I found the future of education in the past

[Or-Tal Kiriati]

My youngest son, who is now in 4th grade, joined a Waldorf Education school this year, after 3 years of suffering in a regular school. We just received the first school's newsletter with updates and descriptions of the activity in the school and I wanted to share it.

 

But I should probably start with how we went through these first 3 months. My son started the year very skeptic. "There's no school that can fit me", he said. For a 9 year old to passionately hate the idea of school - despite his many friendships there - is pretty shocking. So it took a while, the full 3 months, to be exact, and we got it! Last week he came home from school and for the first time ever when I asked him how his day was he said "Great". I even teased him a bit, wanted to make sure I am hearing right, and he confirmed that he had a great day at school.

Do you have any idea how it made me feel?

 

At this point I don’t particularly care about the academic results this school produces. Not that I doubt them. But the only result that really matters is that my boy is open to the possibilities now. He is awake. He is back.

 

There are many misconceptions about Waldorf Education, when in fact there are many variations in a little over 1000 Waldorf schools around the world. Our school is located at the center of the city. It is unlike another Waldorf school in Israel, which is located in a rural environment in the Galilee. It embraces the city and city people. What I like about the school my son now attends is that while its roots are in that 100 years old philosophy, it is in full sync with our environment and times.

 

Indeed, the first misconception about Waldorf education derives from the fact that the first Waldorf school was founded in 1919 to serve the children of employees at the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart, Germany 93 years ago.

 

If you have been following me you probably know that I am very passionate about the future of education. Having three extra-ordinary kids forced me into thinking deeply and widely about the state of education and learning and where we are heading. I got really excited by Greg Whitby’s “we have got to change the DNA of education” and by the famous TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson who stressed the same idea and explained we need a “revolution and not just evolution” in education. And while I totally agree with the spirit of change and futuristic idea and would LOVE to break the walls of the classroom, here I am, equally ecstatic by this ancient method of education and the way it works. Does innovation lie in the past after all??

 

Well this is the basis of the Waldorf Education:  

“Learning is interdisciplinary, integrating practical, artistic, and conceptual elements. The approach emphasizes the role of the imagination in learning, developing thinking that includes a creative as well as an analytic component. The educational philosophy's overarching goals are to provide young people the basis on which to develop into free, morally responsible and integrated individuals, and to help every child fulfill his or her unique destiny… Schools and teachers are given considerable freedom to define curricula within collegial structures.”

Wait, this seems to correspond perfectly with one famous 21^st century education revolutionist’s words, Sir Ken Robinson. Did you check out his TED talk “Do schools kill creativity?”.

 

My son’s school doesn’t kill creativity. Through creativity it has re kindled his curiosity and learning. And surprise surprise, now he even enjoys the experience.

 

The only question remains: what is so complicated in this method that prevents other schools from applying similar principles?

 

Back to the school’s newsletter, here’s a brief report of what various classes have been doing over the first 3 months since school year opened:

 

5^thgrade finished a geography period. The geography period was dedicated to knowing our country and learning the map of the country. Obviously the period opened with a 3 day field trip, with lots of walking and climbing, amazing views and encounters with wildlife. Another weekend trip in a different area concluded the period with the students’ families.

 

1^stgraders are doing their first steps in creative. They made a bag, and prepared needles for knitting.

2^ndgraders are knitting animal dolls and preparing a knitted bag for their recorders (sort of a wooden flute).

3^rdgraders finished working with two needles and are doing a one-needle knitting work now.

4^thgraders are doing embroidery with Xs.

5^thgraders are knitting socks with 5 needles.

6^th graders are stitching dolls and 7^thgraders are learning how to work with a sewing machine. They will be making patch quilts later this year.

 

In class, 1^stgraders have been drawing colored drawings leading up to forming letters. They are chanting, singing and ending each week with a short nature trail.

 

6^thgraders started the year with geometry period, creating drawings of various mandalas. The second period is “Rome” and they are concentrating on the foundations of the Roman Empire and laws. They also started the Bat Mitzvah-Bar Mitzvah two-year program.

9^thgraders already had 3 field trips since the beginning of the school year. They have concluded 3 periods: history, physics and civics. The “high school” compound, which is a brand new addition to the school, has a kitchenette and sofas to enable staying late for social activities and meeting with “interesting people” who visit often take place. There’s plenty of artistic work too, right now – ceramics.

 

Most of the school kids are playing various musical instruments, in addition to the recorder which is built in the regular music lessons. Right now kids are playing violin, viola, cello, trumpet, clarinet, saxophone, guitar and harmonica.

Music is built in the curriculum. For example: 7^thgraders are doing the maps and discoveries period now. So they heard and learned music related to ships, shipping and wandering. They are also learning songs in new languages such as Spanish and Swedish and getting to hear musical styles from around the world.

 

8^th graders had a “revolutions” period. They learned spirituals and studied how music can be a driving force calling for liberation. They studied the hymn on the French revolution and poetry from the 60s calling for freedom and equality. They also discussed Jazz standards, rooted back in slavery… 8^thgraders took their revolutions studies one step further into the present when they visited the tents of the social protesters in Tel-Aviv (kind of the US “occupy”). They studied about other revolutions too like the American revolution and the industrial revolution.

 

Our own 4^thgraders finished a calculus period and a bible period and are now into Nordic mythology, where they learn of stories parallel to those on our own Genesis book. They also had a fantastic 2-day field trip, spending the night in the gym of one kibbutz, walking almost 20 miles in the Jerusalem Mountains in two days.

 

Is this DNA so wrong for today's kids? I suddenly have my doubts. From checking around it seems this school's graduates are better equipped with learning abilities then their peers from other schools around. Since the teacher of the class goes with it from 1st grade till 8th grade - the teacher is learning with the students, while teaching them. Perhaps it is already a different DNA.

But what’s preventing regular schools from applying such an approach?

Please add your comment on my personal blog too: http://ortals.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/futureedpast/

 

For details about Waldorf Education, or the Anthroposophy, if you want to know more go to Wikipedia as a starting point: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_education.

[Or-Tal Kiriati]

Hey Connie,

Thanks for your comment. 

I see in you and in several other teachers I met both online and offline sort of Waldorf practitioners in a way, whether they know it or not. Sure, it might not be the inclusive method, but there's so much to take for it. Just the fact that you are open is a long way. My cousin is a 3rd grade teacher. She specializes in math and very often when I share with her my impressions from Yonatan's school she is saying "of course" and "obviously"... it's sort of the natural way for her to teach. Natural being the key word here...

[Connie Weber]

Or-Tal,

How wonderful that your son is finally turned on to school.  Whew--it was a long, hard road... you had some tough times.  A parent absolutely craves seeing her child's eyes light up about school--sometimes we desperately crave it, want it more than anything, and yet search in vain.  We hate to watch the light go out of their eyes, when they find school "boring," or worse.  I know you went through that, and I'm so happy to hear that things have changed.

Now:  magic!  Learning has come alive! All the world opens up!

It makes complete sense to me that you would like the Waldorf philosophy. (Thank you for the explanations, examples, and links!  Nice to have on Fireside.) 

One of my dearest friends and colleagues is a Waldorf teacher, and some of the best years of my teaching life were when she and I got to work together.  I was her mentor in her first year at our school.  During that year, it quickly became apparent that we had a co-mentoring situation.  We learned so much from each other.  We thrived, having each other's companionship.  She and I talked philosophy constantly.  We visited each other's classes each day.  We merged our classes when we could to let our students do projects together. 

All that is to say that I spent six years learning Waldorf Education through my friend and colleague, and my teaching is much the better for it.  I remember what Ming Wei would always say:  "We are a Making sort of classroom."  And it was true--her kids made things all day long. 

Or-Tal, thank you for sharing the news.  Keep us posted.  Many happy learning adventures are ahead!

[Or-Tal Kiriati]

Ian thanks for your comment.

I do wish people, educators, parents, administrators, to pause and think about this question.

In our city schools are choosing "uniqueness" (http://firesidelearning.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-future-of-educa...)  which is basically a content frame to insert extra-curriculum activities and investments into the schools' budgets. We have had such ideas as "school for environmental leadership" "school for design and architecture" "School for sciences and arts" and there's one that I am working on which is "School for creativity and entrepreneurship". But what I am really wondering about is - they have already got this fantastic waldorf school, with proven track record, with a scary waiting list - why not adopt this concept? Or at least adopt some of the methods which make this school so much more friendly?

My son wrote a story yesterday. He was working really late on it, I already wanted him to go to sleep. He said to me: "Mom, it's the first time ever that I am creating something with words, let me finish". I'm telling you: he is awake!

[Ian Carmichael]

Great find, Or-Tal. And I'm delighted your youngster has re-ignited. I resonate with your question, and one unsatisfactory answer is that much education is filled with functionaries, not set alive by visionaries. We have our adminstrations filled with paper-shuffling achievers, teachers beset with report writing and consultations rather than innovative and living educational planning, and older folks simply exhausted by the passage of the seasons of life. We are also seeing the ossification of management and curriculum structures where edicts are becoming the order of the day rather than engagement, trust and mutual respect. I'm personally seeing management taking on shapes that would fit industrial practices of the 1950's.

I doubt that many now remember the landmark books such as In Search of Excellence, which promoted the idea of MBWA - management by walking around. And the mismatch of engagement in classroom with distance from school management is deadly and disheartening. But I'd better pause here - I don't want to become gloomy (:.

Best of all there are still places that value living education - and you've found one! May your  boy continue to thrive in the course of enlightenment.