Course: Early Childhood Education"Waldorf Education is not a pedagogical system but an art - the art of awakening what is actually there within the human being." ~ Rudolf Steiner
The Waldorf early childhood educator works with the young child by creating a warm, beautiful and loving home-like environment, which is protective and secure, and where things happen in a predictable, rhythmic manner. Here she responds to the developing child in two basic ways: First, she engages in domestic, practical, and artistic activities the children can readily imitate (for example, baking, painting, gardening, and handicrafts), adapting the work to the changing seasons and festivals of the year. Secondly, the Waldorf kindergarten teacher nurtures the children’s power of imagination by telling carefully selected stories and by encouraging free play. This free or fantasy play, in which children act out scenarios of their own creation, helps them to experience many aspects of life more deeply. When toys are used, they are made of natural materials. Wood, cotton, wool, silk, shells, stones, pine cones and objects from nature that the children themselves have collected are used in play and to beautify the room. Sensory integration, eye-hand coordination, appreciating the beauty of language, sequencing, and other basic skills necessary for the foundation of academic learning are fostered in the kindergarten. In this truly loving, natural and creative environment, children are provided with a range of activities to prepare them for later learning and for life itself. |
Course Outline
Early Childhood Education 1
Lesson 1: You Are Your Child's First Teacher Lesson 2: Home Life as the Basis for All Learning Lesson 3: Birth to Three: Growing Down and Waking Up Lesson 4: Helping Your Baby's Development Lesson 5: Helping Your Toddler's Development Lesson 6: Rhythm in Home Life Lesson 7: Discipline and Other Parenting Issues Lesson 8: Reflection and Final Paper/Early Childhood Education 1 Early Childhood Education 2
Lesson 1: Nourishing Your Child's Imagination and Creative Play Lesson 2: Developing Your Child's Artistic Ability Lesson 3: Encouraging your Child's Musical Ability Lesson 4: Cognitive Development and Early Childhood Education Lesson 5: Common Parenting Question: From Television to Immunizations Lesson 6: Help for the Journey Lesson 7: Reflection and Final Paper/Early Childhood Education 2 
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What Makes Waldorf Early Childhood Education “Waldorf”?
Is there a Waldorf early childhood curriculum? Are there specific activities—puppet plays, circle games, watercolor painting, for example—that are essential to a Waldorf program? Are there certain materials and furnishings—lazured, soft-colored walls, handmade dolls, beeswax crayons, silk and other natural materials—that are necessary ingredients in a Waldorf setting? What makes Waldorf early childhood education “Waldorf”?
Rudolf Steiner spoke on a number of occasions about the experiences that are essential for the healthy development of the young child. These include:
• love and warmth
• an environment that nourishes the senses
• creative and artistic experiences
• meaningful adult activity to be imitated
• free, imaginative play
• protection of the forces of childhood
• gratitude, reverence, and wonder
• joy, humor, and happiness
• adult caregivers pursuing a path of inner development
Love and Warmth
Children who live in an atmosphere of love and warmth, and who have around them truly good examples to imitate, are living in their proper element. —Rudolf Steiner, The Education of the Child
Love and emotional warmth, rather than any particular early childhood program, create the basis for the child’s healthy development. These qualities should live between the adult caregiver and the child, in the children’s behavior toward one another, and among the adults in the early childhood center. When Rudolf Steiner visited the classes of the first Waldorf school, he often asked the children, “Do you love your teacher?” Children are also served if this love and warmth exist in the relationships between the teachers and the parents, between the early childhood teachers and the rest of the school, and in the surrounding community.
An Environment that Nourishes the Senses
The essential task of the kindergarten teacher is to create the proper physical environment around the children. “Physical environment” must be understood in the widest sense imaginable. It includes not just what happens around the children in the material sense, but everything that occurs in their environment, everything that can be perceived by their senses, that can work on the inner powers of the children from the surrounding physical space. —Rudolf Steiner, The Education of the Child
Early learning is profoundly connected to the child’s own physical body and sensory experience. Everything the young child sees, hears, and touches has an effect. Thus a clean, orderly, beautiful, quiet setting is essential. The physical environment, both indoors and outdoors, should provide varied and nourishing opportunities for self-education—experiences in touch, balance, lively and joyful movement, and also inward listening. The children should experience large-group, small-group, and solitary activities. The teacher, in integrating diverse elements into a harmonious and meaningful environment, provides surroundings that are accessible to the child’s understanding, feeling, and active will. The care, love, and intention expressed through the outer materials and furnishings of the classes are experienced unconsciously by the child. The child experiences the immediate environment as ensouled and nurturing. The adult shapes the temporal environment as well as the spatial. Through a rhythmic schedule, in which the same thing happens at the same time on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, the child gains a sense of security and confidence in the world. Also, the different activities of the day should take place in a comfortable flow with smooth transitions.
Creative, Artistic Experience
In order to become true educators, we must be able to see the truly aesthetic element in the work, to bring an artistic quality into our tasks. . . . [I]f we bring this aesthetic element, then we begin to come closer to what the child wills out of its own nature. —Rudolf Steiner, A Modern Art of Education
In the early childhood class, the art of education is the art of living. The teacher is an artist in how she perceives and relates to the children and to the activities of daily life. She orchestrates and choreographs the rhythms of each day, each week, and each season in such a way that the children can breathe freely in a living structure. In addition, the teacher offers the children opportunities for artistic experiences in singing and music, in movement and gesture—through eurythmy and rhythmic games—and in creative speech and language—through verses, poetry, and stories. The children model with beeswax, draw, and do watercolor painting. Puppet and marionette shows put on by the teacher are an important element in the life of the kindergarten.
Meaningful Adult Activity as Examples for the Child’s Imitation
The task of the kindergarten teacher is to adapt the practical activities of daily life so that they are suitable for the child’s imitation through play. . . . The activities of children in kindergarten must be derived directly from life itself rather than being “thought out” by the intellectualized culture of adults. In the kindergarten, the most important thing is to give children the opportunity to directly imitate life itself. —Rudolf Steiner, The Child’s Changing Consciousness
Children do not learn through instruction or admonition but though imitation. Good sight will develop if the environment has the proper conditions of light and color, while in the brain and blood circulation, the physical foundations will be laid for a healthy sense of morality if children witness moral actions in their surroundings. —Rudolf Steiner, The Education of the Child
Real, meaningful work with a purpose, adjusted to the needs of the child, is in accordance with the child’s natural and inborn need for movement, and is an enormously significant educational activity. The teacher focuses on the meaningful activities that nurture life in the in the classroom “home,” such as cooking and baking, gardening, doing laundry and cleaning, creating and caring for the materials in the immediate environment, and taking care of the bodily needs of the children. This directed attention of the teacher creates an atmosphere of freedom in which the individuality of each child can be active. It is not intended just that the children copy the outer movements and actions of the adult, but that they experience also the inner attitude—the devotion, care, sense of purpose, focus, and creative spirit of the adult.
Free, Imaginative Play
In the child’s play activity, we can only provide the conditions for education. What is gained through play, through everything that cannot be determined by fixed rules, stems fundamentally from the self-activity of the child, The real educational value of play lives in the fact that we ignore our rules and regulations, our educational theory, and allow the child free rein. —Rudolf Steiner, Self Education in the Light of Anthroposophy
In a seemingly contradictory indication, Rudolf Steiner also said: Giving direction and guidance to play is one of the essential tasks of sensible education, which is to say an art of education that is right for humanity. . . . The early childhood educator must school her observation in order to develop an artistic eye, to detect the individual quality of each child’s play. —Rudolf Steiner, Lecture of February 24, 1921 in Utrecht, The Netherlands
Little children learn through play. They approach play in an entirely individual way, out of their entirely individual ways, out of their unique configuration of soul and spirit, and out of their unique experiences of the world in which they live. The manner in which a child plays may offer a picture of how he will take up his destiny as an adult. The task of the teacher is to create an environment that supports the possibility of healthy play. This environment includes the physical surroundings, furnishings, and play materials; the social environment of activities and social interactions; and the inner/spiritual environment of thoughts, intentions, and imaginations held by the adults.
Protection for the Forces of Childhood
Although it is highly necessary that each person should be fully awake in later life, the child must be allowed to remain as long as possible in the peaceful, dreamlike condition of pictorial imagination in which his early years of life are passed. For if we allow his organism to grow strong in this nonintellectual way, he will rightly develop in later life the intellectuality needed in the world today. —Rudolf Steiner, A Modern Art of Education
The lively, waking dream of the little child’s consciousness must be allowed to thrive in the early childhood group. This means that the teacher refrains as much as possible from verbal instruction. Instead, her gestures and actions provide a model for the child’s imitation. Familiar daily rhythms and activities provide a context where the need for verbal instruction is reduced. Simple, archetypal imagery in stories, songs, and games provides experiences that the children can internalize but that do not require intellectual or critical reflection or explanation.
An Atmosphere of Gratitude, Reverence, and Wonder
An atmosphere of gratitude should grow naturally in children through merely witnessing the gratitude the adults feel as they receive what is freely given by others, and in how they express this gratitude. If a child says “thank you” very naturally—not in response to the urging of others, but simply through imitating— something has been done that will greatly benefit the child’s whole life. Out of this an all-embracing gratitude will develop toward the whole world. This cultivation of gratitude is of paramount importance. —Rudolf Steiner, The Child’s Changing Consciousness
Out of these early, all-pervading experiences of gratitude, the first tender capacity for love, which is deeply embedded in each and every child, begins to sprout in earthly life.
If, during the first period of life, we create an atmosphere of gratitude around the children, then out of this gratitude toward the world, toward the entire universe, and also out of thankfulness for being able to be in this world, a profound and warm sense of devotion will arise . . . upright, honest, and true. —Rudolf Steiner, The Child’s Changing Consciousness
This is the basis for what will become a capacity for deep, intimate love and commitment in later life, for dedication and loyalty, for true admiration of others, for fervent spiritual or religious devotion, and for placing oneself wholeheartedly in the service of the world.
Joy, Humor, and Happiness
The joy of children in and with their environment must therefore be counted among the forces that build and shape the physical organs. They need teachers who look and act with happiness and, most of all, with honest, unaffected love. Such a love that streams, as it were, with warmth through the physical environment of the children may be said to literally “hatch out” the forms of the physical organs. —Rudolf Steiner, The Education of the Child
If you make a surly face so that a child gets the impression you are a grumpy person, this harms the child for the rest of his life. What kind of school plan you make is neither here nor there; what matters is what sort of person you are. —Rudolf Steiner The Kingdom of Childhood
The teacher’s earnestness about her work and her serious striving must be balanced with humor and a demeanor that bespeaks happiness. There must be moments of humor and delight in the classroom every day.
Adult Caregivers on a Path of Inner Development
For the small child before the change of teeth, the most important thing in education is the teacher’s own being. —Rudolf Steiner, Essentials of Education
Just think what feelings arise in the soul of the early childhood educator who realizes: What I accomplish with this child, I accomplish for the grown-up person in his twenties. What matters is not so much a knowledge of abstract educational principles or pedagogical rules. . . . [W]hat does matter is that a deep sense of responsibility develops in [the teacher’s heart and mind] and that this affects her or his worldview and the way she or he stands in life. —Rudolf Steiner, Education in the Face of the Present-Day World Situation, Lecture of June 10, 1920
Here we come to the spiritual environment of the early childhood setting: the thoughts, attitudes, and imaginations living in the adult who cares for the children. This invisible realm that lies behind the outer actions of the teacher has a profound influence on the child’s development. The spiritual environment includes recognition of the child as a threefold being—of body, soul, and spirit—on a path of evolutionary development through repeated Earth lives. This recognition provides a foundation for the daily activities in the kindergarten, and for the relationship between adult and child. Such an understanding of the nature and destiny of the human comes out of the inner life of the adult, the life of the individual Ego. This is a realm that is largely hidden, and hence is difficult to observe directly and to evaluate objectively. Yet ultimately this realm may affect the development of the children most profoundly. It is not merely our outer activity that influence the growing child. What lies behind and is expressed through this outer activity also is crucial. Ultimately, the most profound influence on the child is who we are as human beings—and who we are becoming and how.
Conclusion
The “essentials” described here are qualitative in nature. For the most part, they are not part of a body of concrete “best practices.” Instead, they concern inner qualities and attributes of the teacher that foster healthy development in young children. These qualities can come to expression in a wide variety of ways, according to
• the age range of the children in the group and their individual characteristics;
• the nature of the particular program—a kindergarten, playgroup, or extended care program; and
• the environment and surroundings—urban or rural, home or school or child care center.
Many practices that have come to be associated with Waldorf/Steiner early childhood education—certain daily rhythms and rituals, play materials, songs, stories, even the colors of the walls, the dress of the adults, and the menu for snack—may be mistakenly taken as essentials. The results of such assumptions can be surprising, even disturbing—a “King Winter” nature table appearing in a tropical climate in “wintertime,” or dolls with pink skin and yellow hair in a kindergarten where all the children are brown-skinned and black-haired. Such practices may express a tendency toward a doctrinal or dogmatic approach that is out of touch with the realities of the immediate situation and instead imposes something from “outside.” There is a parallel concern at the other end of the spectrum from the doctrinal or dogmatic. The freedom that Waldorf Education offers each individual teacher to determine the practices of her early childhood program can be misinterpreted to mean that “anything goes,” according to personal preference and style. Here too, there is the danger that the developmental realities and needs of the children are not sufficiently taken into consideration. Each of these one-sided approaches may be injurious to the development of the children. As Waldorf early childhood educators, we are constantly seeking a middle, universally human path between polarities. Rudolf Steiner’s advice to the first Waldorf kindergarten teacher, Elizabeth Grunelius, in the early 1920s, can be paraphrased as follows: "Observe the children. Actively meditate. Follow your intuitions. Work so that all your actions are worthy of imitation." Today, those of us who work with young children in a Waldorf environment are challenged to engage in a constant process of renewal. We must actively observe the children in our care, carry them in our meditations, and seek to work consciously and artistically to create the experiences that will serve their development. Our devotion to this task awakens us to the importance of self-education and transformation in the context of community. Our ongoing study of child and human development, our own artistic and meditative practices, and our work with Anthroposophy, independently and together with others, become essential elements for the practice of Waldorf early childhood education. Here we can come to experience that we are not alone on this journey. We are supported through our encounters with one another other and with our sharing of insights, experience, and knowledge. We are helped also by those beings spiritual beings who are committed to our continued development and to the renewal of culture that Waldorf Education seeks to serve.
Rudolf Steiner spoke on a number of occasions about the experiences that are essential for the healthy development of the young child. These include:
• love and warmth
• an environment that nourishes the senses
• creative and artistic experiences
• meaningful adult activity to be imitated
• free, imaginative play
• protection of the forces of childhood
• gratitude, reverence, and wonder
• joy, humor, and happiness
• adult caregivers pursuing a path of inner development
Love and Warmth
Children who live in an atmosphere of love and warmth, and who have around them truly good examples to imitate, are living in their proper element. —Rudolf Steiner, The Education of the Child
Love and emotional warmth, rather than any particular early childhood program, create the basis for the child’s healthy development. These qualities should live between the adult caregiver and the child, in the children’s behavior toward one another, and among the adults in the early childhood center. When Rudolf Steiner visited the classes of the first Waldorf school, he often asked the children, “Do you love your teacher?” Children are also served if this love and warmth exist in the relationships between the teachers and the parents, between the early childhood teachers and the rest of the school, and in the surrounding community.
An Environment that Nourishes the Senses
The essential task of the kindergarten teacher is to create the proper physical environment around the children. “Physical environment” must be understood in the widest sense imaginable. It includes not just what happens around the children in the material sense, but everything that occurs in their environment, everything that can be perceived by their senses, that can work on the inner powers of the children from the surrounding physical space. —Rudolf Steiner, The Education of the Child
Early learning is profoundly connected to the child’s own physical body and sensory experience. Everything the young child sees, hears, and touches has an effect. Thus a clean, orderly, beautiful, quiet setting is essential. The physical environment, both indoors and outdoors, should provide varied and nourishing opportunities for self-education—experiences in touch, balance, lively and joyful movement, and also inward listening. The children should experience large-group, small-group, and solitary activities. The teacher, in integrating diverse elements into a harmonious and meaningful environment, provides surroundings that are accessible to the child’s understanding, feeling, and active will. The care, love, and intention expressed through the outer materials and furnishings of the classes are experienced unconsciously by the child. The child experiences the immediate environment as ensouled and nurturing. The adult shapes the temporal environment as well as the spatial. Through a rhythmic schedule, in which the same thing happens at the same time on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, the child gains a sense of security and confidence in the world. Also, the different activities of the day should take place in a comfortable flow with smooth transitions.
Creative, Artistic Experience
In order to become true educators, we must be able to see the truly aesthetic element in the work, to bring an artistic quality into our tasks. . . . [I]f we bring this aesthetic element, then we begin to come closer to what the child wills out of its own nature. —Rudolf Steiner, A Modern Art of Education
In the early childhood class, the art of education is the art of living. The teacher is an artist in how she perceives and relates to the children and to the activities of daily life. She orchestrates and choreographs the rhythms of each day, each week, and each season in such a way that the children can breathe freely in a living structure. In addition, the teacher offers the children opportunities for artistic experiences in singing and music, in movement and gesture—through eurythmy and rhythmic games—and in creative speech and language—through verses, poetry, and stories. The children model with beeswax, draw, and do watercolor painting. Puppet and marionette shows put on by the teacher are an important element in the life of the kindergarten.
Meaningful Adult Activity as Examples for the Child’s Imitation
The task of the kindergarten teacher is to adapt the practical activities of daily life so that they are suitable for the child’s imitation through play. . . . The activities of children in kindergarten must be derived directly from life itself rather than being “thought out” by the intellectualized culture of adults. In the kindergarten, the most important thing is to give children the opportunity to directly imitate life itself. —Rudolf Steiner, The Child’s Changing Consciousness
Children do not learn through instruction or admonition but though imitation. Good sight will develop if the environment has the proper conditions of light and color, while in the brain and blood circulation, the physical foundations will be laid for a healthy sense of morality if children witness moral actions in their surroundings. —Rudolf Steiner, The Education of the Child
Real, meaningful work with a purpose, adjusted to the needs of the child, is in accordance with the child’s natural and inborn need for movement, and is an enormously significant educational activity. The teacher focuses on the meaningful activities that nurture life in the in the classroom “home,” such as cooking and baking, gardening, doing laundry and cleaning, creating and caring for the materials in the immediate environment, and taking care of the bodily needs of the children. This directed attention of the teacher creates an atmosphere of freedom in which the individuality of each child can be active. It is not intended just that the children copy the outer movements and actions of the adult, but that they experience also the inner attitude—the devotion, care, sense of purpose, focus, and creative spirit of the adult.
Free, Imaginative Play
In the child’s play activity, we can only provide the conditions for education. What is gained through play, through everything that cannot be determined by fixed rules, stems fundamentally from the self-activity of the child, The real educational value of play lives in the fact that we ignore our rules and regulations, our educational theory, and allow the child free rein. —Rudolf Steiner, Self Education in the Light of Anthroposophy
In a seemingly contradictory indication, Rudolf Steiner also said: Giving direction and guidance to play is one of the essential tasks of sensible education, which is to say an art of education that is right for humanity. . . . The early childhood educator must school her observation in order to develop an artistic eye, to detect the individual quality of each child’s play. —Rudolf Steiner, Lecture of February 24, 1921 in Utrecht, The Netherlands
Little children learn through play. They approach play in an entirely individual way, out of their entirely individual ways, out of their unique configuration of soul and spirit, and out of their unique experiences of the world in which they live. The manner in which a child plays may offer a picture of how he will take up his destiny as an adult. The task of the teacher is to create an environment that supports the possibility of healthy play. This environment includes the physical surroundings, furnishings, and play materials; the social environment of activities and social interactions; and the inner/spiritual environment of thoughts, intentions, and imaginations held by the adults.
Protection for the Forces of Childhood
Although it is highly necessary that each person should be fully awake in later life, the child must be allowed to remain as long as possible in the peaceful, dreamlike condition of pictorial imagination in which his early years of life are passed. For if we allow his organism to grow strong in this nonintellectual way, he will rightly develop in later life the intellectuality needed in the world today. —Rudolf Steiner, A Modern Art of Education
The lively, waking dream of the little child’s consciousness must be allowed to thrive in the early childhood group. This means that the teacher refrains as much as possible from verbal instruction. Instead, her gestures and actions provide a model for the child’s imitation. Familiar daily rhythms and activities provide a context where the need for verbal instruction is reduced. Simple, archetypal imagery in stories, songs, and games provides experiences that the children can internalize but that do not require intellectual or critical reflection or explanation.
An Atmosphere of Gratitude, Reverence, and Wonder
An atmosphere of gratitude should grow naturally in children through merely witnessing the gratitude the adults feel as they receive what is freely given by others, and in how they express this gratitude. If a child says “thank you” very naturally—not in response to the urging of others, but simply through imitating— something has been done that will greatly benefit the child’s whole life. Out of this an all-embracing gratitude will develop toward the whole world. This cultivation of gratitude is of paramount importance. —Rudolf Steiner, The Child’s Changing Consciousness
Out of these early, all-pervading experiences of gratitude, the first tender capacity for love, which is deeply embedded in each and every child, begins to sprout in earthly life.
If, during the first period of life, we create an atmosphere of gratitude around the children, then out of this gratitude toward the world, toward the entire universe, and also out of thankfulness for being able to be in this world, a profound and warm sense of devotion will arise . . . upright, honest, and true. —Rudolf Steiner, The Child’s Changing Consciousness
This is the basis for what will become a capacity for deep, intimate love and commitment in later life, for dedication and loyalty, for true admiration of others, for fervent spiritual or religious devotion, and for placing oneself wholeheartedly in the service of the world.
Joy, Humor, and Happiness
The joy of children in and with their environment must therefore be counted among the forces that build and shape the physical organs. They need teachers who look and act with happiness and, most of all, with honest, unaffected love. Such a love that streams, as it were, with warmth through the physical environment of the children may be said to literally “hatch out” the forms of the physical organs. —Rudolf Steiner, The Education of the Child
If you make a surly face so that a child gets the impression you are a grumpy person, this harms the child for the rest of his life. What kind of school plan you make is neither here nor there; what matters is what sort of person you are. —Rudolf Steiner The Kingdom of Childhood
The teacher’s earnestness about her work and her serious striving must be balanced with humor and a demeanor that bespeaks happiness. There must be moments of humor and delight in the classroom every day.
Adult Caregivers on a Path of Inner Development
For the small child before the change of teeth, the most important thing in education is the teacher’s own being. —Rudolf Steiner, Essentials of Education
Just think what feelings arise in the soul of the early childhood educator who realizes: What I accomplish with this child, I accomplish for the grown-up person in his twenties. What matters is not so much a knowledge of abstract educational principles or pedagogical rules. . . . [W]hat does matter is that a deep sense of responsibility develops in [the teacher’s heart and mind] and that this affects her or his worldview and the way she or he stands in life. —Rudolf Steiner, Education in the Face of the Present-Day World Situation, Lecture of June 10, 1920
Here we come to the spiritual environment of the early childhood setting: the thoughts, attitudes, and imaginations living in the adult who cares for the children. This invisible realm that lies behind the outer actions of the teacher has a profound influence on the child’s development. The spiritual environment includes recognition of the child as a threefold being—of body, soul, and spirit—on a path of evolutionary development through repeated Earth lives. This recognition provides a foundation for the daily activities in the kindergarten, and for the relationship between adult and child. Such an understanding of the nature and destiny of the human comes out of the inner life of the adult, the life of the individual Ego. This is a realm that is largely hidden, and hence is difficult to observe directly and to evaluate objectively. Yet ultimately this realm may affect the development of the children most profoundly. It is not merely our outer activity that influence the growing child. What lies behind and is expressed through this outer activity also is crucial. Ultimately, the most profound influence on the child is who we are as human beings—and who we are becoming and how.
Conclusion
The “essentials” described here are qualitative in nature. For the most part, they are not part of a body of concrete “best practices.” Instead, they concern inner qualities and attributes of the teacher that foster healthy development in young children. These qualities can come to expression in a wide variety of ways, according to
• the age range of the children in the group and their individual characteristics;
• the nature of the particular program—a kindergarten, playgroup, or extended care program; and
• the environment and surroundings—urban or rural, home or school or child care center.
Many practices that have come to be associated with Waldorf/Steiner early childhood education—certain daily rhythms and rituals, play materials, songs, stories, even the colors of the walls, the dress of the adults, and the menu for snack—may be mistakenly taken as essentials. The results of such assumptions can be surprising, even disturbing—a “King Winter” nature table appearing in a tropical climate in “wintertime,” or dolls with pink skin and yellow hair in a kindergarten where all the children are brown-skinned and black-haired. Such practices may express a tendency toward a doctrinal or dogmatic approach that is out of touch with the realities of the immediate situation and instead imposes something from “outside.” There is a parallel concern at the other end of the spectrum from the doctrinal or dogmatic. The freedom that Waldorf Education offers each individual teacher to determine the practices of her early childhood program can be misinterpreted to mean that “anything goes,” according to personal preference and style. Here too, there is the danger that the developmental realities and needs of the children are not sufficiently taken into consideration. Each of these one-sided approaches may be injurious to the development of the children. As Waldorf early childhood educators, we are constantly seeking a middle, universally human path between polarities. Rudolf Steiner’s advice to the first Waldorf kindergarten teacher, Elizabeth Grunelius, in the early 1920s, can be paraphrased as follows: "Observe the children. Actively meditate. Follow your intuitions. Work so that all your actions are worthy of imitation." Today, those of us who work with young children in a Waldorf environment are challenged to engage in a constant process of renewal. We must actively observe the children in our care, carry them in our meditations, and seek to work consciously and artistically to create the experiences that will serve their development. Our devotion to this task awakens us to the importance of self-education and transformation in the context of community. Our ongoing study of child and human development, our own artistic and meditative practices, and our work with Anthroposophy, independently and together with others, become essential elements for the practice of Waldorf early childhood education. Here we can come to experience that we are not alone on this journey. We are supported through our encounters with one another other and with our sharing of insights, experience, and knowledge. We are helped also by those beings spiritual beings who are committed to our continued development and to the renewal of culture that Waldorf Education seeks to serve.
Early Childhood Education 2 - Lesson 4
Tasks and Assignments for Early Childhood Education 2 - Lesson 4
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Please study the study material/chapters indicated below. Feel free to use additional resources as wanted and needed. Once you feel you are sufficiently acquainted with the subject please complete the following:
1. Explain in your own words: Academic versus play based learning. 2. Explain in your own words: The value of mixed-age programs. 3. Describe the Waldorf approach concerning first grade readiness. Submit the completed assignment via the submission form or via email. 
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Study Material for Early Childhood Education 2 - Lesson 4
You Are Your Child's First TeacherCΗΑΡΤΕR 11 - Cognitive Development and Early Childhood Education
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Parents naturally want to give their children the best start in life and do everything they can to ensure their intellectual development. In earlier chapters we indicated that the best thing you can do for your baby's cognitive development, once she starts to crawl, is to childproof your home and let her explore freely while she is near you. The baby needs to move and explore, and the objects in your home provide better stimulation than many expensive educational toys.
Once your child becomes verbal and begins to ask endless questions, there is a tendency to start providing rational and scientific answers. In Miseducation, Elkind points out that we must constantly remember that young children's verbal skills far outpace their conceptual knowledge. Because children's questions sound so mature and sophisticated, we are tempted to answer them at a level of abstraction far beyond their level of comprehension. As he points out, children are really asking about the purpose of things, not about how they work. (1) This gives us so much more room for creativity in answering their "Why?" questions. If we can't come up with a purpose-based answer, there is always the response, "Why do you think?" Or, if you find yourself aboard a train of endless ''Why's," there's always the startling closer, "Why, indeed?"
Elizabeth Grunelius, the first Waldorf kindergarten teacher, agrees that concepts are products of the mind at a more advanced age level, while images or additional observation will lead the child to arrive at his own answer. She gives the following example:
Coming home from the beach, a six-year-old may ask, "Why are there waves in the ocean?" Instead of explaining, we may say, "Come, let me show you," fill the wash-basin with water and blow on it. The child will see the waves, repeat blowing on the water several times and get what is for him a more perfect answer than any explanation could furnish.
Speaking about the child's reaction to the ocean, he will notice that the sea at times rises higher and at other times recedes, and ask about it. To answer him by telling him the influence of the moon is not to answer a child at all, who is not ripe to comprehend any more than the rhythmic sequence of the up-and-down movement of the water.
We answer him with complete accuracy, however, if we let him hold his own hand over his breast so as to feel his in-breathing and out-breathing, and then tell him how the rise and fall of the sea resembles that breathing movement in his own body. (2)
ACADEMIC VS. PLAY-BASED LEARNING
There is tremendous pressure in our society to teach reading, writing, and math to children at an increasingly early age. The pressure on American education began in 1957 with the launching of Sputnik and has continued ever since. The result is that most public school kindergartens are now doing what was once a first-grade program, while nursery-age children have taken on tasks previously reserved for older children. As publicly funded pre-K programs increase, the academic pressure on three- and four-year-olds increases as well. "Today we're asking kids to meet higher standards in K through 12," says American Federation of Teachers president Sandra Feldman in justification of this downward shift into the preschool. "But if we don't prepare them earlier, then they're not going to meet them." (3)
The fact that reading problems have increased and test scores have failed to improve using this approach has only produced greater pressure for kindergarten teachers to pound reading and math into young heads. Today even kindergarten teachers must use standardized curricula and make sure children can pass standardized tests that determine a school's standing and funding. Georgia's universal pre-kindergarten curriculum includes language, literacy, and math concepts. Although kindergarten teachers across the nation are increasingly unhappy, they feel powerless against the school boards and state legislators who keep mandating what they teach.
In the realm of private preschools and kindergartens there has also been tremendous pressure from parents to ensure that their children are successfully taught academic subjects early. This drive is motivated by the parents' desire to ensure their children's success in school and give them an edge on other children. In the 1980s parents who were professionals in their late thirties fueled this push toward early academics by utilizing baby flash cards, classes, and academically oriented preschools to help get their children into the "best" private elementary schools. However, the damaging effect of the "super baby syndrome" was pointed out by pediatricians and by authors such as David Elkind in his book The Hurried Child. In February 1987 Newsweek reported, "Now the pendulum may be swinging away from 'hothousing,' as the academic preschool phenomenon has come to be known. After years of internal debate, the early-childhood establishment has rallied against formal instruction of very young children on the grounds that it can lead to educational 'burnout' and a sense of failure." (4)
However, the rejection of early academics noted in 1987 never really took hold because of the digital revolution. Parents suddenly became worried that if their three-year-old wasn't computer literate, he or she would be locked out of success in the future. And some legislators felt that computer instruction was the tool that had been missing for teaching preschool children how to read and do math. Parents began buying software for their toddlers, and preschools were pressured to include computer instruction in their curriculum.
Questions about both the value and the misuse of computers in education have been explored in depth by developmental neuropsychologist Jane Healy in her book Failure to Connect. Through reviewing hundreds of studies, trying out hundreds of computer programs for children, and visiting hundreds of schools, Healy concluded that there is no advantage— and there may even be disadvantages—for children under the age of seven to use computers at all. For children in elementary school, she gives excellent guidelines for assessing and buying programs that really teach, and she also describes the importance of paying attention to factors such as how much screen time the child is putting in, the amount of glare he experiences, his posture, and so forth. Her book is a must-read for all parents and educators today.
WHY NOT INTRODUCE ACADEMICS EARLY?
Both Maria Montessori and Rudolf Steiner recognized that the young child should not be taught cognitive work directly. Montessori said that the child should be taught through the body, hence the wealth of special equipment (not called "toys") in a Montessori program for teaching such concepts as geometric shapes, weights, and so forth. Steiner went even further and said that concepts shouldn't be taught at all to children before the change of teeth. He placed the emphasis on creative play, imagination, imitation, movement games and fingerplays, crafts, and artistic activities until the physical body is more developed and the energy needed for its intense early growth is freed for forming mental pictures and memory work.
In noting the tremendous changes that occur naturally around the age of seven, Steiner gave indications of the problems that could arise by introducing early cognitive learning to children. Although it is possible to speed up development in certain areas with some children, tampering with nature's timetable can result in negative effects in other areas. Whenever you call directly on the intellect and memory of the young child, you are using energy that is needed for physical development during the first seven years. The same forces that are active in the physical development of the young child are used later for intellectual activity. Attention to this factor in development during the early years can form the foundation for health and vitality throughout life. Obviously the child is learning a tremendous amount and developing cognitively during these years. Steiner simply means that parents should not address the intellect directly but instead encourage the child's learning through direct life experiences and imitative play. He explains:
In the human embryo the eyes are protected and the external physical sunlight must not work upon their development. In the same sense external education must not endeavour to affect a training or influence the moulding of the memory, before the change of teeth. If we, however, simply give it nourishment and do not try as yet to develop it by external measure, we shall see how the memory unfolds in this period, freely and of its own accord. (5)
Some children can be taught to read prior to kindergarten, and even some babies can be conditioned to recognize flash cards. But based upon her research on brain development, Jane Healy reminds us that reading and writing are built on language ability—the power to listen carefully, understand what others are saying, and express ideas effectively. In Your Child's Growing Mind, she concludes:
Even babies can be conditioned to associate two stimuli that are presented repeatedly, but this learning lacks real meaning for the child and may use inappropriate parts of the cortex instead of those best suited for the job. In fact, forced learning of any type may result in the use of lower systems since the higher ones which should do the work have not yet developed. The "habit" of using inferior brain areas for higher-level tasks (such as reading) and of receiving instruction rather than creating patterns of meaning causes big trouble later on. (6)
. . . Yes, even babies can be trained to recognize words. Babies, however, cannot read, tapping into a vast personal store house of language and knowledge that takes years to build. Most preschoolers, likewise, can be trained through a stimulus-response type of teaching. The human brain can be trained to do almost anything, if the task is simplified enough and one is willing to devote the necessary time and energy. Yet the brain power—and possibly the neural connections—are stolen from the foundation of real intelligence. Reading becomes a low-level skill, and there is a danger that it will remain at the level where it was learned and practiced. (7)
Healy points out that truly gifted early readers are insatiable in their desire to learn to read. They don't have to be taught, and they make instinctive connections with thought and language. These children usually learn without lessons from adults or older siblings. Other children, she says, can experience reading problems that are "created by forced early instruction. Many authorities believe that age seven is the right time to begin formally teaching reading. Studies in different countries have shown that when five- and seven-year-olds are taught by the same methods, the seven-year-olds learn far more quickly and happily than do the fives, who are more likely to develop reading difficulties." (8)
The common practice of having kindergarten and pre-K children fill out worksheets and copy lessons is also decried by most educators and developmental psychologists. According to Healy:
Children under the age of six should not be expected to copy sentences. Meaningful copying requires brain maturation to integrate two or three modalities (looking, feeling, moving and sometimes even hearing a word). Little ones can copy at a rote level, but they're probably not using the circuits which will connect with meaning. Let it wait. Children of this age should not be sitting at desks doing academic tasks. Get their busy brains out doing and learning, not practicing low-level skills. (9)
Piaget, Steiner, and others have pointed out that children go through various stages in their development and thinking. The latest brain research has actually shown that the brain goes through a developmental and differentiating process. Healy, based upon her extensive research in brain development, has concluded that "the immature human brain neither needs nor profits from attempts to 'jumpstart' it. The fact that the phrase is being successfully used to sell technology [educational software] for toddlers illustrates our ignorance of early childhood development." (10)
In addition to causing children to skip developmental stages or utilize lower levels of the brain to accomplish learning tasks, early academics can take an emotional toll as well. According to Healy, "Studies show that four-, five-, and six-year-olds in heavily 'academic' classes tend to become less creative and more anxious—without gaining significant advantages over their peers. Youngsters in well-structured "pla-yoriented schools develop more positive attitudes toward learning along with better ultimate skill development." (11) Another study of young children looked at creativity along with academic gains. It showed significant reductions in creativity after even moderate use of a popular reading software system. (12)
THE VALUE OF PRESCHOOL
Today virtually all children attend kindergarten, and 63 percent of all parents say they plan to start sending their child to school by the age of four. This is more than four times the 1965 rate, and it will probably become greater as an increasing number of school systems and government-funded programs become available for younger and younger children. Well-off families can usually afford private preschools, and children from low-income households are eligible for Head Start—although there are not enough places available to meet the need. As an increasing number of states pay for at least one kind of pre-kindergarten program, the problem is that enrichment programs not only become the social norm but also soon become required by law. When Zell Miller, then governor of Georgia, first proposed the idea of publicly funding pre-K in 1992, his plan was denied as "state-sponsored babysitting." Georgia's universal pre-K program rapidly went on to serve more than 61,000 children, and Miller went on to advocate mandatory enrollment. When New York began funding pre-kindergarten programs, whose students had to be chosen mainly by lottery, it was with the goal of providing universal access. Unfortunately, no one is supporting—let alone funding—at-home mothering.
Nearly a quarter of families with children under three live in poverty. And the trend toward the early institutionalization of children is increasing as welfare reform values mothers joining the working poor over staying at home with their young children. With more than half of the mothers of children under four in the workforce at least part time, most children today have some kind of child care or preschool experience. Burton White suggests that the pressure to fund public preschool is actually the result of the lack of quality day care—public or private— because "there is no mandate in the law for child care and there is a mandate for education." (13)
Even mothers who don't need to work appreciate the social and learning experiences a part-time preschool program provides for their child, and the free mornings can give them needed time away from children or time alone with a new baby.
Long-range studies, like the one conducted by the High Scope Educational Research Foundation in Ypsilanti, Michigan, have shown that children from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds gain an advantage from attending play-based preschool. Following 123 poor black youths with low IQs from the age of three or four up through age nineteen, this study compared the group who attended the preschool program at Perry Elementary School and had home visits from trained staff with a group who received no preschool education at all. Those who attended preschool went on to spend less time in special-education classes, had higher attendance rates, and graduated from high school in greater numbers. In addition, fewer received public assistance, were arrested, or became pregnant before age nineteen. (14) However, "for children from emotionally and financially stable homes, the advantages of preschool are less evident. While many experts believe that the early years are an enormously fertile time for teaching little children . . . some think that they learn best at their own pace at home. 'School for four-year-olds is indefensible on educational grounds,' says Burton White, author of The First Three Years of Life." (15)
The experiences of life provided in a preschool or kindergarten can often be provided at home just as well as they can in a formal program. There is no need to seek out preschool if you and your child are doing well at home; there is also no need to avoid it or feel guilty if your child is eager to play with other children and welcomes the activities a play-based program can provide. LifeWays North America developed its "home-away-from-home" model to meet all of these needs without relegating children to an institutionalized model of care.
EVALUATING EARLY CHILDHOOD PROGRAMS
When you first begin to investigate early childhood programs, you will find they vary greatly in their philosophies and activities. In the 1980s, Waldorf early childhood programs were viewed as something of an anachronism, and as a result student teachers from universities would ask to visit to see what a "play-based program" looked like. Now that it has been shown that such programs are on the leading edge of brain development and are the best preparation for academic work later, one can hope that many more play-based programs will be started and they will be easier to find! That is certainly what happened in Germany, as reported by Joan Almon, then president of the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America:
There is a growing body of research that supports the position of Waldorf schools that children should remain in a play-oriented preschool until the age of six. The clearest example of such research which has come to our attention is a major study undertaken in Germany comparing 100 public school classes for five-year-olds. Fifty of them had only play in their program and the other 50 had academics and play together. The children entered first grade when they were six, and the study surveyed their progress until they were 10. The first year there was little difference to be seen. By the time the children were 10, however, those who had been allowed to play when they were five surpassed their schoolmates in every area measured. One can imagine how startling these results were to the state educators. They considered the results so conclusive that within months they had converted all of the academic programs back to play programs. They also recognized the advantage of mixed-age kindergartens in which, through play, the children help one another to grow and learn. (16)
When you find a program that you are interested in, you will want to arrange a visit to talk to the director and see what the children are doing. Talk with the director about her background, her philosophy, and the type of program she offers. Ask about staff turnover and meet the teachers. Arrange to visit and observe the program in action. Above all, make sure there is a rich oral language tradition (stories, songs, and games) and that ample time is allowed for play that is self-directed and serves no other motive than the child's own.
You will also want to consider the hours of the program. If you are working full time, you will probably be looking for a full-day program. If you are able to stay home with your child, you will probably want to consider a more gentle transition. For young children who are used to being at home, attending a half-day program two or three days a week is often the best way to start. Take your cues from your child and find a program that balances your needs and his.
When you look for child care, preschool, or kindergarten for your child, here are some things to consider:
LIFEWAYS AND WALDORF EARLY CHILDHOOD PROGRAMS
Waldorf early childhood programs—whether freestanding or connected with a Waldorf school—are modeled after a good home environment and provide a nurturing program based on an understanding of the young child's special developmental needs before the age of seven. Although Waldorf schools sometimes have mixed-aged kindergartens with children from two and a half to six years old in one group, more often they have separate nursery and kindergarten classes. To ensure a more homelike, mixed-age environment for the younger children—and to meet the child care needs of parents with infants and toddlers as well—the LifeWays approach was developed by Cynthia Aldinger out of the indications of Rudolf Steiner and contemporary educators. In LifeWays centers or in-home programs, infants through five-year-olds are together in "family groups" with the same caregiver year after year. Mixed-age, relationship-based care has the advantage of replicating the experience of a large family: the older children provide a model for the younger ones and help them, while the little ones bring a softer element to the four- and five-year-olds. And as they stay in the program for several years, those who were once the younger children in the group get to experience being the bigger children. The special needs of the older children are met at the LifeWays Early Childhood Center in Milwaukee through an onsite "preschool," which they attend three mornings each week. Here the older children from each family group come together for a Waldorf-inspired program that emphasizes stories and activities for the older children. Children in LifeWays programs typically go on to kindergarten in local public or Waldorf schools.
Interest in Waldorf education and LifeWays is expanding dramatically throughout North America, and many new school- or center-based and in-home programs are being founded each year. A list of members can be found on the website of the Waldorf Early Childhood Association (www.waldorfearlychildhood.org), and a directory is available at www.lifewaysnorthamerica.org.
The following description of a typical day in a LifeWays program may serve as a more detailed guide for things to look for in a relationship-based program, even if there is no LifeWays or Waldorf school in your area. The understanding of the young child and the activities suggested can be incorporated into home life or into existing child care or preschool programs. Some readers may even become inspired to find out more about the LifeWays training and perhaps open their own in-home program!
The Activities
Let's take a look at a child's day as it might occur in a LifeWays program. As an example, I'll describe a schedule I've used at Rainbow Bridge, an in-home program with twelve one- to five-year-olds, a lead teacher, and two assistants to help with all the cooking, snowsuits, and pottying. The morning typically consists of creative play, varied activities, a story, singing games and fingerplays, snack and lunch, and outside play. Some children go home at 12:30, while others stay for a nap and are picked up at 3:30.
Outside play. Parents and children are greeted, and most children head straight for the sandbox, where the older children are already hard at work building tunnels and "bug traps." Starting with outside play allows for the different arrival times of children. I am usually outside to receive the children, and those who are cold or want a gentler start to the day can go inside with another teacher and help her cut fruit for the morning snack.
Morning snack and songs or story. Children are gathered with a song and go inside for hand washing and lighting a candle before singing blessing songs at the table. A different child is selected each day to serve the food by taking around the bowls of fruit, and the other children are consoled by the promise that they can serve another day. We listen for "thank you's" and model how to ask for more. The art of conversation is developed, often augmented by an ongoing story about a character I have made up, such as Mauie the cat or Pirate Jack. All the children, even the littlest, learn to sit at the table until the candle is blown out with a song. Dishes are then put in the washbasins and children wipe their hands and faces and their table space with a washcloth. When everyone is finished, the children join me in singing "Red Bird, Red Bird, who will you choose today?" and eagerly wait for the red felt bird suspended from a stick to visit the nests they have made with their washcloths. As each child is chosen, the child puts his or her cloth in the bowl and may leave for free play.
Creative play and activity. Within a few moments, we might see several boys and girls in the home area, cooking and playing with the dolls. Nearby, three children are moving blanket stands to make a house covered with a sheet. A two-year-old has put on kitty ears and is meowing at the door, while a one-year-old wanders happily from area to area, taking it all in. Another boy puts on a cape and crawls under the table with two standup dolls. Two other boys have tied knitted ropes to wooden fish and are being fishermen. One of us begins to fold the towels and washcloths from the laundry and immediately has helpers with folding and "delivery drivers" to take the stacks. In a while, one of the teachers starts to chop vegetables for lunch and is joined by three children who work with their own cutting boards and table knives.
The room becomes filled with the ebb and flow of the children's play. Two children have become engaged at the workbench, and both want to use the wooden hammer. The nearest adult suggests one child ask, "Can I have it when you're done?" and agrees that it's hard to wait. "What can we find to do while you're waiting?" she asks, guiding the child to use the screwdriver to fix the truck instead. By now the cook of the day is sautéing the vegetables and mixing them into the grain from the rice cooker, all with the help of one or two children. The other teacher has finished folding the laundry and moved to the couch, where the other one-year-old climbs up for a snuggle and to look at a stiff-paged book together. The transformations are endless as the children's play unfolds over forty-five minutes to an hour.
The room could seem chaotic to a casual observer as the children experience the world through their inner-directed play. We watch attentively and help as needed by tying on a costume or helping two children take turns with a contested object. We are happy to be brought things as part of the children's imaginative play and will interact with them, but we rarely get down and play with the children or interrupt them except as necessary for safety or to resolve conflicts that they don't work out themselves. We remain aware of everyone in the room while doing household or craft work whenever possible. In this way the children not only see a model of real work, but this activity can also be transformed by them and incorporated into their play. During this time, an activity such as bread baking or coloring might be started at the table, and children join in as they are drawn to it. Also during this time children go to the bathroom and diapers are changed—it's a busy morning!
Circle time. A song tells the children it is time to put all the toys away, and a little gnome comes out of his house to see what good workers they are. When everything is in its place, another song brings the children to morning circle. With a mixed-age group, I like to start with "Ring Around the Roses," which is simple enough for the youngest and still a favorite of the five-year-olds. It is followed by a greeting song, and then fingerplays or a simple circle game, before the children are dismissed to the lunch table.
Hot lunch time. We wash hands for lunch, which consists of hot grains with organic vegetables and occurs around 11 a.m. in our program. The children sing a song of thanks for the food and then talk with one another while they eat. This is a good time to tell a fairy tale that can nourish the older children while the younger ones are occupied with their food. From the table, Red Bird again slowly dismisses the children to start getting ready to go outside.
Outside play. The children play outside for about forty-five minutes. They eagerly play on the slide, teeter-totter, and climbing dome. There is also a sandbox, crawling tubes, and a large playhouse. There is a deck, grass, and small bushy area we call the "fairy woods." Some children are picked up by their parents at 12:30, while the others come in then and gather around the table for some juice, cheese, and raisins (believe it or not, it has been an hour and a half since the start of the last meal). Then they go downstairs to brush their teeth and take their nap.
Afternoon nap. We are great believers in the health-giving powers of sleep after an active morning, and all of our children nap, including the five-year-olds! Some days we have as many as ten children napping, divided between two rooms. The teacher or assistant makes sure each child is cozy, sits and sings or plays the kinderharp in the darkened room, and then sits quietly and yawns for a while until the children are asleep.
Afternoon play. Afternoons are very sweet. The children are very different when they wake up from a nap, and it's a time to read a story together or gently brush a child's hair as he gradually reenters our shared world. Because the children wake up at different times, it is easier to give them individual attention before they start to play or are gathered for yet another snack (eating is mandated every hour and a half by our licensing requirements, which is just right for me!).
The Seasonal Rhythm
In addition to establishing a daily rhythm, which anchors the children, we change activities and stories according to the seasons of the year. These activities might include taking walks and collecting seasonal items for the nature table, baking seasonal foods, making objects for annual festivals, and participating in outdoor activities such as making leaf crowns or planting spring bulbs. Much of the preparation that the adults at the LifeWays program do relates to the rhythm of the year and the children's experience of it. This is reflected in the daily activities, the changing decorations in the room, and the special activities that are planned, such as a walk to the park to gather acorns in the fall, planting flowers in spring, or doing wet felting outdoors in summer.
With a mixed-age group, activities take place on many levels simultaneously, depending on the child's age. For example, older children will typically be drawn to watercolor painting, while the two-year-olds will come over and watch in awe, also wanting to participate (or not). The one-year-olds typically continue in their dreaminess—although some are very demanding about wanting to be at the table, too! Stories from various levels are told in mixed-age classes. Older children still love hearing a simple story like "The Three Little Pigs," while the youngest children will be carried along by the group when a more complicated story for older children is being told. The same story will be told for several weeks and then might be presented as a puppet play with table puppets or silk marionettes.
Direct intellectual teaching does not take place in a LifeWays program or Waldorf kindergarten. There are no exercises in reading readiness or doing pages from math workbooks. Nor are shapes and weights manipulated to learn concepts such as "triangle" or "heavy" and "light." The child is allowed to take in the world through his senses and to participate in it through movement, artistic activity, and play. It is recognized that one of the tasks of early childhood is the healthy mastering of bodily skills. As a result, we often do fingerplays and movement games to help the children develop coordination and the formation of speech. These activities also can form the basis for later mathematical learning, as the rhythmical counting paired with body movements forms a valuable foundation in the body for number and rhythm. Similarly, the transformation of one object into another in creative play provides a concrete basis for the more abstract manipulation of symbols involved in reading. Developmental steps are not skipped or hurried. Rather, there is a confidence in the unfolding of the young child according to the patterns of nature and the stamp of the child's own individuality.
Many times children who can already write the alphabet or even read enter a Waldorf kindergarten. However, the children are not provided time to practice such skills. Because their days are so full of creative play, stories, puppet shows, crafts, and artistic activity, they are fully engaged and often do not even notice that they aren't reading or doing mathematics. And the rich experience they receive in the Waldorf program can serve as a balancing force for the early intellectual development they have experienced.
The Setting
Because the environment is so important for the young child, a great deal of care is put into creating an environment that is nourishing and inviting to the children. When schools are built according to Steiner's indications for architecture, the early childhood rooms can feel as if they embrace and surround the children with their curves, cubbyholes, and play areas. When this is not possible, it is best to use an actual home or make an existing building as homelike and comfortable as possible, in contrast to the institutional feel of most corporate child care settings. For example, lights and right angles can be softened by hanging colored cotton gauze or silk in the corners and in front of light fixtures. A couch and a "cozy corner" created with sheepskins and pillows can also soften the feeling for the children. Beautiful items, natural materials, and pastel colors replace the chrome and plastic of many conventional programs. In addition, lofts and play areas under them can be built using wood.
Many LifeWays and Waldorf program locations are painted a light rose color that Steiner called "peach blossom." It is a color that reflects the lightness of young children, who have not yet fully arrived on earth. A special method of painting called "lazuring" uses washes of various colors on a wall to give an impression of depth on a flat surface. Using this technique, murals or images can be painted to suggest forms in a very soft, beautiful way.
The room is decorated with seasonal motifs, such as a nature table, tissue paper pictures on the windows, and decorated branches. Toys are made from natural materials and are arranged in activity areas or little scenes that invite imaginative interaction. The attention to detail and beauty will be reflected in the mood of the children and the quality of their play.
The Role of the Teachers
Waldorf nurseries and kindergartens often appear deceptively simple. Everything flows so easily and looks so effortless. The tremendous amount of work by the teacher is mostly invisible, except as it is felt by those who know children and who can sense the mood the teacher creates. Someone from another preschool program visited our preschool home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and was surprised by how peaceful it was with twelve children in such a small space. The being of the teacher and the physical and emotional environment she or he creates are what really nourish the children.
In a LifeWays program, less of the preparation is done behind the scenes than in a Waldorf kindergarten. The teacher attempts to do most of her work while the children play and is less concerned with craft projects and other activities that would involve the teacher doing most of the work for the children. This leaves the teacher freer to be in relationship with the children, which is vital for young children.
Because the teacher is constantly an example for the children, she pays special attention to the quality of her movements and the tone of her voice. She does many things with the children, such as preparing the snack, telling a story, or leading the circle games. However, she also accomplishes a great deal just by her being, by who she is. She tries to put aside her own problems and emotional upsets so that she is as clear as possible when she is with the children. She needs to get enough sleep and to have her own meditative practices to remain centered and to keep the rest of her life in order. Her role with the children is similar to a meditative state of awareness: she is aware of everything, totally in the present moment, not thinking about other things—just there with and for the children. Being with young children often involves more being than doing. It's hard to make everything simple enough. We tend to think that we have to stimulate and provide things for the children, when our more difficult task is to provide them with the space to be themselves, to experience and grow and try on the world and its activities under the guidance and protection provided by the adults.
The teacher's attitude of warmth and love provides a calm and healthy atmosphere for the young child and is the foundation of relationship-based care. Steiner describes it as follows:
The joy of the child in and with his environment must be reckoned among the forces that build and mould the physical organs. He needs people around him with happy looks and manners and, above all, with an honest unaffected love. A love which fills the physical environment of the child with warmth may literally be said to "hatch out" the forms of the physical organs. The child who lives in such an atmosphere of love and warmth and who has around him really good examples for his imitation is living in his right element. One should therefore strictly guard against anything being done in the child's presence that he must not imitate. (17)
Because the young child is an imitative being, the teacher simply begins each activity and the children follow along. She doesn't announce, "Now it's story time," or "Let's take hands for circle games." Instead, she simply takes two children's hands and starts singing and moving with the intention that everyone will join in, and they do. Story time may begin with the same song every day, or the teacher may light a candle or put on a special storytelling hat or apron and play a few notes on the kinderharp. Whatever she has chosen, the children soon learn what will follow.
Whenever possible during the children's free play, the teacher provides an example of work from real life—tending to the baby, sawing wood or gardening during outside play, making something for the preschool. The children can often help with the activity itself, such as by cutting fruit for snacks or winding yarn, and the activity will also appear transformed in their play. For example, if the teacher is sewing, a few children will want to get out their first sewing basket, while another might go off and pretend to sew something with her fingers.
The warmth and love of the teacher for the children involves really taking on their care as a trust, in conjunction with the parents. Thus the teacher needs as complete a picture as possible of each child before accepting him or her into the program. She will observe the child if possible and have an in-depth interview with the parents: how was her birth; how did she develop; what does she like to play; are there any health problems; has she been in other child care or preschool programs; what are the parents' hopes and expectations? The teacher needs to feel that she can really take on this child, and that she can work together with the parents for the child's growth and well-being. The parents also need to evaluate the teacher and the program and make sure that this is where they want their child to be.
Once a child has been accepted, the teacher tries to visit the family at home to get a picture of the child in his or her own surroundings, to meet any brothers and sisters or pets, and to see the child's room. In addition to helping the teacher better understand the context in which the child lives, such a visit provides a wonderful link for the child between home and school, a sense of interpenetration of the two worlds that is very supportive.
The teacher's work does not stop when the children go home. She must not only clean up and arrange things for the next day's activities, but also work with the parents through parent evenings, conferences, toy-making workshops, and so forth. At night the teacher visualizes each child and takes the image into her sleep. This practice not only supports the child and his connection with the teacher, but it can also provide the teacher with inspiration if a child is having particular difficulties.
The Training of a LifeWays or Waldorf Early Childhood Teacher
The attitude of the teacher and the understanding gained by working out of the indications that Rudolf Steiner gave about the developing human being are the most important elements of the program described above. Simply having dolls without faces or block-shaped crayons does not a LifeWays or Waldorf program make! The activities suggested in this book are appropriate for all children and are really suited for the young child. Because of this, they can be incorporated into home life and into existing child care and preschool programs with very positive results. But one needs to distinguish between "a bit of this and a bit of that" and a fully developed LifeWays or Waldorf program. The Waldorf early childhood teacher training is a two-year full-time program, or its equivalent over four summers, and qualifies the graduate to teach in a Waldorf school; the LifeWays certification combines part-time classroom experience with guided mentoring over nine to thirteen months and can lead to starting one's own LifeWays program in either a home or a center, being an assistant in a Waldorf school, or being a more satisfied and more centered, creative parent. Resources on both types of training can be found at the end of this chapter.
LIFEWAYS AND WALDORF IN THE HOME
Many parents who are trying to incorporate these ideas and recommendations about young children into their home life are faced with the dilemma of being unable to get away to take an extensive training at just the time when they could use it most! LifeWays has addressed this dilemma by meeting quarterly or over one weekend each month so the time away from the family is as little as possible. Other parents have confronted this dilemma by connecting with resources online as they work to apply these principles in their own homes. Another valuable resource can be to start a playgroup together with other parents who share the same interests and ideals. If you can find a group of interested parents, you can take turns being with the children while the other parents share resources and discuss questions they have about their children. It is also possible for group members to share craft and festival celebrations and to select a book for study and discussion. Several recommended titles—in addition to this book—are listed at the end of this chapter. If you find yourself alone in working with these ideas, you will need to keep studying and find support through networking as you attract more like-minded people.
Many parents who want to provide this kind of experience for their child often find other families attracted to what they are creating in their home. If the parent is interested, this can lead to forming an in-home program for young children, or a "Saturday club" or an after-school enrichment program to bring some of the Waldorf activities to older children who are enrolled in public schools or who are being taught at home.
Waldorf education was started for the children of the workers in a factory in Stuttgart in 1919. It embraces children of all economic and intellectual levels and welcomes children from all cultural backgrounds. This has resulted in its becoming the largest private school movement in the world. The principles of Waldorf education are neither elitist nor reserved for the relatively small number of children who live near Waldorf schools. Its principles are universal and can be applied to all children. Waldorf-oriented charter schools are arising in many areas throughout the United States, and many parents are using a Waldorf approach in homeschooling their children.
In our highly technological society, the view of child development and the principles of education initiated by Rudolf Steiner (and further developed by thousands of Waldorf teachers over the past hundred years) need to become known to more and more parents for the healthy development of young children. The quality of life in the home and the preschool environment is perhaps even more important than what kind of elementary school the child attends.
THE VALUE OF MIXED-AGE PROGRAMS
Many parents who are fortunate enough to find a mixed-age program wonder whether they should stick with it or whether their child needs "more stimulation" when he or she becomes one of the older children. We have found that giving children the gift of growth and achieving competency nourishes them as much as—or more than—always being challenged. One LifeWays parent from a program in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, described it this way:
As Antonia grew from the suite baby to a big girl helper, I saw her complete her first journey through stages of maturity. She gently and gradually gave up her babyish ways, replacing old behaviors with new ones. There were no startling jolts so often imposed on children going from one year of schooling to the next. At LifeWays, Antonia learned to get along with other children in a confident, positive, and constructive way. She went from one who received the lion's share of attention as an infant to one who gave her attention to caring for little ones around her. She became someone who shared her toys, cleaned up willingly, worked out conflict, and gladly obeyed the rules and routines of LifeWays.
And, when the time was right, she was ready to give up the comforting routines of LifeWays and take on the exciting new challenge of five-year-old kindergarten. When Antonia entered public school kindergarten, her behavior stood out from her peers. Her teacher often remarked that Antonia was a joy to have in the classroom. . . . Antonia's academic progress has remained very good. She recently received her first formal assessment as a first grader. Her highest mark was in "working cooperatively in groups." LifeWays taught her to value her peers and teachers, and to have confidence in dealing with others. I feel these lessons will be with her for a lifetime. (18)
WHEN IS YOUR CHILD READY FOR FIRST GRADE?
Due to the downward shift of the curriculum over the past thirty years, it is even more important that children today be developmentally ready as well as chronologically ready for school. The developmental age of a child can be six months to a year or more away from his or her chronological age. Developmental age is measured by how closely the child's social, emotional, physical, and perceptual maturity corresponds to the norm for his age. Just as babies crawl, teethe, walk, and become toilet trained at different ages, older children, too, remain on their own individual timetables. There is not necessarily a correlation between developmental age and intelligence; a child with a high IQ can be developmentally delayed. (19)
In "Pupil Age at School Entrance—How Many Are Ready for Success?" James Uphoff and June Gilmore reported marked differences in school performance and emotional adjustment between children with summer and fall birthdays, who were less than five years and three months of age when they entered kindergarten, and those with birthdays the previous summer, who had been given an extra growth year and were as old as six years and three months when they entered kindergarten.
Uphoff and Gilmore summarize their research as follows:
The Gesell Institute of Human Development in New Haven, Connecticut, is a leading advocate of slowing down the accelerated pace of childhood. Their studies found that only about one-third of the children they tested in kindergarten through third grade were ready for the grade in which their age had placed them. The readiness of another third was questionable, and the final third definitely were not ready. Their studies compiled from school districts across the country indicate that as many as 50 percent of students with school problems today have them because of over-placement. (21)
Regardless of a school system's cutoff dates, parents together with teachers must decide whether an individual child is really ready for kindergarten or the first grade. Giving a child who has a summer or fall birthday an extra growth year can be a lifelong gift that may put him at the head of the class instead of scrambling to keep up intellectually or socially. If a child is kept in kindergarten a second year, or needs to go into a "pre-first" program, in no way should the parents regard the child as a failure or learning disabled. Remember that developmental maturity has no correlation with IQ. If the parents feel positive about the decision and take responsibility themselves, the child can adapt well and the extra year can have lasting benefits. Parents sometimes find it hard to explain to grandparents why they are keeping their child in kindergarten for two years, but the advantages for the child are worth the effort if you are feeling pressured to keep your child going through the system when he is showing signs of not being ready.
WHAT HAPPENS AROUND AGE SEVEN?
Between the ages of five and seven you will see many dramatic changes in your child. In terms of the development of memory, your child may say something like, "I can see grandma anytime I want to now," referring to an emerging ability to call on mental images at will. He may also tell you more of his dreams.
You will notice a kind of logic appearing in speech that represents a new level of thinking and is expressed in words like "because," "so," "if," and "therefore." This new ability is expressed in creative play by the love of tying things together with string, like linking one thing to the next with logic. A growing grasp of, and interest in, time will also be apparent.
In play you may also see intention manifested as things that are built for other things. For example, a sand structure may now be built as a garage for a car rather than simply for the activity itself. An authoritative element also enters into group play at this age, with a child sometimes directing and sometimes being told who or what he will be.
In the sphere of drawing, the individualizing element expresses itself in the use of the diagonal line, such as triangular designs, a ladder leaning against a tree, the stair going up inside the house, or the appearance of the arching rainbow.
Physically you will first see the differentiation of the chest or "middle sphere" around age five. The child suddenly loses her round "Buddha belly" and acquires a waist and a neck, showing how the life forces have completed their work in the rhythmic system. As the shift of the growth forces is made to the limbs, the arms will lengthen during this time. This is why an older child will be able to reach directly over his head and touch his opposite ear, while a younger or less developed one will not. Finally, the growth shifts into the legs, and the child will also often start to eat more and will sometimes increase his awareness of digestion (expressed in the frequent stomachaches of some children at this age). At the same time the growth forces are moving into the legs, the features of the face become more individualized and the milk teeth begin to loosen.
In the area of brain development, the changes are so great that Healy says this time is commonly termed the "five- to seven-year shift." She explains, "From ages five to seven or eight the brain is in one of its most dynamic states of change as it practices combining sensory patterns from different modalities. Maturation of a small part of the parietal lobe, at the junction where all the senses come together, is one development that makes many kinds of new learning possible, but there is enormous variability in the age when it occurs. . . . Only now does it make sense to ask a youngster to look at a series of written letters and 'sound out' a word, to coordinate motor programs and visual skills such as in catching or kicking a ball, or later, reading music while playing an instrument." (22)
The child starts to have real friendships and likes to make and give surprises. He likes to play with words and create rhymes, to play riddle and guessing games, to whisper and to giggle. Meyerkort says, "He feels the future dawning, the new stage coming; he says, 'I hope …'" (23)
All of the changes discussed here should be allowed to become consolidated in a play-oriented kindergarten before the child is called upon to exercise the new faculties that are used in learning to read, write, and do math in first grade.
Steiner explains the changes around the age of seven as resulting from the life forces completing their work of individualizing the child's physical body: first the head between birth and age three, then the middle sphere between ages three and five, and finally the limbs and hard, bony teeth. Once finished, the forces are freed for development of the memory and schoolwork. According to Steiner, the way to teach the elementary-school child between the change of teeth and puberty is with images and pictures, through which the child is allowed to take guidance from the inner meaning she discovers for herself in the pictures and allegories. What the child sees and perceives with the eye of the mind is a more appropriate means of education than abstract conceptions for the elementary-school child.
It is upon this ground of imagination that the later powers of intellect, judgment, and critical thinking will be based. Therefore, all of the subjects—from reading to mathematics to physics—are taught in an imaginative and artistic way in the Waldorf elementary school, providing a rich and nourishing foundation for the faculty of analytical thinking that arises and can be developed in puberty.
BEGINNING ACADEMIC WORK: THE WALDORF APPROACH
In the Waldorf approach, reading, writing, and math aren't started until the first grade. Children who start these academic tasks when they are developmentally more mature do not fall behind peers who start earlier in other school systems. In fact, there are definite advantages in delaying instruction in the "three R's" until around the age of seven.
Writing is taught in the Waldorf first grade through stories and pictures, and then the children learn to read from what they have written themselves. Just as humans first wrote using picture glyphs before developing the alphabet, so the young child develops the forms and the sounds of the letters through stories and pictures provided by the teacher. In this way the letters and their sounds "live within the child" as vibrant pictures. One morning when she was in first grade, my daughter said, "I dreamed about the letter A. There were all these A's. .. ." The children progress to writing from verses that they know and then "reading" from what they have written themselves. Thus the more abstract work of reading begins toward the end of first grade, and the transition to printed books is generally not made until the second grade.
Children who are first taught to read at a later age miss out on years of "1 can read" books, but what are they really missing? Bruno Bettelheim, in his article "Why Children Don't Like to Read," lambastes most of the early readers and texts used in elementary schools as being totally devoid of meaning, content, and interest for young children. He points out the constant reduction in the number of words taught to children, so that books become a series of repeated words that lack any relationship to spoken communication and lack a meaning or story line that the child would want to learn to read in order to discover. He states, "Although in the 1920s few children went to kindergarten and little preschool reading instruction was given, by the 1970s, when many children were attending kindergarten and reading was consistently taught there, the first-grade primers contained only a quarter of the vocabulary presented to first-graders fifty years ago. (24)
Some people have the mistaken idea that there are no books in a Waldorf school. This is far from true! Although there aren't readers in the kindergarten, and in the first grade children learn to read from what they have written themselves, books with real literary content are introduced from second grade on, and students are never given anything that is condescending in tone or that has been predigested especially for children. Real literature is always used in the classroom, selected according to the reading level and inner maturity level of the children. Waldorf schools have libraries for children's reading pleasure and for doing research in the upper grades.
Although reading is taught more slowly in the Waldorf curriculum, math is not. Nothing is done until first grade, but then all four processes— addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division—are introduced. This is possible because the concepts are introduced imaginatively. For example, there might be a story about four gnome brothers: Mr. Plus is fat and jolly with stuffed pockets; Mr. Minus is thin and sad, and all of his jewels keep falling out of a hole in his sack; and so forth. The children work from the whole to the part, first using chestnuts or shells to see that eight is one plus seven, eight is two plus six, and so on. In third grade they walk and clap various rhythms and verses that help make the multiplication tables much easier to learn. When mathematics is made concrete and imaginative, children take to it with delight.
A complete listing of the Waldorf curriculum for grades one through eight can be found in the appendix.
WHAT ABOUT THE ADVANCED OR GIFTED CHILD?
Waiting until a child is in the first grade before starting academic work has obvious advantages for an average or a slow child, who needs the extra neurophysiological maturity before beginning tasks such as reading and mathematics. However, what about the bright child, who wants to start writing letters or learning to read at age three or four, or certainly by kindergarten age? As children become more aware of the world around them, they want to imitate and learn, and many children will show interest in these activities by age five. Reading and writing are the way of the future for children, so you will want to share their enthusiasm and can harness anticipation by saying, "You will learn more about how to do that when you are in the first grade!" Teaching the first letter or how to write their name will often satisfy this interest for the time being. But it is still too soon to exercise the memory or the intellect directly with sit-down lessons. There is no critical window when you have to teach a child to read or risk his not being interested later on. On the contrary, telling a child "That's what you'll learn when you go to the big school" develops eagerness and anticipation and keeps the young child learning through imitation rather than through direct lessons.
By not being taught to read in kindergarten or before, children miss several years of early readers (which isn't missing much), and they are given the gift of the final year or more of early childhood. Direct cognitive work wakes the child up and brings her out of the magical world of early childhood. Children grow out of these years soon enough on their own. Allowing your child to stay in the magical realm of early childhood without pushing cognitive development provides a sound basis for later health and creativity.
Especially with bright children, it is important to emphasize balance. It is possible to teach them intellectual skills at a young age and to put them into academically advanced programs from preschool or kindergarten on. The result, however, is often the creation of a forty-year-old in a five-year-old body. Advanced intellectual development in childhood is usually at the expense of the artistic and emotional spheres or the healthy development of the body. Elementary-school education should appeal so much to the child's imagination that the gifted child still feels fully interested and engaged. If that kind of creative education isn't available for the very bright child, you may face some hard choices.
You will need to investigate different educational approaches and make your own decisions for your child. I felt it was important to work toward a balanced development of the heart forces, the head forces, and the body/will forces, so that there would emerge a whole human being who would be able to lead a fruitful life and act in service to humanity. The danger of education that emphasizes only intellectual development is that we might turn out thinkers and scientists who are emotionally divorced from humanity and from the consequences of their work for the world. For this reason, I chose for my children an approach to education that emphasized balance rather than a program designed specifically for gifted children.
In most communities there are an increasing number of schooling options, including regular public schools, charter and magnet schools, independent private schools, and religious schools. Many parents are also turning to homeschooling as a viable alternative, or pursuing some combination of school and enrichment at home. Making decisions about your child's education is an ongoing adventure, but one that is well worth the research and effort.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
Brain Development and Academics
School Readiness
Waldorf Education
Journals on Waldorf Education
Books for Beginning Study Groups
Courses and Training Programs for Parents and Teachers
Resources for Waldorf Homeschooling and Enrichment
NOTES
Bibliography - You Are Your Child's First Teacher
Once your child becomes verbal and begins to ask endless questions, there is a tendency to start providing rational and scientific answers. In Miseducation, Elkind points out that we must constantly remember that young children's verbal skills far outpace their conceptual knowledge. Because children's questions sound so mature and sophisticated, we are tempted to answer them at a level of abstraction far beyond their level of comprehension. As he points out, children are really asking about the purpose of things, not about how they work. (1) This gives us so much more room for creativity in answering their "Why?" questions. If we can't come up with a purpose-based answer, there is always the response, "Why do you think?" Or, if you find yourself aboard a train of endless ''Why's," there's always the startling closer, "Why, indeed?"
Elizabeth Grunelius, the first Waldorf kindergarten teacher, agrees that concepts are products of the mind at a more advanced age level, while images or additional observation will lead the child to arrive at his own answer. She gives the following example:
Coming home from the beach, a six-year-old may ask, "Why are there waves in the ocean?" Instead of explaining, we may say, "Come, let me show you," fill the wash-basin with water and blow on it. The child will see the waves, repeat blowing on the water several times and get what is for him a more perfect answer than any explanation could furnish.
Speaking about the child's reaction to the ocean, he will notice that the sea at times rises higher and at other times recedes, and ask about it. To answer him by telling him the influence of the moon is not to answer a child at all, who is not ripe to comprehend any more than the rhythmic sequence of the up-and-down movement of the water.
We answer him with complete accuracy, however, if we let him hold his own hand over his breast so as to feel his in-breathing and out-breathing, and then tell him how the rise and fall of the sea resembles that breathing movement in his own body. (2)
ACADEMIC VS. PLAY-BASED LEARNING
There is tremendous pressure in our society to teach reading, writing, and math to children at an increasingly early age. The pressure on American education began in 1957 with the launching of Sputnik and has continued ever since. The result is that most public school kindergartens are now doing what was once a first-grade program, while nursery-age children have taken on tasks previously reserved for older children. As publicly funded pre-K programs increase, the academic pressure on three- and four-year-olds increases as well. "Today we're asking kids to meet higher standards in K through 12," says American Federation of Teachers president Sandra Feldman in justification of this downward shift into the preschool. "But if we don't prepare them earlier, then they're not going to meet them." (3)
The fact that reading problems have increased and test scores have failed to improve using this approach has only produced greater pressure for kindergarten teachers to pound reading and math into young heads. Today even kindergarten teachers must use standardized curricula and make sure children can pass standardized tests that determine a school's standing and funding. Georgia's universal pre-kindergarten curriculum includes language, literacy, and math concepts. Although kindergarten teachers across the nation are increasingly unhappy, they feel powerless against the school boards and state legislators who keep mandating what they teach.
In the realm of private preschools and kindergartens there has also been tremendous pressure from parents to ensure that their children are successfully taught academic subjects early. This drive is motivated by the parents' desire to ensure their children's success in school and give them an edge on other children. In the 1980s parents who were professionals in their late thirties fueled this push toward early academics by utilizing baby flash cards, classes, and academically oriented preschools to help get their children into the "best" private elementary schools. However, the damaging effect of the "super baby syndrome" was pointed out by pediatricians and by authors such as David Elkind in his book The Hurried Child. In February 1987 Newsweek reported, "Now the pendulum may be swinging away from 'hothousing,' as the academic preschool phenomenon has come to be known. After years of internal debate, the early-childhood establishment has rallied against formal instruction of very young children on the grounds that it can lead to educational 'burnout' and a sense of failure." (4)
However, the rejection of early academics noted in 1987 never really took hold because of the digital revolution. Parents suddenly became worried that if their three-year-old wasn't computer literate, he or she would be locked out of success in the future. And some legislators felt that computer instruction was the tool that had been missing for teaching preschool children how to read and do math. Parents began buying software for their toddlers, and preschools were pressured to include computer instruction in their curriculum.
Questions about both the value and the misuse of computers in education have been explored in depth by developmental neuropsychologist Jane Healy in her book Failure to Connect. Through reviewing hundreds of studies, trying out hundreds of computer programs for children, and visiting hundreds of schools, Healy concluded that there is no advantage— and there may even be disadvantages—for children under the age of seven to use computers at all. For children in elementary school, she gives excellent guidelines for assessing and buying programs that really teach, and she also describes the importance of paying attention to factors such as how much screen time the child is putting in, the amount of glare he experiences, his posture, and so forth. Her book is a must-read for all parents and educators today.
WHY NOT INTRODUCE ACADEMICS EARLY?
Both Maria Montessori and Rudolf Steiner recognized that the young child should not be taught cognitive work directly. Montessori said that the child should be taught through the body, hence the wealth of special equipment (not called "toys") in a Montessori program for teaching such concepts as geometric shapes, weights, and so forth. Steiner went even further and said that concepts shouldn't be taught at all to children before the change of teeth. He placed the emphasis on creative play, imagination, imitation, movement games and fingerplays, crafts, and artistic activities until the physical body is more developed and the energy needed for its intense early growth is freed for forming mental pictures and memory work.
In noting the tremendous changes that occur naturally around the age of seven, Steiner gave indications of the problems that could arise by introducing early cognitive learning to children. Although it is possible to speed up development in certain areas with some children, tampering with nature's timetable can result in negative effects in other areas. Whenever you call directly on the intellect and memory of the young child, you are using energy that is needed for physical development during the first seven years. The same forces that are active in the physical development of the young child are used later for intellectual activity. Attention to this factor in development during the early years can form the foundation for health and vitality throughout life. Obviously the child is learning a tremendous amount and developing cognitively during these years. Steiner simply means that parents should not address the intellect directly but instead encourage the child's learning through direct life experiences and imitative play. He explains:
In the human embryo the eyes are protected and the external physical sunlight must not work upon their development. In the same sense external education must not endeavour to affect a training or influence the moulding of the memory, before the change of teeth. If we, however, simply give it nourishment and do not try as yet to develop it by external measure, we shall see how the memory unfolds in this period, freely and of its own accord. (5)
Some children can be taught to read prior to kindergarten, and even some babies can be conditioned to recognize flash cards. But based upon her research on brain development, Jane Healy reminds us that reading and writing are built on language ability—the power to listen carefully, understand what others are saying, and express ideas effectively. In Your Child's Growing Mind, she concludes:
Even babies can be conditioned to associate two stimuli that are presented repeatedly, but this learning lacks real meaning for the child and may use inappropriate parts of the cortex instead of those best suited for the job. In fact, forced learning of any type may result in the use of lower systems since the higher ones which should do the work have not yet developed. The "habit" of using inferior brain areas for higher-level tasks (such as reading) and of receiving instruction rather than creating patterns of meaning causes big trouble later on. (6)
. . . Yes, even babies can be trained to recognize words. Babies, however, cannot read, tapping into a vast personal store house of language and knowledge that takes years to build. Most preschoolers, likewise, can be trained through a stimulus-response type of teaching. The human brain can be trained to do almost anything, if the task is simplified enough and one is willing to devote the necessary time and energy. Yet the brain power—and possibly the neural connections—are stolen from the foundation of real intelligence. Reading becomes a low-level skill, and there is a danger that it will remain at the level where it was learned and practiced. (7)
Healy points out that truly gifted early readers are insatiable in their desire to learn to read. They don't have to be taught, and they make instinctive connections with thought and language. These children usually learn without lessons from adults or older siblings. Other children, she says, can experience reading problems that are "created by forced early instruction. Many authorities believe that age seven is the right time to begin formally teaching reading. Studies in different countries have shown that when five- and seven-year-olds are taught by the same methods, the seven-year-olds learn far more quickly and happily than do the fives, who are more likely to develop reading difficulties." (8)
The common practice of having kindergarten and pre-K children fill out worksheets and copy lessons is also decried by most educators and developmental psychologists. According to Healy:
Children under the age of six should not be expected to copy sentences. Meaningful copying requires brain maturation to integrate two or three modalities (looking, feeling, moving and sometimes even hearing a word). Little ones can copy at a rote level, but they're probably not using the circuits which will connect with meaning. Let it wait. Children of this age should not be sitting at desks doing academic tasks. Get their busy brains out doing and learning, not practicing low-level skills. (9)
Piaget, Steiner, and others have pointed out that children go through various stages in their development and thinking. The latest brain research has actually shown that the brain goes through a developmental and differentiating process. Healy, based upon her extensive research in brain development, has concluded that "the immature human brain neither needs nor profits from attempts to 'jumpstart' it. The fact that the phrase is being successfully used to sell technology [educational software] for toddlers illustrates our ignorance of early childhood development." (10)
In addition to causing children to skip developmental stages or utilize lower levels of the brain to accomplish learning tasks, early academics can take an emotional toll as well. According to Healy, "Studies show that four-, five-, and six-year-olds in heavily 'academic' classes tend to become less creative and more anxious—without gaining significant advantages over their peers. Youngsters in well-structured "pla-yoriented schools develop more positive attitudes toward learning along with better ultimate skill development." (11) Another study of young children looked at creativity along with academic gains. It showed significant reductions in creativity after even moderate use of a popular reading software system. (12)
THE VALUE OF PRESCHOOL
Today virtually all children attend kindergarten, and 63 percent of all parents say they plan to start sending their child to school by the age of four. This is more than four times the 1965 rate, and it will probably become greater as an increasing number of school systems and government-funded programs become available for younger and younger children. Well-off families can usually afford private preschools, and children from low-income households are eligible for Head Start—although there are not enough places available to meet the need. As an increasing number of states pay for at least one kind of pre-kindergarten program, the problem is that enrichment programs not only become the social norm but also soon become required by law. When Zell Miller, then governor of Georgia, first proposed the idea of publicly funding pre-K in 1992, his plan was denied as "state-sponsored babysitting." Georgia's universal pre-K program rapidly went on to serve more than 61,000 children, and Miller went on to advocate mandatory enrollment. When New York began funding pre-kindergarten programs, whose students had to be chosen mainly by lottery, it was with the goal of providing universal access. Unfortunately, no one is supporting—let alone funding—at-home mothering.
Nearly a quarter of families with children under three live in poverty. And the trend toward the early institutionalization of children is increasing as welfare reform values mothers joining the working poor over staying at home with their young children. With more than half of the mothers of children under four in the workforce at least part time, most children today have some kind of child care or preschool experience. Burton White suggests that the pressure to fund public preschool is actually the result of the lack of quality day care—public or private— because "there is no mandate in the law for child care and there is a mandate for education." (13)
Even mothers who don't need to work appreciate the social and learning experiences a part-time preschool program provides for their child, and the free mornings can give them needed time away from children or time alone with a new baby.
Long-range studies, like the one conducted by the High Scope Educational Research Foundation in Ypsilanti, Michigan, have shown that children from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds gain an advantage from attending play-based preschool. Following 123 poor black youths with low IQs from the age of three or four up through age nineteen, this study compared the group who attended the preschool program at Perry Elementary School and had home visits from trained staff with a group who received no preschool education at all. Those who attended preschool went on to spend less time in special-education classes, had higher attendance rates, and graduated from high school in greater numbers. In addition, fewer received public assistance, were arrested, or became pregnant before age nineteen. (14) However, "for children from emotionally and financially stable homes, the advantages of preschool are less evident. While many experts believe that the early years are an enormously fertile time for teaching little children . . . some think that they learn best at their own pace at home. 'School for four-year-olds is indefensible on educational grounds,' says Burton White, author of The First Three Years of Life." (15)
The experiences of life provided in a preschool or kindergarten can often be provided at home just as well as they can in a formal program. There is no need to seek out preschool if you and your child are doing well at home; there is also no need to avoid it or feel guilty if your child is eager to play with other children and welcomes the activities a play-based program can provide. LifeWays North America developed its "home-away-from-home" model to meet all of these needs without relegating children to an institutionalized model of care.
EVALUATING EARLY CHILDHOOD PROGRAMS
When you first begin to investigate early childhood programs, you will find they vary greatly in their philosophies and activities. In the 1980s, Waldorf early childhood programs were viewed as something of an anachronism, and as a result student teachers from universities would ask to visit to see what a "play-based program" looked like. Now that it has been shown that such programs are on the leading edge of brain development and are the best preparation for academic work later, one can hope that many more play-based programs will be started and they will be easier to find! That is certainly what happened in Germany, as reported by Joan Almon, then president of the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America:
There is a growing body of research that supports the position of Waldorf schools that children should remain in a play-oriented preschool until the age of six. The clearest example of such research which has come to our attention is a major study undertaken in Germany comparing 100 public school classes for five-year-olds. Fifty of them had only play in their program and the other 50 had academics and play together. The children entered first grade when they were six, and the study surveyed their progress until they were 10. The first year there was little difference to be seen. By the time the children were 10, however, those who had been allowed to play when they were five surpassed their schoolmates in every area measured. One can imagine how startling these results were to the state educators. They considered the results so conclusive that within months they had converted all of the academic programs back to play programs. They also recognized the advantage of mixed-age kindergartens in which, through play, the children help one another to grow and learn. (16)
When you find a program that you are interested in, you will want to arrange a visit to talk to the director and see what the children are doing. Talk with the director about her background, her philosophy, and the type of program she offers. Ask about staff turnover and meet the teachers. Arrange to visit and observe the program in action. Above all, make sure there is a rich oral language tradition (stories, songs, and games) and that ample time is allowed for play that is self-directed and serves no other motive than the child's own.
You will also want to consider the hours of the program. If you are working full time, you will probably be looking for a full-day program. If you are able to stay home with your child, you will probably want to consider a more gentle transition. For young children who are used to being at home, attending a half-day program two or three days a week is often the best way to start. Take your cues from your child and find a program that balances your needs and his.
When you look for child care, preschool, or kindergarten for your child, here are some things to consider:
- Is there a rhythm to the day, providing a structure within which there is time for both large movement and guided activities?
- Is there an appreciation of the importance of imaginative, self-directed play, and toys to support it?
- Do the children play outside every day? What equipment is available? What is the teacher's background, training, philosophy, and experience in teaching or mothering?
- What does the teacher hope the children will learn? Early reading, desk work, and workbooks don't meet the young child's needs.
- Are there artistic activities such as painting, coloring, and crafts?
- What role does music play in the program? Is all the music recorded, or are there singing and movement games?
- Do the children watch television or play with computers? Screen time is best avoided by young children.
- How many children are there? How many teachers? Does it feel calm or hectic?
- What is the environment like? Is it safe? Is it beautiful? Is it warm and homelike?
- Does the teacher love the children?
LIFEWAYS AND WALDORF EARLY CHILDHOOD PROGRAMS
Waldorf early childhood programs—whether freestanding or connected with a Waldorf school—are modeled after a good home environment and provide a nurturing program based on an understanding of the young child's special developmental needs before the age of seven. Although Waldorf schools sometimes have mixed-aged kindergartens with children from two and a half to six years old in one group, more often they have separate nursery and kindergarten classes. To ensure a more homelike, mixed-age environment for the younger children—and to meet the child care needs of parents with infants and toddlers as well—the LifeWays approach was developed by Cynthia Aldinger out of the indications of Rudolf Steiner and contemporary educators. In LifeWays centers or in-home programs, infants through five-year-olds are together in "family groups" with the same caregiver year after year. Mixed-age, relationship-based care has the advantage of replicating the experience of a large family: the older children provide a model for the younger ones and help them, while the little ones bring a softer element to the four- and five-year-olds. And as they stay in the program for several years, those who were once the younger children in the group get to experience being the bigger children. The special needs of the older children are met at the LifeWays Early Childhood Center in Milwaukee through an onsite "preschool," which they attend three mornings each week. Here the older children from each family group come together for a Waldorf-inspired program that emphasizes stories and activities for the older children. Children in LifeWays programs typically go on to kindergarten in local public or Waldorf schools.
Interest in Waldorf education and LifeWays is expanding dramatically throughout North America, and many new school- or center-based and in-home programs are being founded each year. A list of members can be found on the website of the Waldorf Early Childhood Association (www.waldorfearlychildhood.org), and a directory is available at www.lifewaysnorthamerica.org.
The following description of a typical day in a LifeWays program may serve as a more detailed guide for things to look for in a relationship-based program, even if there is no LifeWays or Waldorf school in your area. The understanding of the young child and the activities suggested can be incorporated into home life or into existing child care or preschool programs. Some readers may even become inspired to find out more about the LifeWays training and perhaps open their own in-home program!
The Activities
Let's take a look at a child's day as it might occur in a LifeWays program. As an example, I'll describe a schedule I've used at Rainbow Bridge, an in-home program with twelve one- to five-year-olds, a lead teacher, and two assistants to help with all the cooking, snowsuits, and pottying. The morning typically consists of creative play, varied activities, a story, singing games and fingerplays, snack and lunch, and outside play. Some children go home at 12:30, while others stay for a nap and are picked up at 3:30.
Outside play. Parents and children are greeted, and most children head straight for the sandbox, where the older children are already hard at work building tunnels and "bug traps." Starting with outside play allows for the different arrival times of children. I am usually outside to receive the children, and those who are cold or want a gentler start to the day can go inside with another teacher and help her cut fruit for the morning snack.
Morning snack and songs or story. Children are gathered with a song and go inside for hand washing and lighting a candle before singing blessing songs at the table. A different child is selected each day to serve the food by taking around the bowls of fruit, and the other children are consoled by the promise that they can serve another day. We listen for "thank you's" and model how to ask for more. The art of conversation is developed, often augmented by an ongoing story about a character I have made up, such as Mauie the cat or Pirate Jack. All the children, even the littlest, learn to sit at the table until the candle is blown out with a song. Dishes are then put in the washbasins and children wipe their hands and faces and their table space with a washcloth. When everyone is finished, the children join me in singing "Red Bird, Red Bird, who will you choose today?" and eagerly wait for the red felt bird suspended from a stick to visit the nests they have made with their washcloths. As each child is chosen, the child puts his or her cloth in the bowl and may leave for free play.
Creative play and activity. Within a few moments, we might see several boys and girls in the home area, cooking and playing with the dolls. Nearby, three children are moving blanket stands to make a house covered with a sheet. A two-year-old has put on kitty ears and is meowing at the door, while a one-year-old wanders happily from area to area, taking it all in. Another boy puts on a cape and crawls under the table with two standup dolls. Two other boys have tied knitted ropes to wooden fish and are being fishermen. One of us begins to fold the towels and washcloths from the laundry and immediately has helpers with folding and "delivery drivers" to take the stacks. In a while, one of the teachers starts to chop vegetables for lunch and is joined by three children who work with their own cutting boards and table knives.
The room becomes filled with the ebb and flow of the children's play. Two children have become engaged at the workbench, and both want to use the wooden hammer. The nearest adult suggests one child ask, "Can I have it when you're done?" and agrees that it's hard to wait. "What can we find to do while you're waiting?" she asks, guiding the child to use the screwdriver to fix the truck instead. By now the cook of the day is sautéing the vegetables and mixing them into the grain from the rice cooker, all with the help of one or two children. The other teacher has finished folding the laundry and moved to the couch, where the other one-year-old climbs up for a snuggle and to look at a stiff-paged book together. The transformations are endless as the children's play unfolds over forty-five minutes to an hour.
The room could seem chaotic to a casual observer as the children experience the world through their inner-directed play. We watch attentively and help as needed by tying on a costume or helping two children take turns with a contested object. We are happy to be brought things as part of the children's imaginative play and will interact with them, but we rarely get down and play with the children or interrupt them except as necessary for safety or to resolve conflicts that they don't work out themselves. We remain aware of everyone in the room while doing household or craft work whenever possible. In this way the children not only see a model of real work, but this activity can also be transformed by them and incorporated into their play. During this time, an activity such as bread baking or coloring might be started at the table, and children join in as they are drawn to it. Also during this time children go to the bathroom and diapers are changed—it's a busy morning!
Circle time. A song tells the children it is time to put all the toys away, and a little gnome comes out of his house to see what good workers they are. When everything is in its place, another song brings the children to morning circle. With a mixed-age group, I like to start with "Ring Around the Roses," which is simple enough for the youngest and still a favorite of the five-year-olds. It is followed by a greeting song, and then fingerplays or a simple circle game, before the children are dismissed to the lunch table.
Hot lunch time. We wash hands for lunch, which consists of hot grains with organic vegetables and occurs around 11 a.m. in our program. The children sing a song of thanks for the food and then talk with one another while they eat. This is a good time to tell a fairy tale that can nourish the older children while the younger ones are occupied with their food. From the table, Red Bird again slowly dismisses the children to start getting ready to go outside.
Outside play. The children play outside for about forty-five minutes. They eagerly play on the slide, teeter-totter, and climbing dome. There is also a sandbox, crawling tubes, and a large playhouse. There is a deck, grass, and small bushy area we call the "fairy woods." Some children are picked up by their parents at 12:30, while the others come in then and gather around the table for some juice, cheese, and raisins (believe it or not, it has been an hour and a half since the start of the last meal). Then they go downstairs to brush their teeth and take their nap.
Afternoon nap. We are great believers in the health-giving powers of sleep after an active morning, and all of our children nap, including the five-year-olds! Some days we have as many as ten children napping, divided between two rooms. The teacher or assistant makes sure each child is cozy, sits and sings or plays the kinderharp in the darkened room, and then sits quietly and yawns for a while until the children are asleep.
Afternoon play. Afternoons are very sweet. The children are very different when they wake up from a nap, and it's a time to read a story together or gently brush a child's hair as he gradually reenters our shared world. Because the children wake up at different times, it is easier to give them individual attention before they start to play or are gathered for yet another snack (eating is mandated every hour and a half by our licensing requirements, which is just right for me!).
The Seasonal Rhythm
In addition to establishing a daily rhythm, which anchors the children, we change activities and stories according to the seasons of the year. These activities might include taking walks and collecting seasonal items for the nature table, baking seasonal foods, making objects for annual festivals, and participating in outdoor activities such as making leaf crowns or planting spring bulbs. Much of the preparation that the adults at the LifeWays program do relates to the rhythm of the year and the children's experience of it. This is reflected in the daily activities, the changing decorations in the room, and the special activities that are planned, such as a walk to the park to gather acorns in the fall, planting flowers in spring, or doing wet felting outdoors in summer.
With a mixed-age group, activities take place on many levels simultaneously, depending on the child's age. For example, older children will typically be drawn to watercolor painting, while the two-year-olds will come over and watch in awe, also wanting to participate (or not). The one-year-olds typically continue in their dreaminess—although some are very demanding about wanting to be at the table, too! Stories from various levels are told in mixed-age classes. Older children still love hearing a simple story like "The Three Little Pigs," while the youngest children will be carried along by the group when a more complicated story for older children is being told. The same story will be told for several weeks and then might be presented as a puppet play with table puppets or silk marionettes.
Direct intellectual teaching does not take place in a LifeWays program or Waldorf kindergarten. There are no exercises in reading readiness or doing pages from math workbooks. Nor are shapes and weights manipulated to learn concepts such as "triangle" or "heavy" and "light." The child is allowed to take in the world through his senses and to participate in it through movement, artistic activity, and play. It is recognized that one of the tasks of early childhood is the healthy mastering of bodily skills. As a result, we often do fingerplays and movement games to help the children develop coordination and the formation of speech. These activities also can form the basis for later mathematical learning, as the rhythmical counting paired with body movements forms a valuable foundation in the body for number and rhythm. Similarly, the transformation of one object into another in creative play provides a concrete basis for the more abstract manipulation of symbols involved in reading. Developmental steps are not skipped or hurried. Rather, there is a confidence in the unfolding of the young child according to the patterns of nature and the stamp of the child's own individuality.
Many times children who can already write the alphabet or even read enter a Waldorf kindergarten. However, the children are not provided time to practice such skills. Because their days are so full of creative play, stories, puppet shows, crafts, and artistic activity, they are fully engaged and often do not even notice that they aren't reading or doing mathematics. And the rich experience they receive in the Waldorf program can serve as a balancing force for the early intellectual development they have experienced.
The Setting
Because the environment is so important for the young child, a great deal of care is put into creating an environment that is nourishing and inviting to the children. When schools are built according to Steiner's indications for architecture, the early childhood rooms can feel as if they embrace and surround the children with their curves, cubbyholes, and play areas. When this is not possible, it is best to use an actual home or make an existing building as homelike and comfortable as possible, in contrast to the institutional feel of most corporate child care settings. For example, lights and right angles can be softened by hanging colored cotton gauze or silk in the corners and in front of light fixtures. A couch and a "cozy corner" created with sheepskins and pillows can also soften the feeling for the children. Beautiful items, natural materials, and pastel colors replace the chrome and plastic of many conventional programs. In addition, lofts and play areas under them can be built using wood.
Many LifeWays and Waldorf program locations are painted a light rose color that Steiner called "peach blossom." It is a color that reflects the lightness of young children, who have not yet fully arrived on earth. A special method of painting called "lazuring" uses washes of various colors on a wall to give an impression of depth on a flat surface. Using this technique, murals or images can be painted to suggest forms in a very soft, beautiful way.
The room is decorated with seasonal motifs, such as a nature table, tissue paper pictures on the windows, and decorated branches. Toys are made from natural materials and are arranged in activity areas or little scenes that invite imaginative interaction. The attention to detail and beauty will be reflected in the mood of the children and the quality of their play.
The Role of the Teachers
Waldorf nurseries and kindergartens often appear deceptively simple. Everything flows so easily and looks so effortless. The tremendous amount of work by the teacher is mostly invisible, except as it is felt by those who know children and who can sense the mood the teacher creates. Someone from another preschool program visited our preschool home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and was surprised by how peaceful it was with twelve children in such a small space. The being of the teacher and the physical and emotional environment she or he creates are what really nourish the children.
In a LifeWays program, less of the preparation is done behind the scenes than in a Waldorf kindergarten. The teacher attempts to do most of her work while the children play and is less concerned with craft projects and other activities that would involve the teacher doing most of the work for the children. This leaves the teacher freer to be in relationship with the children, which is vital for young children.
Because the teacher is constantly an example for the children, she pays special attention to the quality of her movements and the tone of her voice. She does many things with the children, such as preparing the snack, telling a story, or leading the circle games. However, she also accomplishes a great deal just by her being, by who she is. She tries to put aside her own problems and emotional upsets so that she is as clear as possible when she is with the children. She needs to get enough sleep and to have her own meditative practices to remain centered and to keep the rest of her life in order. Her role with the children is similar to a meditative state of awareness: she is aware of everything, totally in the present moment, not thinking about other things—just there with and for the children. Being with young children often involves more being than doing. It's hard to make everything simple enough. We tend to think that we have to stimulate and provide things for the children, when our more difficult task is to provide them with the space to be themselves, to experience and grow and try on the world and its activities under the guidance and protection provided by the adults.
The teacher's attitude of warmth and love provides a calm and healthy atmosphere for the young child and is the foundation of relationship-based care. Steiner describes it as follows:
The joy of the child in and with his environment must be reckoned among the forces that build and mould the physical organs. He needs people around him with happy looks and manners and, above all, with an honest unaffected love. A love which fills the physical environment of the child with warmth may literally be said to "hatch out" the forms of the physical organs. The child who lives in such an atmosphere of love and warmth and who has around him really good examples for his imitation is living in his right element. One should therefore strictly guard against anything being done in the child's presence that he must not imitate. (17)
Because the young child is an imitative being, the teacher simply begins each activity and the children follow along. She doesn't announce, "Now it's story time," or "Let's take hands for circle games." Instead, she simply takes two children's hands and starts singing and moving with the intention that everyone will join in, and they do. Story time may begin with the same song every day, or the teacher may light a candle or put on a special storytelling hat or apron and play a few notes on the kinderharp. Whatever she has chosen, the children soon learn what will follow.
Whenever possible during the children's free play, the teacher provides an example of work from real life—tending to the baby, sawing wood or gardening during outside play, making something for the preschool. The children can often help with the activity itself, such as by cutting fruit for snacks or winding yarn, and the activity will also appear transformed in their play. For example, if the teacher is sewing, a few children will want to get out their first sewing basket, while another might go off and pretend to sew something with her fingers.
The warmth and love of the teacher for the children involves really taking on their care as a trust, in conjunction with the parents. Thus the teacher needs as complete a picture as possible of each child before accepting him or her into the program. She will observe the child if possible and have an in-depth interview with the parents: how was her birth; how did she develop; what does she like to play; are there any health problems; has she been in other child care or preschool programs; what are the parents' hopes and expectations? The teacher needs to feel that she can really take on this child, and that she can work together with the parents for the child's growth and well-being. The parents also need to evaluate the teacher and the program and make sure that this is where they want their child to be.
Once a child has been accepted, the teacher tries to visit the family at home to get a picture of the child in his or her own surroundings, to meet any brothers and sisters or pets, and to see the child's room. In addition to helping the teacher better understand the context in which the child lives, such a visit provides a wonderful link for the child between home and school, a sense of interpenetration of the two worlds that is very supportive.
The teacher's work does not stop when the children go home. She must not only clean up and arrange things for the next day's activities, but also work with the parents through parent evenings, conferences, toy-making workshops, and so forth. At night the teacher visualizes each child and takes the image into her sleep. This practice not only supports the child and his connection with the teacher, but it can also provide the teacher with inspiration if a child is having particular difficulties.
The Training of a LifeWays or Waldorf Early Childhood Teacher
The attitude of the teacher and the understanding gained by working out of the indications that Rudolf Steiner gave about the developing human being are the most important elements of the program described above. Simply having dolls without faces or block-shaped crayons does not a LifeWays or Waldorf program make! The activities suggested in this book are appropriate for all children and are really suited for the young child. Because of this, they can be incorporated into home life and into existing child care and preschool programs with very positive results. But one needs to distinguish between "a bit of this and a bit of that" and a fully developed LifeWays or Waldorf program. The Waldorf early childhood teacher training is a two-year full-time program, or its equivalent over four summers, and qualifies the graduate to teach in a Waldorf school; the LifeWays certification combines part-time classroom experience with guided mentoring over nine to thirteen months and can lead to starting one's own LifeWays program in either a home or a center, being an assistant in a Waldorf school, or being a more satisfied and more centered, creative parent. Resources on both types of training can be found at the end of this chapter.
LIFEWAYS AND WALDORF IN THE HOME
Many parents who are trying to incorporate these ideas and recommendations about young children into their home life are faced with the dilemma of being unable to get away to take an extensive training at just the time when they could use it most! LifeWays has addressed this dilemma by meeting quarterly or over one weekend each month so the time away from the family is as little as possible. Other parents have confronted this dilemma by connecting with resources online as they work to apply these principles in their own homes. Another valuable resource can be to start a playgroup together with other parents who share the same interests and ideals. If you can find a group of interested parents, you can take turns being with the children while the other parents share resources and discuss questions they have about their children. It is also possible for group members to share craft and festival celebrations and to select a book for study and discussion. Several recommended titles—in addition to this book—are listed at the end of this chapter. If you find yourself alone in working with these ideas, you will need to keep studying and find support through networking as you attract more like-minded people.
Many parents who want to provide this kind of experience for their child often find other families attracted to what they are creating in their home. If the parent is interested, this can lead to forming an in-home program for young children, or a "Saturday club" or an after-school enrichment program to bring some of the Waldorf activities to older children who are enrolled in public schools or who are being taught at home.
Waldorf education was started for the children of the workers in a factory in Stuttgart in 1919. It embraces children of all economic and intellectual levels and welcomes children from all cultural backgrounds. This has resulted in its becoming the largest private school movement in the world. The principles of Waldorf education are neither elitist nor reserved for the relatively small number of children who live near Waldorf schools. Its principles are universal and can be applied to all children. Waldorf-oriented charter schools are arising in many areas throughout the United States, and many parents are using a Waldorf approach in homeschooling their children.
In our highly technological society, the view of child development and the principles of education initiated by Rudolf Steiner (and further developed by thousands of Waldorf teachers over the past hundred years) need to become known to more and more parents for the healthy development of young children. The quality of life in the home and the preschool environment is perhaps even more important than what kind of elementary school the child attends.
THE VALUE OF MIXED-AGE PROGRAMS
Many parents who are fortunate enough to find a mixed-age program wonder whether they should stick with it or whether their child needs "more stimulation" when he or she becomes one of the older children. We have found that giving children the gift of growth and achieving competency nourishes them as much as—or more than—always being challenged. One LifeWays parent from a program in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, described it this way:
As Antonia grew from the suite baby to a big girl helper, I saw her complete her first journey through stages of maturity. She gently and gradually gave up her babyish ways, replacing old behaviors with new ones. There were no startling jolts so often imposed on children going from one year of schooling to the next. At LifeWays, Antonia learned to get along with other children in a confident, positive, and constructive way. She went from one who received the lion's share of attention as an infant to one who gave her attention to caring for little ones around her. She became someone who shared her toys, cleaned up willingly, worked out conflict, and gladly obeyed the rules and routines of LifeWays.
And, when the time was right, she was ready to give up the comforting routines of LifeWays and take on the exciting new challenge of five-year-old kindergarten. When Antonia entered public school kindergarten, her behavior stood out from her peers. Her teacher often remarked that Antonia was a joy to have in the classroom. . . . Antonia's academic progress has remained very good. She recently received her first formal assessment as a first grader. Her highest mark was in "working cooperatively in groups." LifeWays taught her to value her peers and teachers, and to have confidence in dealing with others. I feel these lessons will be with her for a lifetime. (18)
WHEN IS YOUR CHILD READY FOR FIRST GRADE?
Due to the downward shift of the curriculum over the past thirty years, it is even more important that children today be developmentally ready as well as chronologically ready for school. The developmental age of a child can be six months to a year or more away from his or her chronological age. Developmental age is measured by how closely the child's social, emotional, physical, and perceptual maturity corresponds to the norm for his age. Just as babies crawl, teethe, walk, and become toilet trained at different ages, older children, too, remain on their own individual timetables. There is not necessarily a correlation between developmental age and intelligence; a child with a high IQ can be developmentally delayed. (19)
In "Pupil Age at School Entrance—How Many Are Ready for Success?" James Uphoff and June Gilmore reported marked differences in school performance and emotional adjustment between children with summer and fall birthdays, who were less than five years and three months of age when they entered kindergarten, and those with birthdays the previous summer, who had been given an extra growth year and were as old as six years and three months when they entered kindergarten.
Uphoff and Gilmore summarize their research as follows:
- The older children in a grade tend to receive many more above-average grades from teachers than do younger children in that grade.
- Older children are much more likely to score in the above-average range on standardized achievement tests.
- The younger children in a grade are far more likely to fail at least one grade than are older children.
- The younger children in a grade are far more likely to be referred by teachers for learning disabilities testing and subsequently be diagnosed as being learning disabled than are older students in a grade.
- The academic problems of younger children who were developmentally unready at school entrance often last throughout their school careers and sometimes even into adulthood. (20)
The Gesell Institute of Human Development in New Haven, Connecticut, is a leading advocate of slowing down the accelerated pace of childhood. Their studies found that only about one-third of the children they tested in kindergarten through third grade were ready for the grade in which their age had placed them. The readiness of another third was questionable, and the final third definitely were not ready. Their studies compiled from school districts across the country indicate that as many as 50 percent of students with school problems today have them because of over-placement. (21)
Regardless of a school system's cutoff dates, parents together with teachers must decide whether an individual child is really ready for kindergarten or the first grade. Giving a child who has a summer or fall birthday an extra growth year can be a lifelong gift that may put him at the head of the class instead of scrambling to keep up intellectually or socially. If a child is kept in kindergarten a second year, or needs to go into a "pre-first" program, in no way should the parents regard the child as a failure or learning disabled. Remember that developmental maturity has no correlation with IQ. If the parents feel positive about the decision and take responsibility themselves, the child can adapt well and the extra year can have lasting benefits. Parents sometimes find it hard to explain to grandparents why they are keeping their child in kindergarten for two years, but the advantages for the child are worth the effort if you are feeling pressured to keep your child going through the system when he is showing signs of not being ready.
WHAT HAPPENS AROUND AGE SEVEN?
Between the ages of five and seven you will see many dramatic changes in your child. In terms of the development of memory, your child may say something like, "I can see grandma anytime I want to now," referring to an emerging ability to call on mental images at will. He may also tell you more of his dreams.
You will notice a kind of logic appearing in speech that represents a new level of thinking and is expressed in words like "because," "so," "if," and "therefore." This new ability is expressed in creative play by the love of tying things together with string, like linking one thing to the next with logic. A growing grasp of, and interest in, time will also be apparent.
In play you may also see intention manifested as things that are built for other things. For example, a sand structure may now be built as a garage for a car rather than simply for the activity itself. An authoritative element also enters into group play at this age, with a child sometimes directing and sometimes being told who or what he will be.
In the sphere of drawing, the individualizing element expresses itself in the use of the diagonal line, such as triangular designs, a ladder leaning against a tree, the stair going up inside the house, or the appearance of the arching rainbow.
Physically you will first see the differentiation of the chest or "middle sphere" around age five. The child suddenly loses her round "Buddha belly" and acquires a waist and a neck, showing how the life forces have completed their work in the rhythmic system. As the shift of the growth forces is made to the limbs, the arms will lengthen during this time. This is why an older child will be able to reach directly over his head and touch his opposite ear, while a younger or less developed one will not. Finally, the growth shifts into the legs, and the child will also often start to eat more and will sometimes increase his awareness of digestion (expressed in the frequent stomachaches of some children at this age). At the same time the growth forces are moving into the legs, the features of the face become more individualized and the milk teeth begin to loosen.
In the area of brain development, the changes are so great that Healy says this time is commonly termed the "five- to seven-year shift." She explains, "From ages five to seven or eight the brain is in one of its most dynamic states of change as it practices combining sensory patterns from different modalities. Maturation of a small part of the parietal lobe, at the junction where all the senses come together, is one development that makes many kinds of new learning possible, but there is enormous variability in the age when it occurs. . . . Only now does it make sense to ask a youngster to look at a series of written letters and 'sound out' a word, to coordinate motor programs and visual skills such as in catching or kicking a ball, or later, reading music while playing an instrument." (22)
The child starts to have real friendships and likes to make and give surprises. He likes to play with words and create rhymes, to play riddle and guessing games, to whisper and to giggle. Meyerkort says, "He feels the future dawning, the new stage coming; he says, 'I hope …'" (23)
All of the changes discussed here should be allowed to become consolidated in a play-oriented kindergarten before the child is called upon to exercise the new faculties that are used in learning to read, write, and do math in first grade.
Steiner explains the changes around the age of seven as resulting from the life forces completing their work of individualizing the child's physical body: first the head between birth and age three, then the middle sphere between ages three and five, and finally the limbs and hard, bony teeth. Once finished, the forces are freed for development of the memory and schoolwork. According to Steiner, the way to teach the elementary-school child between the change of teeth and puberty is with images and pictures, through which the child is allowed to take guidance from the inner meaning she discovers for herself in the pictures and allegories. What the child sees and perceives with the eye of the mind is a more appropriate means of education than abstract conceptions for the elementary-school child.
It is upon this ground of imagination that the later powers of intellect, judgment, and critical thinking will be based. Therefore, all of the subjects—from reading to mathematics to physics—are taught in an imaginative and artistic way in the Waldorf elementary school, providing a rich and nourishing foundation for the faculty of analytical thinking that arises and can be developed in puberty.
BEGINNING ACADEMIC WORK: THE WALDORF APPROACH
In the Waldorf approach, reading, writing, and math aren't started until the first grade. Children who start these academic tasks when they are developmentally more mature do not fall behind peers who start earlier in other school systems. In fact, there are definite advantages in delaying instruction in the "three R's" until around the age of seven.
Writing is taught in the Waldorf first grade through stories and pictures, and then the children learn to read from what they have written themselves. Just as humans first wrote using picture glyphs before developing the alphabet, so the young child develops the forms and the sounds of the letters through stories and pictures provided by the teacher. In this way the letters and their sounds "live within the child" as vibrant pictures. One morning when she was in first grade, my daughter said, "I dreamed about the letter A. There were all these A's. .. ." The children progress to writing from verses that they know and then "reading" from what they have written themselves. Thus the more abstract work of reading begins toward the end of first grade, and the transition to printed books is generally not made until the second grade.
Children who are first taught to read at a later age miss out on years of "1 can read" books, but what are they really missing? Bruno Bettelheim, in his article "Why Children Don't Like to Read," lambastes most of the early readers and texts used in elementary schools as being totally devoid of meaning, content, and interest for young children. He points out the constant reduction in the number of words taught to children, so that books become a series of repeated words that lack any relationship to spoken communication and lack a meaning or story line that the child would want to learn to read in order to discover. He states, "Although in the 1920s few children went to kindergarten and little preschool reading instruction was given, by the 1970s, when many children were attending kindergarten and reading was consistently taught there, the first-grade primers contained only a quarter of the vocabulary presented to first-graders fifty years ago. (24)
Some people have the mistaken idea that there are no books in a Waldorf school. This is far from true! Although there aren't readers in the kindergarten, and in the first grade children learn to read from what they have written themselves, books with real literary content are introduced from second grade on, and students are never given anything that is condescending in tone or that has been predigested especially for children. Real literature is always used in the classroom, selected according to the reading level and inner maturity level of the children. Waldorf schools have libraries for children's reading pleasure and for doing research in the upper grades.
Although reading is taught more slowly in the Waldorf curriculum, math is not. Nothing is done until first grade, but then all four processes— addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division—are introduced. This is possible because the concepts are introduced imaginatively. For example, there might be a story about four gnome brothers: Mr. Plus is fat and jolly with stuffed pockets; Mr. Minus is thin and sad, and all of his jewels keep falling out of a hole in his sack; and so forth. The children work from the whole to the part, first using chestnuts or shells to see that eight is one plus seven, eight is two plus six, and so on. In third grade they walk and clap various rhythms and verses that help make the multiplication tables much easier to learn. When mathematics is made concrete and imaginative, children take to it with delight.
A complete listing of the Waldorf curriculum for grades one through eight can be found in the appendix.
WHAT ABOUT THE ADVANCED OR GIFTED CHILD?
Waiting until a child is in the first grade before starting academic work has obvious advantages for an average or a slow child, who needs the extra neurophysiological maturity before beginning tasks such as reading and mathematics. However, what about the bright child, who wants to start writing letters or learning to read at age three or four, or certainly by kindergarten age? As children become more aware of the world around them, they want to imitate and learn, and many children will show interest in these activities by age five. Reading and writing are the way of the future for children, so you will want to share their enthusiasm and can harness anticipation by saying, "You will learn more about how to do that when you are in the first grade!" Teaching the first letter or how to write their name will often satisfy this interest for the time being. But it is still too soon to exercise the memory or the intellect directly with sit-down lessons. There is no critical window when you have to teach a child to read or risk his not being interested later on. On the contrary, telling a child "That's what you'll learn when you go to the big school" develops eagerness and anticipation and keeps the young child learning through imitation rather than through direct lessons.
By not being taught to read in kindergarten or before, children miss several years of early readers (which isn't missing much), and they are given the gift of the final year or more of early childhood. Direct cognitive work wakes the child up and brings her out of the magical world of early childhood. Children grow out of these years soon enough on their own. Allowing your child to stay in the magical realm of early childhood without pushing cognitive development provides a sound basis for later health and creativity.
Especially with bright children, it is important to emphasize balance. It is possible to teach them intellectual skills at a young age and to put them into academically advanced programs from preschool or kindergarten on. The result, however, is often the creation of a forty-year-old in a five-year-old body. Advanced intellectual development in childhood is usually at the expense of the artistic and emotional spheres or the healthy development of the body. Elementary-school education should appeal so much to the child's imagination that the gifted child still feels fully interested and engaged. If that kind of creative education isn't available for the very bright child, you may face some hard choices.
You will need to investigate different educational approaches and make your own decisions for your child. I felt it was important to work toward a balanced development of the heart forces, the head forces, and the body/will forces, so that there would emerge a whole human being who would be able to lead a fruitful life and act in service to humanity. The danger of education that emphasizes only intellectual development is that we might turn out thinkers and scientists who are emotionally divorced from humanity and from the consequences of their work for the world. For this reason, I chose for my children an approach to education that emphasized balance rather than a program designed specifically for gifted children.
In most communities there are an increasing number of schooling options, including regular public schools, charter and magnet schools, independent private schools, and religious schools. Many parents are also turning to homeschooling as a viable alternative, or pursuing some combination of school and enrichment at home. Making decisions about your child's education is an ongoing adventure, but one that is well worth the research and effort.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
Brain Development and Academics
- Endangered Minds: Why Children Don't Think and What We Can Do About It, by Jane M. Healy, Ph.D. (Simon & Schuster).
- Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children's Minds— for Better and Worse, by Jane M. Healy, Ph.D. (Simon & Schuster).
- The Hurried Child, by David Elkind (Knopf).
- Miseducation: Preschoolers at Risk, by David Elkind (Knopf).
- Your Child's Growing Mind: A Practical Guide to Brain Development and Learning from Birth to Adolescence, by Jane M. Healy, Ph.D. (Doubleday).
School Readiness
- Better Late Than Early, by Raymond and Dorothy Moore (Readeds Digest Press).
- First Grade Readiness: Resources, Insights and Tools for Waldorf Teachers, edited by Nancy Blanning. Available from www.waldorfearlychildhood.org.
- The Hurried Child, by David Elkind (Knopf).
- "Readiness for First Grade," by Daena Ross. CD available from www.waldorfinthehome.org.
- You're Not the Boss of Me! Understanding the Six/Seven Year Old Transformation, edited by Ruth Ker. Available from www.waldorfearlychildhood.org.
Waldorf Education
- Understanding Waldorf Education: Teaching from the Inside Out, by Jack Petrash (Nova Institute).
- Various videos on Waldorf education, including "The Waldorf Experience" and "Waldorf Education: The Best Kept Secret in America," available from www.waldorfinthehome.org.
- "The Wisdom of Waldorf: Education for the Future," by Rahima Baldwin Dancy. CD and article reprint in full color, available from www.waldorfinthehome.org.
Journals on Waldorf Education
- Gateways, newsletter of the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America, published twice a year. More information at www.waldorfearlychildhood.org.
- LifeWays North America. Offers a quarterly e-newsletter. See www.lifewaysnorthamerica.org.
- Renewal: A Journal of Waldorf Education, published twice a year by the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America. Available from www.awsna.org.
Books for Beginning Study Groups
- Beyond the Rainbow Bridge, by Barbara Patterson and Pamela Bradley (Michaelmas Press). Discusses nurturing our children from birth to age seven, creating balance in family life, and how Waldorf education supports the development of the whole child.
- Heaven on Earth, by Sharifa Oppenheimer (SteinerBooks). An excellent book that helps parents understand child development and strengthen home life.
- Lifeways: Working with Family Questions, edited by Gudrun Davy and Bons Voors (Hawthorn Press). Chapters deal with issues of family life. Excellent for a mother's group.
- Waldorf Education: A Family Guide, by Pamela Fenner and Karen Rivers (Michaelmas Press). Deepens understanding and enriches family life.
- Waldorf Parenting Handbook, by Lois Cusick (Rudolf Steiner College Press). An introduction to some of the ideas behind Waldorf education from birth through high school.
- You Are Your Child's First Teacher. Share it with friends and subscribe to my blog at www.waldorfinthehome.org.
Courses and Training Programs for Parents and Teachers
- "Joyful Days with Toddlers and Preschoolers," by Faith Baldwin Collins. Telecourse and other resources from www.joyfultoddlers.com.
- LifeWays certification in early childhood and human development. Offers part-time classes throughout the country that occur four times a year over nine to thirteen months, plus directed study at home with a mentor. See www.lifewaysnorthamerica.org.
- Sophia's Hearth Family Center (in Wilton, NH). Offers workshops and programs for parents and teachers in the field of birth to three. At www.sophiashearth.org.
- Waldorf Teacher Training Programs for early childhood, the grades, or high school. At various locations throughout North America; see www.aswna.org.
Resources for Waldorf Homeschooling and Enrichment
- Kindergarten at Home with Your Three- to Six-year-Old, by Donna Simmons. Book and many other homeschooling resources for the grades from www.christopherushomeschool.org.
- Live Education! Offers a Waldorf-inspired homeschooling curriculum and advising for grades K—8. At www.live-education.com.
- Online Waldorf Library. A valuable resource site for teachers and homeschoolers. At www.waldorflibrary.org.
- "Starting a Waldorf Enrichment Program." DVD of a workshop given by Kristie Burns. Available from the online store at www.waldorfinthehome.org.
- Various videos on Waldorf homeschooling and curriculum topics such as "Teaching Reading and Writing the Waldorf Way," "Form Drawing," and "Math by Hand" are available from the online store at www.waldorfinthehome.org.
- Waldorf Without Walls. Consulting and resources for homeschoolers from Barbara Dewey. At www.waldorfwithoutwalls.com.
NOTES
- Elkind, Miseducation, pp. 119—22.
- Grunelius, Early Childhood Education, p. 26.
- Jodie Morse, "Preschool for Everyone," Time, November 9, 1998, p. 98.
- "Kids Need Time to Be Kids," Newsweek, February 22, 1987, p. 57.
- Steiner, The Education of the Child, p. 21.
- Healy, Your Child's Growing Mind, pp. 49—50.
- Ibid., p. 238.
- Ibid., p. 240.
- Ibid., p. 265.
- Healy, Failure to Connect (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998), p. 241.
- Healy, Your Child's Growing Mind, p. 63.
- S. W. Haughland, "The Effects of Computer Software on Preschool Children's Developmental Gains," Journal of Computing in Childhood Education 3, no. 1 (1992): 15-30.
- "Kids Need Time to Be Kids," p. 58.
- Ibid., p. 56.
- Ibid., pp. 57-58.
- Joan Almon, "What Are the Needs of the Five-year-Olds?" Leading Forth, Journal of the Waldorf School of Baltimore 4 (Spring 1988): 5—6.
- Steiner, The Education of the Child, pp. 28—29.
- Aldinger and O'Connell, Home Away from Home.
- Diana Loercher Pazicky, "Just Because a Child Is the Right Age Doesn't Mean He's Ready for School," Philadelphia Inquirer, April 22, 1984.
- James K. Uphoff and June Gilmore, "Pupil Age at School Entrance—How Many Are Ready for Success?" Educational Leadership, September 1985, pp. 86—90.
- Pazicky, "Just Because a Child Is the Right Age."
- Healy, Your Child's Growing Mind, p. 55.
- Audrey McAllen, "On First Grade Readiness: An Interview with Margret Meyerkort," Bulletin of the Remedial Research Group No. 5, August 1986 (Fair Oaks, CA: Remedial Research Group at Rudolf Steiner College), pp. 12—15.
- Bruno Bettelheim and Karen Zelan, "Why Children Don't Like to Read," Atlantic Monthly, November 1981.
Bibliography - You Are Your Child's First Teacher