Waldorf CurriculumIntroduction
A curriculum could be compared to the list of ingredients
for a recipe. However good the recipe, the quality of the ingredients is crucial
but to make a start the components also need to be available. When they are to
hand, the next question is whether the cook is skilled enough to combine and
adjust flavors so that each item plays its part without overwhelming the others.
An experienced cook may be able to substitute one ingredient for another, even
to improvise in such a way that something new is created. But we should not
forget that emotion, even love, goes into the preparation of food and this will
influence how it is received. And, of course, the expectations, health and
culinary experience of the diners also makes a difference.
A curriculum guides an entire learning process. It should not, like a dish into which a chef has thrown every possible taste, explode in an overwhelming, sensation-bursting blowout; it should bring to the table ingredients that are well- balanced, digestible and nutritious, that promote health and stimulate, not stupefy, the senses. Over time, as with diet, a curriculum can introduce items that may not be immediately appealing, stronger tastes or more subtle and complex ones: intellectual chillis, subjects initially sour or astringent, as well as flavors, textures and scents that help to educate the palate. A primary school curriculum, in particular, sets out ingredients for the hors d'oeuvres of lifelong learning. Of course, many school curriculums share common ingredients, but the distinctive qualities of the Steiner-Waldorf curriculum framework are, we believe, unique:
Course OutlineSophia Institute Waldorf Courses: The Art of Teaching Waldorf Grade 8
Lesson 1 / Waldorf Curriculum / Introduction Lesson 2 / Waldorf Curriculum / Grades 7 and 8 (Part 1) Lesson 3 / Waldorf Curriculum / Grades 7 and 8 (Part 2) Lesson 4 / Waldorf Methods / Reading and Math / Introduction Lesson 5 / Waldorf Methods / Reading and Math / Reading / Grade 7 and 8 Lesson 6 / Waldorf Methods / Reading and Math / Math / Grade 7 and 8 Lesson 7 / Waldorf Methods / Sciences / Chemistry / Introduction Lesson 8 / Waldorf Methods / Sciences / Physics / Introduction Lesson 9 / Waldorf Methods / Sciences / Life Sciences / Introduction Lesson 10 / Waldorf Methods / Sciences / Geography / Introduction Lesson 11 / Waldorf Methods / Sciences / Geography / Grades 1 - 8 Lesson 12 / Waldorf Methods / Sciences / Gardening and Sustainable Living Lesson 13 / Waldorf Methods / Sciences / Technology |
Tasks and Assignments for Art of Teaching Waldorf Grade 8 /AoT83Please study and work with the study material provided for this lesson. Use additional study material as wanted/needed. Then please turn to the following tasks and assignments listed below.
Summarize the study material in your own words and add comments and questions. Create curriculum examples that address the developmental profile, and aims and objectives for grade 8. Create 1 week of sample Waldorf Main Lesson curriculum plans using the info and template provided, applying the following format: 1.A. Class 8/Developmental Profile 1.B. Class 8/Aims and Objectives Please send your completed assignment via the online form or via email. 
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Study Material for this Lesson
The Lower School: Classes 7 and 8
Curriculum in Classes 7 to 8
The children have now reached a critical period in their development that may be experienced negatively as a crisis and is often described as such in many publications on puberty. It is important, however, for educators to treat this challenge more as an opportunity than a crisis. Between the ages of twelve and fourteen, the pupils have indeed come into quite a new relationship with the world. Physically they undergo a second change of shape, often growing much taller, but their 'inner shape' also changes noticeably. Hitherto, habit and upbringing have governed their behaviour more than their own choices and inclinations. Now their soul life erupts into the world outside them.
The human being works his way through via the breathing system and the circulatory system right into the part where the muscles are attached to the bones. He works right to the edge of being human and at puberty breaks out into the outside world. Not until this moment does he arrive fully in the outside world"
Steiner's choice of words here shows the drama of this situation. Often the sheer force of the children's inner tumult shocks those around them so much that they forget that the children are equally shocked. But the children do not want their alarm, which is very deep and disturbing, to be noticed by those around them. They don't want to reveal their individuality in this 'new territory' until they have gained some sense of security. Until they have achieved this they hide in many ways behind masks and 'difficult' behaviour.
The pedagogical task for the middle of childhood is to understand that the children enter in their own time into the rhythm of a past that can be thought and a future that can be sensed.'
There is even something of an existential feel about this future that can be sensed. The young people feel they are both solitary and a part of humanity as a whole. Sexual maturity makes this even clearer. Having become fully a part of the human race in their ability to reproduce, they also long for an extension of their own individual responsibility towards the world. Steiner described this as follows:
One of the principles in the Waldorf School is to educate young people so that, on the one hand, they can bring to the fore in the right way the whole of their human potential, and, on the other hand, what they need to enable them to take their proper place in the world.
What is referred to as a 'lack of discipline' or descriptions of the pupils 'just hanging around' can also be seen as a sign that these young people are searching to find their way within a new psychological situation and thus also within the new sense they have of the physical world.
In addition to the changes of physical and psychological 'shape', there is now also a change in the young people's consciousness. Conceptual thinking comes more to the fore as they endeavour to make links between isolated phenomena and thus leave their isolation behind them to take hold of a new totality. Whatever they experience must be transformed into original thinking, otherwise it will make them insensitive and merely a prey to sensationalism. At this age, it is not models and/ or the data of specialist science they need, but the basic attitude of scientific work, which is: thinking integrates the world of phenomena.
Chemistry, a new subject introduced in Class 7, provides the right kinds of challenges and opportunities in the above sense. Here the young people get to know the world of substances and explore their characteristics. In addition, what they perceive can be used to form concepts, thus bringing them into the research process and helping them meet the world anew in a deeper way. Reality is not contained in an abstract concept but in thoughtful observation which does not look exclusively either at the one-sided concept or at the perception, but sees how the two are linked together.
Inorganic chemistry offers impressive possibilities for dramatic experiments that illustrate this. The main-lesson block often begins with fire and the process of combustion (an experience the youngsters are well acquainted with!), and proceeds via the burning of limestone to acids, alkalis and metals. The historical and cultural aspects of the various technologies are always included in the lessons.
Chemistry in Class 8 turns to other questions.
Organic processes in nature are more complicated and therefore much harder to understand. The human being, in whom all these processes take place, is the starting point and focus for these lessons. Understanding organic life processes, the creation and metamorphosis of substances, requires an active, imaginative kind of thinking to conceive of such processes. Concepts need to be formed that also relate to a sense of responsibility.
As with inorganic chemistry, physics in Class 7 has an equally 'dead' emphasis: mechanics. There are two aspects of this. On the one hand, the subject fits in well with the youngsters' search for practical ways of changing the world such as can be found and are applied in industry and transport. On the other hand, by practising and 'playing' with mechanical experiments they can become acquainted with the systematic work required by the scientific method while also enabling them to bring order into their own steps in thinking. Physics in Class 8 shows how mechanics extends into and helps to explain the other areas of physics (e.g. steam engine, Morse telegraphy, hydrostatics and hydraulics). Fixed concepts and reductionism are still avoided. But a beginning is made in using quantitative formulae based on the mechanics learnt in Class 7, such as the 'golden rule of mechanics', calculating the speed of sound, calculating pressure etc. Here we encounter an interesting paradox. As increasingly accurate observations are made with the help of measuring instruments - a process in which our direct experience withdraws from the phenomena - so, on the other hand, the human being becomes newly involved in a practical way by making apparatus, instruments and machines on the basis of the laws of physics. Decisive industrial changes take place as a result, which in turn lead to grave social consequences. As direct experience of nature fades, this is replaced by a working knowledge of the laws of physics, which forms the basis for an interventionist approach. This stage in consciousness reflects the profound shift in human consciousness from pre-industrial societies to the modern condition in which nature loses its identity as being and becomes an objective world described by the pronoun 'it' rather than 'thou'.
In Class 6, geography presented an overview of the globe as a whole. Now the focus is on individual parts of the world not yet dealt with in detail. The cultural aspects of unfamiliar regions provide a focus for understanding the relationship of human society to its geographical circumstances. The way individual cultures arise as the result of geographical context provides the pupils with examples of individuation at the cultural level as they themselves begin to become more aware of their own cultural identity. Directing the lessons towards cultural phenomena draws the youngsters' attention away from egotistical everyday concerns of gratifying needs towards more objective examples of lifestyles as exemplified by the cultural forms of other peoples, and especially non- European or Western orientated societies.
Biology is similar in this respect. Steiner suggested that Class 7 was the last chance to introduce the subjects of health and nutrition while the children are still relatively less self-preoccupied than they will be in the depths of puberty, and can experience the nature of the human being in a general way. These days, Class 7-age pupils are well into puberty and therefore it is a question whether the aspects of human biology usually dealt with in Class 7 shouldn't appear earlier in the curriculum. Nevertheless, if the topic is taken in Class 7, the teacher will have to accommodate the increased self-consciousness of the students.
Gardening has a role to play here in that it teaches about food plants and the worldwide origins of food resources. Class 8 then turns to the human form as such. In the anatomy main-lesson the skeleton is studied in detail, including the mechanics of bones and muscles, and comparisons are made with animal skeletons. Eye and ear are here seen as instruments serving the inner being of the individual.
The discovery of the human being is often preceded by history lessons in Class 7, when the (re) discovery by Europeans, of new continents, and the discovery by non-Europeans of the strange forces emanating from Europe, is a major topic. Another aspect of this whole theme, is the discovery of natural laws, and the discovery of laws in art. The beginnings of scientific thinking in the Renaissance, as well as the emergence of a new individual self- consciousness that began when long-held views of the world and of faith came under scrutiny, are clearly comparable to the developmental situation of youngsters as puberty begins.
By studying the rise of industry, the industrial revolution and the human being as the shaper of social order right up to the present time, the youngsters in Class 8 are led not out of but further into the real world. In studying cultural history they can experience how the world can be transformed by human beings; they can investigate the causes of events and thus more and more become citizens of the world.
The Renaissance discovery of the vanishing point in painting and architecture where everything meets or from which everything emanates is now the foundation for the themes in painting and drawing. Exercises in perspective and studies of works by the great masters Brunelleschi, Masaccio, Piero delIa Francesca and non-vanishing point perspective (Van Eyck) , lend more substance to art studies. Here the excitement of the discovery can be conveyed through biographical anecdote. The pupils are not yet mature enough to grasp the deeper levels of meaning that concerned the great artists of the Renaissance. This will be the theme of Upper School art studies. Having arrived at this structure in drawing they now have to begin imbuing it with new life. Once the elements of structure, perspective and composition have been introduced, colour can be reintroduced to express the feeling and mood element to painting.
English language studies in Class 7 could be a way of preparing for this. One subject, among many other parts of speech dealt with, is 'interjections' which are, after all, simply expressions of feelings and sensations given direct expression in language. During this period young people tend to become inarticulate in the presence of adults, yet they develop fluency in the rich vocabulary of teenage jargon. Both phenomena are aspects of the search for their own individual ways of expressing themselves and such stylistic exercises can be a great help.
Solo and chorus recitation of poetry and prose must be strongly cultivated. In Class 8, when the students are searching to find their own new language, a new beginning can be made in working with the various types of clause and with texts that characterise them. Lively interest can be generated by exercises in which sentence structures are sought to suit the different temperaments. As the pupils begin to notice the sanguine, melancholic, choleric and phlegmatic temperaments they begin to see each other in a new light, and often with considerable insight. The transition can then be made to stylistic studies and exercises, with particular attention to the special qualities of epic, lyric and dramatic poetry, whereby metaphor, simile, etc. are given individual attention.
Drama is a most important theme of this biographical period. It should involve not only the reading or reciting of ballads but also a larger theatrical project, the Class 8 play. One of the important aspects of this is getting the youngsters working together in a social way on a work of art involving language.
Similar considerations apply to foreign language lessons. Exercises in writing reports and stories can relate to geography and social history, i.e. themes of a universal nature.
What I have said with regard to the characteristics of languages means that it is necessary - if we want to educate in a generally human but not specialised way - that we should take what comes out of the genius of a particular language regarding human nature and balance this by means of another language.
The interest of the pupils can be focused on other peoples all over the world and this can help them develop an understanding of those who are different.
Once again astronomy can be related to geography and history. The pupils can be shown the Copernican view of the world and discuss how the view of the heavens changes in different parts of the world. The point of departure is practical, perceived astronomy, rather than theory. Practical navigation can be taught, thus linking the exploits of early voyages of discovery, with astronomy and orientation.
As with physics in Class 8, formulae now also begin to appear in mathematics. A start is made with algebra and equations, perhaps using interest percentages (Class 6) as a point of departure. Then the pupils have an analytical experience of perspective in mathematics when they learn about square roots. The realm of negative numbers is also entered for the first time. Learning how to gain an overview of things can also be schooled through practical business calculation, e.g. in book-keeping, the basic principles of which can be introduced in Classes 6 and 7.
In geometry, theoretical proofs are practised in connection with the congruence of triangles using all kinds of definitions according to angles, triangles and quadrilaterals with inscribed or perimeter circles and also through the different proofs for the Theorem of Pythagoras (including the use of square roots) that links up with these. By repeating and constantly practising the proofs, the pupils can develop their capacity for forming judgements. Constructions in perspective provide the link with history and drawing, just as the construction of the Golden Mean in Class 8 allows for a link to be made with anatomy through anatomical proportions.
Forming exact judgements and concepts in geometry is less difficult than in music. The youngsters need to find their orientation in this realm that expresses soul qualities. As before, listening is every bit as important as solo playing and making music and singing with others. Like eurythmy, as we shall see, music at this age is important socially and therapeutically because it helps the youngsters form links with others and extricate themselves from the loneliness that is beginning to take a grip on them. Music lessons can introduce them to various composers and styles and also help them develop an understanding of composition.
Eurythmy is connected with this. Ballads and humorous pieces are worked on. Speech eurythmy also supports language studies by cultivating artistic interpretation, while tone eurythmy adds to and accompanies music studies. As mentioned above, doing eurythmy in a group allows for the practice and development of social skills. At a period when they can be shy, self conscious and awkward, the youngsters are helped by discovering that the formal principles of eurythmy can articulate their experience of dynamic space as well as providing an artistic medium for the expression of soul moods.
The Class 8 play has already been mentioned in connection with English studies. This is intended to be much more comprehensive than the short plays and scenes that have been worked on from Class 1 onwards in the main-lesson and foreign languages. This play for the first time allows the children to shape their emotions while still under the protective mask of a role in a play. This can be stimulating and motivating. In addition everything they have learned and worked on in the Lower School can be drawn on: making the scenery (painting and carpentry), sewing the costumes (handwork), making the posters (drawing), choreography (eurythmy, music).
In the description of handwork in Classes 1 to 3 we have already mentioned practical skill. Now we become increasingly concerned to combine this practical usefulness with a sense for the aesthetic, whilst relating natural materials to their environmental context. For example the youngsters might make shoes and then embellish them artistically to suit both purpose and wearer. Use of the sewing machine is practised so that in the coming years complicated pieces such as shirts, blouses, trousers, skirts and dresses can be made. Here design, function, material and technical skill are brought into a relationship with aesthetics and individual expression.
Just as handwork in Classes 7 and 8 gains an element of the artistic, so do crafts and woodwork. Useful objects of artistic design are made. The design takes account of both function and aesthetic appearance. Salad servers, candle holders, postcard stands etc. are made in woodwork. To make toys with moving parts you need a basic understanding of mechanics, enough not only to allow you to understand how something works but to be able to design it in the first place.
Two qualities are particularly important at this age, namely self-restraint and self-motivation. Things that prevent us from participating in the world, e.g. laziness, antipathy or fear, are tackled for the first time in subjects such as gardening. The weather itself provides a challenge because of its unreliability.
Difficult procedures requiring patience and skill, such as transplanting, are learnt. If possible the whole gardening year should be experienced, from sowing, planting, cultivating (watering, hoeing, weeding) to harvesting, and then even selling the produce. A sense of responsibility is needed to sustain all this. The same goes for the care of shrubs and trees because in addition to immediate results it also requires foresight over many years.
History is mainly concerned with experiencing and understanding the past (although in Class 8 the future can also be allowed to appear). Gardening, on the other hand, is a responsibility directed to the future.
Gym and sport lessons provide the aspect of self-restraint and self-motivation that leads to clear experiences of self. Apparatus work and springing in all its many varieties, provide plenty of choice.
Perseverance and stamina are schooled by more intensive running exercises. Ball games provide an important social balance to the more solitary disciplines. Once puberty begins a distinction is made between the sexes for the first time. Training is directed to developing strength for the boys and elasticity for the girls.
In Class 8 a year-long project is also undertaken by each pupil. Subjects and methods are many and varied. The aim is for the youngsters to produce and document work showing their own formulations and graphic solutions, their own craft skills or musical progress. The element of self-restraint and self-motivation can be particularly strong here. At a time when it is often difficult to 'reach' individual pupils, a project provides opportunities to enter into relationships with them based on an area of common interest. This enables teachers to continue an on-going relationship genuinely wanted by the pupils.
Summary of Classes 7 to 8
The overriding theme is working with the world's laws by conversing with them and, in doing so, finding one's own voice. Students should experience how knowledge makes one capable of forming appropriate judgements and how forming judgements leads to new questions. The students should be led to bring together what they have learned into a meaningful world picture in which the human being as a striving ethical being has central significance. The students should also reach a degree of independent working that enables them to approach the Upper School equipped for a more subject specialist approach to learning which requires more initiative and independent working skills.
Even though at the founding of the original Waldorf school, the pupils left school after Class 8, Steiner's comment below is equally relevant when the students go on to the Upper School.
When you discharge a child from school you should have laid the foundations for him or her to be no longer tied to the body with every fibre of the soul; in thinking, feeling and will he must have become independent of the body.
The children have now reached a critical period in their development that may be experienced negatively as a crisis and is often described as such in many publications on puberty. It is important, however, for educators to treat this challenge more as an opportunity than a crisis. Between the ages of twelve and fourteen, the pupils have indeed come into quite a new relationship with the world. Physically they undergo a second change of shape, often growing much taller, but their 'inner shape' also changes noticeably. Hitherto, habit and upbringing have governed their behaviour more than their own choices and inclinations. Now their soul life erupts into the world outside them.
The human being works his way through via the breathing system and the circulatory system right into the part where the muscles are attached to the bones. He works right to the edge of being human and at puberty breaks out into the outside world. Not until this moment does he arrive fully in the outside world"
Steiner's choice of words here shows the drama of this situation. Often the sheer force of the children's inner tumult shocks those around them so much that they forget that the children are equally shocked. But the children do not want their alarm, which is very deep and disturbing, to be noticed by those around them. They don't want to reveal their individuality in this 'new territory' until they have gained some sense of security. Until they have achieved this they hide in many ways behind masks and 'difficult' behaviour.
The pedagogical task for the middle of childhood is to understand that the children enter in their own time into the rhythm of a past that can be thought and a future that can be sensed.'
There is even something of an existential feel about this future that can be sensed. The young people feel they are both solitary and a part of humanity as a whole. Sexual maturity makes this even clearer. Having become fully a part of the human race in their ability to reproduce, they also long for an extension of their own individual responsibility towards the world. Steiner described this as follows:
One of the principles in the Waldorf School is to educate young people so that, on the one hand, they can bring to the fore in the right way the whole of their human potential, and, on the other hand, what they need to enable them to take their proper place in the world.
What is referred to as a 'lack of discipline' or descriptions of the pupils 'just hanging around' can also be seen as a sign that these young people are searching to find their way within a new psychological situation and thus also within the new sense they have of the physical world.
In addition to the changes of physical and psychological 'shape', there is now also a change in the young people's consciousness. Conceptual thinking comes more to the fore as they endeavour to make links between isolated phenomena and thus leave their isolation behind them to take hold of a new totality. Whatever they experience must be transformed into original thinking, otherwise it will make them insensitive and merely a prey to sensationalism. At this age, it is not models and/ or the data of specialist science they need, but the basic attitude of scientific work, which is: thinking integrates the world of phenomena.
Chemistry, a new subject introduced in Class 7, provides the right kinds of challenges and opportunities in the above sense. Here the young people get to know the world of substances and explore their characteristics. In addition, what they perceive can be used to form concepts, thus bringing them into the research process and helping them meet the world anew in a deeper way. Reality is not contained in an abstract concept but in thoughtful observation which does not look exclusively either at the one-sided concept or at the perception, but sees how the two are linked together.
Inorganic chemistry offers impressive possibilities for dramatic experiments that illustrate this. The main-lesson block often begins with fire and the process of combustion (an experience the youngsters are well acquainted with!), and proceeds via the burning of limestone to acids, alkalis and metals. The historical and cultural aspects of the various technologies are always included in the lessons.
Chemistry in Class 8 turns to other questions.
Organic processes in nature are more complicated and therefore much harder to understand. The human being, in whom all these processes take place, is the starting point and focus for these lessons. Understanding organic life processes, the creation and metamorphosis of substances, requires an active, imaginative kind of thinking to conceive of such processes. Concepts need to be formed that also relate to a sense of responsibility.
As with inorganic chemistry, physics in Class 7 has an equally 'dead' emphasis: mechanics. There are two aspects of this. On the one hand, the subject fits in well with the youngsters' search for practical ways of changing the world such as can be found and are applied in industry and transport. On the other hand, by practising and 'playing' with mechanical experiments they can become acquainted with the systematic work required by the scientific method while also enabling them to bring order into their own steps in thinking. Physics in Class 8 shows how mechanics extends into and helps to explain the other areas of physics (e.g. steam engine, Morse telegraphy, hydrostatics and hydraulics). Fixed concepts and reductionism are still avoided. But a beginning is made in using quantitative formulae based on the mechanics learnt in Class 7, such as the 'golden rule of mechanics', calculating the speed of sound, calculating pressure etc. Here we encounter an interesting paradox. As increasingly accurate observations are made with the help of measuring instruments - a process in which our direct experience withdraws from the phenomena - so, on the other hand, the human being becomes newly involved in a practical way by making apparatus, instruments and machines on the basis of the laws of physics. Decisive industrial changes take place as a result, which in turn lead to grave social consequences. As direct experience of nature fades, this is replaced by a working knowledge of the laws of physics, which forms the basis for an interventionist approach. This stage in consciousness reflects the profound shift in human consciousness from pre-industrial societies to the modern condition in which nature loses its identity as being and becomes an objective world described by the pronoun 'it' rather than 'thou'.
In Class 6, geography presented an overview of the globe as a whole. Now the focus is on individual parts of the world not yet dealt with in detail. The cultural aspects of unfamiliar regions provide a focus for understanding the relationship of human society to its geographical circumstances. The way individual cultures arise as the result of geographical context provides the pupils with examples of individuation at the cultural level as they themselves begin to become more aware of their own cultural identity. Directing the lessons towards cultural phenomena draws the youngsters' attention away from egotistical everyday concerns of gratifying needs towards more objective examples of lifestyles as exemplified by the cultural forms of other peoples, and especially non- European or Western orientated societies.
Biology is similar in this respect. Steiner suggested that Class 7 was the last chance to introduce the subjects of health and nutrition while the children are still relatively less self-preoccupied than they will be in the depths of puberty, and can experience the nature of the human being in a general way. These days, Class 7-age pupils are well into puberty and therefore it is a question whether the aspects of human biology usually dealt with in Class 7 shouldn't appear earlier in the curriculum. Nevertheless, if the topic is taken in Class 7, the teacher will have to accommodate the increased self-consciousness of the students.
Gardening has a role to play here in that it teaches about food plants and the worldwide origins of food resources. Class 8 then turns to the human form as such. In the anatomy main-lesson the skeleton is studied in detail, including the mechanics of bones and muscles, and comparisons are made with animal skeletons. Eye and ear are here seen as instruments serving the inner being of the individual.
The discovery of the human being is often preceded by history lessons in Class 7, when the (re) discovery by Europeans, of new continents, and the discovery by non-Europeans of the strange forces emanating from Europe, is a major topic. Another aspect of this whole theme, is the discovery of natural laws, and the discovery of laws in art. The beginnings of scientific thinking in the Renaissance, as well as the emergence of a new individual self- consciousness that began when long-held views of the world and of faith came under scrutiny, are clearly comparable to the developmental situation of youngsters as puberty begins.
By studying the rise of industry, the industrial revolution and the human being as the shaper of social order right up to the present time, the youngsters in Class 8 are led not out of but further into the real world. In studying cultural history they can experience how the world can be transformed by human beings; they can investigate the causes of events and thus more and more become citizens of the world.
The Renaissance discovery of the vanishing point in painting and architecture where everything meets or from which everything emanates is now the foundation for the themes in painting and drawing. Exercises in perspective and studies of works by the great masters Brunelleschi, Masaccio, Piero delIa Francesca and non-vanishing point perspective (Van Eyck) , lend more substance to art studies. Here the excitement of the discovery can be conveyed through biographical anecdote. The pupils are not yet mature enough to grasp the deeper levels of meaning that concerned the great artists of the Renaissance. This will be the theme of Upper School art studies. Having arrived at this structure in drawing they now have to begin imbuing it with new life. Once the elements of structure, perspective and composition have been introduced, colour can be reintroduced to express the feeling and mood element to painting.
English language studies in Class 7 could be a way of preparing for this. One subject, among many other parts of speech dealt with, is 'interjections' which are, after all, simply expressions of feelings and sensations given direct expression in language. During this period young people tend to become inarticulate in the presence of adults, yet they develop fluency in the rich vocabulary of teenage jargon. Both phenomena are aspects of the search for their own individual ways of expressing themselves and such stylistic exercises can be a great help.
Solo and chorus recitation of poetry and prose must be strongly cultivated. In Class 8, when the students are searching to find their own new language, a new beginning can be made in working with the various types of clause and with texts that characterise them. Lively interest can be generated by exercises in which sentence structures are sought to suit the different temperaments. As the pupils begin to notice the sanguine, melancholic, choleric and phlegmatic temperaments they begin to see each other in a new light, and often with considerable insight. The transition can then be made to stylistic studies and exercises, with particular attention to the special qualities of epic, lyric and dramatic poetry, whereby metaphor, simile, etc. are given individual attention.
Drama is a most important theme of this biographical period. It should involve not only the reading or reciting of ballads but also a larger theatrical project, the Class 8 play. One of the important aspects of this is getting the youngsters working together in a social way on a work of art involving language.
Similar considerations apply to foreign language lessons. Exercises in writing reports and stories can relate to geography and social history, i.e. themes of a universal nature.
What I have said with regard to the characteristics of languages means that it is necessary - if we want to educate in a generally human but not specialised way - that we should take what comes out of the genius of a particular language regarding human nature and balance this by means of another language.
The interest of the pupils can be focused on other peoples all over the world and this can help them develop an understanding of those who are different.
Once again astronomy can be related to geography and history. The pupils can be shown the Copernican view of the world and discuss how the view of the heavens changes in different parts of the world. The point of departure is practical, perceived astronomy, rather than theory. Practical navigation can be taught, thus linking the exploits of early voyages of discovery, with astronomy and orientation.
As with physics in Class 8, formulae now also begin to appear in mathematics. A start is made with algebra and equations, perhaps using interest percentages (Class 6) as a point of departure. Then the pupils have an analytical experience of perspective in mathematics when they learn about square roots. The realm of negative numbers is also entered for the first time. Learning how to gain an overview of things can also be schooled through practical business calculation, e.g. in book-keeping, the basic principles of which can be introduced in Classes 6 and 7.
In geometry, theoretical proofs are practised in connection with the congruence of triangles using all kinds of definitions according to angles, triangles and quadrilaterals with inscribed or perimeter circles and also through the different proofs for the Theorem of Pythagoras (including the use of square roots) that links up with these. By repeating and constantly practising the proofs, the pupils can develop their capacity for forming judgements. Constructions in perspective provide the link with history and drawing, just as the construction of the Golden Mean in Class 8 allows for a link to be made with anatomy through anatomical proportions.
Forming exact judgements and concepts in geometry is less difficult than in music. The youngsters need to find their orientation in this realm that expresses soul qualities. As before, listening is every bit as important as solo playing and making music and singing with others. Like eurythmy, as we shall see, music at this age is important socially and therapeutically because it helps the youngsters form links with others and extricate themselves from the loneliness that is beginning to take a grip on them. Music lessons can introduce them to various composers and styles and also help them develop an understanding of composition.
Eurythmy is connected with this. Ballads and humorous pieces are worked on. Speech eurythmy also supports language studies by cultivating artistic interpretation, while tone eurythmy adds to and accompanies music studies. As mentioned above, doing eurythmy in a group allows for the practice and development of social skills. At a period when they can be shy, self conscious and awkward, the youngsters are helped by discovering that the formal principles of eurythmy can articulate their experience of dynamic space as well as providing an artistic medium for the expression of soul moods.
The Class 8 play has already been mentioned in connection with English studies. This is intended to be much more comprehensive than the short plays and scenes that have been worked on from Class 1 onwards in the main-lesson and foreign languages. This play for the first time allows the children to shape their emotions while still under the protective mask of a role in a play. This can be stimulating and motivating. In addition everything they have learned and worked on in the Lower School can be drawn on: making the scenery (painting and carpentry), sewing the costumes (handwork), making the posters (drawing), choreography (eurythmy, music).
In the description of handwork in Classes 1 to 3 we have already mentioned practical skill. Now we become increasingly concerned to combine this practical usefulness with a sense for the aesthetic, whilst relating natural materials to their environmental context. For example the youngsters might make shoes and then embellish them artistically to suit both purpose and wearer. Use of the sewing machine is practised so that in the coming years complicated pieces such as shirts, blouses, trousers, skirts and dresses can be made. Here design, function, material and technical skill are brought into a relationship with aesthetics and individual expression.
Just as handwork in Classes 7 and 8 gains an element of the artistic, so do crafts and woodwork. Useful objects of artistic design are made. The design takes account of both function and aesthetic appearance. Salad servers, candle holders, postcard stands etc. are made in woodwork. To make toys with moving parts you need a basic understanding of mechanics, enough not only to allow you to understand how something works but to be able to design it in the first place.
Two qualities are particularly important at this age, namely self-restraint and self-motivation. Things that prevent us from participating in the world, e.g. laziness, antipathy or fear, are tackled for the first time in subjects such as gardening. The weather itself provides a challenge because of its unreliability.
Difficult procedures requiring patience and skill, such as transplanting, are learnt. If possible the whole gardening year should be experienced, from sowing, planting, cultivating (watering, hoeing, weeding) to harvesting, and then even selling the produce. A sense of responsibility is needed to sustain all this. The same goes for the care of shrubs and trees because in addition to immediate results it also requires foresight over many years.
History is mainly concerned with experiencing and understanding the past (although in Class 8 the future can also be allowed to appear). Gardening, on the other hand, is a responsibility directed to the future.
Gym and sport lessons provide the aspect of self-restraint and self-motivation that leads to clear experiences of self. Apparatus work and springing in all its many varieties, provide plenty of choice.
Perseverance and stamina are schooled by more intensive running exercises. Ball games provide an important social balance to the more solitary disciplines. Once puberty begins a distinction is made between the sexes for the first time. Training is directed to developing strength for the boys and elasticity for the girls.
In Class 8 a year-long project is also undertaken by each pupil. Subjects and methods are many and varied. The aim is for the youngsters to produce and document work showing their own formulations and graphic solutions, their own craft skills or musical progress. The element of self-restraint and self-motivation can be particularly strong here. At a time when it is often difficult to 'reach' individual pupils, a project provides opportunities to enter into relationships with them based on an area of common interest. This enables teachers to continue an on-going relationship genuinely wanted by the pupils.
Summary of Classes 7 to 8
The overriding theme is working with the world's laws by conversing with them and, in doing so, finding one's own voice. Students should experience how knowledge makes one capable of forming appropriate judgements and how forming judgements leads to new questions. The students should be led to bring together what they have learned into a meaningful world picture in which the human being as a striving ethical being has central significance. The students should also reach a degree of independent working that enables them to approach the Upper School equipped for a more subject specialist approach to learning which requires more initiative and independent working skills.
Even though at the founding of the original Waldorf school, the pupils left school after Class 8, Steiner's comment below is equally relevant when the students go on to the Upper School.
When you discharge a child from school you should have laid the foundations for him or her to be no longer tied to the body with every fibre of the soul; in thinking, feeling and will he must have become independent of the body.