My daughter wrote this paper for a class about gender and power at American University. I've posted it here because she notes that her experience of gender relations during her years at the Cincinnati Waldorf School were profoundly different to what she experienced after Waldorf. Enjoy!
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Margaret Kran-Annexstein
Gender Expectations and Social Institutions Essay
October 8, 2010
When anyone asks me about my elementary school, the first thing I tell him or her is that every student at the Cincinnati Waldorf School learns how to bake bread, sew stuffed elephants, knit socks, crochet bags, carve wooden bowls, plant flowers, play the violin, build wooden bridges on forest paths, sing, dance, act, and play together regardless of gender. Looking back on my elementary school experience, I see that my teachers had us fighting gender norms since the first day of preschool. When I left Waldorf after seventh grade and moved on to middle and high school, I was shocked at the difference between my experience at Waldorf and my new environment at Walnut Hills High School where the institutions of gender and (hetero)sexuality began to interpellate me in a way I had not experienced at the Waldorf School. Due to this contrast in my educational environments I have been able to observe first-hand the effects of gendering and analyze many of them as I was experiencing them.
The first way I noticed this was through my relationships with boys. Many of my new girl friends in the eighth grade seemed to view boys only in the sense that they were potential boyfriends. Meanwhile, I was considered awkward and immature because I was friends with a lot of boys but never expressed interest in them in a romantic sense. My childhood and pre-teen years were spent playing with boys and so by the time I got to Walnut Hills in eighth grade I did not understand the juvenile, giggly, heterosexuality that was being pushed on me. In fact, unlike many people who simply assume their heterosexuality because “heterosexual behavior and language are integrated and normalized within school culture to such degree that they have become natural, and often considered the ‘neutral,’ school environment or culture” (Miceli 345), I was cognizant of the fact that I did not know for sure that I was heterosexual until my freshman year of college. This could also be largely due to the fact that my parents were open with me about sexuality and assured me that they would be completely supportive of any sexual preference I expressed.
The other way that the importance of boys as future boyfriends was emphasized in middle and high school was through the weight placed on looking pretty for them. Through this I was hailed by norms of gender in addition to norms of heterosexuality. Up until eighth grade, I never even thought about make up as something that I would wear when I got older because I did not see the utility, but when I got to Walnut Hills, I started to feel uncomfortable being the only girl who did not try to “better her appearance” by applying mascara and eyeliner and concealer. I began to spend hours sitting on my friends’ beds as they poked my face with brushes in preparation for a night of wandering around my neighborhood with the local “skater boys.” None of the boys were encouraged to dress up or “look pretty”, their worth was determined by their skateboard skills; and while I wished I could be valued for something like that too, it was a rare occasion that they would let any girl even try to skate with them. This taught me that the “key to proper femininity [is] … most importantly the acceptance of the compulsion to strive for a standard of feminine beauty set by what heterosexual men desire in women” (Miceli 346). This was especially strange to me because as a child I saw painting my toenails as simply a bonding experience for my Grandma and me and did not really understand its meaning as a “beautifying” technique. I even helped her paint my little brother’s toenails just because he wanted to be like me. However, despite this conditioning and training on how to “properly” do gender, as I matured I gained confidence in my rejection of societal gender norms, in some forms at least, and to this day refuse to wear makeup.
This difference in appearance expectations was not the only dividing factor I encountered for the first time when I left Waldorf. I came to realize that certain activities were designated as “boy” activities and “girl” activities. As I said before, at Waldorf all students were expected to knit and it just so happened that the best knitter in my class was a boy. While in high school I learned that not many boys knit, in elementary school this boy was praised by the entire class as well as the teachers for his speed and neat rows. Additionally, I was one of the best football and soccer players in my seventh grade class and often got picked first or second in our co-ed games during recess.
Naturally, male-dominated gym class came as a shock to me after experiencing a world where gender was not a separating factor in sports. I entered my first day of gym anticipating a tedious requirement but also hoping that I could enjoy myself during the scrimmages. Unfortunately, the gym teacher immediately separated the class into two sections: the boys plus two of the girls’ basketball teams’ star players, and the girls (it seemed that no un-athletic boy could be nearly as bad as the best of the recreationally athletic girls). This separation emphasized what I would have quickly realized anyway: that it was “uncool” for girls to try at sports unless they were especially gifted. Therefore, even though I remembered all the fun I had had playing sports during recess at Waldorf, I stood around with the rest of the girls’ section, talking and occasionally tapping a ball if it rolled within three feet of me. I realize now that this idea that girls do not want to play sports was only perpetuated by the teacher’s role in separating the boys from the girls, spending most of his time coaching the boys and ignoring the girls, and taking away the athletically involved girls who could have motivated the rest of us to at least try. Thus, with very little instruction and no motivation, I learned essentially nothing in gym class.
This is not to say that had there been the option for any girl to switch sections and play with the boys, any of us would have taken it. As Myra Sadker and David Sadker point out in “Missing in Interaction”, much of the separation that takes place between boys and girls is self-determined, but when teachers set the precedent of assuming none of the girls would be willing or able to play with the boys, girls tend to leave themselves out and take what is left over from the boys, whether that be a playing space or a teacher’s attention (Sadker and Sadker 336).
Gym was not the only class in my high school that held different expectations for boys and girls. Sadker and Sadker argue that overall, boys get more attention in the classroom. This is because low-achieving or misbehaving boys get negative, reprimanding attention and high-achieving boys get positive, praising attention for being better students the boys who act out. Meanwhile, both low and high achieving girls get forgotten unless they demand attention, and even then they get reprimanded for calling out more often than boys do because teachers tend to expect better behavior of girls. As they get forgotten and scolded, they lose self-esteem, become less and less aggressive and therefore get forgotten even more often (Sadker and Sadker 333).
This phenomenon was clearly exemplified in my eleventh grade English class and my twelfth grade Calculus class. My English class had two groups of boys: the ones who sat in the back of the class and drew a collage of penises on the wall (yes, in eleventh grade), and those who tried and were quite excellent writers. My teacher for this class would often scold the boys in the back for talking during class and would sometimes send them out of the room, however, the group of girls who sat together and chatted through most days were rarely noticed. At the same time, this teacher was thrilled by two boys who were great students and consistently had them read their essays aloud for the class. It was an extremely rare occurrence that a hard-working girl was called upon to read her essays in class. As one of the girls who tried in this class but rarely received recognition (despite my frequently raised hand) I never really thought of myself as a “good writer.” Not just my teacher, but also many others have created environments where “girls are ‘Okay’d’ and boys gain clear feedback” (Sadker and Sadker). Perhaps I can attribute some of my current academic insecurities to being overlooked in eleventh grade English class as well as in other classes where teachers may have unknowingly ignored my abilities or neglected my weaknesses as a student.
As I began to realize that my presence was not really on my teacher’s radar I began to pay less attention in English and occasionally talk and call out with the boys in the corner. While the class (even the teacher sometimes) laughed at their jokes, my calling out was not deemed appropriate because, unfortunately and perhaps subconsciously on the teacher’s part, situations with shouting are “open invitation[s] for male dominance” (Sadker and Sadker 332). Interestingly, my comments were only noticed because they were in the context of the poorly behaved boys, the chatting group of girls were still ignored.
My twelfth grade Calculus class posed a different situation because of the stereotype that boys are better in math than girls. A group of three girls had the highest grades in the class, however, whenever the teacher called on someone to explain a concept to the rest of the students, it was consistently one of two boys. On the other hand, it was widely accepted for girls to ask questions in this class in order to have difficult subjects clarified, whereas boys, no matter how intelligent, were less often taken seriously. One boy in the class was a self-promoting “class clown”: he rarely did his homework and frequently told jokes. Unfortunately, if he ever had a question about the material, he would rarely ask it because of his “cool” appearance as a class clown that did not care about math. If he ever tried, the teacher would make a joke and brush off his questions, assuming he was not being sincere. This boy ended up failing the course. Thus, this teacher saw most boys as a dominating force in math and humor, causing girls to go unacknowledged and struggling boys, who already felt insecure and feared losing their sense of control, to go untaught.
The only time I can remember the boys in my class at Waldorf seeing themselves as more “macho” and powerful than the girls, as those in my segregated high school gym class or male-dominated calculus class must have (at least subconsciously), was an incident during the massive cicada arrival that happens every seventeen years. A boy intended to scare the girls by throwing a ball into a tree, causing the cicadas to swarm out of the tree in a huge cloud. I recall thinking, even as a sixth grader, that it was stupid for this boy to assume that girls would be upset by the insects. Other than that, I was relatively unaware of hegemonic gender roles and only experienced gender difference when a new girl in my class flaunted the fact that she wore a bra, which evoked teasing from the boys regarding her developing body and confusion from me because I, even as a seventh grader, had never anticipated wearing one myself.
Many of these differences between my childhood and adolescence and my understanding of them can be accounted for by my privileged status. First of all, the Waldorf School, which is a great institution for allowing me that freedom from tight, excessive gender norms as a child, is a private school. Thus, my classmates and I were privileged to be able to attend it and enjoy learning in ways we would not have been able to in most public schools due to standards and the different trainings teachers go through for Waldorf or mainstream schools. This privilege of a private school also speaks to my privilege in a family that wanted to spend their money on that education for me and that supported me through my own discoveries of gender and sexuality. I realize that as I moved on to high school and connected with students from all over Cincinnati who had attended less progressive elementary schools than mine, I began learning with girls who were used to being overlooked in the classroom, something I had never experienced and therefore did not accept. Although I may not have realized it then, every time I wildly waved my hand in the air to answer a question, I was defying the “passivity” (Sadker and Sadker 332) that is expected of young women in our society.
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Works Cited
Miceli, Melinda S. "Schools and the Social Control of Sexuality." Ed. Tracy E. Ore. The Social Construction of Difference and Inequality: Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2009. 344-353.
Sadker, Myra, and David Sadker. "Missing in Interaction." Ed. Tracy E. Ore. The Social Construction of Difference and Inequality: Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2009. 331-342.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
How Waldorf Education Cultivates Deep Reading in the Age of the Internet
by Lori Ann Kran
Last week NPR’s Audie Cornish quoted Google CEO Eric Schmidt after he made headlines by lamenting the decline of deep reading. Mr. Schmidt explained that all of his colleagues spend all of their time in short form - short message, short communication. Reading and research have become the instant search, instant news, instant messaging.
Cornish interviewed Maryanne Wolf, Director of the Center for Reading and Language Research and a professor of child development at Tufts University.
Dr. Wolf is also worried about the loss of deep reading.
According to WOLF, “Deep reading refers to a whole continuum of processes that include some of the most important things about thinking and how we connect thought to what we read - critical analysis, analogical reasoning, how we infer from the text, how we take in another's perspective.” In the Internet Age both Wolf and Schmidt worry that today’s children may not learn to cultivate the processes necessary to develop deep reading. Remember reading is a human invention, it must be cultivated and nurtured over many years, indeed over a lifetime.
Herein, once again, lies the beauty of Waldorf Education. Every Waldorf teacher, from Early Childhood through 8th grade, tells stories that engage the students’ hearts and minds. The stories are complex, full of detail, and students learn to listen deeply, carefully. Students learn to retell stories often as artfully as the teacher. Their minds are working. They are sequencing, learning a rich vocabulary, learning the art of storytelling.
In the early grades students begin to learn to read the poems, verses, rhymes, even entire plays that they’ve memorized. They see this material in print, are able to follow the words, and WOW it dawns on them that they are readers. This is how children start to learn how to think and connect their thoughts and begin to read. This is exactly where the deep reading process starts forming. It is our task, then, as teachers and parents, to cultivate this emerging skill in our children. We do this by reading wonderful literature to them, and by modeling, taking the time to relax and read ourselves. So, I’m of the opinion that all reading is good reading. But in my last class cycle I made the distinction with my students between “candy” reading and “classic” reading. Candy was perhaps for free time, but the classics were essential. Deep reading is strengthened when the story line, the character development, invite the reader to ponder, to slow down, to analyze, to compare and contrast, to empathize. Classics encourage the reader to luxuriate in the word, the language. This is deep reading. This is why our 7th and 8th graders love to read Shakespeare and Steinbeck and understand Chaucer. It’s why our 3rd and 4th graders love CS Lewis, EB White, and Brian Jacques. Why are our youngest students so eager to learn to read? Because they hear incredible stories, classic literature: they know the world of reading awaits them. Their imaginations are engaged, and they can’t wait to sink their hearts and minds and eyes into a good book.
So, I hope someone tweets that deep reading is alive at the CWS!
Last week NPR’s Audie Cornish quoted Google CEO Eric Schmidt after he made headlines by lamenting the decline of deep reading. Mr. Schmidt explained that all of his colleagues spend all of their time in short form - short message, short communication. Reading and research have become the instant search, instant news, instant messaging.
Cornish interviewed Maryanne Wolf, Director of the Center for Reading and Language Research and a professor of child development at Tufts University.
Dr. Wolf is also worried about the loss of deep reading.
According to WOLF, “Deep reading refers to a whole continuum of processes that include some of the most important things about thinking and how we connect thought to what we read - critical analysis, analogical reasoning, how we infer from the text, how we take in another's perspective.” In the Internet Age both Wolf and Schmidt worry that today’s children may not learn to cultivate the processes necessary to develop deep reading. Remember reading is a human invention, it must be cultivated and nurtured over many years, indeed over a lifetime.
Herein, once again, lies the beauty of Waldorf Education. Every Waldorf teacher, from Early Childhood through 8th grade, tells stories that engage the students’ hearts and minds. The stories are complex, full of detail, and students learn to listen deeply, carefully. Students learn to retell stories often as artfully as the teacher. Their minds are working. They are sequencing, learning a rich vocabulary, learning the art of storytelling.
In the early grades students begin to learn to read the poems, verses, rhymes, even entire plays that they’ve memorized. They see this material in print, are able to follow the words, and WOW it dawns on them that they are readers. This is how children start to learn how to think and connect their thoughts and begin to read. This is exactly where the deep reading process starts forming. It is our task, then, as teachers and parents, to cultivate this emerging skill in our children. We do this by reading wonderful literature to them, and by modeling, taking the time to relax and read ourselves. So, I’m of the opinion that all reading is good reading. But in my last class cycle I made the distinction with my students between “candy” reading and “classic” reading. Candy was perhaps for free time, but the classics were essential. Deep reading is strengthened when the story line, the character development, invite the reader to ponder, to slow down, to analyze, to compare and contrast, to empathize. Classics encourage the reader to luxuriate in the word, the language. This is deep reading. This is why our 7th and 8th graders love to read Shakespeare and Steinbeck and understand Chaucer. It’s why our 3rd and 4th graders love CS Lewis, EB White, and Brian Jacques. Why are our youngest students so eager to learn to read? Because they hear incredible stories, classic literature: they know the world of reading awaits them. Their imaginations are engaged, and they can’t wait to sink their hearts and minds and eyes into a good book.
So, I hope someone tweets that deep reading is alive at the CWS!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Cultivating Well-Rounded Students: Gender Roles and Waldorf Education
June 2009, by Lori Ann Kran, PhD
As I consider my class of eighth graders, particularly those who have been with me since the early grades, I am struck by their capacities, interests, and assessment of themselves. I love to refer to them as “Renaissance students”, and when I do they beam, proud of their accomplishments in diverse areas that include science, sewing, stringed instruments, softball, singing, Spanish, art, algebra, acting, Eurythmy, writing, knitting, volleyball: the list goes on and on. Particular to Waldorf education is that all of the students, boys and girls alike, take pride in all their work. There is no feeling that some skills or subjects are girlish or boyish. How is this possible in a world that is still constructed around gender stereotypes (even though, yes, progress has been made)? Remember, one’s sex is biologically determined; one’s gender role is culturally determined. I assert that inherent in Waldorf pedagogy and curriculum is the cultivation of well-rounded students who are comfortable and capable in every realm that life offers. Following are examples that illustrate my point.
Waldorf teachers encourage parents to give their children the gift of a media free childhood so that children can fully live into their imaginations and thereby play, grow, and mature unfettered by pre-conceived, product oriented, and gender-stereotyped confines. Early childhood and early grades teachers wonder how many students have seen the Disney version of a particular fairytale and if the children will be able to fully benefit from the story if they have been inundated with the simplified, sexist version. In their original form, fairytale characters do not represent role models for boys and girls, rather they present archetypal soul moods: good and evil, wise and foolish, strong and meek. When told orally, with no picture images, young children live into each of these archetypes: boys and girls develop the capacities of the prince and princess, the wise grandmother, and the beneficent king. They know on an intuitive level that they can experiment with all of these emotions. This freedom from gender imprisonment continues through the grades as students experiment with personas highlighted in the stories of Saint Martin, Joan of Arc, Queen Elizabeth, Shakespeare, Sojourner Truth and Gandhi. These women and men are courageous, compassionate, and creative and embody what it means to be fully human.
Waldorf students are afforded the freedom to be comfortable with their archetypal masculine and feminine sides. To the outside, mainstream world boys who love to knit, girls who love mathematics, boys who write and recite poetry, girls who win at wrestling matches and love football, are anomalies. Not so in Waldorf schools. It’s so commonplace that we are surprised by outside reactions: “your son knit a pair of socks!”; “your eighth grade daughter spent seven days camping in the woods without bathroom facilities?”
What is our secret to cultivating strong and sensitive boys and girls? We make sure that all students cultivate their academic, artistic, athletic, and social selves. There is no option to opt out of choir or geometry, clay sculpture or physics, the Medieval Games or an eighth grade Shakespeare play. Waldorf pedagogy and curriculum helps students feel comfortable and indeed excel at everything. That is why they will go out into the world equipped to revolutionize our old notions of acceptable gender roles and finally validate the masculine/feminine, the yin/yang in everyone.
As I consider my class of eighth graders, particularly those who have been with me since the early grades, I am struck by their capacities, interests, and assessment of themselves. I love to refer to them as “Renaissance students”, and when I do they beam, proud of their accomplishments in diverse areas that include science, sewing, stringed instruments, softball, singing, Spanish, art, algebra, acting, Eurythmy, writing, knitting, volleyball: the list goes on and on. Particular to Waldorf education is that all of the students, boys and girls alike, take pride in all their work. There is no feeling that some skills or subjects are girlish or boyish. How is this possible in a world that is still constructed around gender stereotypes (even though, yes, progress has been made)? Remember, one’s sex is biologically determined; one’s gender role is culturally determined. I assert that inherent in Waldorf pedagogy and curriculum is the cultivation of well-rounded students who are comfortable and capable in every realm that life offers. Following are examples that illustrate my point.
Waldorf teachers encourage parents to give their children the gift of a media free childhood so that children can fully live into their imaginations and thereby play, grow, and mature unfettered by pre-conceived, product oriented, and gender-stereotyped confines. Early childhood and early grades teachers wonder how many students have seen the Disney version of a particular fairytale and if the children will be able to fully benefit from the story if they have been inundated with the simplified, sexist version. In their original form, fairytale characters do not represent role models for boys and girls, rather they present archetypal soul moods: good and evil, wise and foolish, strong and meek. When told orally, with no picture images, young children live into each of these archetypes: boys and girls develop the capacities of the prince and princess, the wise grandmother, and the beneficent king. They know on an intuitive level that they can experiment with all of these emotions. This freedom from gender imprisonment continues through the grades as students experiment with personas highlighted in the stories of Saint Martin, Joan of Arc, Queen Elizabeth, Shakespeare, Sojourner Truth and Gandhi. These women and men are courageous, compassionate, and creative and embody what it means to be fully human.
Waldorf students are afforded the freedom to be comfortable with their archetypal masculine and feminine sides. To the outside, mainstream world boys who love to knit, girls who love mathematics, boys who write and recite poetry, girls who win at wrestling matches and love football, are anomalies. Not so in Waldorf schools. It’s so commonplace that we are surprised by outside reactions: “your son knit a pair of socks!”; “your eighth grade daughter spent seven days camping in the woods without bathroom facilities?”
What is our secret to cultivating strong and sensitive boys and girls? We make sure that all students cultivate their academic, artistic, athletic, and social selves. There is no option to opt out of choir or geometry, clay sculpture or physics, the Medieval Games or an eighth grade Shakespeare play. Waldorf pedagogy and curriculum helps students feel comfortable and indeed excel at everything. That is why they will go out into the world equipped to revolutionize our old notions of acceptable gender roles and finally validate the masculine/feminine, the yin/yang in everyone.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
The Awakening of Intellect in the Seventh Grade
Each year on my journey through the grades with my class I am pleasantly astounded at how elegantly the curriculum Rudolf Steiner outlined fits with where my students are emotionally, academically, and artistically. Our study of the Renaissance is a wonderful case in point. Where else could I discuss with brilliant young minds questions of personal fear versus responsibility, individualism, courage, conventions of gender, and destiny!!??
We began our study with the Black Plague. I must admit I relished grossing my students out with descriptions of puss-filled black and purple buboes: the tortuously painful manifestations of the Bubonic Plague. More tenderly, however, I described how social conventions broke down as people, scared to death of catching the dread disease, abandoned their children. Could any of us imagine an epidemic that would cause that level of mass hysteria and parental neglect? We all took a deep breath as we tried to put ourselves in this kind of situation and wondered if we’d have had the courage to stay with loved ones or tend to sick neighbors.
Courage of another kind was the class topic of conversation as I introduced Joan of Arc. An illiterate, pious, thirteen year old peasant girl heard messengers of God (Archangel Michael!) tell her to abandon her family, don men’s clothes, and lead an army to aid the dauphin Charles to become king and to save France from the English. Once Joan accomplished her heroic deeds she was denounced as a heretic and abandoned to the English. Joan was the age of the seventh graders! Could we imagine leaving home? Could we imagine defying female gender norms and leading an army into battle? Would we dare accept charges of heresy and face execution to be true to ourselves? Joan challenged the Catholic Church when she stood by her conviction that indeed she knew the will of God. She defiantly proclaimed that He had spoken to her (via saints) and she had done His will. We discussed Joan’s courage and steadfastness and wondered if we could ever be up for challenges of the same caliber. We wondered how much choice Joan felt she had, or if the voices she heard compelled her to fulfill her destiny.
Contemplations of destiny and self-knowledge arose as we discussed the lives of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Leonardo was deemed “illegitimate” because his noble-born father refused to marry his peasant-born mother. Leonardo’s father raised him but, in accordance with the patriarchal laws of the time, chose not to “waste” money on a university education for a son who could never legally be admitted to his guild. What luck for Leonardo and the world: he would have become an accountant instead of the ultimate Renaissance man. In class we discussed Leonardo’s biography in the context of destiny. Many “what if” questions arose as we wondered in awe at his life and accomplishments. I asked the students to consider their own destiny. Why was it that their parents chose to send them to a Waldorf school? Why were they with this particular group of classmates? Why was I their teacher? Not much was said, but it was seriously quiet for a few minutes! We also studied Leonardo’s self-portrait as an old man. We looked at his eyes, so black yet expressive, and wondered if they were mirrors to his soul. We studied his face, which one boy commented seemed sad on one side, but old and tired on the other. Of course, in true Renaissance style the students tried their hand at this master’s work and with charcoal drew the self-portrait into their main lesson books. They are incredible!
Continuing with the concept of destiny we studied Michelangelo, whose father struggled financially because he refused to take work below his genteel station in life. As a result, Michelangelo was left first with stonecutters in a quarry and then after showing great promise as a sculptor, was invited to live with Lorenzo de Medici. Again, questions of destiny came up in class: what if his father hadn’t been so obstinate? What if he hadn’t been left with a stonecutter?
Leonardo and Michelangelo were, not surprisingly, consumed with their thoughts and ideas for new projects. Both found it difficult to spend time socializing because they disliked being distracted from their passions. Each man handled this difficulty differently. Leonardo was known to be debonair and social, but he wrote how he felt compromised and frustrated when he had to leave his interior thought-filled life. Michelangelo, known to be ill tempered and even rude simply shunned society and seems to have been rather curmudgeonly. I asked my students if they had ever found themselves thoroughly engrossed in a book or project when suddenly, mom or dad announced that it was time to go to a family party. I think every student raised his/her hand! They could relate to the passion both artists felt when consumed by their own thoughts. They understood what it felt like to have to leave their internal worlds of creativity and imagination and be social, even when they didn’t want to.
Themes that naturally arise as I teach my students about the Renaissance: courage, individualism, destiny, artistry, self-knowledge, make for wonderfully engaging conversation because these students are experiencing similar stirrings in their souls. They are budding 21st century Renaissance men and women and I am proud to help shepherd them along their unfolding path.
We began our study with the Black Plague. I must admit I relished grossing my students out with descriptions of puss-filled black and purple buboes: the tortuously painful manifestations of the Bubonic Plague. More tenderly, however, I described how social conventions broke down as people, scared to death of catching the dread disease, abandoned their children. Could any of us imagine an epidemic that would cause that level of mass hysteria and parental neglect? We all took a deep breath as we tried to put ourselves in this kind of situation and wondered if we’d have had the courage to stay with loved ones or tend to sick neighbors.
Courage of another kind was the class topic of conversation as I introduced Joan of Arc. An illiterate, pious, thirteen year old peasant girl heard messengers of God (Archangel Michael!) tell her to abandon her family, don men’s clothes, and lead an army to aid the dauphin Charles to become king and to save France from the English. Once Joan accomplished her heroic deeds she was denounced as a heretic and abandoned to the English. Joan was the age of the seventh graders! Could we imagine leaving home? Could we imagine defying female gender norms and leading an army into battle? Would we dare accept charges of heresy and face execution to be true to ourselves? Joan challenged the Catholic Church when she stood by her conviction that indeed she knew the will of God. She defiantly proclaimed that He had spoken to her (via saints) and she had done His will. We discussed Joan’s courage and steadfastness and wondered if we could ever be up for challenges of the same caliber. We wondered how much choice Joan felt she had, or if the voices she heard compelled her to fulfill her destiny.
Contemplations of destiny and self-knowledge arose as we discussed the lives of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Leonardo was deemed “illegitimate” because his noble-born father refused to marry his peasant-born mother. Leonardo’s father raised him but, in accordance with the patriarchal laws of the time, chose not to “waste” money on a university education for a son who could never legally be admitted to his guild. What luck for Leonardo and the world: he would have become an accountant instead of the ultimate Renaissance man. In class we discussed Leonardo’s biography in the context of destiny. Many “what if” questions arose as we wondered in awe at his life and accomplishments. I asked the students to consider their own destiny. Why was it that their parents chose to send them to a Waldorf school? Why were they with this particular group of classmates? Why was I their teacher? Not much was said, but it was seriously quiet for a few minutes! We also studied Leonardo’s self-portrait as an old man. We looked at his eyes, so black yet expressive, and wondered if they were mirrors to his soul. We studied his face, which one boy commented seemed sad on one side, but old and tired on the other. Of course, in true Renaissance style the students tried their hand at this master’s work and with charcoal drew the self-portrait into their main lesson books. They are incredible!
Continuing with the concept of destiny we studied Michelangelo, whose father struggled financially because he refused to take work below his genteel station in life. As a result, Michelangelo was left first with stonecutters in a quarry and then after showing great promise as a sculptor, was invited to live with Lorenzo de Medici. Again, questions of destiny came up in class: what if his father hadn’t been so obstinate? What if he hadn’t been left with a stonecutter?
Leonardo and Michelangelo were, not surprisingly, consumed with their thoughts and ideas for new projects. Both found it difficult to spend time socializing because they disliked being distracted from their passions. Each man handled this difficulty differently. Leonardo was known to be debonair and social, but he wrote how he felt compromised and frustrated when he had to leave his interior thought-filled life. Michelangelo, known to be ill tempered and even rude simply shunned society and seems to have been rather curmudgeonly. I asked my students if they had ever found themselves thoroughly engrossed in a book or project when suddenly, mom or dad announced that it was time to go to a family party. I think every student raised his/her hand! They could relate to the passion both artists felt when consumed by their own thoughts. They understood what it felt like to have to leave their internal worlds of creativity and imagination and be social, even when they didn’t want to.
Themes that naturally arise as I teach my students about the Renaissance: courage, individualism, destiny, artistry, self-knowledge, make for wonderfully engaging conversation because these students are experiencing similar stirrings in their souls. They are budding 21st century Renaissance men and women and I am proud to help shepherd them along their unfolding path.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Reflections on the Sixth Grader
The sixth grader is poised between childhood and adolescence. He no longer feels intimately connected with his parents and the cosmos: indeed with the passing of the golden period of fifth grade he now has an increased sense of individualization. To recall, the teacher worked with her students’ etheric (life) forces to establish solid, healthy habits and rhythm in the early grades. In the middle grades she worked with her students’ astral (emotional) forces to connect their hearts and feelings to their increasing knowledge. Finally, in the last three grades (sixth through eighth) the teacher strives to balance thinking, feeling, and willing in the curriculum to spark her students’ developing ego (intellectual) forces.
A telltale sign of the twelve-year change is the struggle between the student’s inner and outer life. Although the sixth grader still respects adults, she will become more distant. The sixth grader has less interest in interacting and sharing with adults, but has a rich, full, important inner life that will more likely be shared with peers than with parents. This gradual change extends to all the adults in their lives, including teachers! It is a natural and healthy desire to keep things from their teachers; they won’t want to tell us everything and we should respect this change and trust them as well. Indeed, sixth through eighth grade is a delicate balance between adult intervening and allowing students to work out issues themselves. Rather than tell them who is right or wrong in an argument, they need to be encouraged and allowed to gather their thoughts, speak for themselves, and formulate resolutions. The Leadership class this year was designed to give students the tools to work out issues. When bullying or teasing occurred, teachers had to consider when and how to get involved. Waldorf education is a social education; teachers want their eighth grade graduates to be active peacemakers in the world.
As the teacher’s role changes from strong, loving authority to supportive guide so too does the focus of the curriculum. Sixth graders want to understand the world and universe. Rather than feeding them facts and concepts told to them by books and teachers, we enable them to observe phenomena for themselves. We encourage them to gather information and articulate their own arguments. This year witnessed students expressing stronger, individual opinions. They questioned their teachers and argued with passion. They also questioned each other and then looking inward, questioned themselves. Adults working and living with sixth graders must be aware of how critical they are of themselves and each other. They contrast and question popular culture versus the Waldorf world; fashion versus the CWS dress code; textbooks and grades versus main lesson books. They are sensitive because they are vulnerable because they are questioning everything.
The sixth graders demanded honesty from me. They winced if I made blanket statements of praise about their work. I had to develop a positive critiquing method that offered guidelines for improvement and clear assessment. I mixed compassion, humor, and honesty in an effort to encourage them to work hard and excel.
The unifying challenge of the year was to encourage the sixth graders to observe all phenomena and begin to create understanding, context, and order for themselves. It was in this spirit that my birthday verse to them was from Johannes Kepler. Human beings were born to think and it is my greatest wish that my students develop the capacity to think free of prejudice and for themselves!
We do not ask for what useful purpose the birds do sing, for song is
Their pleasure since they were created for singing. Similarly, we
Ought not to ask why the human mind troubles to fathom the secrets
Of the heavens… The diversity of the phenomena of Nature is so great,
And the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich, precisely in order that
The human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment.
From Mysterium Cosmographicum, by Johannes Kepler
A telltale sign of the twelve-year change is the struggle between the student’s inner and outer life. Although the sixth grader still respects adults, she will become more distant. The sixth grader has less interest in interacting and sharing with adults, but has a rich, full, important inner life that will more likely be shared with peers than with parents. This gradual change extends to all the adults in their lives, including teachers! It is a natural and healthy desire to keep things from their teachers; they won’t want to tell us everything and we should respect this change and trust them as well. Indeed, sixth through eighth grade is a delicate balance between adult intervening and allowing students to work out issues themselves. Rather than tell them who is right or wrong in an argument, they need to be encouraged and allowed to gather their thoughts, speak for themselves, and formulate resolutions. The Leadership class this year was designed to give students the tools to work out issues. When bullying or teasing occurred, teachers had to consider when and how to get involved. Waldorf education is a social education; teachers want their eighth grade graduates to be active peacemakers in the world.
As the teacher’s role changes from strong, loving authority to supportive guide so too does the focus of the curriculum. Sixth graders want to understand the world and universe. Rather than feeding them facts and concepts told to them by books and teachers, we enable them to observe phenomena for themselves. We encourage them to gather information and articulate their own arguments. This year witnessed students expressing stronger, individual opinions. They questioned their teachers and argued with passion. They also questioned each other and then looking inward, questioned themselves. Adults working and living with sixth graders must be aware of how critical they are of themselves and each other. They contrast and question popular culture versus the Waldorf world; fashion versus the CWS dress code; textbooks and grades versus main lesson books. They are sensitive because they are vulnerable because they are questioning everything.
The sixth graders demanded honesty from me. They winced if I made blanket statements of praise about their work. I had to develop a positive critiquing method that offered guidelines for improvement and clear assessment. I mixed compassion, humor, and honesty in an effort to encourage them to work hard and excel.
The unifying challenge of the year was to encourage the sixth graders to observe all phenomena and begin to create understanding, context, and order for themselves. It was in this spirit that my birthday verse to them was from Johannes Kepler. Human beings were born to think and it is my greatest wish that my students develop the capacity to think free of prejudice and for themselves!
We do not ask for what useful purpose the birds do sing, for song is
Their pleasure since they were created for singing. Similarly, we
Ought not to ask why the human mind troubles to fathom the secrets
Of the heavens… The diversity of the phenomena of Nature is so great,
And the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich, precisely in order that
The human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment.
From Mysterium Cosmographicum, by Johannes Kepler
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Exploring Underground
On Friday, May 18th, the Cincinnati Waldorf School sixth graders explored the underground world of caves at Carter Caves, Kentucky. After a 21/2 hour drive we grabbed our flashlights and headed for Laurel Cave for a self-guided tour! The mouth of the cave was rather large, so we sauntered in quite confidently. Flashlights quickly went on as daylight disappeared. As we walked in single file the cave became narrow and the weather got cool. Water appeared at our feet. We found that we could approach our cave walk in two ways: we could challenge ourselves and try not to get our feet wet, or we could walk through the water, which varied from an inch to at least a foot deep. I chose the former and found myself using my hands to balance on the walls and ceiling. I had to straddle the stream by applying equal weight on my feet and hands. At times the gap was too large or the wall incline too steep to straddle and I ended up walking in some water. Some passages were so narrow I had to get on my hands and knees and crawl. Even though I was being careful, I slipped into the water more than once. Everyone was amazed at the beautiful curves and lines and formations inside this limestone cave. We understood from our study of Geology that water erodes limestone to form caves as well as other natural formations. This natural beauty was exquisite. It took us about twenty minutes to get to the other end of the cave, and then we had to walk back. For our return trip we decided to divide the students into groups of 3 or 4 with one adult. We staggered ourselves and asked everyone to be quiet, or at least speak softly. What a great idea as this gave the tour a totally different feel. I was with 3 boys who wanted to move quickly. As a result I got a lot more wet on the return trip as I wasn't able to position my feet as carefully. Walking in silence proved difficult, but not impossible for my group. We periodically stopped and shut off our flashlights. Our eyes adjusted to total darkness. I would have liked to experience this longer, but my group-mates didn't and moved us along. My class and I had experienced total darkness during our Physics block, but then we were safely sitting in a room on campus. The experience is quite different in a cave. Although we had flashlights to turn back on, we were also deep underground!
We sat outside for lunch and then walked to a fifty foot high limestone natural bridge. The students scaled the steep sides and ran around in the fresh air and wonderful sunlight. We then headed for our guided tour of Cascade Cave. This time we didn't need flashlights and we were accompanied by a naturalist and about 15 other guests to the caves. Instead of simply walking in, this time the naturalist had to unlock a heavy metal door. This cave had lights, staircases, and metal railings. The guide told us that walkways had been created and that in the 1920s square dances were held in the cave. Although we got to see special cave formations like stalagmites, stalactites, and columns, for me the experience could not compete with being in the earlier cave with no guide and only flashlights to rely on for light.
Caving in the sixth grade provides an opportunity to live and experience what we learn in Physics and Geology. But in addition, it's a chance for social relations among the students to deepen and mature. I watched with pleasure as students helped each other with advice and even a hand. I listened with a smile as they talked about their experience. In Waldorf education we always strive to educate the whole human being: the head, heart, and limbs. Our caving experience did just that!
We sat outside for lunch and then walked to a fifty foot high limestone natural bridge. The students scaled the steep sides and ran around in the fresh air and wonderful sunlight. We then headed for our guided tour of Cascade Cave. This time we didn't need flashlights and we were accompanied by a naturalist and about 15 other guests to the caves. Instead of simply walking in, this time the naturalist had to unlock a heavy metal door. This cave had lights, staircases, and metal railings. The guide told us that walkways had been created and that in the 1920s square dances were held in the cave. Although we got to see special cave formations like stalagmites, stalactites, and columns, for me the experience could not compete with being in the earlier cave with no guide and only flashlights to rely on for light.
Caving in the sixth grade provides an opportunity to live and experience what we learn in Physics and Geology. But in addition, it's a chance for social relations among the students to deepen and mature. I watched with pleasure as students helped each other with advice and even a hand. I listened with a smile as they talked about their experience. In Waldorf education we always strive to educate the whole human being: the head, heart, and limbs. Our caving experience did just that!
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Medieval Games a Huge Success
Yes, it's been a month since my last blog post, and with good reason: this is a busy time for Waldorf teachers!
On Thursday and Friday, April 26/27, the Cincinnati Waldorf School hosted a Medieval Games for 80 Waldorf sixth graders from Michigan and Ohio. We began on Thursday evening with a feast and entertainment in a hall decorated with eight banners designed and painted by my talented students. Each of the four schools gave a presentation. My class sang 2 Gregorian chants in Latin and played a lovely duet on their alto recorders. Other schools also sang, played recorders and violins, shared scenes from class plays, and even performed a sword dance.
The feast, organized and served by the incredible parents of my class, included a hearty vegetable soup; crusty bread, smoked chicken, rice with vegetables, buttery pound cake; and fresh strawberries. Unlike Medieval times, where food would have been slurped and eaten with hands and knives, we decided to be more civilized and provide utensils, perhaps to the chagrin of some sixth graders.
Of course we held the event because Waldorf sixth graders study Medieval history. As I have written in earlier articles, my class took a critical view of the Medieval Crusades, and the knights' role in spreading violence in the name of God, in particular. Hence, as I reflected on what to say to the sixth graders that evening, I decided upon the theme of "21st century knights." I focused on the virtues of valor, steadfastness, and chivalry. I asked the students to consider the ideal of knighthood rather than the reality. As their "Queen" for the evening, I "commanded" that rather than fomenting war for their kingdoms, they must spread peace and goodwill. The four kingdoms (schools) made a pact of eternal friendship.
The games took place in the pristine woods of Meshewa Farm; a place so magical we all expected Robin Hood to appear at any moment. A few dads from my class spent about 100 hours setting up events in the woods. There were six events in all including a steeple chase (obstacle course) that included a log crawl in which students had to crawl into mud and a creek cross where they had to use a "zip-line" to cross a muddy stream; moat jumping; archery; and a huge tug-of-war rope that easily allowed 40 students to participate at once. Of course the area for the middle of the rope was a mud pit!
As I planned the opening ceremony I decided to elaborate on the theme of "21st century knights." I recalled the three virtues and asked students to give examples of each. Groups of 8 were divided into shires and I explained that these events were designed to promote the ideals of valor, steadfastness, and chivalry. I asked them to consider their behavior during the games and be able to report to the entire group at the closing ceremony how they demonstrated the virtues. What a proud and wonderful moment for the adults present as representatives from each shire spoke confidently about their achievements.
The event was amazingly fun and lighthearted, full of laughter and cooperation. Competition was absent and camaraderie ruled the day. In the midst of this joy, however, was the furtherance of a main tenet of Waldorf education, in my opinion: to enable students to use their heart forces when thinking, creating strategies, and simply playing. Why settle for Medieval world views of "let's conquer all who disagree," when we can educate "21st century knights" to create a new peaceful world order?
On Thursday and Friday, April 26/27, the Cincinnati Waldorf School hosted a Medieval Games for 80 Waldorf sixth graders from Michigan and Ohio. We began on Thursday evening with a feast and entertainment in a hall decorated with eight banners designed and painted by my talented students. Each of the four schools gave a presentation. My class sang 2 Gregorian chants in Latin and played a lovely duet on their alto recorders. Other schools also sang, played recorders and violins, shared scenes from class plays, and even performed a sword dance.
The feast, organized and served by the incredible parents of my class, included a hearty vegetable soup; crusty bread, smoked chicken, rice with vegetables, buttery pound cake; and fresh strawberries. Unlike Medieval times, where food would have been slurped and eaten with hands and knives, we decided to be more civilized and provide utensils, perhaps to the chagrin of some sixth graders.
Of course we held the event because Waldorf sixth graders study Medieval history. As I have written in earlier articles, my class took a critical view of the Medieval Crusades, and the knights' role in spreading violence in the name of God, in particular. Hence, as I reflected on what to say to the sixth graders that evening, I decided upon the theme of "21st century knights." I focused on the virtues of valor, steadfastness, and chivalry. I asked the students to consider the ideal of knighthood rather than the reality. As their "Queen" for the evening, I "commanded" that rather than fomenting war for their kingdoms, they must spread peace and goodwill. The four kingdoms (schools) made a pact of eternal friendship.
The games took place in the pristine woods of Meshewa Farm; a place so magical we all expected Robin Hood to appear at any moment. A few dads from my class spent about 100 hours setting up events in the woods. There were six events in all including a steeple chase (obstacle course) that included a log crawl in which students had to crawl into mud and a creek cross where they had to use a "zip-line" to cross a muddy stream; moat jumping; archery; and a huge tug-of-war rope that easily allowed 40 students to participate at once. Of course the area for the middle of the rope was a mud pit!
As I planned the opening ceremony I decided to elaborate on the theme of "21st century knights." I recalled the three virtues and asked students to give examples of each. Groups of 8 were divided into shires and I explained that these events were designed to promote the ideals of valor, steadfastness, and chivalry. I asked them to consider their behavior during the games and be able to report to the entire group at the closing ceremony how they demonstrated the virtues. What a proud and wonderful moment for the adults present as representatives from each shire spoke confidently about their achievements.
The event was amazingly fun and lighthearted, full of laughter and cooperation. Competition was absent and camaraderie ruled the day. In the midst of this joy, however, was the furtherance of a main tenet of Waldorf education, in my opinion: to enable students to use their heart forces when thinking, creating strategies, and simply playing. Why settle for Medieval world views of "let's conquer all who disagree," when we can educate "21st century knights" to create a new peaceful world order?
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