The Homeschool Journey

Defending Oak Meadow

(here is a post from my yahoo group, Waldorf At Home which I wrote about Oak Meadow)

 

I think there is much to recommend OM and I also have found useful information in reading some of their materials - as I have found useful information from the likes of Charlotte Mason, John Holt and Maria Montessori.

 

But being holistic and respecting the child, while being characteristic of Waldorf are not solely hallmarks of Waldorf - the same characteristics could be said to be hallmarks of the educational philosophies founded by the people I mention above. But Montessori, CM and unschooling, whilst all sharing a few characteristics with Waldorf are, at essence, planets away. And this is not (necessarily!! - grin!) a value judgment - it is a statement of fact in terms of the grounding of these educational approaches and their very different foundational cores.

Likewise, OM, although founded by Waldorf teachers - and so having a few small things in common with Waldorf - is not, at essence, Waldorf.  And despite some people's reluctance to define Waldorf out of fear of perhaps sounding dogmatic, it is entirely possible to  say "what is Waldorf"! One can easily identify things about Waldorf pedagogy which are clearly discernible and which do not feature in Oak Meadow.

Again - this does not mean that by using OM someone forever loses any karmic Waldorf cred they might have ever had or might ever earn in future!! I , for one, have used all sorts of things - and adapted them as I see fit. One could imagine a model Waldorf homeschooler (you all do realize I'm being playful here I hope!!) who uses no Waldorf curric of any shape or kind! She might be able, out of her own relationship to anthroposophy and to Waldorf to be able to create a wonderful Waldorf homeschool for her children! So it's not the materials themselves, necessarily, which determine whether one is really working deeply - or at all - with Waldorf.  In all my publications I repeatedly stress where I think things from Waldorf might or might not be easily adapted at home and give suggestions for how one might do that.  And I often suggest materials that are not Waldorf in the slightest.  Further, I also list OM as a possible resource for people to use so that they can truly create the homeschool they want.

So for me, this is not a matter of purity - it is a matter of clarity. For instance: OM  use form drawing, but do not put it into a proper context (which could only be done with a clear explanation of Waldorf pedagogy). One is therefore left with a very shallow and misleading relationship to this therapeutic art. Again, in the kindergarten book there is a paragraph where Steiner is actually mentioned - but misleadingly so, leaving one with the impression that he advocated teaching letters in kindergarten!So there are these fragments of Waldorf  - but no summary of their relationship to Waldorf is printed in the books or in their catalogue so parents who are looking for Waldorf buy OM thinking they have found it. This is what I have a problem with. If parents buy and use OM because they like it, because it's right for them - and know that it's not Waldorf but that's fine with them - then that's wonderful!

So for me the point is not "Is OM a holistic curric?" or not - it clearly, in its own way, is. And that's fine. But it has this unclear relationship to Waldorf which is not explained - and although one might be able to find articles like the one posted on their web site which give something of their background, there is no clarity about this either in their catalog or in the books themselves - or at least not the many volumes from the grades which I have looked at. And for me the problem is that parents are left thinking that OM is a Waldorf curriculum when it is clearly not.

 

Lastly, the fact that Oak Meadow has recently cheerfully embraced an on-line format means that they have more clearly broken whatever tenuous links that have had with Waldorf.  I can't see how anyone could say that they are "doing Waldorf" and use an on-line curriculum - even with high school students! I would, of course, like to give OM the benefit of the doubt and hope that the materials on the computer are for the parents, not for the students. I am interested in hearing people's experience of this.

 

 

The Well Trained Mind and Waldorf

(here is another old post of mine from my yahoo group, Waldorf at Home. This one comes from a thread about Waldorf and classical education. I would like to call it "so-called classical education" - see my quote at the end of this entry!)

 

While not wishing to be offensive here, I am amazed that anyone who has delved into Waldorf and Classical (by which I mean Well Trained Mind approach - there are also other approaches called Classical ) could find anything in common between the two ways of educating children other than the fact that they do indeed work with children!  I should think the title to Bauer's book gives a good clue as to how different it is from Waldorf - Waldorf is anathema to anything having to do with "training" of a mind! I have looked in Susan Wise Bauer's work extensively - articles she and her daughter have written plus the Well Trained Mind plus their language arts book - they are as different from Waldorf as one could get! I was so appalled by the mechanistic approach WTM takes to language arts that it actually inspired me to write my own language arts book!

 

What on earth have they in common? WTM teaches academics to kindergarteners, does not teach via art, does not teach via the body, does not explicitly work from a spiritual perspective, has a totally different view of the developing child and human being.... Its methodology is organized according to beliefs about the different stages a child goes through - but these stages and the implications of them are as different from those in Waldorf as one could get! In Waldorf the curriculum is crafted according to developmental changes in the child - why Old Testament  stories are given in third grade, why physics in 6th, why Parzival in 11th arise out of what is happening on a physical, soul, and intellectual level in the child.

I'll give some examples - Page 67 (WTM) "Remember, you want the child to read quickly, easily, early. Many children are ready to learn long before they have the muscular coordination to write. Why delay reading until the muscles of the hand and eye catch up?" Why indeed.

Page 79 "Spelling is the first step in writing. Before you can put a word on paper, you have to know what letters to use". Diametrically opposite to the Waldorf approach which is not merely "whole word" (mainly) in orientation - but whole sense of the sentence, paragraph etc.

Page 85 "try to give the child simplified versions of the original literature that he'll be reading in the higher grades..." In Waldorf one would never water down literature - either you read it to the child in confidence that the power of what you are reading will speak on some level to the child or you wait until s/he is capable on his own to read the work.

Page 235 "A classical approach first explains the properties of brick, wood,concrete, plaster, steel; then teaches the prospective builder to read a plan; and only then sets him on the task of house building". Classical goes from part to whole - it is absolutely intrinsic to Waldorf that one goes from whole to part.

I could go  on.... and I have no wish to embarrass anyone or poo-poo anyone's choices - but let's be really clear. Classical and Waldorf go together like oil and water! Which doesn't mean one can't take from wherever one wants when creating one's own homeschool. But let's be really clear on the foundational basics of the methods of education being discussed - they are about as far apart as one could get! Their very orientation, their very ideas as what a child is and how he learns and what and how he should learn are poles apart.

 

Here is a quote from author Barry Sanders which I use in my language arts book, Living Language. This quote tells me that those modern people who claim to base their educational methodology on what was does in Greece during the Classical period have missed a rather fundamental component to the Ancient Greek ideas on education:

 

The Ancient Greeks called education mousike, Modern English "music", because they danced and clapped and sang out loud their mathematics and poetry and rhetorical exercises. Aristotle makes no distinction between rhythm and education, between motion and emotion. In both cases, one is "moved".

Last Year At Home

I can't believe school only started two weeks ago! I feel like it's all I think, breath and do - and that it is Life. How could it only be two weeks old?!

 

Of course, by school, I not only mean my youngest's last year at home - I also mean the Waldorf high school where I teach. I go in every day (3 minute drive, 10 minute walk) though sometimes, like today, it's only to teach one class. Today is Life Skills. I have a group of between 20 and 40 mixed age high schoolers and we mainly focus on things like sex, drugs, relationships and similar fun stuff. Last week we had a visitor from Viterbo University in La Crosse WI who spoke about the ethics of leadership, an important issue in our school where the students are involved in every level of decision-making. As a follow-up, today I am going to play some team building and leadership games with them.

 

That's one class - others are English (Hamlet and creative writing with the seniors); social studies (the Bill of Rights with a mixed age class); and three main lessons spread through the year - poetry (10th gr), comedy and tragedy (a literature class for the 9th grade) and zoology (10th grade).

 

And then there are Meetings: meetings about why someone skipped school or isn't coping with things; meetings with other English faculty to discuss who's teaching what when; meetings with parents to reassure them about the Life Skills curriculum; meetings with other faculty about our relationship to the larger Waldorf movement.

 

Oh - and homeschooling Gabriel! Fortunately, as a 13 year old, he is very self organized and independent. He and I meet for two hours every morning and work on various things. At the moment, although I wouldn't exactly say that we follow a clear main lesson pattern, we are focusing on Renaissance history. We'll finish that in 2 weeks and move on to focus on anatomy and physiology. We work on our "focus topic" (ie main lesson) for about an hour - then I give him work to do after I leave. We then do some grammar and spelling together. He then does his own thing with German (a combination of workbooks and Rosetta Stone plus checking in with is Dad who is also learning German); Latin; computer programming; and free reading (novels mainly). Gabriel and Paul work on algebra together and Paul also gives him piano lessons. That is the bulk of Gabriel's schooling this year.(later this year we will also do geometry, physics, chemistry, geography and hope to get our history studies up to modern times).When I teach main lessons at school later this year, he will work with his dad as well as on independent projects.

 

So it's a stretch and we're all very busy (did I mention I also carry the Children's lessons at our monthly Christian Community gatherings?!).

 

Oh yes - and a little thing called Christopherus! Yes - that too! Gabriel helps with that - we should have a stamp for the envelopes "packed with care by a homeschooled boy!" Actually, we're now looking into farming out our book shipping part of our business to free us up more for writing and consulting. That will be a scary but exciting change. And then I should be more able to write up some of the things I am teaching Gabriel and at the high school into books to sell to you all!

 

Anyway, the point of all this is not to shock you all into thoughts of "how does she do it?" but rather into giving you all a picture to show that, with flexibility and cooperation, all things are possible. And, most importantly, that as children get older, they need to become more and more independent in their studies. No - it doesn't look terribly much like what happens in a Waldorf school, but it arises out of Waldorf and it works for my family. It meets my sons' developmental need to be involved in his own education and in decision making - as well as being part of a family which depends on his involvement in our business. And I think those are incredibly important Life Skills lessons!

 

 

Friendly Teens

It always amazes me - and saddens me - when I hear about or read about parents who have no idea who their teens are, who cannot communicate with them or who are at a loss as to how to interact with them. What is more tragic, I suppose, is that this is considered the norm. Teens are usually portrayed as sulky, unfriendly, unhelpful and only interested in the latest technological gadgets. but I see a whole different picture of teens.

 

I am no naive person wearing rose-tinted Waldorf or homeschooling glasses - I have worked with teens for many years, in many different settings, including a group home for delinquent girls. So I've seen teens at their worst and their best - and their most vulnerable. And I readily agree that there are some pretty alienated and tragic teens out there - maybe, sadly, even the majority of young people in our country. But my point is that this is not inevitable. Just as it is not inevitable to have rude, loud and hyper 8 year old boys, it is also entirely possible to raise teens who are content, sociable and pleasant to be around.

 

Magic formula? No. There are so many factors involved here. A few really vital factors, in my opinion are: making sure that the family isn't overscheduled and that a parent is home most of the time the teen is at home; having strong and non negotiable boundaries for computer/phone and gadget use; and actively cultivating the ability to listen. That last one is for us parents - it would certainly be nice if the teens would listen, too. But the first and most important step is that we adults model the desired behavior. And while we're at it, we don;'t have a little voice inside saying "look like you're listening to her and then she'll really listen to you!" No. The listening must be agenda-free. We must do it because it is right. And we must trust that this will communicate itself to our teens and that, at some point, they will also learn how to listen.

 

As homeschoolers, I think we are in such good positions to tilt the balance toward a healthy and enriching relationship with our teen age children. If one has been through years of homeschooling together - seen all the struggles and failures and lived through the effort of a self-created life, then the children will internalize that and learn to live not merely as receivers of education, but as co-creators. And if they are co-creators of their educations, then they can be co-creators of their lives. And a teen who is engaged in life and feels she has some input in what is happening is more likely to be a happy and fulfilled person.

 

As communication is such a huge part of being together all the time - as in the homeschooling situation - then a child will learn how to communicate and how to work with his feelings - and witness time and time again how communication  is dealt with in the family and how feelings such as anger, disappointment and sadness are worked with. It may well be that the most important aspect of homeschooling is not so much the wonderful education which we can give our children - but the human gift of knowing how to live with other people. Compromise. Sacrifice. Patience. Honesty. Perseverance. Aren't these all qualities we want our children to have? And if our teens have them, won't they be happier people, a joy to be around?

 

Sure, teen can sulk and rage and be irrational - so what? That's part of growing up. But the difference between basically happy teens and those who are hollow and unfulfilled is that the storm clouds disperse in the case of the former group and do not become an accepted part of their wardrobe. With the latter group this can become part of their persona and, unfortunately, can define who they are or are seen to be.

 

My sons (2006) are 13 and 15. I love to be with them and they love to be with me. We have arguments and fights and tears and shouting. But we also have time to talk through problems and miscommunications, time to chill and just be. My 15 year old likes nothing better than to have his 13 year old brother (who is still homeschooled) and I to wait for his return from school and to "hear his day". Yes - he goes to high school now. It's a Waldorf influenced school which is co-run by the students. His involvement in his education and his life continues now in a larger arena and amongst his peers and other adults. I love to hear his day, I love that he loves to be with me and to share his news. His younger brother is the same.

 

When those despairing days happen, when nothing goes right and you ask yourself how could you have been so crazy to as to imagine you could homeschool your children, just look to the future. See your children as happy teens, pleasant to be with, content with life, engaged in society. Then you'll be able to draw strength from that picture and know that it will all be worth it.

End of Year Wrap Up

It is now mid May. My 6th grader and I are drawing his year's schooling to an end - next week is our last formal "school week". I thought I would share a few thoughts on how we have, in the past, brought each school year to a close and what we are doing this year.

 

Rudolf Steiner is clear that a teacher should endeavor to allow time at the end of each block or year to review what the children have achieved during that block or year. I think this is a wonderful idea, one we have embraced enthusiastically in our family. Though we rarely do this kind of a review at the end of a main lesson, we have always made sure to mark the end of the school year. My sons have always enjoyed making neat piles of their year's main lesson books, folders of other work, workbooks (!!), and art projects and having a special evening showing such work "to the family" - and this despite the fact that the family has all been involved in their on-going work! My husband has always worked from home and has always taught or been involved in some way in our boys' educations - so it's been quite touching when Daniel and Gabriel have wanted to make a big show of showing their work to their Dad. One especially memorable year my mother-in-law was with us from England - showing Granny the year's work was a real treat!

 

So each year we set aside some time to revisit main lessons - to talk about any field trips or special projects we did, to look at art projects, handwork and even fairly tedious pages of math drills from workbooks! ("Remember when I couldn't do these problems?!"). My sons have always had such a sense of accomplishment looking at their work.

 

My youngest, who playa the piano, usually likes to give a mini recital during these review evenings as well. In years past when both my sons were at home (the eldest now goes to a Waldorf-flavored high school) my husband would often lead them in a concert of all the recorder pieces they had learned that year, too.

 

This year my youngest is a big 6th grader so I suspect this year's end-of-year review might be somewhat different - but he still enjoys the process. This next week we are finishing our work: we are looking through a chemistry kit he got a year ago - I can't put him off any further!; we'll be finishing with some spelling and grammar work he's been going; we'll finish his work on Pascal's triangle.

 

My idea is that in a couple of weeks when my eldest finishes school we'll have our review evening - and also talk about what Daniel did in this past year at high school - I think he will enjoy and benefit from that as much as Gabriel. Also, my sons really like being involved in what each other does - so they will enjoy sharing together their thoughts and reflections on the past year. Obviously, when they were little, we just looked at their work - now that they are teens, we will discuss what they have done and what they think and how they feel about the past year. Part of this will also incorporate discussion of next year - what lessons I will want Gabriel to have for 7th grade and what he also wants to do. Daniel doesn't have a whole lot of choice as the curriculum is set at school - but he also works independently on his own fiction writing, so we will see what his plans are for that in the upcoming year.

 

And as he writes for his own pleasure, he will continue his work over the summer as well. Gabriel has been teaching himself Latin this year - I know he will carry over the summer and will probably continue with his German studies as well. Paul and I have asked him to become more involved in the running of Christopherus - he has been periodically learning book-keeping with his father (6th grade math is business math!) and will learn more about that over the summer months.

Not School at Home

I wrote the following article for Lucie Smoker's  eclectic and Waldorf-inspired homeschooling website, Wonder Homeschool, which unfortunately no longer exists.

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Many people are completely bowled over when they first encounter Waldorf education. The truly holistic and spiritual acknowledgement of the whole child, the aesthetics and emphasis on natural materials ... For many adults the wish to work with Waldorf education is an expression of their own desire to heal something which might be missing in themselves.

But then a great and potentially damaging paradox can take hold as parents struggle to reconcile their own limitations as mere human beings with the seemingly insurmountable heights of Waldorf Perfection. How can I heal myself and my children with this wonderfully nurturing way of understanding children whilst at the same time staying up till 3am to memorize stories and prepare handwork lessons?!

Waldorf education as created and inspired by Rudolf Steiner was designed for schools - and Steiner himself often spoke about the need to compromise to accommodate the authorities who inspected and licensed school at that time in Germany. Moreover, for various reasons which are beyond the scope of this brief article, much of Waldorf education is focused on the class as a group. At least some of this has to do with destiny questions of a group of children who come together with a teacher for 8 years and much of how this is worked with is via the temperaments and other pedagogical methods. Suffice to say that when I was teaching and training as a Waldorf teacher in England, my mentor, a vastly experienced teacher from Germany who thought nothing of teaching classes of 30 or even 40 children, taught me some of the secrets of successfully orchestrating large groups of children. But few of these methods work at home.

There are elements of Waldorf education as well which, if adapted as is from the school setting, can be disastrous at home. Circle time comes to mind: many people find it very difficult to do a satisfying circle with the 6 year old, the baby and the dog! Presentation, especially in the older grades, can also be a challenge - and not simply because it is a lot of work, but because it is a form which is not always workable at home. Likewise the strict division of children according to age is something which, whilst absolutely appropriate in a Waldorf school, where all the forms and pedagogy support it, is again often neither feasible nor desirable outside the classroom.

So where does that leave us? Forget Waldorf because it's too hard? Beat ourselves up because we are not doing Waldorf 'properly'? No! What my suggestion is and what lies at the heart of my work with Christopherus Homeschool Resources is the simple premise, unabashedly and blatantly stolen from the unschoolers: Not School at Home.

For a Waldorf homeschooler, Not School at Home means trying to understand what lies behind, what informs, the curriculum and the methods. It is the art of appreciating the beauty of a truly holistic approach to educating children and seeing how that might apply in one's own family situation. And it is about being fearless, honest and joyful as one creates a lifestyle that truly nurtures every family member and does not view homeschooling solely as being about the educational needs of a series of children.

So if Circle Time doesn't work for you, then sing and move as you do chores and work in the garden! Don't just teach your child songs which mime work - do real work and sing as you go. Don't destroy your health and your family harmony by staying up all night memorizing a story or learning about the Norman Conquest - find a way to sometimes tell stories and sometimes read them aloud. Trust that your being together and, especially as your child gets older, that conversation, something which cannot happen in the classroom (even a Waldorf one!) will take the place of presentation.

And as for running between 4 children stationed in different parts of the house so that you can give them each a different main lesson (and I have known women who have done this) - forget it! Penetrate and think about what the essence of each grade is and find how you can give that to each of your children - but also know that it is FINE - it is healthy! - to do much of your homeschooling together, as a family. Find ways to weave back and forth, to sometimes repeat, to sometimes create something new and to strive for joy in being home together.

Blessings on your homeschool journey!

Working Together

My son Gabriel and I have been busy these past few weeks creating a new unit study publication for sale - this one is on the Middle Ages and follows on from the Roman History unit study we already have. As Gabriel is a 6th grader and as I am always looking for innovative ways to ensure we never "go stale", I decided, this block, to consciously work with my son on the creation of a new publication and not, as I've done before, simply adapt things I'd done with him or his brother. Gabriel, who is very interested in our business, has really been enjoying this process.

[Note: since this blog post was written the book has been published]

 

So we looked at the Roman History unit study and talked about what this new one would look like - we discussed what to do about the color pictures. He knows, from listening in on many agonizing discussions his father and I have had about color photos (use them and raise the price considerably, don't use them and lose a lot of the aesthetics of the book) that there are important issues here. We decided on a strategy based on what we've done with our kindergarten book - print black and white in the book and put the color originals on the web site.

 

Then we discussed content - as an avid history fan, he already knows a lot about this historical time period, but we have had many interesting discussions: what would have happened if the Vikings had stayed in Scandinavia? Why did Christianity almost fade away in Europe in the Dark Ages? What does the term "Dark Ages" refer to? What was Europe like during this time? What was it like in the Middle East? What happened when these two cultures met? And, of course, as Gabriel is only 12, only a 6th grader, this wasn't heavy duty analysis - mainly I seek to give broad brush strokes of pictures of life during this time - and then gently raise questions. And purposefully not find answers to all of them - Gabriel knows that as he gets older he will find more answers, deeper answers.

 

So Gabriel has made a beautiful main lesson book - then we decided which pictures he needed to photograph with the digital camera and put on the computer - his Dad will show him how to put them on the web site and write appropriate captions. Gabriel so got into the photographing that he also took lots of pictures from other books he and his brother have created in the past - so at some point soon there will be a lot more to see on the Homeschooler's Work page on our web site!

 

Written work by Gabriel will also go into the unit study - a short piece about a messenger bringing the news to Saladin of the arrival of the latest wave of Crusaders and a review of several books he read. We haven't quite worked out this latter project - I think I will ask him to read or at least look at various books about Joan of Arc which I have gotten from the library  and think about which ones he'd recommend to students using this unit study. He's a voracious reader, so that's quite a good assignment for him. And he has strong but balanced opinions about things like how useful or well written books are.

 

Well, we're almost finished with this project - our next block is on physics and I'm toying with the idea of doing a booklet on that - notes, really on what we did and what did or didn't work. And Gabriel and his Dad will be working on our Christopherus accounts, learning how to use our new software. Waldorf sixth grade math is based on business math so what better way to do it than to directly involve our boy in the our business?!

Homeschool Writing Group

I have started a little weekly gathering of homeschooled children at my home. We meet every Tuesday morning - there are four children, including my younger son and they range in age from 11 to 13.

 

The three who are not mine arrive at 9am - last week they were 15 minutes late and I had told them that they would be hung up by their toes and whipped with wet noodles if they were late again.... today they arrived 30 seconds early and we stood on the porch counting down to 9:00 on the dot, with loud, exuberant cries of "5...4...3...2...ONE!!!" as we got to the appointed time. Once coats are shed and backpacks scruffled through and laments shared about one child's new wheat free diet, we settle down around the dining room table.

 

"OK - what did we do last week?" I ask. Last week, we recall together, we talked about how good writing is lively, never boring and how we can use our senses to make our writing lively.

 

"We smelled things" remembers one boy - indeed - I had them sniff a variety of things (nutmeg, molasses, chutney, Italian herbs, liquid paper - carefully!! - the dog....)  and then come up with words that described the smell. No cut rate words like "good" or "spicy" were allowed - words like "pungent" "aromatic" and the like were what I was looking for.

 

Today we searched for words to describe our cat who has a fondness for writing classes - whenever I teach a class at home he always either sits in the middle of the children, observing them with a slightly patronizing aura, or settles down nearby, folded up, meditating on our lessons. He is a - "huge", "plump!", "no - that's not big enough - monstrous!" cat. In the end we settled on "monumental" as a fitting way to describe Sam.

 

Then we wrote sentences describing each other - it was lovely to see children whom their parents worriedly described to me as "not very happy about writing" or "I don't know if he'll come - he's ashamed of his spelling" - jump to pick up their pens and gleefully write their sentences ("shhhh... I need to think"). My one comment "Nothing offensive, please" drew chortles. Then I placed a very unusual chess piece on a stool for them describe. And last, I asked them to describe the dog's chew toy.

 

Then they read out what they had written - I do not yet look at this group's writing - I also had them read out their home assignments. One boy didn't even want to do that - so I asked if he would just tell us a bit about it. He was happy to do that and in the end actually wound up reading us his lovely description of his cat.   Practically falling over each other in their eagerness to get to read aloud, they shared delightful descriptions of "a boy hunched over his writing, concentrating fiercely" and "an ivory colored king ready to defend his stool" and "a pink and blue ball laden with bumps".

 

As cats seemed to be a theme for the day, I read them a delightful poem about cats. A moment's silence followed my reading - "oh yes, that's just like cats!" They sat quietly, thinking about cats.

 

We spent a few moments looking at their homework for next week - a fill in the blank assignment which seeks interesting ways of describing things plus a few short sentences which they need to write describing, among other things, the sight of a newborn kitten and the experience of walking across hot sand.

 

"Ok - 15 minutes break and then it's time for some geography." I say.

 

"Ok", they answer - "but we want to do some more writing". How satisfying for me to head toward the kitchen hearing them plotting,  "ok, let's write about the dog..."

 

 

 

The Waldorf View on Teaching

(this is a response I gave to a question on my yahoo group Waldorf_At_Home)

 

I think a question could be asked "how does the child know to ask what she wants? How does she know what she wants?" This is subtle at times - other times it is obvious.

 

A key core of Waldorf - of anthroposophy - is the idea of development - on all levels, spiritual, physical, emotional, intellectual. If one is developing and changing, how can one know at the beginning what one needs to know? Children are not, in my opinion, like Athena, fully formed, springing  from their father's heads, goddesses of wisdom, knowing all there is to know. They are new here and their job is to learn. And our job, as parents and educators, is to teach, guide, suggest, show, withhold, create, inspire, lead and hold back - as appropriate.

 

"As appropriate" - that's the trick. How to read the child so one can interpret what is going on, can meet the needs that are being displayed - or not. Or are behind what a child might be articulating.

I am reminded of the story of Parzival, the mediaeval grail hero. This story is taught to 11th graders in Waldorf schools. The central dilemma of Parzival is that he does not know what question to ask - and he bumbles about making a mess of things until he figures out how to delve inside and know what to ask - not, mind you, what he needs to KNOW - but what he needs to ASK. Part of growing up, part of what one needs as one moves toward adulthood is the ability to start to know what one needs to know. The next long part of the journey is finding that knowledge.

 

John Dewey and John Holt and Waldorf do not fit together (or Montessori, either). This does not, of course, mean that one can't learn an enormous amount from these educators. But at essence, they come from very different views on what a child is and how she or he learns. I don't have much time for either Dewey or Montessori myself - but I do love  John Holt's work - I find much of what he says very inspiring - I also find much of it exasperating!

 

One key difference here is that though all these other educators of course also recognize distinct stages of child development, for them what this means is very different than what it means to a Waldorf person.  One could (somewhat crudely) summarize Dewey, Holt and Montessori as saying
they have an "apprentice" view of childhood. Children are younger, less experienced - but in essence not much different than adults. Therefore, it is simply a question of creating the optimal environment, opportunities for learning. Children should be allowed to lead in their educations as, through the act of learning, they will learn what they need to know.

 

Quite different from this is  an anthroposophical or Waldorf  point of view, the key element being that little children have a totally different consciousness than adults - even than older children. It is not simply a matter of being less experienced. It is about the little child having a totally different perception of life - and in part, this has to do with the strong spiritual connection little children have - their sense of oneness - the natural religious state of the little child that Steiner refers to. So for a Waldorf person, it is not just that children have less experience - it is that their experience of life is different from an adult's - and part of an adult's job is to guide them toward their next stage of life, as their development naturally unfolds. And some of that guidance definitely involves teaching.

 

And last, I should just say that no Waldorf person worth his salt - and certainly not Steiner - ever tried to say "what is right for every child". However,  Waldorf education is not just about acquiring skills, such as reading - it is about the growth and development of all parts of the child, of the human being. And - from an anthroposophical point of view - all human beings carry within themselves a discernible pattern of growth - and it is to this the education speaks. You might be interested in my "Waldorf Curriculum Overview for Homeschoolers" - in it I give an in-depth picture of the curriculum, from 1st through 8th grades and WHY things are taught in the way they are taught and when. Then I give lots of ideas on how homeschoolers might work with that at home - and part of that definitely includes the recognition that skills (like math) are acquired at widely differing ages, as you have experienced in your family.

 

Six Week Report

Well, Gabriel's been home for six weeks now - it's been going very well and he's pleased and feeling on top of things. Our schedule has been a bit hectic - me working part time at the high school plus all the Christopherus stuff.... but he's done quite a lot. Here is a summary of all the things he's done in the past weeks (something I often advise homeschooling parents to do - to make a list of all the things their child has done over a period of ... a day? .... a week?... a month?.... just so they can see, as the unschoolers say, that "children learn all the time".):

 

* he's read Genevieve Foster's Augustus Caesar's World and is taking notes in preparation for writing a biography of Augustus.

 

* listened to me read Famous Men of Rome most mornings - we're almost finished with the book and we've had many good discussions of what we've read.

 

*memorised a couple of passages from Virgil's Aeneid in Latin and English.

 

*has been working on a beautiful Main Lesson book which contains passages from Virgil and Livy, his own composition and things I've written which he's copied or been dictated. He also has made a map of the Roman Empire, a drawing from a bust of Julius Caesar, other illustrations and a mosaic.

 

*He's about to start reading The Bronze Bow.

 

* He's worked faithfully through some Latin exercises every day - and in order to help him understand the Latin grammar, we've done a lot of grammar exercises and review in English. Now that he's motivated to learn this stuff - because he wants to learn Latin as well as German - he is finally taking it in.

 

* When he was at school his class had been having a Geology main lesson - he has continued with some studies of rock formations and continued to fill his main lesson book with beautiful illustrations, diagrams and descriptions of rocks and minerals.

 

* Each week I've given him a list of spelling words which he has worked on - each Friday he's had a spelling quiz.

 

* Most days he's played the piano for about 15 minutes - I am trying to carefully walk that line between requiring him to play - and letting his own interest inspire him to play. It's a bit hit and miss at the moment.

 

* The last week I asked him to switch from free choice math exercises to working on measurement (which somehow got missed earlier on) in the Key To... workbooks  we have. He has finished workbook 1 and has started on the second one on English units of measurement.

 

* He spends about 15 minutes three times a week working on a typing/keyboarding program on the computer.

 

* He spends about 15 minutes 4 times a week on the Rosetta Stone German language program - also on the computer.

 

* He has started to knit again - he finished a scarf and is now working on a hat.

 

* He read Rosemary Sutcliffe's The Lantern Bearers for enjoyment.

 

* And he did laundry, walked the dog, played monopoly and Battleship with a friend, vacuumed, prepared several meals, looked after the rabbit and helped keep the house cleaning moving along!

 

I guess he accomplished quite a lot!