The Homeschool Journey

A Change of Clothes

Earlier today I had a conversation with a client about Daena Ross' cd on the Twelve Senses (read my review here). This is an enormously important topic with important ramifications for the health of our children - and we will be having a study of the Twelve Senses led by yours truly starting on 29 October (2007)on my on line discussion forum (see the Christopherus homepage for more details about the forum).

 

Anyway.... we were talking about transitions and forms for her and her family of young children and I started to think about the fact that after we finished speaking I would make lunch for my husband and I - and that before I did this I would put on my apron. And so I began to tell her about when I wear my apron, how I used an apron when I was a Camphill housemother - and then expanded to talk about children and having clothes for them for various events - this is what led back to Daena Ross' talk.

 

Let me share here...

 

When I am doing Christopherus work, I just wear my normal clothes and I am totally focused on whatever task it is I have to hand. I might be doing research for a book; I might be writing a chapter; I might be writing here on my blog or contributing to the conversation on the forum; I might be talking to a client on the phone. I am in Christopherus work mode and that is what I am dressed for.

 

At around 3'o'clock I anticipate my youngest sons' arrival back from high school (my eldest will be upstairs studying for his British exams). I put my apron on. I am now in a different role - instead of walking past the dishes which need to be washed in the kitchen as I had earlier when I was in Christopherus mode and which I did not even flick my eye toward because they have nothing to do with Christopherus, I now take in the fact of those dishes and perhaps start to wash them. Or decide to do them later. But the point is, that now that I have my apron on, I am in the role to care for the house and for my family and that is where my awareness is. Christopherus is forgotten - I am now fully in the role as a homemaker.

 

By using an apron, I use a prop, as it were, to remind myself or bring attention to the various things I do in my life. Instead of going crazy trying to do everything at once, I can give different things the attention they need at the right time - and my apron is one way to help myself do this.

 

Even before we had Christopherus, when my sons were younger and no one was at school, there were definitely times when the apron was put on - I would be cleaning the house, cooking or doing other household chores. My focus was there - then the apron would come off and we'd have a story or make a craft or whatever else it was that we were doing.

 

Now I don't know if this sounds counter to some of you to what I usually say - the kind of "let's live our lives all together and no school at home" kind of thing. But I don't see it as contradicting that at all. It's about being conscious - and about finding a way to bring one's full attention to matters at hand when one chooses - when one puts that apron on - and then at other times choosing to have one's consciousness elsewhere.

 

Related to this is having different clothes for different events. And that goes for children. It seems odd to me that many adults I know take it for granted that they will dress up when they go to a restaurant but do not require that their children do so. Or even Church!! When my family goes to Church we dress for Church - but this is not universal. And I must be honest - it pains me to see children at Church in their jeans, in their playclothes.

 

Why? Because they then have not been required to make that inner gesture of pulling themselves into a different mood, a different consciousness for playtime and then for something special like Church (or Temple or the Mosque) or, yet again, for going out to a restaurant or a museum or similar. They are not helped to realize "this is something special - we act differently here."

 

And again, we adults know this and do this!! We don't expect our friends or relations to lounge about in a restaurant and put their feet up and scratch and whatever in a restaurant as they might do at home - and so we do our hair, put on nice clothes etc etc. But yet often parents don't help their children to have this same experience - instead they let them wear whatever they happen to be wearing. And then are surprised perhaps that it can be hard to help the children behave properly during the special outing.

 

Back to Daena Ross - she has really interesting things to say about this on her recording. She talks about what it means for a child to have playclothes, nice clothes and best clothes and what it means for them as a soul gesture to have to be awake to the differences that these different sets of clothes require. Children should have clothes that can get ripped and filthy - but they should also have nice clothes for going out in - and then have that cue that this is not the time to be swinging from the trees or racing about. And then when it is time to do something really special, to attend a House of Worship, best clothes are put on and the child learns - not because he is being chastised or told off  but because the clothes require it - to adjust himself and his behavior accordingly.

Reading and Telling Stories

One of the hallmarks of Waldorf education is the practice that teachers have of telling stories to their class. Lessons are not a series of points from the teacher's notes, or passages from a text book. There are no power point presentations, no slide shows, no worksheets. Everything comes from the teacher and is presented to the children.

 

Or almost everything - and this differs from the earliest grades to the highest. In first and second grade what I say holds - everything comes from the teacher - though there might be a time during the day when he reads aloud to the children froma book. But all the main lesson material, foreign language, art - all the lessons flow from him.

 

The idea here is that the teacher is seen as the source of knowledge. Steiner tells us that the teacher in the grade school years must love his students (and do all the inner work necessary to make sure this is so) and that they love him. This relationship based on love strengthens and nurtures the feeling life of the child. And in the grade school years, in the second stage of the child's life, from 7 through 14, she is most in need of strengthening her heart center. In the first stage, birth through 7, the will is worked on - via imitation, via strong rhythms, via activity. In this second stage, as the child comes into her sense of "I", her need is to feel safe, secure and to enter fully into life. Artistic activity encourages the heart forces as do interesting story material of the great men and woman who have shaped history, flowing from the warmth of a beloved teacher. As she heads toward adolescence and into the third stage of childhood (14 to 21) she is now ready to really stretch and deepen her intellectual powers. She is fully in her body, grounded and balanced and her heart forces are open to receiving the knowledge of the world. She is ready to become the fully integrated adult that Steiner talks about - one who thinks clear thoughts, warmed by compassion and which she can bring to fruition in the world. She can think, feel and act.

 

This is a major reason why the bulk of the material the children receive in Waldorf schools flow from that teacher. Other reasons include the fact that the teacher can also adapt the material to suit the needs of that particular class, weaving in  references from previous lessons, giving hints of things to come. And, he can also take into account the temperaments of the children, skillfully adjusting his narrative to speak to all the children - to the excitable sanguines, the suspicious melancholics, the explosive cholerics and to the solid phlegmatics.

 

A further reason for the emphasis on the teacher telling the stories is that the children experience the teacher as a creative person, as a source of knowledge. Instead of books - instead of Other People as being the Ones Who Know, the children can see that anyone can know, can tell, can share, can be a story teller. And as much of the classroom time is a group activity whereby the children are revisiting and retelling the stories from the previous day before experiencing them artistically, they learn the art of being story tellers, of being verbally adroit, of being able, eventually, to teach others.

 

Now.... what about reading aloud? Do the teachers do any of that? Of course. As I already said, the teachers in all grade read good books to their class and the children are, of course, encouraged to read for pleasure when they are able to. Great authors are revered, and there would certainly never be an attempt to re-tell a classic that needs to be experienced as a book! But.... even in high school, the bulk of the lessons take a narrative form. So this morning, when I was teaching Comedy and Tragedy to my class of 9th graders at the Waldorf high school where I teach, I wove a narrative about the history of Greek theatre. The students sat, rapt, l;listening. Then we moved on to the play which we are currently working on - Electra by Sophocles. I shared out parts, clumped the extra students into the chorus and off we went. We;'d stop every once in while ("Can anyone tell me what that passage actually meant?") for conversation, then back to our play.

 

In the classroom next door, a colleague is teaching the junior about meteorology. He spends half the morning talking about cloud formations, the relative positions of the hemispheres..... all sorts of thing. They butt in when they have a question or comment, and so they also discuss the material. Then they spend the other half of the class working on presentations, doing reading, drawing diagrams into their main lesson books, etc etc.

 

And at home? Ah well..... what do we do at home? When my sons were home (they are both at high school now) we wove a combination of reading aloud, them reading alone and me presenting material. Sometimes I'd tell them about things - the French revolution, the story of Isis and Osiris, the life of Madam Curie, the story of Saint Francis. Other times I would read to them - from D'Aulaire's Norse Gods and Goddesses, from a Joe Bruchac Native American story, from a book of poetry.... Or, after about 4th grade, I would hand them a book and ask them to read a section. And then we'd talk about it. Or, as they got older, I wouldn't know as much and they'd teach me - my younger son's 8th grade project on Napoleon was a case in point - I brushed up briefly on the life of Napoleon so I could ask him intelligent questions, but he filled me in on the details of Napoleon's life.

 

So it's a mixture, whether one is in a Waldorf classroom or at home. And of course, if one has a number of children or the baby's ill or husband is working late, then it just might be that for a time there is less you telling the material and more let's look this up together. That's fine, that's real life. But.... there is certainly something to be said for the adult to be able to present material - if not all the time, if not most of the time, even just some of the time! - out of herself. She can warm it with her love, she can weave it into her own words, she can adjust it to refer to things her child is interested in. And she can model to her child the wonderful picture of the adult, the known and loved person, as being an authority in something.

 

Which isn't to say that cuddling on the couch together looking something up, sharing a story or similar aren't also wonderful experiences. But.... sharing out of yourself, sharing your interest in the story, the person, the science project, the math problems that you're presenting to your child is a wonderful experience for every homeschooling family. And Waldorf presents many opportunities for it!

Educating for Excellence

Sometimes I get the feeling that people forget to look beyond the "fluffy pink" beginnings of Waldorf and do not know much of where the education they are working with is aiming. Sometimes the Waldorf bubble encapsulates the parent as well - and she might not remember that the aim of such an education is definitely not to keep her child in a bubble for very long - and it certainly is never meant to keep her there!

 

A couple of months ago I had a consultation with someone who, over the years, has become more of a friend than a client or customer. I have met her and her family and her occasional contributions on my old yahoo group were highly valued. She was telling me about her experience of attending an end of year 8th grade projects display several years in a row at a very prestigious and well established Waldorf school in the Northeast and how disappointed she was in what the students had produced. Somewhat hesitantly, she "admitted" that she had hopes that after a Waldorf at home education (which might or might not include Waldorf school at some point) that her children would be able to attend Ivy League colleges.

 

I was surprised - not by her hopes for her children - but by the fact that it would even cross one's mind that Waldorf children might not be ready for such institutions should that be the direction in life that they choose! Most of my graduating class attended selective colleges or Ivies when I graduated and my relationship to Waldorf education has always been one of pursuing academic excellence.

 

After speaking with my friend, I began to think about this - perhaps there are some people who feel that either Waldorf does not prepare a child for "life" (whatever that means) or that academics are not important. I began to think more deeply on this.

 

And then I had to admit that I have had, over the years, a number of experiences with Waldorf schools that made me think that perhaps it is so that academics are not as strongly valued as they might be in some schools. I can remember being in an 8th grade classroom at a school where I was giving a conference perusing through the bookshelves to see what the class was reading and was shocked at the low reading level of the books! I found books that really, 6th graders should have been reading, not 8th graders. Where I teach, some students come into the high school never having read a novel. And math - well - middle years math in many Waldorf schools is in a sorry state (however, largely due to the work of people like Jamie York in Colorado, real efforts are underway to improve this situation and bring math to the very high and demanding level that is intended in Waldorf education.)

 

And that's the point - Waldorf is meant to start slow, very slow and then, because the children are ready and because they are engaged on all levels with a curriculum that resonates with their very souls, they are meant to be able to reach very high summits of academic achievement. This certainly remains the case in many Waldorf schools. But.... not only do I see a bit of a slide toward allowing younger children into first grade and pushing academics a little earlier on the one hand (and this seems to be mainly a West Coast phenomena) but also a weakening of academics in the upper grades.

 

We are homeschoolers - we can address this possible problem in our own homes. We can get to grips with the curriculum and its demands and really work deeply with out children so that academic excellence is theirs - though, of course, not at the expense of their emotional or physical well-being or at the expense of the equally important development of their other faculties. But this is the point - it is via art, via movement that academic potential is realized and developed. One does not come at the expense of the other! Should school administrators in the public schools finally realize this, the education system in this country would be revolutionized and America might become a nation of well educated thinking people.... But that doesn't seem to be on the agenda.

 

Back to homeschooling, we are so fortunate to be able to work freely with our children, supporting them and nurturing them in their early years and then preparing them to really fly as they head toward adolescence. Instead of the dumbed down garbage which passes for reading material and the mind numbing worksheets and exercises that the vast majority of children in this country are subjected to on a daily basis, we can challenge our children with real books and with meaningful learning that is artistic, interesting and which stretches them to develop their thinking capacities. Instead of only viewing logical linear thinking as worthwhile, we can let our little ones remain in their picture consciousness stage until they are ready to move onto the next stage of thinking, knowing that more than ever before in history, human beings need the ability to be flexible in their thinking. Instead of viewing art as a nice thing to do if there's time, we can work via art, educating out children holistically so that not only will they be flexible in their thinking but creative in their lives as well. And we can educate via movement, not regarding the body as some extra thing that needs its daily 30 minute cardio-vascular attention, but as the vehicle via which children learn about the world.

 

Waldorf education's aim is academic excellence - holistic, flexible, creative excellence. Not all children grow up to attend Ivy League schools. They may become farmers or craftspeople or artists or walk some other path no one has even thought of yet. That is fine and does not mean that they are any less worthy of receiving a training in thinking and in knowledge that is the basis of the Waldorf high school years. But the point is that academic excellence can and should be firmly in the consciousness of every parent who chooses Waldorf education. It is precisely because of the early years Waldorf bubble that this becomes possible for most children, regardless of what path they choose to walk later in life. Academic excellence is not for the few - it is for the vast majority.

Hiring a Waldorf teacher

(This is a post from my old yahoo group which I have reworked. The original question had to do with suggestions for hiring a Waldorf teacher to work with a mixed age Waldorf co-op).

To be perfectly honest, this is an area where I see many, many problems - I see situations where groups/co-ops hire a Waldorf teacher and it often becomes a disaster. And often for the reason you describe - the teacher, because of a rather narrow and classroom focus on Waldorf education, is unwilling/unable to work with mixed ages.

 

IMy opinion is that any group who wants to bring in a teacher or advisor needs to be absolutely clear that they are first and foremost homeschoolers - that their children are not not in Waldorf schools simply because, for whatever reason, it hasn't been possible. Even if that is so for some folks, I would advise that they think carefully about that mindset because it can seriously undermine one's confidence and abilities as a homeschooler.

 

This can also be the case with a group. If the teacher is disapproving - because people don't quite follow the curriculum or add in things from other educational methods, or combine children or have no problem with 10 year old non readers, then this can wreck havoc! I have seen this a lot!

 

I would suggest, as I said in the first paragraph, that this is mainly down to the fact that the person has been trained for a Waldorf classroom situation and because s/he is unfamiliar with homeschooling - and how vastly different it is. I spend more and more time in workshops I give - and considerable time in my books - explaining that one simply cannot transfer classroom methodology to a home situation. With groups it is somewhat different - but the exciting challenges (for the Waldorf teacher) mainly have to do with the realife family situations they face - ie mixed age children.

 

So I often gently advise people to think long and hard before hiring a Waldorf teacher to work with their group. If that person's role is to teach parents handwork, painting and other skills so that they can bring this to their children - then great! But if that person and the Way Things Are Done becomes the main focus for people's homeschooling - and, more importantly, a measuring stick of how they "perform" at home - then I say Beware!  This can be so undermining! You homeschoolers - all of you - need to be enabled and empowered to create your own homeschools! Bottom line!

 

Having said all that, there are certainly examples of a Waldorf teacher working with a group and this being a great thing. Often, I have seen, parents drift off after a while, having gotten what they need from that person's guidance and then being able to create the forms themselves. And sometimes that Waldorf teacher's motive has been to eventually create a new Waldorf school - and I've seen where that becomes wonderful for the parents who want the school and not so great for the ones who prefer to homeschool! An example of where I saw a Waldorf teacher working with homeschoolers very succesfully - and with mixed age children - is in Minneapolis, where a eurythmist holds weekly sessions  for homeschoolers which are apparently both popular and enormously beneficial.

 

My suggestion is that you get advice from someone like me or Barbara Dewey (Waldorfwithoutwalls) who understand (and in my case is a ) homeschoolers.  I can help talk through how a group can work together and create their own unique group or co-op as they explore both Waldorf and homeschooling.

 

I feel rather strongly about this.  I taught in a small Waldorf school in England where we combined children in many different ways. Although this was considered not ideal by several of the teachers, as far as I could see, the benefits far outweighed the drawbacks. And from my deep study of Waldorf education, I also see where Steiner was more than clear that there are possibilities for combining children (see my Curriculum Overview for more on this). And I also spend an awful lot of time repairing damage done - both to individuals and to Waldorf education as a whole I feel - by narrow people who have a rather limited way of working with Waldorf and an uncreative way of expressing that to parents!

Fall Festivals

If you work with the "Waldorf calendar" of festivals, then you know that these next few months are busy ones. Michaelmas, Martinmas, Advent.... Succos, harvest festivals, Channukah, Solstice and Christmas are all on the way.

 

We are currently having an in-depth converstion/study on festivals on my Waldorf at Home forum - we are looking at why celebrating festivals are such an important part of family life and how Waldorf/anthroposophical views speak to this. How does one consciously create festivals? What inner work does one do as an adult? What speaks to children?  Please consider joining us!

 

You also might find it useful to have a look at the Seasons and Festivals section of this blog - there you'll find a number of entries I have written about various festivals. To further this, you might like to also look through the Religion and Spirituality section. And we also have the music to two popular Fall festival songs on our website, I Go With My Little Lantern , Saint Martin, and A Knight and a Lady.

 

Want more? If you're after craft, song and verse ideas, then do go to the archives of my old yahoo group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waldorf_at_home  to find lots and lots of ideas. Though the group is closed to posts (and has been for almost a year since I launched the discussion forum) the archives remain open to anyone who is a member of the group. Search the names of the various festivals plus festivals in general and you should come up woth a treasure trove of ideas and inspiration!

Team Sports - what age?

It can be challenging sometimes to decide when it is appropriate to allow children to engage in organized sport - does one say yes when the child shows interest or are there some guiding principles to keep in mind?

 

For those working with Waldorf education, it is helpful to look for some guidance from its picture of child development. For the first seven years, the  child is understood to be slowly coming into her body, of slowly severing her ties with the spiritual worlds and having very different ways of relating to the world than adults or even older children. If one thinks that this is true picture of the young child, then one can readily see that organized sports, on the whole, are not appropriate for this age range.

 

Anything which brings heightened self consciousness and self awareness - a feeling of separation - is not in keeping wit the needs of very young children. To be on a team, one has to have a sense of self as well as a sense for the team. One has to be aware of what one is doing, both as an individual and in relation to the other players. One has to be wide awake, to react to the ball, for instance. This is exactly opposite to the dreamy sense of oneness that is the natural state of little children and which should be preserved until they themselves grow out of it.

 

Further, in order to work to strengthen the rhythmic center of the child, the breathing in and breathing out which helps him find a balanced relationship to the world, movement which has a strong musical element should be favored. Ring games, especially those with sing-songy verses are best for little ones and are what they seek out naturally. Of course, every little child would like to join in when the big kids are playing baseball or soccer, but left to their own devices, most young children will drift in and out of such games and spend more time watching and imitating than actually joining in. This obviously isn't possible when they've been signed up to join a team!

 

By 9, as the child reaches and passes the hallmark "nine year change", she has sufficiently developed a sense of self to be able to participate fully and appropriately in team sports. She has "grown into herself" and is developing a strong sense of who she is as an individual. This is the year (third grade) in Waldorf schools when children carry speaking parts in plays and when they learn to sing and play music in parts. To stand on one's own feet, in one's sense of selfhood, is becoming important.

 

And, as she learns to be her true self, the child also needs to learn how to interact appropriately with others. Team sports can be an excellent way to learn cooperation, team work and sharing and should be a part of every child's life starting around age 9 or 10. (This doesn't mean, however, that they need to play on a team all the time - one or two seasons on a soccer or baseball team might be sufficient for many!)

 

Further, as the child stretches into adolescence, she also needs to ground her growing intellect with a sense of her own body and physicalness. Sports - whether in teams or on an individual level - should also include competition at this point. She needs to learn how to push herself, how to develop strategies, how to win - and how to lose. Somewhere along the line many Waldorf people seem to have lost healthy sense for competition and I think this is a real mistake. Cut-throat competition might not be either useful or healthy - but learning how to win and lose are important parts of life. At one 5th grade pentathalon competition ( perhaps 'gathering' is a more accurate word ) I attended all the children got awards and individual rounds were weighed to ensure everyone won something. I find this patronizing to children and a far cry from a pedagogy which recognizes that though one might have few abilities in one area of life, there is always a place where one excels. Thus losing or doing very poorly at something like sports is no shame.

 

As always, it comes down to the attitude of the adults. If losing a hockey game is akin to treachery, if an adult's own pain at losing gets in the way of the child's,  or if children are shamed, then winning and losing become not healthy life lessons but agonizing pain. But if the adults - parents, coaches, teachers and so on - have a good natured sense of fair play and a "it's great if you win but not the end of the world if you lose" attitude, then I think organized sport can offer children some of the most important lessons in human interaction available.