Het wordt tijd voor een follow-up van wat ik meldde op
zondag 23 oktober 2011 in ‘
The
New York Times’, gevolgd op donderdag 1 december 2011 in ‘
NBC
Nightly News’, dat bovendien terugkwam op maandag 16 januari in ‘
Ecuador’.
Ik bedoel de situatie van de vrijescholen in Noord-Amerika. En dan met name de
belangstelling die deze krijgen als alternatief voor informatie-technologisch (ict)
onderwijs, om het zo maar te noemen. Het artikel in The New York Times vindt
nog altijd navolging. Neem de Huffington Post van afgelopen woensdag. John M.
Eger, ‘Professor of Communications and Public Policy and Director of the
Creative Economy Initiative at San Diego State University’, schreef over
‘The Techno-Savvy Favor a Non-Tech Education, at Least For Their Kids’:
‘In the age of the internet it seems odd that the techno
savvy are sending their kids to The Waldorf School, where
according to Matt Richtel of The New York Times the “school
embraces a simple, retro look – blackboards with colorful chalk, bookshelves
with encyclopedias, wooden desks filled with workbooks and No. 2 pencils.”
No so odd really.
Whether one is putting a laptop in every kid’s backpack,
wiring the schools and changing the lesson plans to insure computer literacy or
doing none of that – the Waldorf approach is age old. Thirty years ago Judy
Caldwell, fresh out of grad school, was holding Waldorf workshops all over the
state of Connecticut. Eventually she moved to California, and over the years
the program morphed (they now have something called the HOT’s program which
stands for Higher Order Thinking). Dr. Caldwell stayed true to her belief and
did not let her own son watch television or have a computer until he was almost
seven.
What is it about Waldorf?
Developed by German educator, Rudolf Steiner, Waldorf has
been around since 1919.
Waldorf Education is “based on a developmental approach
that addresses the needs of the growing child and maturing adolescent. Waldorf
teachers strive to transform education into an art that educates the whole
child – the heart and the hands, as well as the head.”
The emphasis is on face-to-face communication and a strong
personal connection
between the teacher and the student. Waldorf “emphasizes
creative learning with the goal of developing the child academically,
emotionally and physically.” They also discourage using technology in the
schools and advocate (in the home too) that “television and computers (be)
strongly discouraged for younger children.”
The use of technology is not to be dismissed however, and
while the evidence in favor of computers in schools is mixed, many experts
believe that kids growing up in a digital world need the new tools of our age.
They have computers, and cell phones and video games, Facebook, and Twitter – and
who knows the apps that will demand their focus next? Thus the arguments for
using technology are believed to be relevant and realistic: to reach more
students, to keep more students engaged and to experiment with tools that are
and will be used in today’s workplace. The arguments are compelling.
At the same time many children need, and parents want, their
child to have a different experience in school where they can be assured that
the “whole child” is educated, where art and music are integrated into the
curriculum, and where one-on-one experiences are guaranteed. At least in
Silicon Valley they say all this is worth $20,000 to $25,000 in education
costs. (There is ample evidence that the Waldorf experience, maybe even
Waldorf, can be offered under the public system at no additional cost. But that’s
another story.)
The point you have to wonder about is whether delaying the
use of technology until the 3rd or 4th grade has some merit.
Dan Fost, a writer based in San Francisco
has observed that “The kids don’t need (technology), they
learn the tech later, they build a great foundation for imagination and creativity,
and computers are filling their brains with mindless junk that is often worse
than anything we used to worry about from television.” But too much too soon
also has other potential consequences according to Stephanie Brown, director of
the Addictions Institute in Menlo Park, which runs an outpatient counseling and
therapy program. “She’s starting to see kids as young as 10 who are hooked on
digital media,” Fost says, “(and) the symptoms are strikingly similar to those
of any other addiction.” Brown believes this leads to “compulsivity, cravings,
irritability, sleep disorders ... these kids build their day around their
engagement with technology, and over time, they need more and more and just
can’t stop.”
Maybe using technology isn’t an either/or proposition. Maybe
we don’t need to choose one approach over another and as we rethink the
curriculum – which we say we badly need to do – we need to find ways of
avoiding the one-size-fits-all, standardized approach.’
Op 21 januari schreef Molly Walsh in de
‘Burlington Free Press’ over een soortgelijk thema, ‘Shelburne’s Waldorf School philosophy is
deliberately low-tech’
(deze school ligt net onder Montreal in de Verenigde
Staten). Helaas was dit artikel maar een week lang in te zien – gelukkig heb ik
het bewaard, zodat ik u de tekst alsnog kan aanbieden:
‘The seventh- and eighth-grade students at the private Lake
Champlain Waldorf School study the usual academic subjects, carve wooden bowls,
knit and sew, play string instruments, sing to the accompaniment of a piano in
their classroom, sweep and take out the school trash, and spend recess outside
chatting, running around in the snow or feeding the school’s chickens.
One thing they don’t do in school is log on to a computer.
Their school has no computers and that’s by design. Also missing: TV screens,
smart boards, video cameras and other equipment found in many public and
private schools. In a nation where public school students often encounter
computers in the classroom as early as kindergarten and one to one student
laptop programs are increasingly popular, Waldorf isn’t having any, thank you
very much.
“What we’re doing in the classroom is really trying to bring
them lessons that will ignite a love of learning,” said Pam Graham, director of
admissions. “So it’s very alive and engaging. The screen is just a dead way of
learning. It’s just static.”
The 165 pre-school to eighth-grade students on the Waldorf
Shelburne campus don’t keyboard, they use pens and paper. They write their
essays and reports by hand and use white-out and correction tape to fix the
mistakes — the retro way. Teachers write with chalk on blackboards and nobody
worries too much if the atlas on the bookshelf is dated. Granted, many of the
kids have home computers, cell phones and other technology for use outside
school. And the school’s high school campus in Charlotte has a bank of
computers for student use.
But the approach of Waldorf — an international independent
school movement — is a decidedly low tech compared to most modern day schools.
Despite this the niche continues to be popular, even in unpredictable places. A
recent New York Times piece profiled a Silicon Valley Waldorf school full of
children whose parents work at Apple, Google and other tech companies.
The Waldorf philosophy is that younger students learn to
think more deeply and creatively without computers. Technology can generate
information overload in young children and this can dampen thirst for learning
and leave children too distracted to contemplate or express their own ideas,
the Waldorf thinking goes.
Many Waldorf fans also believe that the absence of screens
is good for children’s social development. Every hour in school that they don’t
spend looking at a computer screen is an hour youths can spend talking face to
face with classmates and teachers and learning to understand what some call the
silent language — facial expressions, hand gestures, the sag in the shoulders
that might mean someone is sad or lonely.
“That ability to read social cues, you can’t get that
through a computer,” said teacher Gregory Foster, a classroom teacher at
Waldorf’s Shelburne campus.
It’s time to ask what’s being sacrificed at schools that
invest heavily in classroom technology and to recognize that the virtual world
is not the real world, Foster added.
“Visiting a Japanese classroom through a screen is not the
same as going to Japan,” he said.
Many of the students at the local Waldorf school say the
only thing they know is computer-free classrooms. “I can’t even imagine having
technology in school,” said 14-year-old Aidan Powell, an eighth-grader who
lives in Charlotte. “It’s like no interaction, they are telling you what links
to click.”
Fans of technology-rich education reject the notion that it
produces passive learners. Good teaching with computers is anything but
passive, they say, and can actually increase engagement, creativity and school
attendance.
Aidan uses a computer at home but tries to limit it to 20
minutes a day — enough time to catch up with friends from camp on Facebook. He
doesn’t watch TV or play video games and instead spends time doing sports,
reading, playing violin and guitar and working on big school projects, such as
the electric guitar he’s designing and building from scratch. His media
consumption is much lower than most of his friends who attend non-Waldorf
schools, he said. “They are really into their video games and stuff like that.”
As Waldorf kids perfect their cursive and learn to whittle,
are their parents worried that their children are at risk of growing up
computer illiterate? Not Tom Powell, Aidan’s dad. The lack of computers at
Waldorf is a positive and not a negative, he believes. “There’s absolutely
nothing about that that is a loss to us. You know, when you enter the Waldorf
system you learn early on that information is acquirable anywhere and the
skills you need to get it are not that complicated.”
Young children need to “wallow in their youngness” and be
allowed to unfold from the inside out, he said. He believes computers have a
numbing effect on younger children and disagrees with the growing investment in
computers in public grade schools and middle schools. “I think it’s a cheap way
out of teaching, frankly,” he said.
Powell, a psychologist, finds technology useful in his work
and does not object to the computers at the Waldorf high school where Aidan’s
older brother is a student. Older Waldorf students have no problem ramping up
their tech skills and they do just fine when it comes time to apply to college,
he said. “They go off to very nice colleges and they tend to be pretty happy.”’
‘Jeff DeGraff is a world renowned thought leader, executive
and innovation expert. His expertise has been shared globally at top innovation
incubators and think tanks such as the Aspen Institute and with companies that
include Eaton, GM, SPX, 3M, Apple, American Airlines, Coca-Cola, GE, Johnson
& Johnson, LG, Pfizer, and Toyota. DeGraff has contributed his expert
knowledge in publications such as Business Week, CIO, Fortune, USA Today,
Training+Development and the Wall Street Journal. Jeff is focused on how to
lead Innovation; developing the culture, capabilities, and collaborative
connections that result in revenue and market growth. Jeff is the complete
package.
With over twenty-five years of corporate leadership
experience and as Clinical Professor of Management and Organizations at the
University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, Jeff is the “guru to the
innovation gurus” at Fortune 500 companies His advice is frequently in demand
from the investment community on how to pick, manage and harvest winning ideas
and business enterprises.
DeGraff offers his personal experience as a former business
executive from one of the fastest growing companies in America, the credibility
of being a published author and an expert resource for the media. Jeff is the
Executive Director of the Innovatrium Institute for Innovation, an idea lab;
Managing Partner of the Competing Values Company, a top innovation consulting
firm where he is also the co-creator of the Competing Values methodology that
integrates innovation with finance, strategy, management, and leadership into a
robust business model that boosts the bottom-line.’
Hij publiceert op de website van ‘Business 2 Community’,
‘an independent online community focused on sharing the latest
news surrounding Social Media, Marketing, Branding, Public Relations & Much
More. Every day we feature the thought leadership of our open community of
bloggers and aim to provide a balanced view of the business landscape based on
industry news, trends and real-life experiences.’
Zijn artikel geeft de volgende achtergrondinformatie over
vrijescholen:
‘Nineteenth Century social innovator, mystic and eclecticist
extraordinaire
Rudolf Steiner sought to synthesize the entirety of science
and spirituality through a new approach he called
Anthroposophy.
This philosophy and accompanying methodologies posited that the integral laws
of nature could be applied to just about everything imaginable from the arts to
medicine to farming. He asserted that mind is really just a sense organ like
our eyes or ears and believed that our personal development starts by elevating
our sense of awareness and widening our experience in nature – “To truly know
the world, look deeply within your own being; to truly know yourself, take real
interest in the world.”
In 1907 Steiner wrote
The Education of the Child a somewhat radical treatise
for the times that espoused principles of spiritual science, holistic learning
and universal brotherhood. Given the era was the advent of the First World War
and Kaiser was maneuvering to maintain control over a wider monarchy Steiner’s
ideas about education were often considered seditious. In 1919 perhaps as a
response to the disillusionment with the authoritative practices that lead to
the decimation of Germany or maybe as a moment of enlightenment Emil Molt the
owner and manager of the Waldorf-Astoria Cigarette Company in Stuttgart opened
a new kind of school for the children of the factory workers that emphasized
the pursuit of their unique destiny. The idea of a progressive education for
all quickly spread throughout a newly democratic Europe but kept the first name
of the original location –
Waldorf
School.
Steiner proposed that an interdisciplinary approach to
education is crucial for integrating physical, emotional and intellectual
growth. He suggested that aim of instruction is help the student become a free
and responsible person in full possession of their unique gifts. To do so the
student is cast in a number of situations that gives them direct access to
their sense experiences such as excursions into nature. They are encouraged to
use empirical principles to discover what is often left unseen when they
trundle through the day and reflect on their insights. Critical and creative
thinking are then engaged to integrate the experience into personalized
knowledge of both the object, the viewed, and the subject, the viewer. The
Waldorf curriculum exposes students to everything from foreign languages to
rhythmic dancing to advanced mathematics. Each student creates their own
illustrated summary of their coursework in dossier or book form. Both the
learning experience and the learner are customized via these generative
activities. Steiner believed that “each individual is a species unto
him/herself.”
As if Steiner didn’t have enough to do, he designed and
opened the first multimedia lab the same year as the original Waldorf School.
The Goetheanum, a homage to the multifarious visionary of the German Enlightenment
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, was an innovative domed building that housed
performance halls, studios, galleries and a library. It is considered an early
example of Organic Functionalism an architectural movement later known for
buildings that mimic nature like Buckminster Fuller’s Spaceship Earth geodesic
dome that rises above the entrance of EPCOT at Disney World.
Less than five years after the opening of the Goetheanum it
was destroyed by arson assumedly by those who felt threatened by Steiner’s
revolutionary ideas that the church and state could not offer the freedom
required for individual creativity and growth.
While today there are hundreds of Waldorf Schools around the
world that continue to successfully advance the principles espoused by their
founder, regrettably many critics still find the underlying idea that we can be
put in charge of our own development a dangerous proposition. In the same way
that Steiner’s integrative approach created the man himself to do the same is
to put our own universal truth in motion.’
Meer achtergronden beschreef Holly Fortin,
‘a sixth grade teacher at the White Mountain Waldorf School
in Albany. This is her 25th year at the school’,
‘In adolescence, the student’s center of gravity shifts from
pictorial thinking to abstract thinking. This so called “birth of the
intellect” allows the young person to begin to form independent opinions based
on the experiences of life. A great interest in facts about the world emerges;
a youngster wants to read the newspaper, listen to the news and discuss what
they hear. Intellectual challenges become fascinating and a wide range of
interests arise.
However, this newly formed intellect lacks discrimination
and often the worldview a student forms is based on simply repeating statements
made by others — adults, peers, and the media — with no ability to discern
whether they are actually true. They attempt to make sense of the world with
half-truths and undigested facts and thus their dogmatic statements often do
not hold up under questioning.
Still, arguing is what the adolescent does best! They love
to express opinions and though their opinion may have been accepted on the flimsiest
of authority, they will permit no contradiction of it. When challenged they
find it difficult to let go of an idea, no matter how absurd.
Simultaneously the young teenager is experiencing feelings
with greater intensity than ever before. Strange new sensations, moods, and
desires can overwhelm them, flooding in and out like waves on the beach,
leaving the youngster confused and out of balance. As they oscillate between
extremes — aggressive one moment, lethargic the next, indifferent one moment, hypersensitive
the next – they are as much a mystery to themselves as to the adults around
them.
How does Waldorf education seek to guide the adolescent
through this tumultuous time?
It is the sciences that offer the best foundation from which
the emerging thought life can grow. Certainly all the subjects offered support
the student’s developmental phase appropriately, but it is with the youngster’s
first introduction to biology, physics, chemistry, mineralogy, astronomy, human
physiology and meteorology in the middle school program that this new capacity
can truly blossom, while simultaneously providing ballast for the youngsters
being buffeted by the winds of adolescence.
The Waldorf approach to science is different from that used
in mainstream schools. There the teacher typically presents a hypothesis of
cause and effect, and the students carry out an experiment to test the
hypothesis. This method is linear and has predictable results.
The thinking involved is primarily a process of data
acquisition and accessing.
“In a Waldorf science class, students and teacher begin with
the consideration of a phenomenon. For example, a white light and a colored
light are shined on an object at the same time but from different angles. The
shadow from the white light is the complementary color of the colored light.
The students observe carefully, internalize their observations, and then
describe verbally or in writing what they perceived with their senses. The
class shares, considers, and discusses the various observations, then tries to
reach a conclusion. What caused the phenomenon? Where did the complementary
color come from? What is the quality of the colored shadow as compared with the
other visible shadow?
“In this process, the students’ thinking is active. They
arrive at the concepts by thinking about what they have observed. The students
discover what a Cavendish or a Priestley discovered first, but the discovery
and the concept are now theirs, not something that has been given them. This
ability to think actively and creatively and to base one’s thinking on observed
phenomena will be of use throughout their lives. It will serve them whenever
they encounter a problem, scientific or nonscientific, that requires
discrimination.”
Thanks to David Mitchell for his description of the
demonstration.
In our highly technical culture, learning to believe and
trust our own senses is becoming increasingly difficult. Yet it is just this
trust in themselves that adolescents need to develop. By giving them the
opportunity to hone their powers of observation and cultivate active thinking,
the science lesson can help balance the strong feeling life of the early
teenager without resorting to any moralizing.’
De vraag blijft altijd of het wel werkt, deze pedagogiek.
Die vraag stelde
Rocky Lewis ook op de ‘Spring Garden
Waldorf School Blog’, op 19 januari in ‘Does Waldorf Work?’ Dit waren
zijn bevindingen:
‘One of the big concerns Waldorf educators hear from
prospective parents is about the school’s lack of testing. How will we know our
children are being well educated? What if they can’t keep up with their
hard-driven peers after graduation?
The underlying question is, “How do we know this theory of
education works?”
Nov/Dec 2011 Harvard Education Letter reports that: “Waldorf
students tend to score considerably below district peers in the early years of
elementary education and equal to, or… considerably above, district peers by
eighth grade.”
When it comes to alternative education with positive
results, The Waldorf school system is not the only educational microcosm to
study. Finnish school’s have been a popular news topic lately as U.S. educators
try to tease out how their system, like Waldorf, which lacks testing and
rigorous early academics, can outperform the U.S. on the very tests it seem to
shun.
Findland’s average scores on
2009 PISA tests –
ranks them #3 in the world. The U.S. average scores equal rank #17.
In summary, he discussed the Finnish philosophy which,
according to the Times reporter Jenny Anderson, “scorns almost all standardized
testing before age 16 and discourages homework, and it is seen as a violation
of children’s rights for them to start school any sooner than 7.”
To Waldorf parents, these values will ring true, as will the
values underpinned in Sahlberg’s quote about why tactics from the Finnish
education system will not work if bolted onto U.S. public school policy.
“You know, one big difference in thinking about education
and the whole discourse is that in the U.S. it’s based on a belief in
competition,” Sahlberg said. “In my country, we are in education because we
believe in cooperation and sharing. Cooperation is a core starting point for
growth.”
Teachers are in charge: At Waldorf schools, teachers run the
school. The same is true in Finland. “We have very carefully kept the business
of education in the hands of educators,” says Sahlberg.
No tests in early grades: Children in elementary school are
rarely tested in Waldorf. Sahlberg says, “Finns don’t believe you can reliably
measure the essence of learning.”
Teaching is a valued profession: Waldorf schools could not
exist without long-term committed teachers and the Waldorf system focuses on
raising money to give staff free continuing education opportunities. Henna
Virkkunen, Finland’s Minister of Education says, “In Finland, we think that
teachers are key for the future and it’s a very important profession—and that’s
why all of the young, talented people want to become teachers.”
Teachers are trusted to teach: Like in Waldorf schools,
“Teachers in Finland can choose their own teaching methods and materials. They
are experts of their own work, and they test their own pupils,” Virkkunen said.
So when parents ask if education systems like these can
work, the answer is yes. But don’t take our word for it – go forth and read the
research!’
De drie commentaren eronder zijn ook de moeite waard:
Finland ranks third in PISA test scores (perhaps an
arbitrary method anyway?). Out of curiosity, who is first and second? How do
their schools compare to Waldorf and/or US public schools?
China and Korea were #1 and #2 in 2009. I need to do
research to find out their methods.
I believe (with some facts to back this via reading experience)
that the reason the U.S. is obsessed with Finnish (and to some degree other
Norwegian) models is because 1) They are Western cultures (although socialist,
which is a big reason why Sahlberg insists their program tenets will never work
here in public schools). 2) They have consistently scored high for the last 10
years. 3) They turned their system around, which had poor scores on similar
tests in the 70s.
Of course the differences are great, even beyond socialism
including an ethnically and financially homogeneous population. And a small
population to boot. Approx. the size of Kentucky.
So much of the debate becomes about the applicability in the
U.S. public system and not even about the why these methods are effective. What
Waldorf appreciates about this speculation is the why behind their success —
the values of the Finnish system are alive and well in Waldorf education.
Thanks for weighing in!
Thanks for interesting post on the similarities in the
finnish public school system and waldorf principles. Living in neighbor Sweden
and parent to two daughters in waldorf education I wish my government could be
more influenced by the educational success of Finland.
Instead in a western consensus around the need for testing,
central directives and the near religious believe in IT we seem to copy
Americas failures in our public education. Waldorf schools, who were among the
first to operate when alternatives to public schools were introduced, can no
longer decide over the use of testing or the curriculum to a point where the
uniqness is threathened.
The government seems to ignore the near universal praise for
finnish schools, Sir Ken Robinson, Daniel H Pink, Seth Godin et al´s convincing
references to scientific findings on intrisic drive, divergent/creative
thinking and neuroscience.
In Sweden (and Finland) waldorf school(or any other private
school) are free to the pupils and paid by the public in a fixed allowance
based on cost for local public school.
Yet we have a hard time convincing parents to learn more and
choose our schools when passivly accepting the allocated public school give you
the right to complaining where as an active choice makes you responsible. So we
keep looking for enlighted and brave parents
Jan Bergman
Sweden’
‘Exchange students from China showcased their traditional
talents as a gift to Sacramento Waldorf School.
Chinese foreign exchange students concluded their three-week
stay at
Sacramento Waldorf School by
giving a special performance at the school on Thursday.
The exchange students from a Waldorf School in Chengdu,
China performed a variety of traditional arts, including instrumental, dance
and martial arts.
“I thought it was wonderful,” said Liz Beaven, the school’s
principal. “Each one was wonderful and I loved the way our children listened to
it. They were completely absorbed.”
This is the first year Sacramento Waldorf School has had
this exchange program, and Beaven said she is hoping the annual exchange will
continue. No students from Sacramento went to Chengdu because this was the
first year that school opened.
Beaven thought opening the campus provided the opportunity
for both the Chinese exchange students and her students to gain international
experience and insight into another culture.
“It’s been a wonderfully rich experience,” she said.
“Hopefully it will be the first of many.”
The Chengdu administrator, Zewu Li said he thought it was a
good opportunity for the students because it gave the students a chance to see
different scenes and experience the world.
The exchange students were already trained and ready to
perform in each of their individual arts, and all have experience performing.
Li said the students wanted to perform for the school because they wanted to
show their appreciation and wanted to do something to give back for all of the
hospitality they received from the teachers, parents and students.
Li said he and the students really enjoyed their time at the
Sacramento school.
“Their work was very professional,” Li said. “The teacher’s
are very attentive to their learning.”
The group’s next stop is San Francisco, where they will stay
for another three weeks before heading back home to China.’
Belangstelling is er ook in Mexico, blijkens een bericht van
Patzi González-Baz, een gastauteur op de interessante moslimweblog ‘
TARBEYAH, An
Exploration of Sacred Parenting & Education’:
‘This blog has been set up as a space to explore the
spiritual dimension to parenting and education. Tarbeyah is an Arabic word
which carries the connotations of nurturing the whole being, striking a chord
with Educere (drawing out) in Latin. We are interested the development of the
whole child as well as the state of consciousness we bring to them. Needless to
say, it’s an educational process for us parent too, as we draw out qualities
from within and learn to manage our inner state as the outer world becomes more
demanding.
“In our Tradition there is a Hadith about the Faithful
being mirrirs to the Faithful; Waldorf talks about how the child imitates
everything around them. They are our best mirrors, and it’s painful when you
see in them the exact replay of what you dislike most in yourself! That was
always an incentive to keep on with the inner work.”’
‘I had never really paid attention to education until I had
kids myself. I had gone through school myself, and did fairly well, so I didn’t
think much about it. When I became pregnant with my first child, the kind of
school we wanted her to attend suddenly became an interesting topic of
conversation. Mothering Magazine published
an article on Spirituality and Waldorf Education. I received a religious
education, but not necessarily a spiritual one. I wrote to the Anthroposophic
Society asking if there was a Waldorf School in Mexico. There wasn’t one at the
time, but to make a long story short, a friend who owned and was the director
of a Montessori Preschool became interested in Waldorf, did the training and
turned her school into a Waldorf School. By the time my daughter started
school, it had already become a Waldorf School and had been up and running for
a few years. If there had been no Waldorf School, my kids would have attended a
Montessori School.
I’m a Mexican, I grew up in Mexico. Even though there is a
public school system in Mexico, the norm is sending your children to private
schools. Private schools are not as expensive in Mexico as they are, say in
Canada or the US. I know nothing about British Education. My then husband is a
Zen Buddhist, I was a Naqshbandi (but had not embraced Islam yet), we were
vegetarians; this is to say we were very odd.
Any educational system is only as good as teachers in it. I
fell in love with Waldorf, but it may not be the best schooling for someone
else. God is Beautiful and loves Beauty. Beauty is very much part of Waldorf
Education. Even the colours on the classroom walls and the way teachers paint
them is important. Art is an important part of the curriculum, and I love that:
Children create their own school books, they learn how to play musical
instruments, learn a second and sometimes a third language; they watercolour,
knit, weave, bake, do carpentry as part of their classes and it is all tied in
to their main class.
There is much emphasis on rhythm: a rhythm to the day, the
week, the season and the year. Rituals and celebrations are important;
festivals mark the transitions of seasons and birthdays are very happy
occasions. Plays, poetry, singing, planting and cooking were also very much a
part of school. Crayons were wax crayons with natural colours; watercolours
made use of only red, blue and yellow, the young artists would then go on to
develop all other shades and combinations. Children used pencils and colour
pencils to write their class books, and later on –5th grade I believe—they
write with fountain pens. I’m sorry I have no example of their books or
watercolours with me, but you can see many examples online.
At first I wondered about the child having the same teacher
for all of grade school. In practice, it worked well. My kids were young in the
“BG” years, “Before Google.” We did not have a computer in the house, we did
not watch television, there were no cell phones, let alone smart phones,
cameras were not digital. In that sense, Waldorf and my family were a good fit.
I love reading, and read to my kids up until their teen years. Yes, they do
know how to read and can read on their own. I also love movies, and carefully
screened the movies I allowed my children to watch. Waldorf does not encourage
media usage (computers, TV, cells, etc) before High School. I do wonder how Waldorf parents manage today.
Basically, we were all happy with the school. Our Waldorf
School only went up to 6th grade. My kids then transferred to a traditional
school where they did very well. They have also done well at University. They
talk fondly about their Waldorf school years; they would like their children to
attend a Waldorf school. They really appreciate not having had homework and
having had to develop inner resources when “there was nothing to do.”
I’m happy to keep on sharing about more specific topics of
Waldorf education in future posts.’
Een van de drie weblogeigenaren en een gast stellen Patzi
nog enkele vragen, die helpen de situatie te verduidelijken:
Many thanks Patzia,
I’m quite keen to visit a Waldorf school myself. Some see
the university one attends as the most important time in a persons education. I
feel it may just be those initial formative years.
S
Asma Shurfa says:
I’m always happy to learn from those further down the road.
How fortunate that you have a Waldorf School nearby. As Waldorf kindergarten is
modeled after a functional family life at home, I am keeping my children with
me for as long as I can and it is developing inner resources in me I thought I
never had–especially challenging when there is a no tv to rely on as a babysitter!
I am glad to hear that the education your children received
taught them to become self-reliant instead of passive consumers of the
entertainment world. Is not empowering our children the goal of every parent?
Thank you for sharing your love of Waldorf with us. I would
gladly hear more of your experience with the school and how you adopt the
principles at home.
Blessings
By the way, do children learn a music instrument through
Waldorf?
Saqib: All children in Waldorf learn to play the recorder.
Then the ones that are called to it, start learning other instruments. Many
Waldorf schools create their own orchestra. They also sing, memorize poems,
write poetry themselves and put on plays.
Asma, my children are now 28 and 25. My eldest didn’t start
Kindergarden till she was almost 6. She was born in October, we did not push to
have her admitted early. She was one of the oldest in her class, and it worked
very well. My son, being a May baby, started school when he was 5. In Mexico
most kids do start preschool at 2 or 3, so it was a challenge to keep them at
home. I was fortunate to work from home and to have help.
We did a lot of crafts, a lot of storytelling, singing,
watercoloring; we baked bread, had a garden and met once a week with other
future Waldorf families so they could have a play group.
I made several dolls for my daughter, and tried to keep the
toys as close to Waldorf as possible. I also had to make allowances for my
parents who were decidedly un-Waldorfy! My mother-in-law was our neighbour and
she grew up in a farm. She did not like to baby sit much, but did keep the kids
every Thursday while I went to zhikr.
They did not watch TV, true, but they did have a cassette
player and a lot of story tapes. Many times their father and I recorded
ourselves as we told them stories, and then t hey woould listen to them. They
would also record themselves telling stories, so I could listen to them.
In our Tradition there is a Hadith about the Faithful being
mirrors to the Faithful; Waldorf talks about how the child imitates everything
around them. They are our best mirrors, and it’s painful when you see in them
the exact replay of what you dislike most in yourself! That was always an
incentive to keep on with the inner work.’
‘In Nederland wordt nog wel eens door politici de Charter
Schools in de Verenigde Staten als voorbeeld gezien om van slechte scholen weer
goede scholen te maken. Charter Schools zouden goed zijn voor een moeilijke
groep leerlingen in de grote steden, lees: arme kinderen uit vaak zwarte en
hispanic milieus. Charter Schools zijn zogenaamde regelvrije scholen: ze
krijgen budget en hoeven alleen maar goede uitkomsten te presenteren. Hoe ze
dat doen, staat ze geheel vrij. Ook Arne Duncan, de minister van Onderwijs
onder Obama is, en misschien was, een groot voorstander van Charter Schools.
Uit een onderzoek blijkt echter dat enkele het heel goed doen maar heel veel
ook niet. Ook
dit
artikel draait om de hete brij heen. Wat is de samenstelling van de
schoolpopulatie? En waarom lukt het die enkele school wel? Daarover volgende
keer meer!’
Maar dit is voor ons even voldoende. Wij kunnen nu naar het
artikel ‘The Waldorf way’ gaan:
‘This isn’t about the right or wrong way to educate
children. It’s just a different way.
A local group of people are exploring the possibility of
opening a Waldorf Method-inspired public charter school for kindergarten
through eighth grade as soon as the 2013–14 school year.
The Waldorf Method, which started in 1919 in Germany,
approaches academics through the arts and nature.
Those involved with the Grand Junction Art Based Charter
School Initiative think that adapting some of the Waldorf methods for use in a public
charter school setting would be an effective alternative for parents who want
their children educated more through the arts and personal discovery than from
textbooks.
And in an academic world impacted by regulatory testing and
funding cuts to the arts, a Waldorf-inspired charter school would give
educators more latitude in instruction. Since the school would be a charter, it
would be accessible to everyone.
“We think this type of education would be popular with a lot
of people,” said Patrick Ebel, one of the primary organizers of the local
initiative and a father of two.
Ebel, who taught sixth grade for eight years, including four
at Bookcliff Middle School, thinks Waldorf “is the answer to education” because
the method is geared toward a child’s developmental stages.
For example, kindergartners in a Waldorf school play, sing,
listen to oral stories and act them out to encourage creativity and confidence,
said Jon Rizzo, who teaches at River Canyon School, a private Waldorf-inspired
preschool/kindergarten that opened several years ago in the basement of
Koinonia Church, 730 25 Road.
“The first seven years are formative times for a child,”
Rizzo said. “They are not only creating who they are, essentially they are
learning how to work with each other. It’s a young children’s job to learn how
things work and move and make friends before we need to jump into their
intellect.”
Unfortunately, there is no local Waldorf school for River
Canyon School students to go after graduating from kindergarten, and remedying
that situation is part of the impetus for the initiative, Ebel said.
Because the Waldorf Method may be such a foreign concept,
and raise more than a few questions about its academic merits, the Grand
Junction Art Based Charter School Initiative will host a meeting 7 p.m.
Thursday, Feb. 2, at Koinonia Church.
The public is welcome to attend the meeting and participate
in the dialogue that will happen as the group continues to figure out the best
way to incorporate the Waldorf Method into a charter school setting.
The Grand Junction Art Based Charter School Initiative also
has a Facebook wall where questions can be posted and information exchanged.
Sarah Shrader, a River Canyon School Board member, loves the
education her children received at River Canyon, but also appreciates the
education her eldest are getting at Scenic Elementary School.
Shrader said the Waldorf-inspired charter school would be
most valuable because it would give parents, particularly parents of middle
schoolers, another choice when searching for the best way to educate their
children.
Shrader, who has a master’s degree in education, was
introduced to Waldorf as a 24-year-old teacher in Arizona.
“I fell in love with the Waldorf education,” she said. “I
think it’s really intuitive. One of the things that made me fall in love, was
they teach everything through the arts and the outdoors ... Waldorf is
appropriate to the physical and emotional development of a child.”
She recognized that an outsider may see a Waldorf-inspired
education as lacking the academic rigor considered imperative for an American
child to compete in today’s technologically intelligent world. But that is not
the case, she said.
The way children learn — she assured parents that their
children will learn — in a Waldorf-inspired school is just different from the
traditional school setting. Students use the arts, oral stories and
nontraditional methods to discover how and why things work instead of
memorizing facts and figures from a textbook.
“There is so much art and such a rich base of literacy,” she
said. “We can’t really measure it.”
To learn about the Waldorf Method go to waldorfanswers.org
or whywaldorfworks.org, which is run by the Association of Waldorf Schools of
North America.’
Als laatste van dit niet weinig lange bericht, heb ik nog
een artikel van 27 december 2011 door Rosemary Shinohara in ‘Anchorage Daily
News’, ‘Alaska’s Newspaper’ (je komt werkelijk in alle werelddelen), getiteld
‘Charter school becomes a success story’:
‘What does berry picking at Arctic Valley have to do with
math?
Children at a public charter school on Muldoon Road know the
answer – they’ve sorted berries by color, size and shape, measured and weighed
them, and figured out how many there are per square foot of ground.
Turning berry picking into a math lesson is one example of
an approach that is helping students at the Alaska Native Cultural Charter
School make remarkable gains in achievement scores.
The school is grounded in Native values and activities; it
strives to make students proud of their heritage. That’s coupled with a strong
academic program. The result: In just two years, scores for students’
performance on statewide tests have risen significantly, in some cases
dramatically.
An impressive 95 percent of the school’s third-graders
reached proficiency on state reading tests in the 2010-2011 school year,
compared to 59 percent in 2009. Proficiency rates in reading, writing and math
for the whole school climbed by more than 10 points over 2009.
The school is an Anchorage public school for preschoolers
through seventh graders. It is open to all students but 90 percent of those
enrolled are Alaska Natives. Probably a third of the 207
kindergarten-through-seventh grade students came straight from rural Alaska,
said Elizabeth Hancock, the school’s administrative assistant and a founder and
member of the Academic Policy Committee that helps govern the school.
School District Superintendent Carol Comeau describes the
school as “one of our major success stories.” The Alaska Department of
Education recently named it one of two distinguished Title I schools – those
with mostly low-income students – in Alaska. Alaska Native Cultural Charter won
the award for closing the achievement gap for students who as a group generally
score lower than average on tests.
An old furniture store
As a charter school, Alaska Native Cultural Charter had to
find and rent its own space. The school building is a remodeled furniture store
that anchors a shopping mall near the north end of Muldoon Road, just before
the Glenn Highway. Among the neighbors are a pawn shop, a Kentucky Fried
Chicken, a pizza place and a sandwich shop.
One advantage of the location is that the Alaska Native
Heritage Center is nearby. The center sends over educators two days a week to
teach subjects like Native dancing and music.
Another benefit is that the old furniture showroom is large
enough to hold the entire student body, 15 teachers and principal and eight
other staff.
Because it’s a small school, the adults and children all
know one another other in a way that’s not possible in larger schools, Hancock
said. You know a child’s siblings and parents, she said.
Every morning, the whole school gathers to hear a message
from an elder, talk about expectations, recognize birthdays, say the Pledge of
Allegiance, hear what’s new in the library.
Then it’s off to class.
On a Friday morning, kindergartners in a classroom off the
big gathering space studied reading. Upstairs, where the older grades hold
classes, students trained for the stick pull and weight carry – skills for the
Native Youth Olympics. Students in another room carved soapstone.
Fifth grader Annabelle Snyder was creating a soapstone
pyramid. She wants to stay at the school because it’s fun, she said. Meanwhile,
she said, she’s really improved in reading since moving from a church school to
the charter school.
Charter schools
Alaska Native Cultural Charter School is one of eight
charter schools in the Anchorage School District. In Alaska, charter schools
are alternative public schools that are authorized by both the state Board of
Education and a local school board and operate under contracts with local
school boards.
They are mostly paid for through state funding, said Mary
Meade, charter schools supervisor for the district.
They are more independent than other public schools. For
example, charter schools in Anchorage don’t have to use the same curriculum or
teaching methods as neighborhood schools. And charter schools are governed by
academic policy committees, which choose the principal.
In most states, charter schools are even more independent
and are not under contract with local boards.
Among the other charter schools in Anchorage are Rilkle
Schule, a German language immersion program serving students in kindergarten
through eighth grade; Winterberry K-8, inspired by an arts-centered philosophy
known as Waldorf; Aquarian K-6, which uses theme-based curriculum; Eagle
Academy K-6, in which students are grouped by achievement level rather than
grade; Highland Tech 6-12, which features standards-based instruction instead
of grades-based; and two K-12 schools that build on home-schooling: Family
Partnership and Frontier. Both use online classes, college classes and other
community sources to supplement home-schooling.
A hard start
Though Alaska Native Cultural Charter is winning acclaim
now, it got off to a challenging start in 2008.
It didn’t get as many kids as expected, which meant it
received less state money than budgeted. The building wasn’t ready for the
first six months, so the school had to meet in a church.
The cultural emphasis the school sought was in place and
continues today, but the academic curriculum wasn’t fully developed at the
start.
Diane Hoffbauer took over as principal in the fall of 2010
and bore down on the academics.
The math and reading programs were incomplete when she
arrived, Hoffbauer said. She made sure all the materials were ordered, upped
the staff training on teaching math, reading and writing, and set up monthly
sessions to review students’ progress.
There’s still a strong emphasis on culture, seventh grade
teacher Danielle Riha said. “We have to work extra hard to have both.”
“I think our success is from a purposeful balance of
academics and culture,” Hoffbauer said.
Hoffbauer had lived in Barrow – she was director of
curriculum and assessment for the North Slope Borough School District from 2000
to 2004 – and she knew how hard it is for rural children to come into a large
urban school, she said. She was attracted to Alaska Native Cultural Charter as
a way to address that problem.
Hoffbauer just won an award from the School District for her
leadership at the school.
Assistant Superintendent Ed Graff said the school always had
a vision of what it wanted to accomplish.
“They just fine-tuned that,” he said. “It’s taken off.”
