Gateways

Download the article: Generations at Risk

As parents, we talk about making things best for our children-living in a lead-free environment, eating organic food, having a non-toxic home, and yet we may be spanking our children, injecting them with things that are poisonous, and exploiting them with commercialism. These are the things that we can have an impact on.

I believe that the root of all of this is the tendency in our culture, starting at birth, to overpower our own natures. Pregnant women are not encouraged to trust their own nature. Pregnancy is seen as a disease in our culture. We don't appreciate birth as normal. So the very first experiences of parenthood are compromised, our very natures overpowered and dominated. I believe that when we do this, we do violence to ourselves, and to our own nature.

I want to go deeper into these first intrusions of power into our inherent natures, and to the first intrusions of technology, materialism and commercialism. These, as so much in society, make us feel that we are not enough as we are. Let's translate our environmental and social consciousness into daily life. Let's clean up the toxins and disarm the world by beginning with ourselves-the only person that we really have any control over.

Download the article: Sense Development Disturbances

The following is not a summary of lecture content, but a reflection on the lecture by Dr. Anthony Underwood from a spiritual scientific viewpoint. Cynthia Aldinger posed the question during her presentation, "Are we being asked to bring both the Gabriel and Michael qualities in our work with today's children?"

Dr. Underwood's opening sentence was, "Autism is a symptom of our times." In the last decade there has been an increase in the number of autistic spectrum children, as many as one in eighty children are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. Symptoms of autism appear in toddlers around twelve to eighteen months old. Often these children seem to develop normally in their first year then, suddenly the development is arrested, or even regresses. What is it that interrupts or arrests development at this crucial stage of development?

Download the article: Research Collaboration Conference

The conference was formulated and led by Susan Weber and Jane Swain of Sophia's Hearth. Sophia's Hearth was founded in 1998 to provide programs for parents and their young children with a mission to create a continuum of support for the family from expectancy through the years of forming a family. They are also committed to initiating research on the care and development of the very young child. Working out of anthroposophical disciplines that inform the work and care of children is their primary inspiration. Blending with this work is a recognition of the valuable contributions made by Hungarian pediatrician Emmi Pikkler and Magda Gerber's work with parents and children age two and under being done at the Resources for Infant Educarers or RIE (Los Angeles, California).

On a very cold weekend in early January, eleven people gathered to support each other through the process of formulating working themes and questions for research. Conversation in large and small groups and personal journal work were used to explore the topic. Playing games, doing movement exercises and having tea contributed to a breathing process that allowed the variety of ideas and diversity of experiences to settle and focus into some common thoughts. Among us were kindergarten teachers, home care teachers, parent-child class teachers, adult educators, a public school specialist and a movement therapist. One member came from Texas, and the remaining ten are in the Northeast.

Download the article: 2003 NAEYC Conference

Over 20,000 people attended the 2003 National Association of Education for the Young Child conference at the McCormick Convention Center in Chicago, a huge conference center about four city blocks in size! From Wednesday, November 5, to Saturday, November 8, Cynthia Aldinger and I participated in the annual national conference of early childhood educators.

During the four days of the conference, we shared a corner of the convention center with over one thousand exhibitor booths representing the major names in early childhood and school equipment, products, services and supplies of every imaginable kind. And some we couldn't quite figure! In a 10 x 10 foot booth, with a sign bearing the name "Waldorf Early Childhood Association" and beautiful fleece puppets on loan from the Chicago Waldorf School, we created a respite for eye and soul. Cynthia and I engaged in many conversations and answered a steady stream of questions about Waldorf education. There was much interest, and the requests for information filled many pages of our mailing list. This experience served as an affirmation for continuing WECAN's participation in conferences of this magnitude. When Joan Almon attended the NAEYC Conferences many years ago, she had a similar response from people. Many expressed a sense of relief to see Waldorf there. As educators working from a Steiner/Waldorf approach, our voice is an important part of a whole picture of early education. Unfortunately, it has been missing from the more accessible arenas, and the response to our presence attests to the need for the gifts of Waldorf-based education.

Download the article: The Older Child in the Kindergarten

Many of you may remember that, in the January mailing of 2003, the results were published of a survey that WECAN conducted about the older child in the kindergarten. The call for help and needed advice in this area of our work was an obvious conclusion from the survey. These requests have been heeded and much has happened since that time. I would like to tell you more about this.

After publishing the survey report, one of the first things that happened was that the editor of Kindling magazine in England asked if she could reprint excerpts of the survey results in their latest issue which was devoted to the older child in the kindergarten. It appears that teachers in other countries are also having to rise to the challenge of working with the older child. As email and phone conversations proliferated, the Board pursued funding for an opportunity for a group of teachers to gather and take up further research arising from the leftover survey questions.

Download the article: Parent/Child Working Groups

At the request of Susan Howard, Chair of WECAN, a working group has formed around the topic of Waldorf (or Waldorf-inspired) Parent/Child groups. A number of websites and chat rooms on this subject are quite busy, demonstrating widespread and active interest in such groups. WECAN wishes to explore how we can be of help to those already engaged in this work as well as those who would like to form a parent/child group (or playgroup, as they are often called).

Members of the WECAN working group are Susan Weber, director of Sophia's Hearth in Keene, New Hampshire; Sarah Baldwin, former parent/child group teacher at Ashwood School in Lincolnville, Maine and currently working on her master's thesis on the subject of parent/child programs; and Nancy Foster, parent/child group teacher at Acorn Hill Waldorf Kindergarten and Nursery in Silver Spring, Maryland. Our work has begun in the form of conference calls, exploring how we might best be of use.

Download the article: Defining Extended Daycare Programs

Last fall, as I was registering for the WECAN Early Childhood Association Conference, I asked myself; "Why isn't there any attention given to, or workshops devoted to, kindergarten extended-day programs?" Are we really the illegitimate Waldorf education offspring that always gets swept under the rug? Telephoning Cynthia Aldinger, Director of Lifeways North America about my question, I received support and encouragement. I quickly organized a survey about kindergarten extended-day programs and contacted all of the Waldorf schools in the United States in December of 2003. I received many differing responses to the survey and enough interest to organize a brief meeting that took place immediately after the February WECAN Conference at Spring Valley.

The survey questions were the following:
1. Briefly describe the details of your program. Include how many children attend, the cost of your program, and daily rhythm schedule.
2. Share with us a few challenges in managing your program.
3. What is your rest/nap time like?
4. What particular area of your program would be benefited by other kindergarten providers' suggestions or ideas?
5. In your opinion, how can we better serve the Waldorf community?

The meeting was attended by thirty-five conference participants, mostly from the East Coast and Midwest. This article grows out of that meeting and from what I personally believe are critical issues facing the Waldorf extendeddaycare movement.

Download the article: Helpful Hints

Here are a couple of ideas that I have used when the mood of the class has needed some extra help. The first is a little kindergarten teacher's hum that I wander about singing to myself if playtime is getting a little fractious:

I am the politeness elf, Peter Please I call myself,
When the children come to play, I am there to help them say,
"May I help you? Do you mind? Thank you so much, you're so kind."
Now children remember please, do not shout and do not tease.
When the children speak this way, all may have a happy day.

When we had a rather inharmonious time in kindergarten recently, we made a fleece angel for everyone. These we hung around the children’s necks so that they hung over their hearts, and the kindness angels could remind them how we are all kind to each other (some of the children preferred to have their angel inside their clothes). We kept the angels at school, and, for a few days the children put them on every morning when they arrived. When the class seemed more peaceful again, the little fleece angels could go home with the children.

Download the article: A Summer Ringtime

Compiled, adapted and/or written by Stephen Spitalny. Footnotes denote sources known to author, the rest were learned by oral transmission or written by the author. The sections in italics are songs.
See footnotes for available music. The accompanying gestures are left up to the reader.

In the summer garden
Where we singing go
Light is glowing, flowing, glowing
White the roses grow.⁽¹⁾

Download the article: A Summer Song

Zum, zum, zum;
Listen to the bee's song,
Hum, hum, hum.
The big bees zum,
And the little bees hum
Zum, zum, zum, zum, zum
Hum,hum,hum.

"I'm busy, busy, busy," said the bee.
"I won't be home for supper, or for tea.
It takes hours and hours
To visit all the flowers.
I'm busy, busy, busy," said the bee.
Little bees work very hard
Making golden honey
Taking nectar from the flowers,
When the days are sunny.

What do you suppose?
A bee sat on my nose!
Then what do you think?
He gave me a wink
And said "I beg your pardon,
I thought you were the garden!"

Download the article: Freeing Children's Potential

Betty Peck was a "mainstream" kindergarten teacher for over fifty years before her retirement. She founded the Kindergarten Forum, and hosts it quarterly at her home in Saratoga, California. She has written a wonderful book on the young child that offers insight and suggestions. This book, as Joseph Chilton Pearce says, "is must reading for every parent, would-be parent, and teacher world-wide."

Contemplating the title gives a true sense of the content of this book, and it meets any expectations one could develop. Betty's knowledge and experience shines through every page as she offers ideas and inspirations for the work with young children in any sort of program setting. Her many anecdotes and references to various early years researchers make this book a valuable resource and just a plain-old "good read."

Download the article: The Singing Day

Here is a book and CD combination that will be a fine resource for early years teachers. Candy Verney is a mother, music teacher at Steiner schools, kindergartens, and mainstream schools. She has had much experience with adults who are not comfortable with singing, and this book offers encouragement toward singing for even the most musically shy adults. The Singing Day includes discussion about the importance of music, the kinds of music that meet developmental needs, and how to go about it all. All of that is briefly, yet deeply looked at in the first twenty pages. The remainder of the book is filled with songs, poems, and suggestions for accompanying movement for young children, from babies up to kindergarten age. And there is a CD included to give the adult's ear a sense for most of the tunes Cindy included in the text. The songs and poems are divided into sections such as "Baking Songs," "Graces," "Faces," "Changing Nappies," and "Counting Songs."

There is a wealth of material in this book, from traditional origins, to songs penned by Cindy herself. Something is to be found between these covers for both the experienced early child educator and the beginner, and for any parents interested in singing with their children.

Download the article: The New Generation of Children

This article arose from a lecture given at the Vital Years Conference in Sydney in July 2003. The conference dealt with the qualities of the young child and how educators can meet them and nurture them. This lecture marked the end of the conference with a look at issues of the debate on the modern child.

There has been a new phenomenon of change in children recently documented in several books. These books include The Indigo Children by Jan Tober and Lee Carroll, Millennial Child by Eugene Schwartz, Star Children by Georg Kuehlewind, War Michel aus Loenneberga aufmerksamkeitsgestoert? (Did Michel of Loenneberga have ADHD?) by Henning Koehler, and Siegfried Woitinas's book Who are the Indigo Children? All of these publications deal with the question of whether there is an observable evolutionary change in this new generation of children, or are we observing the result of damage caused by growing up under the conditions of our time?

Download the article: Child Development - Conception to Birth

Embryology from and Anthroposophic Perspective
Translated by Nina Kuettel Reprinted with permission from the Waldorf Journal Project, Online Waldorf Library.

Embryology is a modern science. It was in the Renaissance that isolated researchers such as Leonardo da Vinci first showed a quickened interest in the subject. Two to three hundred years later, the evolution of thinking and fundamentally important research by Goethe, Olken, Carus, and others created the basis for the study of embryology and the idea of metamorphosis associated with it. Systematic research in embryology was only well established after 1940.

This new scientific possibility offered the public the ability to actively engage their thoughts on the interval where invisible transformation takes place between two visible phenomena, since only isolated phenomena can be found during pregnancy examinations or after miscarriages. Continuous development as it is described in textbooks cannot be directly observed.

Download the article: Chaos in Everyday Life

When it comes to housekeeping, the concepts of disorder and chaos often get confused. In our households order is often related to a certain regularity and clarity. I call a room orderly when everything is in its place, and I can easily orient myself, finding my way around without fuss. However, as soon as I start working in the room, or the children start playing around in it, the order very soon turns into disorder. Order seems to have this special quality of merging into disorder without much effort, yet the opposite never occurs. I have to consciously intervene in order to re-establish the lost order.

In the Kabballa, the story of Creation tells us that God withdrew Himself, thus producing a void. The chaos that arose within this void formed the substance from which the world was then created.

In our homes, we very often face chaos. The mere fact that we have countless ways and means in which we can structure our daily lives, puts us face to face with chaos. We have the opportunity of purposefully re-establishing order and structure where formlessness and haphazardness have taken over. When I clean, I do not simply want to remove dirt. I consciously try to create space for something new. Removing dust and dirt results in a void. This void I put at the disposal of helping spiritual beings who are linked to the place I am cleaning, that something new and positive may come about.

Download the article: The Relationship Between the Lead Teacher and the Assistant

A while ago, a friend who is an assistant asked me if I could think of any questions that should be asked when a lead teacher and an assistant begin their work together. As I have had experience working as an assistant, a co-teacher and a lead teacher with and without an assistant, I felt that my perspective might be useful.

First of all, this relationship is an intimate dance, which has often been likened to a marriage and communication is key. Both parties should be very clear about what the expectations are before they work together. After that, there should be regular check-ins to make sure you both are still on the same page and, most especially, if there are questions or one of you is chafing about something. The children will benefit enormously by seeing two adults working together in harmony, and both adults will be happier, too.

Download the article: Speech and its Importance in the Life of the Young Child

The early childhood years are without doubt the years of movement! This is the child’s main activity, way of discovering and making connections to the world. What aspects of speech further and support the child at this tender age?

Practically all of teaching and much of life takes place via the spoken word. For the listener, especially in the case of the young child, the how of what is heard is part of the what: the various qualities of the vowels and consonants, the rising and falling rhythms, the “sound-pictures”, the imaginations, and all other nuances of the inner activity of the speaker. All of this is part of how spoken language behaves, i.e. how it moves. It is these aspects of language that sustain and foster the young child’s connection to the world and are therefore part of early childhood education.

Download the article: The One and Only Way

In our eagerness and devotion to provide young children and their families the very best we have to offer, we find great enthusiasm when we experience or hear of new approaches that are meaningful and creative.

Many of us remember the very first time we heard of the work of Nökken in Denmark. Soon, many of us decided we should be having outdoor kindergartens or, at the very least, spending most of our time outdoors. Sometimes I have heard people say, “I am doing the Helle Heckman model.”

With the deepening of our interest in the birth to three stage of child development, we have discovered the work of Emmi Pikler, and its related work of Magda Gerber and the Resources for Infant Educarers. We are encouraged by their insights into the movement of the young child and the importance of non-interference, among other aspects of this work. Now we are hearing the expression, “I want to do a RIE/Waldorf model.”

Download the article: The Dragon's Gate

A traditional Chinese story.

In this story, the image of the dragon represents something that is valued, something that is the object of striving. The story itself presents a picture of courage, wisdom and perseverance being the means of selfdevelopment. This version is adapted from Tales from a Taiwan Kitchen.

In the heart of a deep forest far from any towns and villages is a high waterfall called the Dragon’s Gate where the waters plunge more swiftly than an arrow shot by a bow. Many carp gather at the bottom hoping to ascend the huge waterfall for those that make it to the top and through the Dragon’s Gate will turn into a dragon. Many have tried and few, if any, have ever succeeded.

Download the article: In Memoriam: Klara Hatterman

Klara Hatterman, one of the early Waldorf kindergarten teachers, passed away on September 1 in Hannover, Germany, at the age of 94, fully conscious and surrounded by her loved ones. Born with her twin sister in May 1909, she became interested in Waldorf early childhood education at a young age. She assisted Elizabeth Grunelius, the first Waldorf kindergarten teacher, and worked in a Waldorf kindergarten until it was closed by the Nazis. Undaunted, she continued to work with little children privately in a home kindergarten until the outbreak of World War II. After the war, in the rubble and ruins of Hannover, she began a little kindergarten group, which grew into a large Waldorf school with nearly one thousand pupils, and a Kindergarten Seminar (training center) where she was active for many years.

Download the article: Sophia House

As I write this article, I am sitting next to Cindy’s bed. She is asleep in the respite room having been sent home (to Sophia House) from school with a lip that won’t stop bleeding. Cindy, nine–years–old, is our oldest child. Her sister is our youngest, nine months old.

Last night these beds were slept in by Ana and her three children, ages two, four, and six. Respite care is only planned for every other weekend, but sometimes it just does not work out like that. Ana has a brain virus that sometimes causes seizures. Yesterday afternoon, while waiting for us to bring her children to meet her, she collapsed in a public transportation terminal. The children watched in terror as their mother was taken away in an ambulance. They have nowhere to go. No friends. No family. Back at Sophia House, they settled down, played, had dinner and went to bed. At midnight, we picked up Ana from the hospital, made her something to eat, and then, she, too, went upstairs to sleep. This morning the family, joined the early childhood program for breakfast and a morning of Waldorf early childhood work.

Download the article: Giving Love-Bringing Joy

Hand Gestures Games and Lullabies in the Mood of the Fifth
Translated and edited by Lyn and Kundry Willwerth.
Reviewed by Andrea Sutherland. Published by WECAN, 2003.

The nurturing, creative Ellersiek games and lullabies have been graciously translated and published into English and are a beautiful, inspiring and loving gift! This translation is a gift of love and joy from Kundry and Lyn Willwerth and their son, Roland. From their hearts and hands, we receive this beautiful and long-awaited book about the touch and hand gesture games of Wilma Ellersiek.

Wilma Ellersiek turned her attention to creating games and play for young children to counter the growing impulses of early intellectual learning in the late 1960s, after pursuing a profession devoted to acting, speaking and Dalcroze eurythmics. Out of decades of loving work and research have sprung the Ellersiek games and lullabies. Giving Love-Bringing Joy is truly rich in bringing nurturing, gentle and loving tools into the hands of parents, teachers, grandparents and caregivers. These valuable tools soften and even heal the challenges imposed upon young children as they bump along the social conditions of today’s world (media, intellectual precociousness, excessive stimulation, technology, modern diets).

Download the article: Working with the Dead

Meditations and spiritual content for the teacher from the work of Rudolf Steiner.
Volume 2 in the Little Series. Editor. Reviewed by Beth Knox. Published by WECAN, 2003.

There is much death and violence in the news that cannot escape our children. Where can one turn to find some deeper understanding surrounding such acts? Yes, those people all died, but then what? Very few individuals or institutions offer us insights into the journey beyond the last breath. And none have offered advice regarding how we can continue a relationship with those who have crossed over into death.

Rudolf Steiner wrote and lectured extensively on this subject. He is a breath of fresh air in contrast to the prevailing worldview of “dead and gone forever.” His insights on our life between death and birth give hope to the grieving. However, there has been a need for a small, digestible means of accessing these insights and moving toward a new relationship with our departed. The Waldorf Early Childhood Association’s recently published Working with the Dead is an answer to this need.

Download the article: Dignity of the Young Child

Dignity of the Young Child: Care and Training for the First Three Years of Life is published by the Medical Section at the Goetheanum and the International Waldorf Kindergarten Association and is now available through the Waldorf Early Childhood Association.

Caring for the very young child, in a home program or a childcare center, is a humble yet spiritually profound task—a task that challenges us to develop a culture of love. Developing this culture of love begins with nurturing and cultivating our own inner life and powers of observation, and extends to the building of new forms of community with children, families and colleagues. This book offers a wealth of resources for those who take up this task. Its contents arose from the sharing of experience and colleagueship among five hundred childcare providers at an international gathering at the Goetheanum in 1999.

Download the article: Set Free Childhood

The double meanings of the title set the stage for this wonderful book. It is an excellent resource for families and for teachers trying to offer suggestions to parents.

This important book describes both the limiting effects of screen experiences on the child, backed up by recent research, as well as attempting to encourage parents to make a difference in their children’s lives by protecting them from the “corporate media machine.” Martin Large wants to encourage parents to reclaim childhood for the children, and he offers many concrete suggestions, and even some constructive ways of coping. This book presents aspects of the “dismemberment” of childhood, as well as suggestions for the “remembering” of a holistic, humanistic vision of childhood. As Mr. Large says about the book, “This is a book for dipping into, as and when needed.”