Download the article: Preparing the Soil for Growing Great Minds
Waldorf early childhood teachers work with the habit body of the young child, strengthening the will to rise and meet the variety of circumstances that call and challenge it in many different ways in each day of living. I began to notice in my nursery class an increase in the numbers of children who could not raise themselves up off the ground when they fell down, but waited or expected the adult to rescue them from this meeting with gravity. There are different ways a child gets there-losing balance in tripping and stumbling, or getting jostled or pushed unintentionally or intentionally. Each situation must be dealt with individually, yet all of these must be met with warmth and caring from the teacher and in a way that strengthens the child's own resolve and sense of self capacity. Important messages are given to little children at these times in the responses of the adult. Are we saying in our response, "I know you can care for yourself and I am here to help and comfort," or are we saying, "You cannot have healing and comfort without me?" How do we also share these ideas with parents? We in Waldorf education have many aspects to view the development of the child. I have found parents interested in considering a point of view when it is first prefaced with information about an element of the child's development. Here I share these thoughts about the sun and rain that enters a child's life and how we might accept both as important for the growing child.
Research tells us that the young brain needs stimulation to grow and establish healthy neural pathways. This does not indicate, however, that it is the head that is asking for this stimulation. We don't find pediatricians and educators recommending that we massage, shake, strike, or otherwise create activity on the head. Unlike the muscles of the limbs that require extensive direct physical movement for growth and strength building, the brain is best when in a peaceful position. We might build an imaginative picture of the young child by looking at the birth of the newborn-we see a body being born. And when we look into the eyes of the new baby, we see gazing through the eyes the being of the child who has come to live in this body, its earthly house.
The body is the dwelling for this young being. We might look at the whole of the physical body as a temple that houses the spirit being of the person. There are many rooms and areas of the temple wherein the learning and study of life happens for this growing child. The limbs inform through activity, the torso informs through reaction and response, and the head is the most sacred chamber housing the brain, floating in the inner sanctuary, performing perhaps the most vital and mysterious duties. The being of the child is an eager novice housed in this manychambered temple. So, where are the portals to this temple? How do you enter? And who are the priests and providers for this novice, this student of life that has taken up residence in this wonderful temple?
We may observe how the eyes of the baby become quite engaged and purposeful; the ears seem to cause the eyes to follow sound or the whole body to react to something loud or sharp. We see how the baby responds to its milk, as though being tasted by legs and arms as well as tongue. We know that touch is informing: What is this I meet? Is this something welcoming or does it require caution? The senses are important portals into the temple of the brain. They are the initial and primary guides for how the young brain establishes integrated understanding of oneself, others and the world.
We may observe how the young child is nearly always in motion during waking hours. At first, movement is quite random in the infant, then inspired to purposeful movement, and, yet later, quite focused and directed in the six-yearold at play, arranging furniture, devising things out of boxes, cloth, cushions to meet the needs of the play imagination.
Movement is an important portal into the temple of the brain. The child's physical development is a key influence in how the young brain grows into an organization establishing conversation with the sensory pictures.
In Waldorf education, we define twelve senses in the human being*. This includes the commonly referred to five, plus seven others. They are grouped in sets of three: (1-4) touch, self-movement, balance, life sense; (5-8) sight, smell, taste, temperature sense; (9-12) hearing, conceptual sense, language sense, sense of ego. These combinations indicate special tasks each grouping offers in the self-education of the child. We might look at them in general terms:
1-4: determining the boundaries of the self (I)
5-8: experiencing the outer world (World)
9-12: experiencing the world of the other (Thou)
In early childhood, the first four senses are the primary informants of the child's life, the portals to the temple of this young novice: the senses of touch, self-movement, balance, and the life sense. The young child up to the age of three is discovering who she is and where her boundaries are and the world begins. She meets the boundaries of her body in her efforts to gradually rise up and walk, establishing balance and an awareness of her movement in space and in relationship to other things and people. Her own responses to her state of well-being: hunger, cold, pain, lead her to self-knowledge. The child ages four to seven years is developing these further and establishing a foundation of personal knowledge. This is the age of self-education. Play, exploration, and participation in household work are the activities essential to the child at this time of life. The young child is inspired to imitate life's activity and must be allowed to try again and again in her own time learning through her own efforts for mastery.
The child meets experiences through two elements of soul in these years, the joy and the pain of discovery, the sun and rain of life. Both are equally important. In the pain of falling, the child meets the boundary of her body and learns through touch her boundaries and balance and the awareness of her own movement in the physical plane. The pain subsides, and, in the recovery, the child continues in play now having learned about the balance of soul and her boundaries in meeting adversity. In the discomfort of hunger, the child learns about her sense of life processes and, in the meal experiences, the physical well-being. The discomfort subsides, and, in the recovery, the child learns about the sense of well-being in her soul. In the crankiness of fatigue, she experiences the sense of dis-ease, and after a good rest, feels the joy of health. The child also has learned about a soul sense of dis-ease and well-being. This selfknowledge is what will serve the child to react and do out of an authentic self. This is a key factor in problem-solving. I have often witnessed adults being wracked by indecision and uncertainty because they don't know or have a sense of where their boundary is on an issue, or how to balance the responsibility to others with responsibility for the self.
To be the priest and provider, serving the young child well, adults will become keen observers. Observation will let us know when a child who falls might rise up on her own and then seek comfort, rather than rescuing her and robbing her of the opportunity to manage this on her own. Rather than lifting the child's foot onto the next step of a ladder, allow her the time she needs to find her own footing. A few grunts and groans of effort or frustration will soon disappear with the delight of being able to accomplish something completely. These important moments of discomfort and shortlived pain will teach her all about herself. Left in freedom to recover at her own rate and accomplish in her own time frame, in child's time not adult's time, will be the greatest teacher. Given the freedom to gain information and knowledge through self-discovery, the child establishes a strong foundation for positive selfesteem and a "can do" attitude. The message then from the adults is, "Yes. You can do it yourself, and I am here when you need me."
What else gives the child this freedom in her self-education? Adults caring for young children will create a rhythmic life with a simple predictable order that the child may relax into with the comfort of knowing what comes next throughout her day. Being able to participate in her own care and in the cycling activity of a household or classroom will offer many skills for the child and feed her imaginative play. Repeated participation in folding laundry, setting the table, cleaning, cooking, yard work and holiday preparations strengthens the child's ability to be self-determining, focused and find joy in finishing a task. Adults are often crippled by their inability to harness their energy and focus it to complete something, or they become engaged in selfsabotage, incapable of following through on worthy ideas. This self-education of the child's will gives her freedom in later years.
The young child's fantasy life reaches into the world and receives nature and the life of human activity. The boundaries of ordinary objects and people's roles are released from their limits and given new possibilities in the life of a child's imaginative play. In play, the child meets endless moments of decision-making and problemsolving. What is needed to make this box a ship? How shall I use this cloth to become the princess? How will we share being the parents in this house and who will be the baby? Extended periods of uninterrupted play provide more practice in physical and relationship skills than any planned activity a parent or educator might devise. In play, the landscape is rich in all kinds of personal weather: sunshine, clouds and rain, storms, beautiful sunsets. With adults modeling interaction in a household and with friends, the child imitates this in play life. The inner flexibility and budding moral capacity will grow with the child. Freedom is again the outcome in later years when problem-solving is second nature in relationships and with ideas.
The young child receives the world with wonder and interest. The truth of life is that there is joy and pain. These novices on the journey of becoming want to know about all of this. Healthy brain development in early childhood lays the ground wherein grows all other learning. Surrounding the young child with an age-appropriate variety of experiences and given the opportunity to fully engage in selfeducation will prepare her for meeting the greatest wonder: herself.
References:
Healy, Jane. Endangered Minds: Why Children Don't Think and What We can Do About It, New York:, Simon and Schuster, 1990.
Poplawski, Thomas. "Losing Our Senses". Renewal: A Journal for Waldorf Education, Vol. 7, No.2, AWSNA, Fall 1998.
*Soesman, Albert. Our Twelve Senses, England: Hawthorne Press, 1998.
Andrea Gambardella is the Program Director of the Full-time Early Childhood Teacher Education at Sunbridge College. This article was written from a lecture at the conference called, "Developing Creative Minds in the 21st Century," in Baltimore, October 2003.