The Homeschool Journey

Attention Scientists!

I thought this title might attract some attention..... I really would like to address what I am about to say to all parents.... but perhaps especially those with a strong interest in science.... and who perhaps are wondering about what "Waldorf science" might be.

 

And that can be hard to encapsulate. We had a study on my discussion forum about David Mitchell's article on the Waldorf approach to science  and an earlier discussion on an article by Craig Holdrege of the Nature Institute about developing the thinking capacities of children, but there is still a lot of room for getting to grips with what makes the Waldorf (or to be more precise, Goethean or anthroposophical) take on science so different.

 

So here is a wonderful article by Steve Talbot of NetFuture which I think can really help people start to see what I keep driving at when I refer to the differences between "Waldorf" and conventional views of science. The article is called Do Physical Laws Make Things Happen (it's actually from a book Talbot is working on). Here is an excerpt, just to peak your interest:

 

In Chapter 2 ("The Limits of Predictability" ) I tried top show the great distance between understanding a certain lawfulness inherent in events and predicting or explaining the events themselves. Contrary to all current thinking within science, the more uncompromisingly;y we formulate the precise and determining action of a physical law, the less it tells us about the events it governs. Wee gain more and more exactness about less and less of the world's concrete expression.

 

I illustrated this by describing what happens when we release a leaf in a vacuum chamber. The leaf now "drops like a rock." That is, we get a trajectory that seems to be little more than the graphic display of a methemetical expression we call the "law of gravity". To see an event in this way as a mathematical necessity made visible gives us a powerful sense of explanation.

 

But - and this was the decisive point - if we restrict ourselves to the sphere of our mathematical explanation and do not smuggle in qualitative aspects of the phenomenon lying outside the explanation, then we no longer even know whether we're dealing with a leaf or a rock! The explanation, in its own terms and despite all its precision, gives us no means to distinguish between the two. We highlight a law equally implicit in both leafy and rocky phenomena by sacrificing everything distinctive in those phenomena to the single, implicit aspect we are looking for.

 

Talbot goes on to say:

 

The decisive question is not whether there is predictable order in the world. Nor is it whether mathematically precise laws focus our attention upon elements of this order - which obviously they do. Rather, we need to ask how, in their strictly quantitative, precise, and unequivocal aspect, laws relate to the world they help us understand.

 

I have found this article to be extremely useful as my husband and I have been watching a series of Classical Physics lectures which often takes  a mechanistic and deterministic  approach from mechanics and applies it to living organisms in a way which I find baffling and sorely lacking. The scientists at the Nature Institute work to bring context and qualitative analysis to phenomena, something which is so sorely missing in much of our modern science. Anyone who has been in a hospital and has been referred to as "the kidney stone" or the "hysterectomy" knows how frustrating, alienating and out of context as a living being they can feel when they are reduced to a single phenomena. While discussing the physics lectures with our 15 year old, we have been grateful to this article by Steve Talbot to help us broaden an understanding of the usefulness and limitations of classical physics. I have written a blog article on my high school blog discussing this.

 

Have a read of Talbot's article! I would love to have your feedback!

"Naturalness"

Here's a strange bit of information I received from Rahima Baldwin's newsletter. I thought some of you might be interested in this and so asked her if I could re-print it here....

Along the theme of  "What is natural, and why is it important?" (or "You can't fool Mother Nature, but you can sure fool people"), I wanted to share one of the most interesting articles I've read in a while: "Scientists Set Out to Measure How We Perceive Naturalness" reported in ScienceDaily, July 5, 2008 (http://www.sciencedaily.com).

Apparently in the United Kingdom researchers at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) are conducting experiments to produce "the world's first model that will predict how we perceive naturalness.  The results could help make synthetic products so good that they are interpreted by our senses as being fully equivalent to the 'real thing', but with the benefits of reduced environmental impact and increased durability."

The research is part of a larger, EU-funded projected called the Measurement of Naturalness (MONAT).  The article states that the MONAT team will work over three years to examine how the perceived naturalness of materials is influenced by their physical properties.  It includes:

• Neuroscientists who scan the brain activity which individuals examine different materials
• Psychologists who measure the way people perceive different materials using their hands, eyes, or both
• Experts in metrology, data analysis and software modeling from NPL, who  will be making accurate physical measurements of the properties of different materials and will build the model of perceived naturalness.

By linking what is happening in a person's brain when they see or touch a surface, "it should be possible to accurately predict what we will perceive as natural, and manufacturers will be able to design synthetic products to meet this expectation."

Comments on this could go in a lot of different directions.  For example, we've been tricking the body for decades with the use of synthetic pharmaceuticals.  On the other hand, it is possible to develop our sensitivity to the life force present in living things (what the Hindus would call prana and Steiner called the etheric forces).  Children are typically more sensitive than adults, and their relationship to the natural world is carefully nourished in Waldorf environments.

However, the importance of this sensitivity is far reaching.  As I mentioned in one of my talks on "The Wisdom of Waldorf: Educating for the Future":

"Our children will need to know the difference between human and artificial intelligence and will, as adults, almost certainly be confronted by technology where they will have to be able to determine if something before them is a clone or a robot or an individual human being.  If they have no relationship with nature, with the living world, and have no social skills because they have spent most of their school time in rote memorization and most of their free time with the media, then we're going to be in trouble." (the complete talk is available in CD format from www.waldorfinthehome.com)

There is also the advantage that "natural" is nourishing to both adults in children in ways that synthetics will never be, even if they manage to light up the same areas of the brain.  So on that note, I'd like to wish you and your children many happy hours out in nature this summer - just don't forget your sun hats!

Warmly,
Rahima

Help with Physics - Middle Years and High School

I know it's only April, but if you're like me, you're already thinking about next year's homeschooling adventures! And judging by the number of first grade syllabuses and other things we're selling at the moment, there are a lot of you who are in the "plan ahead" camp!

 

Right now I'm thinking about not just next Fall for my will-be 10th grader, but also about how the next years of his high school education might unfold. There are two other Waldorf homeschooled students of about his age here where we live - and we will probably do a number of things together (we already do). Some subjects are easy (for me at least) to teach and organize - others are a bit more difficult. Science is one of the topics which, though I love it, does not thrill my son. It is also incredibly hard to find resources which lend themselves to being used by people struggling to keep at least a bit of a Waldorf approach to science intact!

 

And the same is true for those of you figuring out how to work with science in the middle years. Eventually we will have a wealth of materials which will spell it all out - but we're not there yet and some of you have 6th, 7th and 8th graders next year and need some help.

 

At the moment I just want to talk about physics - the only area of science which fills me with horror! It just does not go in! I love the color experiments in 6th grade and fiddling about with sending sound through a garden hose, but pulling it all together is well, rather a challenge. And to be honest, as brilliant as Roberto Trostli's Physics is Fun book is (this is a highly recommended book written by a Waldorf teacher) it just doesn't really, really convert 100% to the home situation.

 

So for those of you with middle grades students next year, I do recommend our Nature Stories to Natural Science to help you understand the flow of the Waldorf science curriculum and, specifically, what happens in 6th, 7th and 8th grade. There are many book reviews and practical ideas. I also think that getting Eric Fairman's Path of Discovery books (from www.waldorfbooks.org)  for those grades is a must - he does a great job with science - though again.... it's not quite translatable to one parent teacher and one student at home. But they'll definitely help.

 

So I've been gloomily looking through physics websites trying to figure out what might be helpful in my situation. I'm banking on one of the other students'dads doing a lot of mechanics type physics with them.... but that might not happen. My son is interested in astronomy - and he'd like to understand theoretical physics - I can handle that. So we might spend more time than recommended in Waldorf schools reading than doing... but sometimes that's just the way the cookie crumbles.

 

Anyway, here's a physics teacher's website which is somewhat helpful. I like it for a variety of reasons - the positive is that there are some really wonderful lesson plans here which, even if you don't use them as they are (because a) they're for groups and b) they are not Waldorf at all) can be useful in helping one think through various physics concepts and/or inspire you for more Waldorf projects and ideas. The negative reason is that by reading through all the silly, inane and ridiculous lesson plans, I can feel better about what I'm doing, reassured that in public schools they spend an awful lot of time doing things that really are not worthy of the time.

 

The lesson plans on this site range from k through 12th grade.

 

Then there's a funky looking free astronomy and Newtonian physics e-book which I found. The author's credentials look impressive - the material looks great at a cursory glance.... But I don't vouch for it until I look it over before my son and I use it!

 

Lastly, I think I will order a programmable robot kit for Gabriel for this Fall. There are some really sophisticated  (and expensive) kits which use both engineering and computer programming skills to create robots which perform a variety of tasks. You can get these kits from www.homesciencetools.com. Once we get the robot and use it, I will report here how it went!

Upper Grades Chemistry

Working with a Waldorf approach to science in the home is extremely difficult. A Goethean approach, one which is empirical, holistic and creative, can be very frustrating to achieve as soon as one leaves the natural sciences behind. And chemistry is especially challenging as it can be very difficult to present it in such a way that it doesn't seem to be disjointed or unrelated to life.

 

A further challenge with chemistry at home is getting the materials - one can go a certain distance with kitchen chemistry, making bread and root beer, for instance and observing the effects of the yeast on the soda or bread. Getting  water testing kit and/or a soil testing kit can also ground chemistry in the world around us - and I certainly recommend that one begin ones explorations into chemistry with ones child with just those kinds of things.

 

But to do "real" chemistry, one has to get the equipment. And that means acquiring chemicals and paraphenalia which is not found around the house!

 

Just this last month (March 2007) I did a three week main lesson in chemistry with my 8th grader and a friend. The friend is a tenth grader at the high school where I teach who opted to skip his scheduled main lesson to join us instead. Using Thames & Kosmos Chem C3000 chemistry kit (google it and you should be able to buy it for somewhere between $150 and $180) I put together an extremely successful main lesson that was educational, enjoyable and, most importantly, enabled us to do real chemistry experiments.

 

The manual that accompanies the kit is extremely thorough and well written. Unlike many sad science kits my sons and I have bought over the years, this one actually had instructions that were both easy to follow, clear and had a relationship to the actual materials!! One small hiccup was the fact that I could not find one of the test tubes of chemicals. I phoned Thames & Kosmos' very helpful customer service department and the woman was able to tell me that I did have the necessary chemical - but that the label only had the German name! With a bit of quick translating, we were able to proceed.

 

And, of course, not all the experiments turned out as they were meant to. But that is a normal part of chemistry and allowed the boys and I to talk about variables and about duplicating experiments. I should emphasize, though, that most of the experiments turned out perfectly and were really very enjoyable and interesting to do.

 

The other really good thing about the manual is that it puts all the experiments into context (for instance work with sulfur came within a discussion of acid rain). There is also a really well presented progression which runs through the course and which ties them together in a way that ensures the student gets a really good grounding in the sense of chemitry and does not merely play with a series of disjointed phenomena. And back to our Waldorf approach, the more one can present before reading  about what one is doing and the more one can help relate the experiments to one another and to life, the closer one gets to something of a Goethean approach. So for the boys, I kept ahold of the manual and often did not tell them what we were about to do. Instead, I gave them the instructions to set up the experiment and then asked them to observe. Then we talked about what we did and saw (and smelt or heard!) and only then did I read the text to them.

 

Our main lesson lasted for only three weeks because of the 10th grader's schedule constraints - really, we would need a good 6 to 9 weeks to have worked properly with this kit (and my son and I will return to the kit before school finishes in the summer).  We spent a solid hour and a half each morning focused on the experiments. If one adds in time to study the periodic table and atomic theory (both are mentioned in the manual but need additional resources to work with properly) and perhaps a few cooking experiments, then one has about 12 weeks of chemistry here. In other words, one could do at least three good, solid main lessons spanning 8th through 11th grade based on this kit.

 

A few highlights for us so far were:

 

making oxygen

making a mini fire extinguisher

seeing close-up lab effects of acid rain

making crystals

understanding catalytic converters

making hydrogen

chromatography

burning metals

doing experiments which illustrated electron transfer

making silver cleaner from calcium hydroxide and ammonium chloride

desalinating water

and much more....!

 

Almost everything is included in the kit and though the amounts of chemicals one uses and the equipemt supplied is all on a small scale, it never feels like dolls'chemistry. Indeed, with all the health warnings throughout the manual (including clear instructions for disposing of dangerous materials) one has a very real experience of chemistry! There are a few things not included in the kit, mainly because of safety issues. You can get the ethyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) for the burner and the hydrogen peroxide easily enough from a drug store. But to get hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide (crucial for many of the experiments with bases and acids) you need to contact Caroline Biological Supplies (www.carolina.com) and tell them that you are a school.... they will ask for your school's name so be ready....

 

The other tricky thing is that in Germany they must use different potencies of chemicals. So the manual calls for hydrochloric acid in 2 mole strength but Carolina sells only 1 mole or 3 mole. So I bought both and cannot see that there is any difference in any of the experiments. In other words, you can probably get away with just the 1 mole strength.

Handwork and Crafts with Older Children

It seems that everywhere one looks there are wonderful on-line stores and home businesses selling all manner of lovely craft items for children - young children. I can't think why, but there is a distinct lack of craft kits and ideas for older children. Maybe people think that older ones (somewhere over 10) can just do adult crafts - but that really isn't the case. And, of course, the Waldorf curriculum has definite indications for what craft and handwork activities are done when - and there are many!

 

I don't want to reproduce the handwork/craft curriculum here - it is available other places. Instead, I'd like to list ideas for homeschoolers with older children who are running out of inspiration for things to make with their older (10 and up) children.

 

First of all, I need to mention HearthSong - they seem to make a real effort to cater to the needs of somewhat older children - many of their kits are very suitable for children up to about 12 or 13 or even older. We have used many of their kits over the years and have found them well organized with easy to follow instructions and with beautiful and ample materials. As it is February when I am writing this, some of you might like to think ahead to challenging Easter projects for your children. HearthSong has a wonderful Ukrainian Easter Egg kit which is certainly challenging enough for teens (and adults!). They also have a Decoupage Goose Egg kit which I haven't tried but which I am sure lives up to the high quality of their other kits. Visit them at www.hearthsong.com  Here is a partial list of some of the kits which we have bought from them over the years and which my sons enjoyed doing:

 

lino kit

pine needle baskets

beaded snowflake Christmas ornaments

Various elaborate candle making and decorating kits

tie-dye kit

embroidery kit

 

Other possibilities which look interesting include a bead loom; a Mexican sugar skull kit; mosaic stepping stones; and various macrame, beading and jewelry making kits.

 

When no kits have been available or once we were confident to "go it alone" my family has often shopped either at our local Michael's ( a craft store chain) or bought mail-order from Dick Blick:  www.dickblick.com You can find supplies for all the above activities as well as ways of further extending them. Using their materials, my sons

 

made various shaped candles and dyed and decorated them

carved balsa wood as a precursor to proper carving

got more things such as plain napkins to tie-dye

tried our hand at glass painting - watch out - it's very toxic!

made some wonderful handmade books and paper

enjoyed scratch art (quite a nice way to work with black and white contrasting in the 6th grade curriculum)

worked on calligraphy

made a few simple things from leather

decorated boxes as presents

learned to emboss metal foil sheets

 

I hope you find many activities for your older children as well! And if any Waldorf-inspired crafts people are reading this, do consider making up some kits to sell - I know they'd be popular!

 

 

The Nature Institute

The question is not what you look at-but how you look and whether you see. - Thoreau

I’d like to briefly tell you all about The Nature Institute, a wonderful research and education center in upstate New York, dedicated to a Goethean - holistic and empirical - approach to science and nature. They run courses, publish books and articles and undertake research. Projects they’ve recently worked on include: research into a way to "bridge the gulf between the products of biochemical analysis and the unmanipulated whole organism", focusing on the work of molecular biologist Ann Kleinschmidt from Allegheny College in Pennsylvania; publishing a booklet called In the Belly of the Beast: Technology, Nature and the Human Prospect; and beginning a new semester-long course in Goethean Science Studies.

The Nature Institute publishes a free magazine called In Context (they ask for a donation), which lets people know about all the exciting work they’re involved with. The most recent issue contains several very interesting articles, including one by Vladislav Rozentuller and Steve Talbott entitled From Two Cultures to One: On the Relation Between Science and Art. As Goethean scientists this is a major aspect of their work - healing the rift that has split our culture and our ways of thinking into separate boxes labeled ‘art’, ‘science’ and the ‘the humanities’. You can find the article online at www.natureinstitute.org/pub/ic/ic13/oneculture.htm

Why do I tell you about the Nature Institute? Because I feel that anyone interested in a holistic approach to science, to the Goethean approach which is at the heart of so much in Waldorf education, ought to avail themselves of the very important work that these people are doing. My own science book, From Nature Stories to Natural Science: A Holistic Approach to Science for Families, is a humble attempt at explaining something of this approach and helping parents infuse their teaching with it. By subscribing to In Context and supporting the work of the Nature Institute, parents will be able to deepen their understanding of a healing approach to science and to support one aspect of its expression.

The Nature Institute
20 May Hill Road
Ghent, New York 12075

Telephone: (518) 672-0116
Fax: (518) 672-4270
Email: info@natureinstitute.org

www.natureinstitute.org

For those interested in technology issues, the Nature Institute publish the e-mail newsletter, NetFuture, which has been called by the New York Times "a largely undiscovered national treasure". See here for more information: www.netfuture.org

For more about From Nature Stories to Natural Science: www.christopherushomeschool.org/nature_stories.htm

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