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Waldorf vs. Traditional Education
I'll like to begin by saying that I am not a Waldorf expert by any standard. Like in many things I do or express opinions about: I'm just a very educated user.
From my user of a product perspective, the product in question here being Waldorf education; and many years of home based research on early childhood education, child's brain development, anthropology of childhood and philosophy of education, I give you my take on what Waldorf education has to offer vs. what our children get through traditional education.
Through the Waldorf education philosophy you'll find flexibility and endless opportunities to develop a naturally nurturing environment for your family.
The pre-school concept supported by Waldorf education is that children six and under develop and unfold wonderfully from the baby realm to the kid realm by being in a home like environment. The Waldorf pre-school programs around the world focus on modeling a healthy home rhythm. In that healthy and balanced home life revolves around the family keeping activities: Natural rhythms in the life of a young child. These natural rhythms involve the interaction with basic elements:
- water play - associated with washing and cleaning activities
- warmth - associated with cooking (baking, grilling, fire place, candle burning)
- earth play - gardening, sand play, nature walks
- air play - wind mills, kites, outdoor play, air drying of clothes
- human play - role play, dolls play, watching parents/sibling carry on the regular activities of the day
And the interaction with Artistic elements:
- sewing and felting activities
- wet on wet water color painting
- drawing with big block wax crayons
- reading aloud
- storytelling
- singing
Among many others, I like to consider as a main difference with Traditional education the fact that there is never a rush to introduce and make prevalent abstract academic concepts. And when these concepts are finally introduced that occurs in a slightly different way and schedule than how it happens in regular schools. Waldorf also has another flavor if you will.
Thus, the Waldorf philosophy promotes:
- That the child should get to know the world as it is, which will translate on the use of materials and toys that are nature made. No plastic.
- The use of metaphoric and matter of fact language for explaining natural phenomenon, feelings and experiences: letting the child be a child and not offering adultized/scientific interpretations of these aspects.
- The use of archetypal images of the world through the telling of age appropriate classic fairytales - and it does not mean just Cinderella and its kind. Letting the child learn universal morals without imposing our own view, again letting the stories do the work.
- The development of a child in a holistic way: intellectual (mind), physical (body) and emotional (psychological & spiritual) so none of these elements out runs the other two, while at the same time acknowledging preferences and personality traits on the individual child.
- That “beauty” should surround the child (pleasant colors, natural smells, proper lighting, no clutter, comfortable and natural clothing always helping the child keep his/her warmth)
Adults should be “invisible” designers and keepers of an image of the world in which the child lives so the child can take this image "in" and make it his/her own. This design allows for the child to know the natural world: healthy exposure to the four natural elements (air, water, fire and earth). Most often than not our kids interaction today with the natural world is limited or technologically induced (e.g. they get to know about how beautiful a waterfall is through a high quality kids documentary video). The design should contain positive family rituals and traditions.
You could argue that that’s exactly what teachers on regular pre-schools do: they design the environment and decorate the rooms appropriately: providing all kinds of stimulation (visual, tactile, auditory). A couple of main differences: The content or actual “look” and “feel” of the environment is very different.
In the Waldorf classroom there are no letters or posters hanging from the walls, there are not bright primary colors decorating every shelf. On a traditional classroom the teacher is actively guiding the kids from activity to activity and “delivering” the content, correcting, indicating colors to be used and verbally addressing every situation. The teacher feels compelled to micromanage every situation (academic and behavior wise). In a Waldorf classroom there are wooden cabinets and woven baskets filled with shells, wooden logs, rocks, pine cones and, like in a Montessori classroom; everything is open and available to the child. Walls and floors are enhanced with natural fiber fabrics and rugs. There is no deliberate use of primary colors. Shades of ivory and peach, soft pink and celestial blue dominate the scene. More earthly colors appeared (soft greens, oranges and browns) in the primary grades classrooms. Instead of posters, watercolor paintings of candid scenes are scattered through the room. The teacher is more of a physical presence in the room than a verbal one. The Waldorf teacher is more into the macro management of the environment. She/he has set up the room and the rhythm of the day so children naturally move from an activity to another almost seamlessly. The teacher focuses in providing easy transitions and she models reading, writing, arts and crafts. The teacher doesn’t directly correct and indicate colors to be used.
When you embrace Waldorf at home it doesn’t mean that you should turn you house into a Waldorf classroom. Remember: Waldorf classrooms try to bring forth the essence of a healthy home. So how does this help us at home? It makes us think. It helps us see our space in a different way: less clutter, pleasant picked up rooms, neatly organized play areas that involve healthy natural toys that promote imaginary play. It all might start looking old-fashioned, but I like to see it more as basic. We are more aware of the smells and sounds that surround our children, that surround us. We are less stressed about not having gone through the alphabet at age 3. We learn to trust that our children will thrive and learn to read and write and all the academics just like every other child: this just happens slightly different and at a slightly different time.
In Alternative Education the child learns through play. Play is not the prize or inducement the child receives for learning. Play is the way the child spends his/her day. So big question: does that mean that the child will never understand the concept of work? of good habits? of duty and privilege?
The answer to me is: The child experiences work, duty and privilege, good habits and natural discipline from play. It’s up to the parent/teacher to design the environment so the right “learning” takes place.
I shouldn’t bore you with the endless research that shows that this wholesome, nurturing and unhurried education pays off big time, in the long run. Bright and healthy children arise. Competitive and well adjusted, emotionally sound adults appear. I just invite you to find out more. I can testify that it’s true. In my experience I have seen it happen in front of my eyes. I have doubted too. I have been scared too. But I have seen my daughters grow and flourish into amazing readers and writers, loving science and math, being little historians, staying highly motivated and being quite competitive in the market of school work, through this vision and upbringing.
In general the Waldorf perspective offers, in my opinion, a very common sense, organic and natural ways of raising/educating children.
Here are some issues - I feel, most parents first getting to know about this alternative ways are dubious and confused about:
- The child should not be exposed to academics
- When would they learn?
- The child will be certainly behind compared to the regular schools students?
- This is a method/idea that helps those children who are not naturally interested in academics at an early age, but how about those who are showing great interest in breaking the code at 3? Is this kind of education a disservice to them?
- This vision seems just as dogmatic as everything else, just in a different direction
I went through some of these doubts for years while my oldest was 1, 2, 3. It had felt so right to embrace the Waldorf way: so warm and nourishing; so artistic and calm. I have to say my daughters have had a "beautiful" early childhood. I felt the positive effects on them and on me. I have experienced (however briefly) being a wonderful centered mother. But as birthdays passed by for all of them, my questions about how do you transition from non-academics to academics grew? how did you do that without turning your back on what you had built so far and diving head first on tradition education? How “play” was going to continue to be an omnipresent element in our home while learning grammar? Ancient Greece? Multiplication tables?
It took me awhile and lots of reading to realize that we as parents evolve with your children and it’s so hard to foresee what’s coming until you are there. When your children are babies, you are the mother of a baby and only what a mother of a baby does is relevant to you. You may be a scholar about older children and teenagers but somehow you can’t feel what it is to be a mother of them yet. That taught me to wait and it helped me understand why when we make decisions and assumptions of what it’s good for our children we often mistake the timing: we are concerned about what they would need tomorrow. We are so consumed by the fear of our 9 year old having problems reading and of our teenager being discourage to go to College that we feel the early we get them on the path of success the better. We make sure to use all our energy making sure they won’t miss out on things tomorrow and that takes away a lot of creative enery of what we offer our children today. We should look to the future of course, but we can only live the present. So we need to let go and really learn to trust that when they are 7 it's the best time to enjoy learning to read and that not because they didn’t learn it at 4 they will have problems at 8. It’s hard I know, but it truly works. There is no hurry, one day at a time they’ll become adults. There is no stopping that. However living their appropriate age life is crucial for them and for us.
I liked putting early childhood education of academics in practice in a flexible way: don't offer, don't refuse. Meaning: no teaching purposefully letters and numbers but no refusing information that the child asks casually about them. If we make it taboo is not good either. Some children seem to be interested early on in the written language puzzle. The same way we need to know that just because our young child of four asks about God, that doesn’t mean that he’ll be a priest, or that if he shows an interest in knowing where babies come from we should give a dissertation of anatomy and truths of life, or think that she/he wants to be a doctor. We also need to know and learn to judge that when our four year old asks: “which one is this letter?”, “what does it say here?” or declares: “I want to write my name”; the child is not necessarily “ready” to learn to read and that we should launch our full scale operation to achieve that goal. Perspective is a great gift. Don’t offer, don’t refuse. But keep perspective when you don’t refuse information: you certainly don’t need to launch the army to tackle reading and by laying low you are not neglecting your child. I love matter-of-fact language: “That’s the letter R” and at most: “it makes a funny sound: rrrrrr”. Period. You’ll probably get an: “Ok”- end of the story. About the name writing thing: write the name by all means!!! In a hundred different ways! In sand, in mud, with crayons, with pasta… etc… and when you are really excited and thinking it’s time to launch the cavalry: the interest fades and that’s it. Until it really is time; and trust me, you’ll know.
Let it not be understood then that alternative ways of child-rearing/education (Waldorf, Montessori, and Unschooling) mean a direct: NO TEACHING the usual, never learning what other children learn, and stay out of the way of main stream forever.
“All in due time”- as the saying goes. It’s just a matter of timing and certainly approach.
My biggest hit has been discovering that labeling ourselves and our children 100% something (100% Waldorf, 100% mainstream, 100% unschoolers, forever homeschoolers, 100% Montessori, etc) doesn’t pay. Read, research, experiment and trust your gut feelings; and then make your own concoction of styles and resources: it really works like a charm. Keep an open mind and you won’t be taken by surprise that often.
If you’d like to be more familiar with the Waldorf pedagogy and background I'd like to recommend a few books.
- You are your Child’s First Teacher by Rahima Baldwin Dancy
- Beyond the Rainbow Bridge by Barbara Patterson and Pamela Bradley
- Magical Child by Joseph Chilton Pearce
- Toymaking with Children with Freya Jaffke
- Practical Waldorf at Home: Kindergarten with your Three to Six Year Old by Donna Simmons
- Earthways: Simple Environmental Activities for Young Children by Carol Petrash
- Work and Play in Early Childhood by Freya Jaffke
- Painting with Children by Brundhild Muller
- Seven Times The Sun by Shea Darian
- Festivals Family and Food by Diana Carey and Judy Large
Some online resources:
Waldorf in the Home Online resources: http://www.informedfamilylife.org/
Waldorf Homeschooling: http://www.christopherushomeschool.org/home.html
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Parents Enrichment
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