Articles

Art and the Adolescent

by Ted Roberts
Published in Child and Man, Volume 12, #1, 1977 (UK)
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The age of puberty has never provoked as much controversy as it does today; educationalists, sociologists, psychiatrists and parents are confronted with problems which become increasingly difficult almost day by day. Educationalists call for parent participation, parents call for stricter guidelines from schooling establishments, sociologists complain about environmental conditions, psychiatrists research parent-child relationships and report the lack of care and understanding. While opinions and advice differ greatly, the adolescent continues to bang more loudly and violently on the doors of established authority.

It is difficult within the context of a short article to discuss puberty and its problems in any detail. I hope within this brief description of the art curriculum in the upper classes of a Steiner or Waldorf school to show how the art teacher approaches these very urgent and complex difficulties of the adolescent.

Artistic Feeling in the Art of Education - Part 2

by Michael Grimley
Published in the Rundbrief Journal/Pedagogical Section at the Goethanum
Christmas 2016, No. 59
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Artistic feeling, Empathy and Reverence:

What differentiates the character and quality of artistic feeling in the art of education from its use in all other art forms isthat the medium we are concerned with is not a lump of clay to be molded, a string to be plucked, or a drum to dance to - but a growing young person. Artistic feeling in the ‘great art of life’ is, therefore, not only an artistic but also a moral-aesthetic imperative. The nurturing and development of this art is possibly the primary task of human culture in our time. The parameters of this task were outlined over 200 years ago by Friedrich Schiller, writing in response to the French Revolution. In a passage chiefly concerned with pointing out the ways artisans and artists approach their material, he contrasts these to the way things are for a third, the educational and what he calls the political artist:

With the pedagogical or political artist things are very different indeed. For him Man is at once the material on which he works and the goal towards which he strives. In this case the end turns back upon itself and becomes identical with the medium ...The consideration he must accord to its uniqueness and individuality is not merely subjective, and aimed at creating an illusion for the senses, but objective and directed to its innermost being’¹

Arts and Their Relationship to Adolescent Development

AWSNA lecture given at AWSNA Teachers' Conference Kimberton Waldorf School,

by Van James
Tuesday, June 25, 2002
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To begin with I'd like to place a wonderful aphorism of Rudolf Steiner's before us: "Art must become the lifeblood of the soul." I believe this is an essential ideal to live by in our work as educators. I will explain why as we proceed.

The author Robert Fulghum who wrote the bestseller, Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, claimed that if you go into any kindergarten and ask, "How many of you can draw?" All the children hands will go up. If you ask, "How many of you can sing?" All the hands go up again. "What if you don't know the words?" We make them up, is the children’s response. "How many of you can dance?" All the hands go up yet again. The young child shows in kindergarten that the human being is an artist.

This is really what we are—it is part of our essential nature that we are creators—we are artists. Art is for the child, already, the lifeblood of the soul.

Aspects of Adult Education in the Light of Anthroposophy: A Former Student's View

Published in Renewal, A Journal for Waldorf Education, Vol. 9 #1, Spring 2000
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What is the most fruitful relationship between teacher and student in adult education? Norman Davidson, the former head of teacher training at Sunbridge College looks at this question from the viewpoint of spiritual science.

Keywords: Waldorf teacher training, Anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner, teaching

Astronomy Verse for the Middle School

From the Waldorf Science Newsletter, 2004

by John Trevillion
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Written by John Trevillion, class teacher at the Chicago Waldorf School,these wonderful verses help orient the children to space as well as provide them with vocabulary for understanding Astronomy.

Audrey McAllen’s ’The Extra Lesson’

by Joep Eikenboom, December 2014
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The Origin and Source

Years before the first Waldorf School was founded, Rudolf Steiner unfolded his views and insights on the education of the child. The first stage of development takes place on a bodily level. The child learns by moving, playing and using the total system of the senses. The nerve cells are fully developed at birth, but there are only few connections between them. During the first years the brain and total nervous system are further developed while the child exercises and their senses and movement system matures.

The sense of touch gives the child an inner image of the physical space that she occupies, the sense of life teaches the child to adapt to the general rhythm of life, along with an awareness of the general, organic or constitutional condition of the child’s body itself. Essential for the coordination of movement are the senses of balance and self movement.

The foundation for learning is laid by the development of these four basic senses; it consists of the capacity for spatial orientation and one’s own body awareness—body geography.

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