Articles

by Jack Palmer
Originally published in Research Bulletin #23, Volume 2 Autumn/Winter 2018
Download the article: Understanding and Educating Transgender Youth in the Waldorf School

Appropriate treatment and rights of the transgender community has recently become a topic of much attention and controversy at the national level. Special attention has also been placed on transgender youth, and their rights and treatment within the school system. At the national level, there are discussions regarding which sports teams, locker rooms, bathrooms, pronouns, and names these children are entitled to use. In addition to these practical, materialistic concerns, there are the questions of morality and ideology: should the transgender condition be accepted and respected, or is it a sign of psychological dysfunction, to be dismissed or eradicated? Across the nation, individual schools, school districts, and state legislators have taken up a variety of positions on this issue.

While the nation struggles to find an approach to the transgender issue, as students of anthroposophy and leaders within our Waldorf school communities, we must ask ourselves if spiritual science can provide insight. After all, as Rudolf Steiner states in his lecture, Man and Woman in the Light of Spiritual Science:
Anthroposophical spiritual science does not exist in order that human beings be estranged from life through some kind of mysticism. It should in no way divert people from their tasks in daily life or the present. On the contrary, spiritual science should bring strength, energy, and open mindedness to humanity so that people can meet what daily life and our times demand. Hence it follows that spiritual science must not concern itself solely with the great riddles of existence, of the nature of human existence, and the meaning of the world, but must also seek to cast light on those questions which confront us directly. (Steiner, 2011, p. 36)

By Joop van Dam
This article is a summary of a lecture given at the International Waldorf Kindergarten Conference in Holland, October 1994. Published in The Developing Child: The First Seven Years, Gateways Series Three, published by WECAN Publications
Download the article: Understanding Imitation

The little child is a will being. The truth of this struck me when my little grandchild sat at the table and banged on it again and again with a spoon. He was placed on the floor, but contin­ued to move his arm. So much movement-as if he were moving towards the future. Then he began going up the stairs, upwards, upwards until the moment came when he fell down the stairs, but that did not bother him. He began to climb again.

This is the will that is so associated with the body, but there is another will, too. It is like the other leg on which the child walks or the other wing with which it flies. This is the tremendous trust and confidence with which the child meets the world. This openness and trust is so great in the small child and is one of the reasons a very young child can seem so large. He embraces the world. A family went to visit friends who had a newborn baby. One of the visiting boys said to his little sister, "The baby is so small." "Oh, no," the girl said, "my brothers are small, but the baby is very big "

Imitation lives and moves in the child with these two legs or wings: that which opens to the world inwardly from the body and that which opens to the world in trust. Where do these two forces come from?

To continue please download the article, above.

by Peter Batzell
Download the play: Waiting for Isaac, A Play for  the Third Grade

Inspired and performed by the Grade 3 class at Merriconeag Waldorf School in Freeport, Maine, in the Autumn of 2005. Peter Batzell is a long-time Waldorf class teacher.

"Our story from the call of Abram to the birth of Isaac is told in the book of Genesis from Chapter 12, verse 1, up through Chapter 21, verse 3. There are many omitted stories woven into that account.  The women in the Book of Genesis are fascinating, although the stories are often referred to only as those of the Patriarchs. The struggle between Sarah and Hagar is significant not only due to the fact that from them arise on the one hand the 12 Tribes of  Israel, and on the other, the tribes of the Arab nations; but also as a tale of the destinies of two women, and their relations with the all determining Spiritual World."

Keywords: plays, drama, Third Grade, Old Testament

Download the article: Waldorf and Adolescence

We all vividly remember our high school years. During this span of time our self-awareness and self questions were at a pinnacle. Out memories range from despair to elation as we review those exciting but turbulent years. There is no pathway around this stage of life we must just bear them and proceed straight ahead.

In a Waldorf high school each student is seen as an individual with unique talents needing to be honed and academic skills needing to be rigorously exercised. At the same time the students seek truth in all they encounter, be it the course work or adult interaction. They see the world as theirs and are sheltered by the tempering of hardships and disappointments which age introduces.

The following four articles present the mood of the high school classroom as well as some of the content of the lessons. It is hope that they will give you more insight as you consider the option of enrolling your son or daughter in a Waldorf high school.

Download the article in brochure format, link above.

2002 WECAN Survey Results of Established Waldorf Early Childhood Programs
Read the article:  Report on the Older Child in the Kindergarten

Introduction

Each year the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America asks its member early childhood programs to complete a survey on issues of general interest and concern in the movement. In recent years, we have looked at childcare, birth to three questions, collegial relationships, the differences of children in our times, the burning issues that lie within our tasks and what's missing and abundant in our work.

This past year we have sent off two mail-outs of a survey/questionnaire that have been directed toward specific questions relating to the older child in the kindergarten.
Approximately 215 questionnaires were sent out and 45 responses were received—18 from the Western region, 18 from the central region and 9 from the Eastern region. Because of the nature of the survey, the responses came from kindergartens in the Waldorf movement, which
contain older children. All of the kindergartens were working with mixed age groups except for one school. Another school had two morning mixed-age kindergartens, which funneled into an afternoon class for older children - a step taken to satisfy government regulations for public-
school grade-one­ eligible older children. Approximately 30% of the groups surveyed contained children aged 3 or 3 1/2 to 6/7 and 60% of the groups contained children aged 4 or 4 1/2 to 6/7. One group enrolled children from age 2 and older. Two Nursery programs and one Home
program also responded to the survey. 75% of the responses of those schools surveyed had aftercare programs with pick-up times ranging anywhere from 2:40 to 7 PM.
Please note that the responses recorded below are in no specific order, are recorded in the teacher's own words and are in point form to enable the best usage of paper. Many of the responses have been repeated frequently and attempts have been made to group similar answers together and to repeat them only once.

By Henry Barnes
Download the article: Waldorf Education An Introduction

This is a 13 page brochure developed by the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America from an article written by Henry Barnes, a pioneer in the North American Waldorf movement.