that will facilitate an interaction between the older and younger children that is both natural and beneficial. Not all children develop at the same rate, and with freedom of movement the Child herself will decide when she is ready to move up. But moving up, it must be remembered, has nothing to do with intellect or academic ability, it is developmental characteristics alone that determine suitability.

CODA

If it is recognized that the Child develops in discernible Planes… If the Human Tendencies are remembered… If the Child is carefully observed… If the Adult can trust to the power within the Child to guide education… If he can follow her and is able to change his role as dramatically across the Child’s Planes as she herself transforms… If obstacles are removed and an environment prepared… Only then will the Child be given the amount of help she needs. She will be able to educate herself.