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Teaching woodworking grades five to eight in a Waldorf school by Atta Turck
Seek the truly practical material life, but seek it in such a way that it does not numb you to the spirit active within it. Seek the spirit, But do not seek it in supersensible lust, Out of supersensible egotism, But seek it, Because you want to apply it selflessly in practical life, in the material world. Apply the old rule: “Spirit never is without matter, matter never without spirit!” in such a way, that you say: We want to do everything material in the light of the spirit, And we want to seek the light of the spirit in that way that it will develop warmth for our practical deeds. The spirit, which is led by us into the material, The material, which is molded by us until it reveals itself, whereby it drives out the spirit from within; The material which receives from us revealed …Read more »
Managing Daylight Savings with Young Children
Alert! Daylight savings is November 6th this year. If your children are still young enough that a 20 minute delay in a meal or a bedtime can, on occasion, result in a complete meltdown, this mini-article may be for you. If, however, your children are older and will completely delight in rolling over for an extra hour on Monday morning the 7th, congratulations and no need to read on! One of the things Waldorf education is known for is the protection of childhood. Being well rested and ready to greet the adventures of the day is a key component of this. As parents, too, we can appreciate a child who sleeps well. It is counterintuitive but experts know and many parents have experienced that the overtired child wakes up too early. As a parent of young children, I find that the "fall back" is much more difficult than the normally …Read more »
The Creative Word
This article is reprinted from the Spring 1991 Cascadence, later printed in the December/ January 1998-99 New Tidings (an EWS publication), written by LeeAnn Ernandes. She is one of the founding members of our school community and has taught here throughout the years both at EWS and in the WTEE program. The words we speak are a reflection of our inner moral ideas about life and an influence on the inner pictures and ideas of all those who hear our words. Uncensored language and concepts, filled with images and ideas about the human being and the universe, seep into our soul from every direction: parents, friends, teachers, media and the street. And there in the soul, they meet what lives in the moral imagination where the hearer gives place value, unconsciously perhaps, to what has entered. Now consider briefly the situation, or dilemma, in which we live. We human beings …Read more »
Brain Development and the Arts
Thanks to our friends at the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America for this report. Recently, Johns Hopkins University sponsored a one-day Roundtable on Arts and the Brain, based on a report released by the Dana Foundation that demonstrates how the arts light up parts of the brain like nothing else does. This was followed in Washington, DC by the tenth annual conference on Learning and the Brain. The Roundtable was an invitation-only event and included 200 researchers, teachers, educational leaders, superintendents, principals, and policy makers. According to Patrice Maynard, leader for Outreach and Development for the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America, who attended both events, one particularly moving presentation described the effects of music on the ability of the brains of children to receive and comprehend math concepts, offered by Dr. Elizabeth Spelke, from Harvard University. "Dr. Spelke stated that she has demonstrable evidence that in …Read more »
The Rose Ceremony
Each school year at the Eugene Waldorf School begins and ends with a Rose Ceremony. In the fall, at our welcome assembly, it is the role of the new eighth graders to present roses to the budding first graders as they begin their journey through the grades. This year the first graders stood on the stage with quiet reverence while one by one each eighth grader took a rose from his or her teacher. The students presented the roses to their new first grade buddies and then stood supportively behind them. Finally, Liz Hartman—our eighth grade teacher, offered roses to Laurie Leaf Bowman, our first grade teacher, and her assistant Tricia O’Neil. This simple ceremony is celebrated in many Waldorf schools as a marker of an important transition for the children. Entering the grades is something many of the kindergarteners have thought a lot about and looked forward to. It …Read more »
Waldorf Schools, Charter Schools? How are we alike and how do we differ?
What is a Waldorf School, and what is a Charter School? Last September marked 90 years since the first Waldorf School opened its doors in Stuttgart Germany, and an important change came to the world’s educational landscape. Since that time, more than 900 Waldorf schools and 1,600 Waldorf early childhood programs have been founded on five continents. Each has its own spirit, responding to its location, the children and parents involved, and the teachers who guide it. In Eugene, we will celebrate our 30th year serving the community this fall; a good time to examine what a Waldorf school is, and why we work to keep it that way. Occasionally we get questions about what exactly a Waldorf school is, and also about the relationship between Waldorf schools and charter schools that use Waldorf methods. Rudolf Steiner, a scientist, philosopher and artist active at the turn of the last century, …Read more »
Storytelling and Puppet Shows
Storytelling in Waldorf Early Childhood Classrooms In Waldorf Schools, children swim in a sea of stories everyday; fairy tales, legends, myths, or biographical stories, depending on the age and developmental level of the children. Waldorf teachers deliver lessons to the children through clear and beautiful speech, based on a solid and loving relationships developed over time. All the subjects in Waldorf Schools, including math, reading, history and science, are taught through a living interaction between human beings, in the preschool, kindergarten and grade school. In the Early Childhood realm, the teachers engage themselves purposefully in an activity, like baking, sewing, or sweeping. Young children learn through imitation. They want to participate with and imitate the adults around them. In a Waldorf early childhood classes the children are allowed to play freely under the warm guidance of the teacher who is engaged in an activity. This activity may resonate with the …Read more »
Theater and Drama in our school
In Waldorf schools one highlight of the year is a play that emerges in each class from the curriculum. Every child in the class participates, uniting the class artistically and socially. The art of articulation and expressive speech demands the full attention of each student. Music weaves throughout the plays and eurythmy adds yet another dimension. The plays help to deepen the students’ understanding of the main lesson work. They become the Romans, Vikings, or the Greeks, or they might become the wolf, dragon, or demon. The characters become actively real to them. The curative opportunities are endless. A shy child might be given a bold, outgoing part; or a boisterous, choleric student given a sensitive, compassionate part. Out of imaginative play, first grade students bring a fairytale play. The class learns the whole play, for the children are too young to hold individualized parts or to stand facing an audience alone. Groups of students step forward to enact …Read more »
More about the Haiti Benefit Concert and Bake Sale
We know that many of you join us in mourning the loss of life and tragic devastation for the hundreds of thousands of people in Haiti that have been affected by the earthquakes. As a school community, we asked what we could do to help and decided to host a benefit concert and bake sale this Saturday, January 30th from 4:00 pm until 9:00 pm. The concert will feature Gypsy Moon in the early afternoon and North of West in the evening. All the funds that we raise will be donated to Bumi Sehat, a non-profit organization founded in 1995 in Bali. Bumi Sehat (Healthy Mother Earth Foundation) is a non-profit, village-based organization of dedicated families, midwives, doctors, nurses, teachers and volunteers from countries around the world. They have experience in disaster relief, both from the tsunami and from other earthquakes. Their focus has been to support maternal and child …Read more »
Shepherd’s Play
Each December the Oberufer Shepherd's Play is performed for EWS students and friends by our faculty. The name Oberufer Play applies not only to The Shepherd’s play, but also to a Paradise Play and a Three Kings Play. Oberufer is an island in the Danube, east of Vienna, close to the borders of Hungary. This island was settled by farmers from the Lake Constance region sometime in the 15th Century, and due to the relative isolation of island life, their traditions and folkways remained intact for centuries. One of their traditions was to perform these plays each year. In fall, when the harvest was in, the players were chosen regardless of religious affiliation or status, and received their parts from an esteemed farmer who would direct the plays for years, and then pass this honorable responsibility on to his son. The songs and words were passed on by word of …Read more »
