Media

Sarah RisingSun Lee - Story of Inspiration and Success!

Kansas City Star - Tuesday May 4, 1999

For over a decade, Sarah RisingSun Lee dedicated her life to teaching the Global Peace Education curriculum she developed and copyrighted. She then founded the Covenant Children's House in 1992, with her curriculum as the focus of the preschool. She is an experienced teacher and parent retired from teaching with grown children dreaming of reopening the school with the help of donors, volunteers, and teachers.

"Our challenge for the 21st century is to educate all children within holistic, life-giving communities," says RisingSun Lee, who also piloted part of her curriculum in public and private schools where she taught for about 20 years before opening her own lab school in 1992.

Her curriculum, which she plans to market to preschools around the country, focuses on the whole child, the whole family, the whole community, and the whole world." The model also promotes healthy ego development by encouraging children to look to adults for leadership rather than for rewards and punishments.

At the school she founded and led, The Covenant Children's House, you would find encouraging words posted at every turn, such as "Dreams can set free the magic in me." One wall display featured four sailboats carrying messages: Warm Hearts, Creativity, Culture, Wisdom.

Rising Sun Lee integrates what she thinks are the strongest components of Montessori and Waldorf teaching styles. She uses instructional materials similar to those in Montessori, which are individualized and focused on skills such as phonics and counting. She says her teaching plan leans more toward Waldorf education, with a strong focus on the arts such as music, drama, sewing, and painting.

Rudolph Steiner, who formulated the first Waldorf school nearly 100 years ago, believed in educating the whole child, not just the mind. With an international-themed curriculum, Rising Sun Lee teaches spiritual values that "seek to make life equitable, just and abundant for every person on earth." Her system is based on 24 organizational centers - such as geography, history, music, and language.

Through these, she covers the world regions: The Pacific World, the Orient, Africa, Anglo America, Northeast Eurasia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Europe, rotating monthly. "I teach the children as much as I can about the whole world," Rising Sun-Lee says. Her lessons, she says, are "through rather than at the expense of imagination, creativity, and the arts."

Art, traditions and celebrations from around the world play important roles in her curriculum. In the African segment, among other things, the kids wear traditional costumes, make headbands and listen and dance to African music. And, if possible, RisingSun Lee times her monthly lessons to coordinate with holidays. For example, they studied the Orient in January and February, in conjunction with the Chinese New Year and activities at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

While learning about how people live in different cultures, she says the children also learn a broader theme: "The fundamental needs of human beings are the same all over." See Kansas City Star Article for more, Tuesday May 4, 1999.

The Children's Convenant House served children and their families for over three decades in Kansas City, MO. Visit the My Story section and learn more about the dream to reopen the school and how you can help make this dream a reality.