The Homeschool Journey

Original or Copied Work?

One of the perennial questions asked to teachers at Waldorf schools is "Why do the children all paint the same pictures? Why don't you leave them free to draw or paint whatever they want?" Such questions usually arise after a cursory glance round a first or second grade classroom where a wall might be covered in the class' paintings of a scene from a fairy tale. The questioner has only looked quickly at the pictures and seen similar figures and colors and drawn the conclusion that all the pictures are the same. Had he or she looked more closely, she would have discovered that each picture is different - this child used more red, overwhelming the blue; this child used so much water that the colors are faint, almost washed out; this child painted with a dry brush, giving a harsh and bright feel to the painting; and so on. And of course, to the children, each picture is completely different - no child gets his picture confused with that of another!

 

Having said that, there is, of course, similarity because the children have been told to copy what the teacher painted. Herein lies the unspoken words beneath the question - this is unfree. There is no individual expression here.

 

Waldorf education is based on a sophisticated understanding of child development, one that takes not only the physical and intellectual sides of the child into account, but addresses his emotional and spiritual needs as well. One small piece of this is the understanding that young children learn by imitation - it is their natural way of apprenticing into the world (see other entries on this blog for more on this). Imitation is at its height in about the 5th year - but it is still strong in a 6 or 7 year old and vestiges remain in an 8 year old. By 9, as the child moves through the 9 year change and experiences an awakening of selfhood, imitation fades.

 

And so in the early grades, the teacher does and the children follow. The teacher gestures, speaks, plays, works, draws, paints etc etc - and the children do as she does.  They are laying a foundation, a template as it were, a basis on which to stand.  Each chiod will bring something of himself, of his individuality to what he is learning (thus the discernable differences in the paintings) but he will, nonetheless, share a basis with his classmates. They are collecting information, taking in skills, modeling behaviors. And when they are old enough to become truly conscious of their selves in relation to their surroundings (ie starting at about 9) they then can move away from  copying and start to become involved in real and meaningful choices.

 

The crucial point here, is that without laying these foundations, the children then have little or nothing to stand upon when it is time for them to actually begin to stand apart from adults (parents and teachers). Without the moral guidance of boundaries and the picture images of right and wrong from stories; without the language skills learned from repetition and rhythm such as singing and circle games; without such skills as drawing, painting and other arts, they then have to learn these things anew. They are at a huge disadvantage as they then need to struggle to consciously learn what they should have been given as a gift while they were not yet conscious.

 

Back to artistic work such as drawing or painting, one can clearly see the advantages of such an approach. By allowing the children to copy the teacher's work and thus build up their skills, confidence and aesthetic sensibilities. one gently ushers each child into a world where all human beings are creative and artistic - not just a select few. No 5 year old says "I can't draw" out of himself - he has acquired this attitude from somewhere else if it rears its ugly head. All children accept their ability to draw and paint - and by working with their inborn proclivity for imitation, one can build up this acceptance into the years when a child becomes self aware and starts to judge himself by what others achieve.

 

And certainly, some children have a gift for drawing or painting (or a myriad of other things). That's fine. But the point is that by allowing children to copy an adult's artistic work and to build this foundation of knowledge which he can create because he can copy, then it is far more likely that that child will not give up if he is one who does not possess a gift for art. Have a look at the main lesson books of older Waldorf students and you will see a clear example of what I am talking about. All the books will be beautiful and artistic - some will be real works of art, some will leave something to be desired, but all will be expressions of the student's creative powers. And that is the gift which we wish our children to carry into the world - the belief and knowledge that they are creative human beings.

Waldorf Education and Social Renewal

Back in January (2006) I was able to attend a weekend workshop on Waldorf Education and Social Renewal  at the City of Lakes Waldorf School in Minneapolis, hosted by the Novalis Institute and featuring Gary Lamb of the Institute for Social Renewal.

I first met Gary when our family lived (briefly) in Harlemville, NY about 9 years ago, and subsequently subscribed to the magazine which he co-edited, The Threefold Review (the Institute for Social Renewal has a few articles from the magazine, which is no longer published, up on their website). I always appreciated Gary's clarity and  in particular his clearly articulated position that government should not rightfully be in the business of providing education and that Waldorf education is best served by steering clear of the State.

Gary has dedicated himself to exploring the apparent conundrum of having Waldorf education be both indepedent of the State and accessible to all. This was an important part of what Gary had to say during this weekend. Towards the end of the weekend Gary pointed to Educational Tax Credits as a practical step toward this goal. He is personally involved with the campaign in New York State to create such a possibility (see www.teachnys.org). The picture to the right shows Gary with Patrice Maynard of AWSNA - the Association of Waldorf Schools of N. America. (This is taken from a report about the tax credit campaign in the latest issue of the Institute for Social Renewal's e-mail newsletter: subscribe here).

So, Gary's essential thesis was that Waldorf education originated in and cannot be separated from "social renewal". He talked about the founding of the first Waldorf school in Stuttgart, Germany in 1919 for the children of the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory workers and developed a discussion of Rudolf Steiner's views of social renewal and his conceptualization of the threefold nature of human society, whereby a healthy balance is found between the economic life (keyword: fraternity, brother/sisterhood), the political/legal life (keyword: equality) and the 'spiritual-cultural' sphere (keyword: freedom). Following Steiner, Gary firmly placed education in the spiritual-cultural sphere (along with art, science and religion) and described the need for all education to be free from the control of both economic forces (primarily big business) and political forces (the State) - not just Waldorf education.

Gary described a positive role for the State in ensuring the right of all children to an education but he feels that we badly need to unhook that concept from the idea of the State providing education through government schools. Similarly businesses have a part to play in funding education but only in the context of educators (in the classroom) having the authority to decide what the children they are working with need.

I thought that Gary was really inspiring when he described Steiner's view of Waldorf education (or, really, any true education) as constantly evolving, depending upon the changing needs and nature, not of the government or business, but of children. Steiner essentially said that if one is teaching exactly the same way one taught even five years ago one is not meeting the real human beings in front of one. This is why state-mandated curricula and standards are a nonsense.

Robert Karp, who had come all the way from Milwaukee, suggested that modern children's paramount need might be an education that has a therapeutic nature and that this side of Waldorf education may need to be further developed and emphasized.

There were a couple of us Waldorf homeschoolers present at the workshop. Laurel pointed out that homeschooling very much stands in the stream of education independent of state control, though I expressed concern that 'virtual academies' and 'home-based' public school initiatives represented a dangerous blurring of the line between homeschooling and state-controlled education. (This is why Christopherus Homeschool Resources signed the 'We Stand for Homeschooling' resolution a couple of years ago.)

Gary described a situation - the latest step being No Child Left Behind - of increasingly centralized and big business-driven public education. While Gary chose during this weekend not to address the issue of Waldorf Charter schools and 'Waldorf methods' public education, it was clear that he feels this is not the time to compromise on the ideal of education free from political control.

Gary also had interesting things to say about the governance of Waldorf schools in relation to threefolding. He feels that most of the serious problems in the Waldorf schools in the US are issues of the middle, 'rights' sphere (justice, fairness and how things are done) rather than problems of pedagogy or funding. However, he did say that the struggle to adequately fund Waldorf schools is a big strain as well.

I was left with questions around 'social renewal' in the 21st century. Although basic social inequality still exists as it did in 1919 it is now generally accepted that all children deserve an education worthy of a human being (even if one considers that public education doesn't provide that), which was one of Steiner's foundational principles in creating the Waldorf school (as was the co-education of boys and girls which is now also the general rule). Perhaps we can say that in all areas of social life we need creative, free-thinking and compassionate individuals and that Waldorf is precisely working to that end in the education of young people.

I was also left wondering how his model of intersecting spheres within a Waldorf school related to our high school in Viroqua, the Youth Initiative High School, with its much greater level of student participation in governance than in other Waldorf schools.

-- Paul

New Articles on the Website

Announcing three new articles posted to the Christopherus website Articles section:

Fool's Gold is the summary of the Alliance for Childhood's extensive report on children and computers. You'll find the summary here and the original 99-page report can be found at the Alliance's website.

We have another two articles from the British Waldorf journal Steiner Education (formerly Child and Man). We are very pleased to have been given permission to reprint articles from this journal. Anyone interested in subscribing to Steiner Education can see here for details.

Environmentally Friendly has a slightly misleading title: it is a short piece written by a teacher at the Waldorf school in Nairobi, Kenya (Liz Braun) containing an example of a lower grades nature story.

Sleep -  From A Parent's Point of View is an excellent article on the significance of sleep for our children. The last words are:

When we hear Waldorf teachers saying that education only really happens in sleep, we as parents must surely feel some sense of responsibility and play our part in this total education of our children. They need our love and care in sleeping as well as in their waking and day-dreaming lives.

We hope you find these articles interesting and useful!

-- Paul

Rhythmic Play

In many different places - on this blog, in books and articles I've written - I refer to rhythmic play. I often get asked about this. So I will try to explain here what I mean by this term. And I should say that sometimes I refer to  it as formed play or relaxed play - depends on what mood I'm in when I choose the word that most appeals at the time!

 

In general, one can understand such play as having something to do with breathing in and breathing out - of active times alternating with quieter times. When one watches such play, one is aware of how relaxed yet focused the children are. There is a synergy between them, though there may be quarrels and disagreements, these don't dominate. One might think of watching a flock of starlings or sparrows to get a picture of what I mean: the birds occasionally squabble or argue over a choice feeding spot, but there is harmony in their movements and the flock as a whole is not disturbed. Rather, the pecking and shoving of a few birds is effortlessly absorbed by the healthy movements of the flock as a whole.

 

One can contrast this to the unformed play of a child who does not really know how to play. It is frantic, disjointed and usually uncomfortable for an adult (at least for a sensitive adult) to watch. If one looks closely, one can observe that often the child is holding his breath, is cramped up, has a lot of tension in his neck and chest region. There is no breathing in and breathing out. And when such children are in a group, there is a feeling of discordance, of selves hitting up against each other. There is no sense of a whole.

 

I think the role of the adult is important in these situations  - especially if all this is new to one's family.  One needs to think of ways to "kick start" play, to start the children off with a game or set up a play scenario for them. Here, the adult is not playing with the child, but holding the space as it were. The adult remains busy with her own work, her own tasks, keeping a strong and peaceful presence, and the children drift in and out of her aura, sometimes helping her, sometimes doing their own, equally important work/play. If trouble arises, the adult can come in, not as the voice of doom or the voice of peace negotiations, but as the one who can recreate the space and help the children find their balance again. This means, therefore, neither telling off anyone who is naughty nor  setting up a mini therapy session to explore the implications of not sharing! Rather, it means the adult will come in and, in a way that is appropriate for the age of the children, and help them to reform their play. So she might say to a couple of squabbling 5 year olds - "Poor dollie! She doesn't like to be fought over. Here - Jane, you set up her bed, Theo, you find her a warm blanket and Rose and Jill, you sing her a song." Children almost always respond to imaginative age appropriate direction. And with older ones , say of 9 and up, humor is usually best - "Daryl, what kind of silly behavior is that? Does that couch look like a trampoline?! I don't think so! Ok fellows, outside and let's see who can do the highest jump on the trampoline!" And this is said with a smile and a touch of playfulness - not in a voice dripping with unsaid recrimination!

 

A child who really knows how to play and whose life is held and carried in a strong rhythm can fully relax into her play. She might spontaneously talk or sing to herself - and the rhythms which she internalizes are expressed through skipping, hopping and the whole harmonious , musical quality which she expresses through her physical being. Herein lies one of the most powerful aides to good health that we can provide our children - and its expression is through play, through the relaxed rhythmic play that is the natural birthright of all children.