The Homeschool Journey

Keeping One Step Ahead

This article first appeared in the Homeschool Journey newsletter, April 2005

One of the new and exciting challenges of living in town (as opposed to our former life on our farm) is the phenomena of friends. It seems obvious and was a huge reason for our move, but the situation of our sons suddenly having lots of friends has quickly brought issues into our family life which, well... which I wish hadn’t all come at once!

If computer time is strictly limited to 3 hours a week, do we include in that time computer viewing at friends’ houses? How do we feel about our sons spending time at the houses of people we haven’t met? How late is OK for a 13 year-old boy to be out at night riding around on bikes with friends?

Let’s backtrack a bit. This is a very small town which is heavily influenced by the local Waldorf lower school and high school – so we more or less know what kind of families our sons’ friends come from (though there are always surprises!). It is a safe place – I grew up in New York City, so the idea of 13 year-olds out at night on bikes is pretty radical to me, but seems the norm around here where the heady combination of Spring break and mild weather has had the streets full of children well past dark. And lastly, we do know some – though not all – of the families at whose homes our sons might wind up.

Further information to put our questions into context has to do with our sons’ former and very different way of being with friends. Being so isolated had meant that seeing friends involved intricate maneuvers often with 3 or more sets of parents, carpooling and careful coordination of pick-up times. Here, boys just turn up at the door – it’s quite startling! So coordinating chores around the house, things boys need to do before seeing friends, isn’t quite so easy as when seeing friends was something planned days, even weeks, in advance.

And then, when our sons did get together with others, it would often be for a 2 0r 3 day boy-fest of staying up late, roaming at will through the woods, and only showing their faces for meals. Fond memories my sons treasure are of sleeping out under the stars, ice skating at dawn, chasing coyotes through a cornfield by moonlight... oh, and watching 3 0r 4 videos in a row (not at our house, of course!). So now, when my husband and I say “10 o’clock is too late to be out”, they say “Why?” Yes, well – why? They’re not being belligerent or contrary – it really is a reasonable question given what they were used to. So, now that they are 11 and 13 they, especially the older one, need an answer. “Because I said so” isn’t quite enough any more, and though parents have final say in the Newton-Simmons household, we involve our sons now in most decisions that involve them.

Which is exhausting. Where do 13 year-olds get this never-ending well from which spring the most exasperating questions? And why are we in particular blessed with a son not only with a strong sense of right and wrong but with a philosophical bent that wants to explore all the ins and outs of every question!?

Yes, yes, isn’t it all wonderful to experience the growth of our sons’ intellectual and moral boundaries... Just don’t remind me of that when I’m bone tired at night or I’m in one of those ‘do-not-disturb-or-I-might-do-something-you’ll-regret’ moods!

So there are times when Paul and I (especially me as I was dealt a slightly less full portion of patience than my husband received) just have to say “I can’t talk about this right now. You’ll just have to accept it and we’ll discuss it at another time”. Our eldest finds this galling – but over time he’s realized that this is so, that we always willing to talk about anything – though not always to suit his schedule. And we’ve also worked hard to impress upon him that he will not always get an answer right away, or an answer which satisfies him completely. Life is not about filling in the blank or finding pat answers. Too many big questions can only be answered over time and through life’s experience. Being told this, though, when one is a choleric 13 year-old, is asking a lot of that child: and much of what is required for Daniel to accept such an answer lies in trust.

“Sometimes you just have to trust me and accept that such and such needs to be” I have said to Daniel. I avoid adding the annoying little tag, “and one day if you have children you’ll know what I mean” (though I might think it!) and I impress upon him that a) he needs to trust me and b) some things only become clear over time. I think it shows something of the depth and honesty of the relationships in our family that he accepts that.

And Paul and I trust him: we know he’s sensible and can make good choices and that he’s not going to do stupid things... and when he does do stupid things, he will be able to tell us and, more importantly, learn from his mistakes. So we don’t think he and his friends are going to find the local meth lab or watch porn videos. We know that our boy would find these things repugnant – and trust that he’ll make friends with people who share his values. It’s more a case of “computer-hopping” from one house to the next, not something we’re happy about, but which is, with imagination and perseverance, manageable. And when he does come across life’s unsavory elements – as he must if he’s going to fully enter into the world – we need to trust that the foundation of truth, beauty and goodness which we’ve so carefully cultivated will stand him in good stead.

* * * * *

The following is a brief list of some of my favorite Waldorf-inspired parenting books:

Navigating the Terrain of Childhood: A Guidebook for Meaningful Parenting and Heartfelt Discipline, Jack Petrash

Lifeways and More Lifeways, the former by Gudrun Davy and Bons Voors and the latter by Patti Smith and Signe Eklund Schaefer

Thirteen to Nineteen: Discovering the Light, Julian Sleigh

Between Form and Freedom: A Practical Guide to the Teenage Years, Betty Staley

All these books are available from Rudolf Steiner College Bookstore – www.rscbookstore.com – and probably from Bob and Nancy’s – www.waldorfbooks.com

Musings on Moving

This article first appeared in the Homeschool Journey newsletter, March 2005

Usually each month I write a longish article on some topic which strikes my fancy, often accompanied by a practical list of ideas and tips following on from the main article. This month, however, I am taking a pause, taking stock and simply sharing a bit with you all about the big change in our life. And then I’d like to give you all some updates on All Things Christopherus.

(By the way – several people have mentioned finding our name difficult to pronounce. Put the emphasis on the second syllable – ChrisTOFFerus – then it shouldn’t be too hard...!)

So... the big change is that we’re moving! On March 21^st we’ll be driving 4 hours south of where we are now and pulling up to our nice new home in the little town of Viroqua. It’s still in Wisconsin, so we will continue to try to understand what exactly being a ‘cheese-head’ entails [Non-US readers: sorry – this is a reference to the nickname for people from Wisconsin, a state which produces more cheese than any other – or at least used to.] but it’s a USDA zone further up on the scale so I will be able to plan a garden with such delights as buddleia and philadelphus which won’t grow up here in Zone 3.

Gardening will now be limited to flowers and herbs (and a bit of hot competition with our new next door neighbor, one of the local Waldorf school’s kindergarten teachers, who, by all accounts and by the signs of a great many interesting plants poking out of the snow, is a keen gardener!) as we will, for the first time in many years, be in town. The days of horses, potato crops, chopping wood and hauling water from the pump are over. Viroqua is smack in the middle of one of the largest concentrations of biodynamic and organic farms in the US, so we’ll be spoiled for choice for wonderful vegetables, raw milk and pasture-raised meat, not to mention Amish maple syrup, honey and fruit!

This change was a possibility for a number of years – my husband Paul and I had had frequent “should we stay or should we go” type conversations. Last October, as some of you know, our dairy goats were all killed by our neighbors’ dogs (I had just driven back from the airport where I’d flown in from Boulder, CO where I’d given some workshops at one of Rahima Baldwin’s conferences – it was 1am and the barn lights were on so I knew something was up). And this was our opportunity: either we would replace the goats and thus commit to staying or not get new animals and so open up the possibility of going.

There are many factors which played into this decision: two major ones are called Daniel and Gabriel, our 13 and 11 year old sons. Daniel has become, as he’s grown, more and more interested in people – in politics, in philosophy, in different religions – and his interests were fast outgrowing our rural lifestyle and the isolation of living in a town where we had few friends.

Daniel clearly needs more friends, more opportunities for socialization - especially since his best friend moved away last year. The myth of socialization is no myth for us – we are seriously isolated despite a number of attempts to get involved in things, including local homeschool groups (where Waldorf is known to describe a form of salad, not a form of education). Interestingly, though, this need of Daniel’s for friends has not always been there: he had great difficulty in a group in kindergarten when we were in England and I think it served him well to be relatively isolated and home-centered as a young child.

Public school is a possibility... well, not really... we have thought about it but I think it’d be disastrous for him – he’s just not one to ‘play the game’ and would probably be in trouble much of the time. On the other hand, he’s busy writing a series of science fiction novels and, to be honest, doesn’t have a whole lot of time left for school. And so, the Waldorf high school in Viroqua seems a perfect fit: founded on the initiative of 8^th Graders who wanted to continue their Waldorf education, the school continues to be very responsive to the needs and interests of its students – and it takes homeschoolers part time. Perfect! Daniel already knows a number of boys in Viroqua from the Christian Community camp. (The Christian Community is a church which Rudolf Steiner was instrumental in bringing into being: www.thechristiancommunity.org) So it looks like Daniel’s all set.

Son Number Two is not quite so straightforward. He has always been more difficult to ‘read’, less clear in what he needs. Part of him will miss this house and farm terribly, especially the animals. It has taken him time to get used to the idea of moving and he has complained about having to live in town. But Gabriel is the kind of child whom a parent must ‘listen into’, go beyond what comes out of his mouth and listen instead to how he acts, what he does, how he makes his feelings evident. We don’t, of course, discount his words, but we also try very hard to listen to what is behind what he says.

Gabriel is very lonely but somehow can’t admit it. In part, this is due to his temperament – he is strongly melancholic (though with a wide choleric streak) and therefore the glass is always half empty, never half full. Our concern is that his melancholia threatens to swallow him up, to overwhelm him and Paul and I strongly feel he needs to be a) away more from his very dynamic and brilliant brother and b) able to spend a lot more time with children of his age. And so... Gabriel will most likely join next Fall’s 6^th Grade at the Waldorf school in Viroqua.

Daniel will stay at home for 8^th Grade – it’ll be lovely to focus on him in this way and we’ve already started talking about what he wants to do for 8^th Grade. Gabriel, meanwhile, has slowly gotten used to the idea that he’s going to school and has started to refer to ‘my teacher’ and ‘my class’. He’s tickled that he’s probably ahead in both math and German. He’ll spend a week with the class in April to ensure a mutual fit and then we’ll have a whole summer to explore our new home.

Anyway... that’s us for now. I’m excited about flower gardens and organizing a new house and getting raw milk – and being able to WALK everywhere I want. Paul, never completely sold on living in the middle of nowhere, is looking forward to re-entering human society! We’ll keep you posted on how it goes!

A Visit to the Science Museum

This article first appeared in the Homeschool Journey newsletter, February 2005

Just a little note to warn people that the following has been issued from Donna’s extensive Waldorf Curmudgeon files... I promise that March’s newsletter will not contain any grumbling references to the state of public education or questionable parenting practices in our society! Honest. 

I took my sons, aged 11 and 13, to the Minnesota Science Museum in St Paul a couple of weeks ago. We love going there, exploring the exhibits, watching a film at the IMAX theater and then having a bite to eat before going home. We usually try to come in the late afternoon, after the school groups have left. But this time we came earlier because I don’t like to drive at night. So, unfortunately, much of our time in the museum was spent playing “Oh no, here comes a school group – let’s go on to the next exhibit”. Nothing personal against the children themselves – it’s just that the sheer numbers and noise is more than a little off-putting when one is pausing by a cabinet of butterflies, say, talking together about their patterns and colors, or perhaps about the ethics of collecting animal specimens.

Something I really value about trips with my sons to a museum is discussing in depth what we’re looking at, drifting along as their interest takes us, maybe going back to something to have another look, maybe skipping something. We use the museum as a resource while we’re there, a spark to our conversations.

For the most part, I have observed that the massive packs of school children do not get such opportunities for conversation. To be honest, I am dubious anyway of field trips with more than two or three children (whether school children or homeschoolers) as the social element tends to dominate and What We’re Supposed To Be Looking At gets lost. Unless the field trip is carefully framed, both before and after, the destination is usually incidental to the pushing and shoving, horseplay, gossip and jostling to look at the contraband Nintendo that someone’s bound to have brought along. Even with the best intentions it is difficult to a) keep a continuum between classroom and field trip experience when one is working with such large numbers of students and b) compete with children’s socializing.

A fairly new phenomena I have observed amongst school groups is the arming of them with clipboards and quiz sheets. I’ve peered over a number of shoulders and even fished a discarded paper out of a trashcan to see what children are meant to be doing as they troop through the museum. What I’ve discovered are checklists that they are meant to complete, so that their museum experience becomes more akin to trolling around a supermarket with a shopping list than an in-depth exploration of an exhibit.

Do they get a chance to discuss what they are seeing, relate it to things they have studied in a classroom, perhaps have the teacher hint at things to come? I’ve never seen that happen. Rather, I’ve seen bands of children, some noisier, some quieter, some oblivious to the exhibit, others having a good look. But I’ve never seen groups of children and adults taking time to really talk together, considering what’s before them and traveling at a pace dictated by the children’s interest and not a school schedule.

The frantic pace of the typical field trip to a science museum is at its worst, I think, in the so-called ‘hands-on’ part of the museum. In St Paul, there’s a fairly large physics and weather phenomena section which, in many ways, is really very well done. But... how many children using the gadgets – simulating tornadoes, tracking storms on a computer, making designs with sound, and so on – actually know what it is they are doing? How many are simply having a fun time, twiddling with knobs and fiddling with switches and buttons?

Now, I’m not an old sourpuss who thinks education should be devoid of enjoyment. But I am highly critical of ‘edutainment’, the belief that children need to be entertained, coaxed, tricked or cajoled into learning. And I think this approach is especially prevalent when it comes to making science ‘palatable’ to children. Look at the multitude of so-called science kits available for homeschoolers that are based on making gloopy, shiny, slimy, smelly substances – so that children will be entertained and, therefore, presumably think science is ‘fun’, i.e. worthwhile.

Back to the Science Museum... a few months ago our museum had a special exhibit on Grossology. Grossology – I ask you! It seems that the study of snot and other ‘gross’ things is now graced with its own -ology. Our family passed on that one...!

Another side of science as entertainment can be seen in the various very popular TV series centered on forensics. Science can be fun and entertaining – and very sexy too. Look at those beautiful lab assistants-come-detectives, look at their flashy clothes, big cars, big guns. And let’s not forget all the half-clothed ‘vics’ and ‘perps’ which jazz things up considerably.

So science is gross, it’s fun and it’s sexy – and it’s also very disturbing. One can get the sick feeling of voyeurism when one watches films on ‘extreme weather’, for instance. The hurricane or flood takes the center stage – and, oh yes, that’s a dead body that the camera just panned over. Even animal films these days can be suspect: why does the camera spend so long focused on the kill made by the lion? Why are the crunching and ripping sounds brought to the fore? One wonders exactly who these films are made for.

In many ways the IMAX films are the worst. One really is meant to get that stomach-churning lurch when watching people rock-climb or hang-glide on those huge screens – that’s the point. And it can be a fun experience – something like going on a roller coaster. I have to admit I’m too much of a wimp to go on a real roller coaster; as it is I flinch and jump when the camera suddenly goes off a cliff or rushes down the trunk of a redwood, as do my sons. I think for adults and older children these kind of films are okay (I just wouldn’t overdo it). But little children? At our last visit to the IMAX there were several little children, none older than 5, in the theater.

What could those parents have been thinking? I’m sorry, I just can’t get my head around taking a 4 year-old to see, not just a film about extreme nature (i.e. scenes of destruction) as this film was, but as an IMAX film as well! Do people simply not realize that the gut-wrenching feelings those films call up in us adults are magnified many times over in little children?

Little ones are like sponges, soaking up everything around them. They are completely open to the sense impressions that surround them. They do not have the ability or the tools to either disengage from what comes toward them or to mediate its effect. And so what happens is that children either shut down a part of themselves and therefore lose the ability to fully feel, or they reach a kind of nervous overload and the way is open for a variety of behaviors and reactions to arise, many ultimately resulting in the labels ‘ADHD’, ‘dyslexia’, ‘sensorially challenged’.

My sons were each over 10 before we saw an IMAX movie and even then we left a couple of them early – and they have no other sensorially challenging experiences in their everyday lives. But those little ones I saw that day? It would hardly be surprising if they then went home in an SUV with a video screen, had some TV before supper and then went to bed with recorded tapes.

What is the difference between an approach to science which values entertainment and treats it as something to be seen but not deeply experienced, on the one hand, and an approach which regards scientific phenomena as the handwork of God, on the other? What attitudes might we engender in our children toward life around them if it’s all regarded as a joke or a gimmick? What, instead, might be the result if we help them perceive the wonders of creation? Science is about understanding the mysteries of life. It is the name we give to every child’s curiosity and desire to learn. It should be honored and uplifted, something every human being has a relationship to as they grow. Like art, it should be as much an everyday part of life as breathing.

* * * * *

Those of you who would like help in fostering a reverential and respectful attitude toward life and science in your homeschool might be interested in our science book, From Nature Stories to Natural Science: A Holistic Approach to Science for Families. It starts in the very earliest years with the tiny scientist exploring her surroundings and progresses all the way into the high school years, when science becomes a rigorous discipline, requiring skilled thinking and observation. I explain the holistic background to the Waldorf approach to science and also go into some depth as to how science appears in the Waldorf curriculum. I help parents understand how they might work with this gentle, empirical form of science at home. 

http://www.christopherushomeschool.org/nature_stories.htm

 

Discipline and Inner Work

This first appeared in the Homeschool Journey newsletter, January 2005

• No whining or nagging! Identify what makes you slip into either of these and      then do something to correct it. If you hear your mother’s (or father’s) voice coming out of your own, if suddenly you are 10 again, caught stealing cookies or lying about homework, revisit that scene, heal it and LET GO!

• Similar to the above, stale patterns of conflict resolution (or escalation) are not the way to go! Think it through, talk with your partner and get clear. Identify what lurks behind how you bring discipline to your family: rout out fear, anxiety or control issues and LET GO! 

• Having said all that, be gentle on yourself. You have all your childhood ‘stuff’ to work on plus adult ‘stuff’ plus any issues between you and your partner to deal with! This will take time, especially if it is new to you. Old patterns are notoriously difficult to break, especially when we are stressed or angry. Take one step at a time and feel good about what you achieve, even if it doesn’t seem like very much. 

• And no guilt! Absolutely not allowed! Guilt shrinks the soul into a tiny hard little knot and doesn’t help anyone. It only feeds on itself and makes everything worse, thus compounding whatever it was you feel bad about. The ability for the human soul to forgive and to heal is boundless – don’t dwell on mistakes you have made. Rather, pray on them, send them Light, whatever your spiritual path advises you to do. And then, most importantly, let them go and move on. 

• Get really clear about your understanding both of child development and of your own, individual children and who they are. If you are working deeply with Waldorf, get to grips with the 7-year phases and really understand what the developmental needs of, say, the 3 year-old are and how that differs from the needs of the 7 year-old, the 9 year-old and so on. 

* * * * *

 3 Books to Help with Discipline

New from Jack Petrash – Navigating the Terrain of Childhood. Jack literally takes us on a journey through parenting a child using the metaphor of a trip across the United States. This is a great book – practical and warm. There really isn’t any similar Waldorf parenting book available.

Well, if you’ve read anything I’ve said about what you need to read if you have young children, you can probably guess what I’m about to recommend! Yes folks, Rahima Baldwin’s You Are Your Child’s First Teacher. The must-have book for anyone with children under 7.

Lastly, one of my favorite books: Lifeways – Working with Family Questions by Gudrun Davy and Bons Voors. A gentle collection of thoughtful articles, deeply inspired by both anthroposophy and Christianity.

In Praise of No Praise

This article first appeared in the Homeschool Journey newsletter, January 2005

When my family and I returned to the US from Britain, we came to live in an anthroposophical intentional community which, amongst other things, hosted visits from school groups, some Waldorf, some not. Part of my work in the community (other than looking after my children and household) was to work with these groups.

I remember one group in particular which was flanked by a phalanx of teachers who at seemingly regular intervals would utter the phrase, “Good job, good job!” to the children. It took me a while to actually understand what they were saying (my British-acclimated ears were not familiar with this phrase) and I became increasingly perplexed by a) the apparent randomness of the utterances and b) its unnoticed lack of impact on the children.

I guessed that these children were surrounded and engulfed by a barrage of “Good job, good job!”, thus their apparent indifference to what was supposed to encourage and reward them. I saw no noticeable difference in this group’s behavior: they were pretty average when it came to being ‘good’ or ‘bad’. But what I did notice was a degree of lackluster in their manner and I also noticed how the “Good job, good job!” chirrupings slid right off them.

Pick up any guide to teaching your child to read, to make a pot holder, to ride a bike and you will see the injunctions “praise your child”, “don’t forget to give your child lots of praise”. But is praise really what is called for? Wouldn’t it be better to cultivate warm support and an attitude of friendly encouragement, thereby enabling the child to feel exhilaration at her own accomplishments?

It can be so patronizing to children to constantly verbalize praise at them: “What a great picture!... Oh, that’s so nice!... Awesome!...” Doesn’t it get to be a bit much? How does a child gauge degree of a job well done when he receives so much verbal praise. Instead, we can warmly receive what he’s done – but, for the most part, not praise, not judge. Children want to please their parents and I think that too much verbal praise undermines this by burying our approval under a mountain of phrases which, by their very volume, can become meaningless.

An example: your 8 year-old brings a picture to you that she’s just drawn. You say, “That’s great, honey – great job!” What, instead, would be the effect if you said, “You drew a castle!” (with warmth and enthusiasm, of course)? What is the difference between your praising what she’s done and your affirming what she’s done.

My feeling is that the latter method is more freeing for the child and makes her feel not judged for what she has produced but. rather, affirmed in her actions. “You finished the puzzle... Wow, you built that treehouse...” There is approval for the action but no judgment of the result. Therefore, if that treehouse looks like the next wind will take it down, one can then add, “Let’s make it a bit stronger” or similar. If you had said, “Good job!” it could seem contradictory to then point out improvements. Yet, since you are not praising the results but rather the activity, then the fact that the treehouse needs a few improvements does not lessen your approval.

I should add here that I’m certainly not against all praise – there are certainly times when it’s needed and appropriate to express one’s opinion about something a child’s done or to simply say how wonderful you think they are. It’s when praise becomes automatic and excessive that I think we err.

Children know when they have produced something that could be better. If every poem elicits the same, “Great, honey!”, then the final word rests with you. If you say, “Aha, you’ve written a poem about the rain”, the child can then say, “Yes, and I’m going to write an even better one next time” or whatever it is that she thinks about her work.

This isn’t to say that I think parents should be neutral in their actions or feelings about what their children do. Rather, I would say that the parent’s job is to demonstrate, to model expectations of behavior and action and then to expect (and help) the children to rise up to high levels. For instance, when teaching a child to knit, one produces good work oneself and both expects and helps the child to do his best as well. Had the teachers of the school group I mentioned at the beginning of this article extended themselves to provide models for the children to emulate, to show them how to do a ‘good job’ (rather than being cheerleaders), then the children’s response would surely have been to be more engaged and involved in what they were doing.

The point is that if the child’s work arises out of the human desire to do one’s best, then this is a healthier motivation than seeking praise or something like stars on a chart. If the satisfaction of a job well done is the primary reason why we do the best we can, then surely that helps us remain in touch with this positive side of human nature. If, on the other hand, we do things primarily for external rewards, then our connection with our ‘higher’ or ‘purer’ self is weakened.

So the onus is on us as parents, as the primary trendsetters of values and standards in our families, to have high standards, to not be sloppy or lackadaisical in our work or attitude. This is a tall order and not easily or quickly achieved for many of us. It is up to each of us to judge for ourselves when something is good enough – or when it is not. A maxim to live by might be “If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well”.

Sure, we’ll make mistakes and mess things up. That’s life – big deal. But there is a world of difference between an attitude which strives for good results and sometimes doesn’t quite get there, on the one hand, and an attitude which says “Who cares?” on the other. And, at the same time, one needs to guard against perfectionism. Replacing external rewards with an unrelenting inner voice which gives us no peace in its striving for unreal expectations is no better. As always, the middle way shows us the way of balance.

One last note... I haven’t mentioned age and should clarify that I’m basically thinking of children between about 3 and 12. Obviously there is a great difference in how one parents a 3 year-old or a 12 year-old but I think, given this understanding, my comments hold good. It’s another matter with teens... but that’s another article!

The Role of the Homemaker

This article first appeared in the Homeschool Journey newsletter, December 2004

When I was watching TV the other evening (yes – I watch some TV. I tell my 11 and 13 year-old sons that I like to keep an eye on popular culture, that I’m interested in what “everybody else” is doing. They usually snort in derision as they leave the room, making rude remarks about “Mom’s stupid cop shows”) I became interested in a commercial for vacuum cleaners. It showed a woman eagerly rushing around the house, happy to have this new and wonderful machine which would help her get through with her work as quickly as possible, so that she could join her husband and children in more important pursuits, i.e. leisure and entertainment.

So that’s one picture of homemaking. Another one on TV (one I have not watched as it might prompt me to do violence!) is a show called Desperate Housewives. I think the title says it all and, judging from the articles I’ve read about it, it is made clear that being “just a housewife” is something to escape from, preferably with the hunky delivery man.

For those of us who stay at home with our children, not only are we weird because we are “just mothers” (or, weirder still, stay-at-home dads) but we are “just homemakers” as well. As those who make money in our society are most valued, those who generate income so that they can buy things, we surely must be ‘desperate’, must be unfulfilled.

How does it feel to be a homemaker? Lonely, isolated, unsupported... Can be. Lucky is the homemaker who lives where there are others who stay at home and who can visit together, giving one another support and a chance for adult conversation. For many of us, this is just a dream, and certainly my family has moved from intentional community to intentional community in search of the support and adult company I felt I needed when my children were young.

But what if homemaking were more widely valued, seen as a fundamental prerequisite for a healthy society? What if it was applauded as a profession and a task central to the stability and nurturing of families, providing a haven for those family members who work outside the home as well as a nurturing place for children to thrive and grow? Wouldn’t such a change in attitude, such a change in values, help us overcome our inner feelings of isolation and lack of support? Even if friends were sparse, surely it would help our own sense of fulfillment and confidence if what we were doing was more widely viewed as a valuable contribution to society.

Many anthroposophists, those inspired by the work of Rudolf Steiner, feel that the role of the homemaker is of central importance in society, the one that will carry new impulses of spirituality in the future. Manfred Schmidt-Brabant (who was a homemaker for a time) writing in his book, The Spiritual Tasks of the Homemaker, gives us a picture of the home as the cradle of a new spiritual culture. Whereas in days of old, people would have to travel to priests to receive the word of God, to those who had the clairvoyance needed to interpret God’s messages, Schmidt-Brabant says that, as part of the modern human being’s growth toward freedom and individuality, this is no longer appropriate. Instead, he says that we are all priests, that we all have the potential to hear and interpret the Word, and that the vessel for nurturing such spiritual perception is the home. This is the dawning of the New Mysteries and the homemaker carries the central role. He says of the homemaker:

She becomes a priestlike figure, she takes over a priestly function... One should not think of traditional priests, but of a type that existed in the ancient Mysteries – an Isis priestess, or the ancient priestesses of the Mystery cultures that still were part of matriarchal societies. Only when the homemaker sees herself as a new type of priestess can life in the household be understood as a sacrament and so become a seed for the new Mystery culture. Ultimately this means that the work of the homemaker will gradually become permeated with spirit, that she will understand it as something spiritual. Spirituality is everywhere.

This is a mighty task to shoulder, but if viewed in this light, homemaking becomes a calling, a sacred vocation of nurturing the people who live in the home, helping them discover and answer their destiny questions. No longer something to be over and done with, no longer an obstacle to the illusions of ‘real life’ brought by entertainment or leisure, homemaking can become a fulfilling role, one in which the homemaker, through the ordering and ensouling of her (or his) home, works directly with spirit. If, as anthroposophists do, we try to understand that, for instance, the very act of cleaning is an alchemical act, a way of transforming matter, then that sink full of dishes can be viewed not simply as an onerous task, but as an opportunity to positively affect our surroundings, our home.

Crucial to developing – and maintaining – such a reverential attitude toward housework is learning to separate the essential from the non-essential. Details, procrastination, fussing and unnecessary twiddling about in the kitchen or in the muddy hall can wear us down. “What do I need to do and what can I leave be?” are profoundly important questions to ask oneself and the self-discipline to discern the answer is an important part of the self-education of every homemaker.

Once we’ve decided what we need to do, the way we approach our tasks is also of great importance. Linda Thomas, an anthroposophist who lectures and gives workshops on the profession of the homemaker, says:

The attitude that we have regarding the work that we do is of the utmost importance. If we are unable to lead the meditative, spiritual life we wish to lead, we can try to find a spiritual attitude toward everything we do in our daily lives. In other words, if you are not able to do what you love, you should try to love what you do. Things that repeat themselves constantly either turn into routine, which can have a very dulling effect, or you can try to make an exercise of awareness out of the most menial task, and already you are starting on your spiritual task.

 Her words can give comfort to us as we try to live with the idea of the importance of our work as homemakers, helping us find meaning in what can be viewed as meaningless, and pave the way to open up to the great task that Schmidt-Brabant says is ours as homemakers.

* * * * *

Practical Ideas and Resources

Here are a few suggestions relating to the mundane and, sometimes, difficult aspects of homemaking:

• Make sure that children are involved in household chores and are part of what you do from their earliest days. A baby sitting on your hip in a sling can ‘help’ you tidy and clean. Sing and jiggle whilst doing the dishes with your baby in a backpack.

• Arrange your housework so that your little children can join in. Instead of Circle Time rhymes and movement games which mime work, sing and chant rhymes as you do real work together around the house. 

• If everyone does chores because everyone is part of the family, this engenders a more helpful and participatory attitude toward housework than star charts and other external rewards. We all do our bit because that’s what we do when we’re part of a family. 

• Housework and caring for the home are not something to ‘get through with’ so that the ‘real work of school’ can take place. Learning to be part of the family, to have responsibilities, to care for a home, are as important as academic work. Indeed, especially for under-7s, the purposeful tasks of homemaking should be a large part of the child’s day.

• Get organized and focused! What needs to be done every day? What need to be done on a weekly basis? How much time is wasted looking for things because you haven’t yet ‘found a home’ for the paper, matches, laundry powder, light bulbs, shoe polish and other things that disappear amidst the chaos? 

• Try to stay focused on the job at hand instead of thinking about the next thing you need to do. Certainly this can be challenging in a house full of children, but it could help you -and therefore them – to stay calm and in the present. 

• Although to-do lists can be helpful, it might be better to think of housework as process, not as a series of goals. One needs lists to organize one’s day and schedule but there is a danger in the kind of attitude which could view housework as a series of checks on a to-do list: housework is never done. If, instead, an attitude of caring for a home is fostered, then one wouldn’t feel defeated and disappointed when that floor is muddy 10 minutes after it’s been washed.

A few anthroposophical books to help with homemaking: 

• The Spiritual Tasks of the Homemaker, Manfred Schmidt-Brabant

A slim little book, steeped in esoteric anthroposophy but nevertheless surprisingly readable even for those new to anthroposophy. 

• Lifeways: Working with Family Questions, (ed) Davy and Voors

Absolutely my favorite source of comfort and inspiration when I was just beginning my life as a homemaker and mother. 

• Clear the Clutter: Make Space for Your Life, Inge van de Ploeg

A practical hands-on guide to ordering one’s home or workspace as well as help in gaining insight into why one gets buried in clutter. Highly recommended by Nancy Parsons of Bob and Nancy’s books. 

And, of course... your own attitude which you bring to your daily household tasks, your own insights and reflection – what you DO in your home – are all far more important than reading about it!

Raising Compassionate and Socially Aware Children

This article first appeared in the Homeschool Journey newsletter, November 2004

The following are excerpts from the keynote talks I gave in Fair Oaks, CA and Ann Arbor, MI at Waldorf in the Home conferences. The entire talk would be too long to reprint here (plus I strayed from my notes considerably – especially in California where I actually forgot my notes!) so I am simply reprinting chunks from it. I have left out most of the concrete examples so this does read a bit like a series of platitudes. Please indulge me in this – it was just too big a task for me to write this up properly yet I wanted to offer something to you all.

* * * * *

 The talk was entitled Creating World Citizens: Raising Compassionate and Socially Aware Children  and I began with the following quote from Rudolf Steiner:

Still something further is important: namely that we recognise in the human beings who are born today as children the inclination toward what must develop in the coming generations, and that we learn to educate prophetically. ThefFact that we must educate prophetically, that we must foresee what are to be the tasks of the next generation, this is of the greatest earnestness. This stands written in the world about us as a constant challenge.

 
I believe Waldorf education, whether in a school or at home, can help us raise children who have an ecological consciousness, who are concerned about questions of social justice, who have a strong sense for morals, and who can act out of compassion and clear thinking.

Our own actions, our own sense of right and wrong, our own search for purpose, is an important grounding for our children, one which, when they are little, can surround and nurture them. By thus helping them thrive in the certainty that this world is, indeed, a good place, one helps them be assured that it is a place they want to be part of. Later, when they are older, our certainty and our clarity in our own morals and opinions will provide strong forms for our teens to push against as they develop their own sense of right and wrong.

* * * * *

 I should add that homeschooling, in and of itself, is a very positive thing, an impulse toward freedom, an act which says to experts and governments, “I can do this myself”. This, aside from anything else we do, is a great example of freedom and self-initiative for our children to emulate.

* * * * *

 How can Waldorf education and its foundation, anthroposophy, help us achieve our goals? First we need to understand that anthroposophy has as its basis two important aspects:

1) A spiritual basis: each of us carries a spark of the Divine. Each of us comes from the spiritual world, sojourns on this earth and will return again to the spiritual worlds. This process is repeated many times with the soul incarnating in different time periods, in different cultures and with a different consciousness. Anthroposophy works with questions of destiny and karma.

2) The idea of development: as the soul journeys and has experience, it develops. From one life to another the soul changes. And, critical to an understanding of Waldorf education, is the notion that each individual human soul is a mirror of the larger development of the human race as a whole. And, as each individual soul has partaken in this long journey, as humanity as a whole has changed and developed, so each of us as educators must ask ourselves the question, “Who is this child who stands before me and how can I help her to fulfill her destiny?”

* * * * *

 If we understand our journey to be a shared one, if we understand that the development of humanity finds its echoes in the soul of each human being, then we immediately experience history as our story, as a unified theme which can help us understand each child’s individual journey as well as gain insight into humanity’s journey.

Thus, when one tells the Old Testament stories to a nine year old child, to a Third Grader, one can see that this has not so much to do with the stories of Jewish or Christian religions, but rather that these stories, with their powerful themes of relationships to authority and to the Law, are the stories of all children of that age, irregardless of their religion, culture, nationality and so on. At 9 years old, when the child is separating somewhat from his parents, this is one of the main questions that prickles at his soul, “Who am I and who are you?” And these stories nourish the soul of the 9 year old, letting him see how others related to these very questions.

* * * * *

Waldorf is a way of educating children which can transcend national, cultural, religious and gender boundaries and speak to what lives in each human being. And further, because it is a form of soul education, it is uniquely able to speak to those souls who might live in bodies challenged by mental, emotional or physical disabilities or challenges. 

* * * * *

We want our children to be able to understand our immensely complex world; to be able to navigate and use the amazing technology which will have advanced to an extent unimaginable to many of us by the time our children are grown. We want them to think clear thoughts which are warmed by compassion and to thus act rightly in the world. 

Our goal is to produce whole adults, people who have developed their feeling life, their will, their thinking abilities. In order to do this, we can take as our motto ‘the right thing at the right time’ and know that adult ways of feeling, doing and thinking are not appropriate for children. Rather, we can work with an anthroposophical picture of how children grow and learn and how the child metamorphoses into the adult. 

* * * * *

In terms of developing whole thinking capacities, we can appreciate that the young child’s ways of thinking are very different from the adult’s and that only very gradually do the linear logical thought processes, which our society so values, become appropriate, rarely before age 12 or even later. By allowing the imaginative picture-making capacities of the young child to flourish we acknowledge that there are many ways of thinking available to human beings and, further, lay the foundation for these other, later ways of thinking. 

* * * * *

 We can help strengthen and form our children’s feeling life, helping them attain balance and attunement to their inner life. By working artistically, by helping them strive for something higher, by giving them stories full of upright and moral deeds done by good people, we help the child ennoble her emotional life. Without such conscious attention to the inner feeling life, the child can grow up as a victim to his emotions, to his sympathies and antipathies. Compassion is our goal – not sentimentality or emotionalism.

* * * * *

We can help the child develop her will forces by framing her life with healthy rhythms, especially in the first 7 year period. By instilling good habits, the child’s will forces gradually come under her conscious control. We further help her master her will forces as we give her opportunities to persevere, to be mindful, to bring attention to detail. Handwork, practicing a musical instrument, participation in household chores can all help with this.

* * * * *

 By educating the whole child, by being mindful of her spiritual past and future, by seeing her personal biography as being connected to that of humanity as a whole, we can go far in creating socially conscious children with a strong sense of justice. If the stories of Japan, of the Netherlands, of Ghana, of the Sioux resonate so strongly in her soul that they are, indeed, her stories then we go far in instilling a brotherliness, a sense of comradeliness between our child and other peoples. And, if we have taken care to strengthen our child’s will, to develop his thinking and to bring a sense of balance and peace to his emotional life, then it is likely that our child will have the strength, ability and knowledge to be able to act effectively in the world. 

* * * * *

Waldorf education helps us educate the whole child and helps the child feel connected to the earth and nature as well. By developing the child’s senses, by not dulling them with too much exposure to what is loud, synthetic, overstimulating, we help the child retain the kind of sensitivity which allows her to more fully explore and experience her world. By not rushing the child through her early years, through his all-important sense of oneness with nature and the world, by allowing him his dreamtime instead of hurrying to bring him into the adult world of information, one preserves a deep sense of connectedness and unity between the child and nature. And if one feels a connection to nature, how then could one grow up and exploit, destroy or otherwise treat as a commodity our home, our Earth?

* * * * *

 There are, of course, no guarantees that a child will grow up to have this or that quality, ability or interest. But, as parents, we are in a good position to influence our children positively when we have at our disposal the vast pedagogical and therapeutic riches that Waldorf education has.

* * * * *

 If we can hold a vision for our children out of our own inner certainty that the world is, indeed, a good, beautiful and truthful place to live; if, despite the obscene conflicts and horrors of our world, we know in our hearts and minds that understanding is possible, that compassion is possible and that right action is possible, then we stand the chance of our children growing up to be adults who take on these problems. Can we live with this truth of ‘the right thing at the right time’ so that our children grow to value process as much as goals, and to know that the end does not justify the means but is a reflection of the path taken?

Our hope is that our children will grow up and take up their life tasks with clear, heart-warmed thinking, that they will have the vision and ability to go beyond the tweedledee, tweedledum politics that is stagnating our communities, our country, our world. Our greatest hope for our children must be that, out of hope, out of faith in their fellow human beings, out of reverence for our blessed Earth, that they have the vision to create a more equitable, more free and more compassionate world.

How To Do It!

This article first appeared in the Homeschool Journey newsletter, October 2004 (and much has changed in our family since then!)

My original topic for this month’s newsletter was something quite different than what you are about to read – I was going to base this newsletter on a talk I gave in a Virginia workshop on the anthroposophical roots of Waldorf education (and which I will, at some point, write about). However, recent questions and discussions on our Yahoo discussion list as well as questions from people I met with at workshops and consultations in California, have prompted me to write about something quite different.

Namely... HOW TO DO IT! How to actually figure out some of the nuts and bolts everydayness of living with children, educating them and simultaneously running a household. So... just for fun and, hopefully, as a source of inspiration to you all (but not as a set model to follow) I will tell you all how I do it (or, at least, a small part of it).

Now, first of all, I have to let you all know that not only do Paul (my husband) and I run Christopherus and our farm together (which is, incidentally, not very big or overwhelming) but we homeschool together as well. During these past few hectic weeks – and over the next few weeks while I finish my Fall season of traveling around giving workshops – he has been Chief Homeschooler. He put both our sons, a 7^th grader and a 5^th grader, together for an economics block. He’s been reading to them from Robert L. Heilbronner’s The Worldly Philosophers and they discuss this together. Then they’ve worked on business math, such as percentages, mainly within the context of pretending to set up a record store (guess whose idea that was!). They’ve discussed and problem solved issues around budgets, planning, stock, taxes, profits, loss, advertising, ethical questions involved with being an employer, etc... and done much of the math involved in such work.

Economics is usually taught as part of the 6^th Grade math curriculum in Waldorf schools. But, as our older son is a bit ‘behind’ in math and the younger one is a bit ‘ahead’, it made sense to combine them. This somewhat diminishes their experience of the timeliness of the 6^th Grade curriculum for 12 year-olds, but as most of their work does follow Waldorf indications, we feel there is little to be lost in veering from the curriculum when necessary, when a sensible compromise serves our family’s needs.

Herein lies what I believe to be the secret of successfully working with Waldorf at home: remembering at all times that the decision to homeschool is all about family and to trust that if this decision is indeed the right one, then a way forward with one’s children’s education will be found. And, further, that this way forward will necessarily include compromise, flexibility, adaptation and a pragmatic attitude toward sanity! Trotting between several children stationed at intervals around the house, bringing a separate Main Lesson to each of them, is a good way to burn out real fast. I know people who have tried this – and I have seen the results.

Anyway, back to us... So, in addition to his stints as Homeschooling Parent, Paul’s weekly contribution to our homeschool is to teach recorder, piano, to lead jaunts around the lake on bicycle after breakfast every morning and to keep us singing. He also supervises the boys’ German lessons. He is not proficient in German so, this year, he and the boys are all working (separately) on the computer with the Rosetta Stone language software. The boys work on the computer for about 30 minutes 3 times a week. While not comparable to Waldorf school language learning this program does also take a ‘full immersion’ approach.  They have also sung together in German and read Grimms fairy tales.

My role as Homeschooling Mom includes Planning, Negotiating and Implementing – I try to avoid Nagging, Forcing or Forgetting. I also, of course, do most of the teaching.

Here’s how I figure out a yearly plan for my sons – I’ll base it on what I planned for this year. I do most of this work during the summer as I look at the upcoming academic year.

This year I have, as I mentioned, a 5^th grader and a 7^th grader. I write down the usual Waldorf Main Lessons for these grades: botany, ancient mythologies, Greek myths, Greek history, geography of the US (or whatever one’s country is) and math (fractions and intro to geometry) for the 5^th grader; and physics, history (the Age of Exploration, the Age of Discovery and the Industrial Revolution), human physiology, chemistry, astronomy and math (such as geometric proofs). Then I think about other lessons the boys will be doing: German, music, language arts, practice math, handwork and art.

Looking at this list, I figure out where to combine the boys and where to keep them separate. I think about what art projects and crafts, what practical activities and projects will bring their lessons to life. I think about goals: Gabriel (5^th grader) is finally beginning to write with confidence (composition that is) so we need to now turn our attention to spelling, punctuation and capitalization a bit more purposefully. Now that he is no longer fearful or reluctant to write a story or report, we will hone some skills. This kind of goal will run through all the various subjects we study.

The main goal with Daniel is for him to become proficient in fast calculation – he knows his way around the basic math operations but he is not fast enough, not (dare I say it) automatic in his responses to math problems, whether written or oral. In order to progress into higher math he must get over this hurdle. So we will work on short, lively and fast drills on pretty much a daily basis – flash cards, timed drills, mental math – and lots of fast-paced games will surely help.

There are obviously many other things I think about too – but this article would become another book if I listed them all! Suffice to say, one wants to also address one’s children’s particular interests (Daniel is writing a political newspaper with some friends so much of his language arts work is focused on this), needs (Gabriel needs help in actually completing some of the projects he starts on and not just forgetting about them when the going gets tough) and goals (as mentioned).

Here is what our normal schedule looks like at the moment:

§ 7:00 Get up – Paul and Daniel do some cleaning and prepare breakfast; Donna and Gabriel do chores in the barn.

§ 7.45 Breakfast followed by Paul and boys riding bikes while Donna checks e-mails

§ 8:30 Two days a week we all sing together: we are presently working on a 4-part piece by the 16^th Century composer Thomas Tallis – so far we’ve managed 2 parts! Three days a week Paul and the boys play recorder while I clean or cook.

§ 9:00 Paul in the office while I read aloud to Daniel and Gabriel. We are just about to start Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan.

§ 9:30 Daniel works on human physiology assignments which I’ve written out for him in a notebook. He reads, draws pictures, studies vocabulary, colors in a Gray’s Anatomy coloring book or copies over corrected written work from the day before. Meanwhile, Gabriel and I work on botany together. I read to him, we explore plants outside, talk, draw and do whatever else we need to do together.

§ 10:15 We switch – Daniel and I work together on physiology while Gabriel works alone on botany.

§ 11:00 Snack

§ 11:30 Depending on the day, activities vary. Possibilities include: both boys working on some pages of math problems; one boy doing German while I work on English or math with the other; one boy practicing piano or guitar while the other reads; both boys doing form drawing or painting with me.

§ 12:00 Similar to the above, but focused on things that need longer time: this is when Daniel and I might look over some of his writing together and discuss how it might improve or progress; and any work left over from the morning, especially if it is something like a complex picture or a report which needs reworking, might receive attention now. I keep an eye on their ‘free reading’ and occasionally require them to read certain books – at the moment Gabriel is reading The Case of the Baker Street Irregular by Robert Peckham and Daniel is reading The Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Green. Sometimes I give them assignments having to do with these books (rarely book reports as I find book reports are a good way to destroy interest in books). I weigh this against how much other writing they are currently doing: if they have lots of writing on their Main Lessons I require little additional writing from them. Instead, we talk about the books – something we all enjoy.

§ 1:00 Lunch and free time

§ 2:00 Usually German alternating with piano (Gabriel) or guitar (Daniel). Work outside with Paul (harvesting, spreading compost on the garden or other such jobs); handwork (sewing recorder cases at the moment; hopefully knitting socks with 4 needles in upcoming weeks) or crafts (we’re about to start carving wooden candleholders and making things for Christmas presents).

Additional activities include swimming lessons and an art class. And, of course, there are always things to do around the farm. Most afternoons are the time I do “Christopherus work” and Paul keeps things ticking over with the boys and the household.

As for laundry and cleaning and cooking, it’s a matter of either me doing things while they’re busy with their lessons or us doing things together. Saturday morning is usually (but not always!) cleaning time – as our family is home together so much, specific family time is less of an absolute need. When the roads freeze up (not long from now in Northwestern Wisconsin!) bike riding will become a half hour of cleaning and the house will hopefully look a lot better than it does at the moment!

So you can see that in many ways I have it pretty easy – my boys are very independent in much of their school work, they are (pretty much) compliant when it comes to household and other chores and my husband is at home. There are several comments I need to make about this.

1) My sons know how to work independently because, from earliest days, they needed to do so. I have always had work other than my own family work to do. Although thee is no way I could have had a business like Christopherus when they were little (believe it or not Christopherus is not even 18 months old!), we were always in communities where I worked with either developmentally disabled adults or with groups of children. For the most part, I simply combined this work with my children – at other times they needed to play or “find something to do” while I was busy. So now they are quite used to reading, writing or drawing or doing whatever alone. I really think this is an essential ability to inculcate in our children from very early on. One must be able to say “You sit here and look at these books while I work with your brother” to young children, perhaps even as young as 4 or 5. Take it slow, take it one step at a time and be creative. Don’t use the TV or videos (you might regret doing this later on when it becomes a crutch you can’t cope without) but insist that they develop the ability to be alone, even if, at first, it’s for no more than 10 minutes per day.

2) If one keeps the focus on the fact that homeschooling is about family, not merely a collection of individuals, then one can relax into it and find its benefits – not just in academics and learning skills, but in such things as sharing, cooperation, being together and helping one another. So, when everything goes wrong and the schedule goes out the window, one can remember that the simple act of creating a family life together is so important, especially in our society, that one can feel confident that this in itself is one of the most important things for your child to experience and learn. Don’t worry, the schedule will still be there when you are ready to face it again – and maybe by taking a break from it you will gain insight into how to actually make it work.

This newsletter is getting ridiculously long, so I’m going to stop now. There is much more to be said – and, of course, I address more ways of HOW TO DO IT in The Christopherus Waldorf Curriculum Overview for Homeschoolers. Those of you who have other ways of figuring it all out or questions about this are welcome to air your comments on the Waldorf at Home Yahoo discussion group [not to mention this brand-new  blog!] where there is always a lot of interest in topics like this!

Get Out of the House!

This article first appeared in the Homeschool Journey newsletter, September 2004.

My most precious childhood memories are from the brief weeks each year that I spent with my class on a working farm in the Hudson River valley in upstate New York. The Waldorf school I attended was in New York City and teachers from that school got together to create a farm for us to visit.

Squatting in damp woods sketching skunk cabbage as it emerged from the leaf litter; building a bridge across a half-frozen stream in February (and falling in!); bringing in the cows and helping milk them; and witnessing the glory of the stars on January nights, something a city kid like me had never seen before – these were life-changing experiences for me. The people who created these farm visits for us were visionaries, and knew how important it was for children to be able to connect with the land, to leave the city and classroom behind, even if only for a short while.

But mere tourist-type visits were not what they imagined. Indeed, there was a current amongst them that wished to create an entirely new form of education for children, one where agriculture, the arts and healing therapies could meet. This never materialized, although the community and school which eventually did grow up around that farm have become strong and vibrant in their own way. One of the people who advocated for such a new form of education was Karl Ege, who spoke of Rudolf Steiner’s indications that new forms of education would be needed in the future, education which centered on a training of the will. Ege, having been one of the teachers chosen by Rudolf Steiner for the original Waldorf school in Stuttgart, was in a unique position to understand what Steiner might have envisioned for the future.

Waldorf education is not simply a colorful and interesting way of transmitting information to children: rather, it is a carefully orchestrated unfolding of the soul capacities of each child. The ability to think clearly, to be heart-centered in one’s feeling like and to act with purpose and right intention – to from one’s will – are goals for each child that comes to Waldorf education. By awakening the inner capacities of the child at the right developmental moment and by educating the whole child, one works to foster and balance the child’s capacities for thinking, feeling and willing in a healthy way. By strengthening the child with a rhythmic and musical approach to life, by cultivating his feeling life in an artistic way and by grounding his intellect with a firm foundation, one truly educates holistically.

An especially important part of Waldorf education is helping children to develop their will forces, the ability to ‘bring into being’ that which is imagined, the ability to do. Sometimes, though, educators can become unbalanced, paying so much attention to the artistic and creative elements of the child’s learning that the will forces are not formed sufficiently. Watercolor painting, intricately decorated Main Lesson books and memorization of long and complicated poems are all pedagogically important – and every middle school Waldorf student is thus challenged. But, perhaps especially in our modern world, another element is needed. And that need, that need for the child’s will forces to be directly addressed, is best met by physically challenging work, such as working on the land. One needs to get children away from desks and kitchen tables, off the couch and outside where they can stretch their limbs and get some work done!

Several years ago, my family lived in an anthroposophical community on a farm in Wisconsin (just down the road from where we are now!). We had lots of visits, many for several days at a time, from school and youth groups – some Waldorf, some not. I can remember very clearly a lively group of Third Graders who visited one day as part of their Farming Main Lesson. I was in charge of the group and we were working in several teams, doing various farm chores. My team was mucking out a calf pen. This called for co-operation, teamwork, perseverance, awareness of others (pitchforks can hurt!) and sheer hard work. My attention was soon drawn to one boy, smaller than the rest, who was busy pushing a wheelbarrow from the calf pen to the manure pile. The wheelbarrows were heavy, and I was about to give him a hand when I saw something in his eye which made me hold back – his determination, his will to get the job done. Back and forth, back and forth he went, and each time he had to cross the sill of the barn door to get outside, and so had to have considerable momentum to keep moving and not lose his load. He was determined to do it by himself.

I saw his teacher watching him and went over to her. There were tears in her eyes and she told me how much trouble this child had in the classroom, how he was unmotivated to do his work, how he had problems relating to the other children. She had never seen him work like this, never seen him exert and control his will as she was witnessing on that day. And, when I saw her several weeks later for the class’ second visit, she told me how the boy had changed in class, how his will to succeed in cleaning that calf pen had carried over into the classroom.

When we give children opportunities to work, to have to exert their will and their physical bodies, then great satisfaction and sense of achievement can result. This is especially important for children of about 12 and up. As their bodies start to become heavier and more mineralized with the approach of adolescence, engaging them can feel like swimming through molasses and keeping those young limbs moving becomes critical.

Digging a garden, throwing hay bales into a hayloft, mucking out horse stalls, mowing grass (not on a ride-on mower!), raking leaves (no leaf blowers), and doing construction projects like putting up fences or making a stone wall, are all good possibilities. For you city folks snorting at this list, what about volunteer opportunities at conservation projects – and I don’t mean stuffing appeal envelopes! Surely every community is in need of young volunteers (or the young volunteered!) to help make bike paths, clear garbage from parks or mow lawns for elderly people.

When we find these opportunities on the land or in nature, other things also come into play which heighten the experience. For example, by working regularly in a wood, children come to intimately know the changes of the seasons. The turning leaves, new growth, different smells and colors all speak of the life of that wood. If every year children come to the same wood to work and to have adventures, then they also learn to appreciate change over time. The predictability of some changes such as the arrival of spring flowers and the unpredictability of other changes, along with the seeming timelessness of the great grandfather trees in that wood, all serve to locate children in the great rhythms of nature.

Creating a garden, when properly done, also takes time. Getting feel for the land, thinking about where plants might grow best, gradually bringing the soil up to fertility by yearly applications of compost... this all takes time. Where we live now, our family has spent several years talking about native shrubs, wildflower meadow, trees and fruit (not to mention fencing). Where should these things go? What makes sense on this piece of land? We need to get used to weather patters, to frost pockets and the movement of shade across our land. My sons know there is no rushing the land, no instant gardening. We were horrified recently by a neighbor who scraped off the vegetation surroun