Daily Archives: January 17, 2010

Unschooling and Waldorf : The Student-Teacher Relationship Birth- Age 7

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So, we started to explore Unschooling and Waldorf in this previous post ( https://theparentingpassageway.com/2010/01/17/unschooling-and-waldorf/ ), when this really astute question came up in the comment box.

Writes in a wonderful mother: 

“The only question that remains for me is about the teacher/learner relationship. What if the child is not interested in learning what you present him with, even if it is age-appropriate for him? What if the child doesn’t want to sit and do what you invite him to do? As my girls are getting bigger, I can see that they do not always want to do what I suggest we do, and I want to honor that. It doesn’t feel right to coerce them into doing what I think is good for them. Don’t get me wrong, I will not let them have chocolate for breakfast and go to bed at 10 pm, I am talking reasonable things like drawing all day instead of going outside (even if I know it’s good for them to go outside, it feels wrong to get into a fight, a tantrum and tears to get them out the door). I guess, what I am saying is that I am a bit confused in that area. I do not want to be the dictator of my children’s life, I want them to learn to listen to what they feel inside…..”

 

I would like to address this in two parts: one geared toward children under 7, and one part more pertaining to the grades.

Part One:  The Student-Teacher Relationship for Children Under Age 7

You know, from everything I have read, Steiner was a warm man, a man who observed children with love, a man with a good sense of humor.  I think he would understand that first and foremost homeschooling is about the joy of being with family.

If your children are completely upset about something in your rhythm, I think there are at least two ways to approach it:  #1 – approach it as the fact that the rhythm is for you to follow and they can follow or not and weave in and out in play but you can mix that with this idea:  #2 – perhaps the rhythm needs to be changed to better meet your children.

A rhythm should change seasonally, right?  One of the original examples given above was small children not wanting to go outside….Well, this is a really cold month in many places. Perhaps you change your rhythm to accomplish your goals (connection with nature, getting energy out) in a different way.  So, you make treats for the feathered friends and small creatures outside, and you set up indoor forts and bear caves and tunnels for the children to crawl through to find the hibernating bears and they get the energy out inside.  Goals still accomplished, different methods. 

You are homeschooling, you can be flexible, and the more years you do this, you will plan ahead of time because you remember the last time – last January was this way, so this year I am going to plan some ice-skating, but also a lot of baking and crafting and storytelling for us to do.  We will play games and sit by the fire, and love  each other.

See, no coercion at all!  But whilst we are on that word, I want you all to meditate on that.  If you feel in heart that you will “present” something and it might “fail”, I think that is something to be explored.  Children can sense when we don’t feel confident and certain.  Feel clear with yourself before you even start.  What are your goals for your children this year in homeschooling?  What do they need to work on?  To me, there are goals, even at the Waldorf Kindergarten level.  If you know your goals, you can change the method of delivery and still meet your goal in helping your child.  🙂

My other point with the under-7’s is that they are working out of imitation, so don’t necessarily give them the opportunity to debate about what they will or won’t do in words……  The kiss of death is to say, “Now it’s time for our puppet show” and everyone groans and says, “Not now!  We are making ice porridge in our kitchen for the snow bears to eat!”  No, just gather up your puppets, set up your stage and start singing the opening song and start.  They will come.

But do learn to read you children as well, if they are playing beautifully and building gorgeous sibling bonds, why interrupt that?  Sibling love is an important component of homeschooling to foster…The puppet show can happen in an hour.  This is a line we always tread in homeschooling – the play, the family love versus the fact that sometimes things do have to happen, that is part of developing the will of the child and our own will, our own self-discipline. 

The other part is, don’t present to the under-7 child.  Present around them instead.  For example, sit down and start finger-knitting and when they gather around and ask if they can, you have the choice to pull out the story and teach them, yes.  But you also have the choice to say to the four-year-old, “This is Mommy’s task right now, but I bet when you are bigger I can teach you how to do this” and sing a song.  Build up some anticipation for the beautiful things they are going to learn, it becomes then a privilege to try rather than something to resist.

Steiner felt what small children needed in the Kindergarten age was love,  warmth, worthy adult activity to be imitated, play, protection for childhood, gratitude and reverence, joy, humor and happiness, and adults who are developing their own inner intuition, so…….K.I.S. (Keep It Simple). 

Keep it simple.  The under-7 child should have a simple rhythm, and you don’t need a complicated craft that coordinates with your story with a complicated snack that coordinates with your story with all of these things with a complicated nature activity, etc.  That turns it all into more of a Unit Study than just seasonal activities and storytelling and singing.    Live, breathe, and focus not only on the goals and the things for the Waldorf Kindergarten experience at home (see back posts here   https://theparentingpassageway.com/2010/01/13/waldorf-in-the-home-with-the-three-and-four-year-old/  and here  https://theparentingpassageway.com/2010/01/06/waldorf-in-the-home-with-the-one-and-two-year-old/ ), but on those intangibles that Steiner talked about – love, joy, warmth, humor.  Infuse your activities with these things, not with a drill sergeant of the rhythm keeper attitude.  The rhythm is your helper, not your enemy.  Make it work for you and your family.

Lots of love,

Carrie

PS Part Two to follow

Unschooling and Waldorf

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We have had a really interesting discussion over at Melisa Nielsen’s Yahoo Group regarding Waldorf homeschooling with larger (ie, 3 to 5 children or more) families and also Waldorf homeschooling when your children are far apart in  age.

At any rate, this wonderful mother posted a link to her adventures in Unschooling with Waldorf with a larger family here:  http://www.ahomeschoolstory.com/2008/10/unschooling-meets-waldorf.html  and I really thought it was worth sharing with all of you. (If you would like to join Melisa Nielsen’s Yahoo Group, please see this link:  homeschoolingwaldorf@yahoogroups.com).

I have read the work of John Holt and even spent some time on a radical Unschooling  Yahoo!Group to see what it was all about when my oldest was younger, so I do have some ideas about Unschooling but admittedly no real world practice per se, so please take that under consideration in this post.  (I also started out with the notion I was going to homeschool using some sort of Classical Curriculum, so you can see how far I have come and also how scattered I was in some ways because I was looking at EVERYTHING and wanted to take all the things from every curriculum and bring it in for my child.  Then I discovered  Waldorf and there you go!  No turning back, and very, very happy!  But I digress!)

To many people, Unschooling means just the ability to follow your child’s interests.  I think it is possible to do this within the Waldorf curriculum.  I wrote about that in integrating Waldorf with other methods here: https://theparentingpassageway.com/2010/01/09/can-waldorf-work-with-other-homeschooling-methods/  

I think there are a points where Waldorf and Unschooling agree :  both have great respect for the “unfolding” of the child and meeting the child where they are.  Both have no lost sleep over a child starting academics at a more appropriate time (ie, most likely not in the Early Years).  Both have a great love for learning through life – through play, through being outside, through practical activities around the home.  

I think the major difference between Unschooling and Waldorf is  the role of the parent.  And yes, I do have Unschooling friends who “strew” things around their house for their children to find and ignite passion and learning, but I think fundamentally the role of the parent in Unschooling is typically more as a facilitator for what a child expresses interest in.  In Waldorf homeschooling, the parent introduces the subject material through art and movement at a time that we feel coincides with the development of the aspects of the human being.  So, in Third Grade we have Old Testament Stories as a history of the Jewish people and how those people handled authority because we feel the nine-year-old is grappling with these issues in development.  In Sixth Grade, we have the Roman and geology because we feel the 12-year-old is grappling with being solidly set on the Earth and interested and ready for the facts of history. 

I think there is also a major difference in the Early Years as we look toward a rhythm in order to develop, protect and nurture the 12 senses in the Under-7 child. We assume the child will need help with balance, with rhythm, will need some help in incarnating into the body.  Unschooling has no basis for this, because Waldorf’s philosophical basis is the development of the  three-fold and four-fold human being during these seven year cycles.

Boundaries in parenting could be another major issue and difference between Unschooling and Waldorf.  In Waldorf Education, we assume that an under –7 child is neither good nor bad but learning.  Learning implies they are not quite ready to be the one to set the tone of the home, and it would not really be fair to ask them to participate in a democratic way of setting what they are learning or playing with yet.  They may, in fact, be attracted to things that are detrimental to their health or well-being  and the parents needs to be the one to step and help set boundaries.  Again, not all parents who Unschool don’t set boundaries,  many certainly do!,  but I know on the radical Unschooling list I was on, letting the child experiment with going to bed late, eating what they wanted for breakfast (even if  it was candy or such) was part of this notion that  the family was “Unschooling Life.”   Again,  the child may be attracted to things that are not healthy, they may be lacking a rhythm and a balance in these Early Years,  and it is our ability to set boundaries that is important for the health and development of the child. 

People comment that they feel Unschooling is a better fit for the child because it is more respectful of the child.  I have responded to this before in this rant here: https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/01/22/waldorf-and-attachment-parenting-the-mini-rant/  

Essentially, I think there are ways Unschooling and Waldorf can work together, but I do believe Waldorf has such a strong philosophical basis that it  is just a  different perspective.  It is not about searching for the”best” reading program or the “best” math program because the whole curriculum is laid out in such a way that every single thing not only builds on each other, that head, hearts and hands are integrated, that  the threefold and fourfold human being is developed, and that in every subject (even grammar, etc) a relation to the spiritual realm, the relationship of man to the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms are there.  Essentially, the curriculum to me sometimes is just that reinforcement of the way a human has the potential to be Noble, to be Pure, To Make the Right Choices.  This is something that really cannot compare to “just” a curriculum in reading, or even  a “not” curriculum. 

I choose Waldorf because I felt it was actually the only way to educate a human being holistically. I chose it because I believe in the development of the human being so my children grow up to be adults who can think, problem-solve, who are balanced and able to cope with technology, with stress, and with life.  I chose Waldorf because I want my children to learn through art and movement and to have high academic ideals at the right time in the curriculum, and to have a sense of stewardship for the Earth and her resources.    I chose Waldorf because I wanted to introduce academics at the right time, the time when it would make the most sense and to start slowly and build up as the neural pathways for learning were laid down.   For me. whose background was in childhood development, it seemed the only curriculum that seemed to recognize different subjects made sense to come in at different times and that subjects shouldn’t be “dumbed down” to meet children in the Early Grades, but instead brought in at a later time. 

The idea of  salient teaching, of teaching  the right subject, at the right time, really set my heart on fire. 

Does it yours?

Many blessings,

Carrie