Someone recently remarked to the planning group: it is odd that the theme of the 2019 World Early Childhood Conference is not pedagogical, but instead has to do with adults. Of course, the relationships among the adults are an important part of the surroundings of the child and have a strong influence on the child’s development, but what could we do to bring about a real improvement in these relationships, so that they become more harmonious? It is not enough to just try to be nice to one another. The indications, hints, and suggestions that Rudolf Steiner gave for working with the small child 100 years ago have since been taken up by a very large number of people. His descriptions of the development of the child and the human being have been studied by many educators and parents. Educational skills, artistic sensitivity, and subtle observational skills have been developed by generations of educators and passed on through courses and seminars. But those of us living today, one hundred years later, what do we want? What do the children who are born today tell us? What skills do we want to develop so that they can develop their humanity in the future? How do we want to work with Steiner's suggestions and ideas? What seems essential to us in the practice of Waldorf education - and what not? When working on these issues in the IASWECE Council, one issue kept cropping up: relationships among adult adults, relationships between adults and children, and among children themselves. Here we see tasks that we want to take up:
• The quality of adult relationships is one of the areas that most influences the development of the child, who is "like an organ of the senses". We can surround the child with the most beautiful colors and sounds but if the social tone is cold or oblique, we will not be able to provide the child with a beneficial sheath.
• The quality of our relationships with children depends very much on whether we perceive and understand them. How do we help ourselves through child study, study of the human being, and through friendly collegial support?
• Through free play, children engage in social interaction every day. In an age of increasingly nervous rhythms of life and constant distraction through digital media, it is becoming increasingly difficult to create the conditions needed for harmonious free play. How can we help each other with this?
During discussions about the social tensions so often occurring in Waldorf institutions, we realized that we can only create sustainable, healthier social relationships if as many participants as possible work on the sensitivity and strength of their soul, when we become free from the sympathies and antipathies that arise automatically in us. More information here.
• The quality of adult relationships is one of the areas that most influences the development of the child, who is "like an organ of the senses". We can surround the child with the most beautiful colors and sounds but if the social tone is cold or oblique, we will not be able to provide the child with a beneficial sheath.
• The quality of our relationships with children depends very much on whether we perceive and understand them. How do we help ourselves through child study, study of the human being, and through friendly collegial support?
• Through free play, children engage in social interaction every day. In an age of increasingly nervous rhythms of life and constant distraction through digital media, it is becoming increasingly difficult to create the conditions needed for harmonious free play. How can we help each other with this?
During discussions about the social tensions so often occurring in Waldorf institutions, we realized that we can only create sustainable, healthier social relationships if as many participants as possible work on the sensitivity and strength of their soul, when we become free from the sympathies and antipathies that arise automatically in us. More information here.
