Gateways

Download the article: Letter from the Editor

Dear Readers,

Who are you, the reader of this newsletter? You may be a kindergarten teacher, or early childhood caregiver. You may be an interested parent. One uniting theme for all of our readers is an interest in the young child. We carry such questions as; who is the young child of today and what are her special gifts and challenges? We have taken up the task of supporting the development of young children through nurturing and protecting them. Our enthusiasm and joy surrounds the children with warmth. This newsletter exists as a resource for sharing and kindling each other's enthusiasm. And so we start this issue with a call for articles and letters from you, the readers, who are involved with young children day-to-day! Articles describing your own research and observations, special activities or circle times you have created, festivals you have celebrated, and suggestions for inner working of the teacher all are being sought by this publication. Your contributions benefit our whole movement. Even a letter to the editor with questions or comments may spark someone else into action, so please share your thoughts and questions in these pages.

Download the article: Children at Risk

The following article is a detailed summary of talks given by Dr. Michaela Glöckler at the Eastcoast Kindergarten Conference on
February 15-16, 2002 at Sunbridge College in Spring Valley, New York. We thank Kate Gage, who took and transcribed these notes,
and Jennifer Kleinbach for editing them for publication. These notes have not been reviewed by the speaker.

Friday, February 15, 2002

We live in a new millennium and we are faced with children who bring with them new gifts and challenges. There are many new books out concerning these children, books which help adults to look at children with full attention, to take seriously the idea that children are adults in the early stages of development. They help us to love these children and to have respect for the dignity of the human being at every age. These books open the eyes of parents and professionals to see what each child is bringing into incarnation.

Download the article: Characterizing the Balancing Polarities

In a series of lectures recently published as Education for Special Needs: The Curative Education Course, Rudolf Steiner focuses on four polarities. He describes some rather extreme situations, but thinking about these polarities is helpful for seeing tendencies in the young children that we meet every day. This article draws on these lectures, on conversations with teachers, doctors, curative eurythmists, and curative educators, and on my own experience. I especially want to acknowledge Sunny Baldwin and Dr. Christa van Tellingen, (with whom I worked during a week-long course at Rudolf Steiner College in 1995) as well as the resources listed at the end of this article, especially the Thomas Weihs book.

If we can understand the essential gesture of each polarity, then we can try to support a more balanced development. Labeling children is not the intention of this article, and when discussing a child with colleagues or parents, I strongly recommend describing observations rather than using the following terms as fixed categories These polarities are gestures that can help in our own empathetic connection to the children and can be thought of as shorthand for our own inner working. Each of these four polarities describes a situation where there is an imbalance in a particular realm of the human being. That perhaps is the underlying approach in a pedagogy that attempts to remove hindrances and obstacles to a child’s development. The warmth of the adults in general is of benefit for the children. There can be no development without warmth.

Download the article: Meeting the Six Year Old

In my years of teaching, meeting the children as they turn six in the kindergarten has challenged me. This is an issue with which most of us work. I offer these reflections of my experience and hope they will stimulate dialogue in Gateways and among ourselves.

It was a memorable first week. One of my returning boys, nearly six, was having a ball. Rushing from one activity to another, he led his old friends and most of the new boys in escalating speed around the room. Outside the pattern was repeated, going from the swings to a explosive game of freeze tag. My redirecting and gentle reminders fell on deaf ears, and noticing me, much less imitating me, was the furthest thing from his mind. How could I meet this six year old who was beginning to turn my class into his own little group?

Download the article: The Questions of a Small Child

Translated by Clara von Woedtke

Our century in its concern for “the child” has even directed its thought to an education of the very youngest, and has suggested, recommended, and undertaken all sorts of projects to this end, from gymnastics for babies to “schooling” in Montessori and other kindergartens. Rudolf Steiner calmly placed himself in opposition to all this. When he was asked, “What shall we do with a small child?” he answered, “Nothing special.” That sounds simple, but it places the greatest responsibility imaginable upon parents and teachers. It means no more nor less than this: Everything we do in its presence affects the small child. A child younger than seven is still only loosely connected with his physical body; he can be said to “hover” around it; he is spread out over his surroundings, completely surrendered to them.

Impressions of his environment ripple and flow through his whole organism; they sound and ring in him. From our gestures, our movements, our tone of voice, he is aware of all that is going on within us. The forming of his physical organs is influenced by this in a healthy or an unhealthy way. And so it is that in the presence of a small child we cannot permit ourselves to think thoughts, to feel feelings other than those which can safely continue to vibrate within the child.

Download the article: The Puppet Show

I recently visited the kindergarten at Cape Ann Waldorf School and while I was working at the woodwork table sanding a piece of wood, one of the six year-olds approached me and asked if I would like to hear a puppet show. It was gregarious Amelia, and when I didn't respond immediately, she said tantalizingly, "You know, it's a destiny story." Well, that got my attention! "Yes," I said, "I would like to hear it very much." I got up from my chair and found a place in front of her floor puppet show. "You see, it's a destiny story because this horse has to go over this bridge to the other side, only the bridge is broken," Amelia explained. Another child playing on the floor behind Amelia heard this and handed her a wooden stairway to complete the broken bridge in the puppet show. But even though Amelia accepted the stairway part, she tucked it away beneath a piece of cloth and began to tell her story.

Download the article: The Story of the Mountain Pears

Once upon a time there lived a mother who had three sons. The mother fell ill and called her sons to her and said, "Please go and fetch some pears from the high mountains." The eldest son agreed to go and seek the pears. On the way he met an old woman sitting on a stump. She held out a red chipped wooden bowl and said, "I am thirsty, please bring me some water." The boy refused saying, "I am going to pick mountain pears." Then the old woman told him of the bamboo trees standing at the junction of three paths ahead. "And if you listen, you'll hear the leaves telling you which path will take you to the mountain pears. The bamboo leaves are whispering, 'This way, this way, rustling, rustling, rustling.' "

The boy left the old woman and soon came to the three branching paths. The wind blew and the bamboo leaves in the middle whispered, "This way, this way, rustling, rustling, rustling. This way, this way, rustling, rustling, rustling."

Then the leaves on the right and the left spoke, "Not this way, not this way, rustling, rustling, rustling."

Download the article: On Obedience

In my work with parents in the kindergarten, I have been trying to bring some light to notions about imitation and modeling, limit setting, and how we go about guiding our children in the first seven years of their lives. In general, I am struck by a general parental need to have permission, if that is the right word, to limit their children’s choices, and to clearly define and model appropriate and consistent boundaries for their children’s behavior. There is much reasoning and bargaining with children; then, when that doesn’t seem to bring about the desired results, an angry or hysterical response often follows. Many parents feel a lack of control in their parenting that leads to feelings of powerlessness, frustration and confusion. There is even a hope, I think, that if their children are in a Waldorf kindergarten where “rhythm reigns,” that their children will internalize boundaries and take control of their wills, and all will be well. Well, there is a perfect starting place for parenting work in the kindergarten!

I am interested in the fact that the word obedience is not one used by parents very often anymore. In fact, when the word is spoken, I sometimes sense a discomfort in parents. Obedience has many connotations to people nowadays, perhaps because of their own experiences growing up in a home in which to obey meant “do what I tell you or you will be severely punished and I don’t mean maybe!” Or perhaps the discomfort stems from a generation of parents who, as young adults, lost trust in authority on personal and national levels, causing them to oppose obeying authority on principle. Or perhaps parents want their children to like them and be their friends. Whatever the reasons, expecting obedience from children does not seem to be integral to our parenting at the turn of the century.

Download the article: A Parent Evening in Response to September 11

Our Parent Evening with Rev. Peter Skaller and Dr. Michael Lipson on Monday, Nov. 5, was a most remarkable event. Peter and Michael addressed us on the theme of raising young children in troubled times and brought a wealth of insight and practical advice. The following summary is written from my notes, but of course, this is a pale shadow of their presentation and the intense and honest conversation that followed

In working with pediatric AIDS patients at Harlem Hospital, Michael often experienced that the children knew they had a life-threatening illness before they were informed by their parents. The younger the child, the more objective s/he was about death. Even though we restrict the children’s exposure to media bombardment about the catastrophe, continuing threats, and the war itself, nonetheless, information and feelings leak through our protective barriers. Michael recommends a “fluid readiness” to meet the child’s often disguised invitation to talk. In such conversations, initiated by the child, not the parent, one can gain insight into how the child is processing these events and how one might help. We must develop tact, the right word at the right time or a receptive silence. However, the fundamental response must be internal because the young child learns from us primarily through non-verbal means. The burden is on us to honestly process these events, because the child will immediately pick up our feelings. When tragedy occurs, we first hold the child physically, then later hold the child through the equilibrium of our inner life. Michael led us through an exercise to show us how we can use our feelings actively and creatively; we need not only “suffer” them. Michael described the distinction between self-oriented emotions (“I am angry, sad, etc.) and world-oriented feelings which can be an objective, artistic, and spiritual means of gaining knowledge about the world. One important task for us as adults is to transform our self-oriented emotions into a more open, broad perception through feeling. (“What event filled me with wonder today?”)

Download the article: Statement on Children and the Media

Throughout the years at Hawthorne Valley School, teachers and parents together have considered the effects of television in our children’s lives. Every family that applies to HVS is informed of the HVS policy about TV: “Parents are asked to cooperate with the recommendation that children not watch TV on a regular basis. Regular TV saps the child’s strength and creative energy, interferes with healthy social development, and weakens academic performance.” (from the HVS Parent Handbook.)

However, over the last 10 years, the influence of media in our children’s lives has grown so pervasive and so powerful (through not only TV, but also movies, videos, video games, and computer programs and games) that it is time to look at this issue once again. During this same period, scientists have identified with ever greater clarity and precision the effects of mediated experiences on the growing child. Moreover, an increasing body of research reveals the holistic, integrated, sequential nature of brain development, “from the most primitive core (action) brain, to the limbic (feeling) brain, and finally to the most advanced neocortex, or thought brain.” ( Johnson, p.3) It has been shown conclusively that children’s three-dimensional, real-time, multi-sensory experiences of the world through body, hand, and heart form the basis for their later cognitive abilities.

Download the article: Book Review - Ready to Learn

by Martyn Rawson and Michael Rose

Ready to Learn is the sixth book in the Hawthorn Press Early Years Series, two of which were reviewed last issue. At last! A flurry of books on Rudolf Steiner’s early childhood perspectives published in English. This series is insightful and professionally produced. This particular book is of special merit as it addresses the perennial question of grade school readiness from a Waldorf perspective. It is a book that I have been awaiting for years!

Ready to Learn offers a look at child development that is filled with wisdom and experience. “We want to show that the premature intellectual awakening of children runs counter to their real long-term interests...’When is a child ready to go to school?’ In order to answer this question we must first establish what a child needs to learn in its pre-school years. This early developmental learning phase is the essential foundation upon which all future education must stand, totter or fall.” (page 1). The authors bring practical guidelines for assessing school readiness, the culmination of a significant stage of childhood. This highly readable book is filled with anecdotes, research and practical considerations that fills a resource void for our work with young children. Themes addressed include: children’s drawings, play, sense and cognitive development, development of memory, language development, the significance of story, boy/girl differences, and computers.

Download the article: The International Working Group...

As part of its work on behalf of children in the first seven years, the International Waldorf Kindergarten Association created a working group to take up the initiative for the family and the child in its first three years of life. The most visible outer work of this group has been the planning for the two international conferences, titled “The Dignity of the Young Child.” A third conference will be offered in July 2004, in Jarna, Sweden.

During the early years of its work, the group was comprised solely of European Waldorf early childhood teachers, and arose out of their colleagueship and caring for the work with very young children. At that time, there was little support for such work, and many questions lived — as they continue to do — with regard to what Waldorf education could offer to such work. What insights and practical experiences could be developed and shared, so that care for these tiny children, so vulnerable and in such need in our times, could find devoted and capable care givers as well as support for their loving, striving parents?

Download the article: Lifeways Child Care

One of the hallmarks of LifeWays Child Care is the family-style approach. By caring for children in small groups of varying ages, the child’s daily experience is much more natural and home-like than the institutionalized and program-oriented care that is prevalent today. Through the inspiration of Rudolf Steiner’s research in child development and current research on brain development and the importance of bonding, we recognize that this model of care supports the healthy development of the child.Here are two stories from students in the LifeWays Child Care and Human Development training in Wisconsin. They each offer childcare in their homes, and one is preparing to open a LifeWays Center in Milwaukee next year.

From Ursula Wald of Tucson, Arizona
I have a three-year-old girl who had recently been expressing occasional aggressive behavior. She had taken to beating up the dolls and saying she was going to smash the babies (dolls). Occasionally she was striking out at the other children seemingly unprovoked. Things were changing in her family that could have played a role in her behavior. Recently, I added an infant to her childcare group, and I noticed that all of the children have changed somewhat since the baby came. They all, including the three-year-old girl, love the baby. Specifically,now when this little girl arrives she immediately goes to the baby dolls, gathers them all up, and begins to wrap them and care for them.

Download the article: The Peter Stories

This is an excerpt from the book, Movement for the Young Child: A Handbook for Eurythmists and Kindergarten Teachers, a new edition of the book formerly titled Eurythmy for the Young Child by Estelle Bryer. Included are circles and games that Estelle Bryer brought together out of her decades of work in the kindergarten and can be adapted for nursery or kindergarten circles.

Keywords: early childhood, three year old, movement, speech, rhyme, preschool, home school, eurythmy gesture

Download the article: At Home I Have a Little Bed

A movement verse for early childhood programs.

Download the verse: Jack and Jill

An opening movement verse to gather the children's attention for circle.

Download the article: The Blacksmith, A Michaelmas Circle

A wonderful Michaelmas circle verse for Kindergarten and home based programs.

Download the article: Helping our Brothers and Sisters Around the World

WECAN acknowledges the severe disasters that have happened recently in Brazil, New Zealand, Japan, and elsewhere. We wish to raise awareness that we are part of an international organization (the International Association for Steiner/Waldorf Early Childhood Education, or IASWECE) that is striving to bring hope and healing into struggling parts of the world. We hope to facilitate the sending of support of all kinds to our brothers and sisters around the globe. Please see the websites and addresses below for more information and opportunities to donate:

Download the article: Waldorf Education in Hungary

Budapest. The name alone gives rise to flights of fantasy. As I walk the streets here, I am struck by the complexity of these two cities—Buda and Pest—divided by the quiet, deep waters of the Danube. Much of Buda is a World Heritage Site and walking along the cobblestone streets it’s easy to get a sense of how life was 150 years ago. Budapest’s former reputation as a cultural center lives on in the ornate architecture on both sides of the river. Exquisite ironwork supports the balconies and the doorways, there are friezes, art-deco doors, free-standing sculptures, fountains, domes, palaces and churches everywhere, not to mention the grand hotels, slowly and quietly deteriorating here and there around the city. At night, with all the spires and domes, castles, bridges and palaces illuminated and reflected in the Danube, I feel as if I have entered a fairy tale and there is no more beautiful place on earth.

Download the article: The I and the Body, World Conference 2012

The 2012 World Kindergarten Conference theme “The I and the Body” is especially interesting for working in the kindergarten and with groups of very small children. The IASWECE conference planning group has been active with the following questions:

From the spiritual world, from pre-birth existence, the “I” comes in, bringing its destiny, and forms the vessel of the body in the first years of life. Spiritual beings are also active in this process, accompanying the development of walking, speaking and thinking.

Download the article: Working with Parents to Reduce Children's Media Exposure

Excerpts from “An Exploration of Parent Education Practices Used by Waldorf Kindergarten Teachers to Reduce Media Exposure for Young Children in the Home,” a Master’s Thesis by Lauren Hickman.
We are well aware as Waldorf educators of the insidious damaging effects of screen time on the young child, on family life and relationships. Obesity, attention disorders, poor self image, violent or cruel behavior, and increased inability to focus and listen are hallmarks of the media exposed child. Parent education is a key component of a successful Waldorf early childhood program. Today’s teachers are charged with introducing parents to the concept of the harmful, limiting effects of movies, computer and cell phone games, and television as they relate to the young child.

Download the article: Children Under Three: Some Thoughts About the Song Circle and Storytelling

One of the pitfalls when establishing a group for children under three, whether as part of a kindergarten for one- to six-year-olds, or as a separate group, can be that of taking kindergarten life and transferring it directly to the under-three group. The important thing to remember is that there isn’t a formula, and that we are still at the stage of observing and deepening our knowledge (through continual study) of the young child. Our observations can help us to formulate questions so that we can work consciously to create childcare that meets the needs of the children.

Download the article: Carving a Manger of the Heart

Colette Green, a good friend of mine who is a Waldorf nursery teacher, relayed this anecdote to me from a four-year-old child in her class. He began by saying, “Everythin’ in the world is changin’, you’re changin’ I’m changin’. The whole world is changin’!” He paused for a moment and then said, “We just have to remember what we once were.” This is a profound statement “out of the mouths of babes.” What did he mean when he said, “Remember what we once were?” Was he pointing to the memory of the spiritual world and the resolves that we brought with us into earthly life?

Download the article: Pikler, Point and Periphery

Author’s Note:
This article is based on the author’s study of the work of Jaimen McMillan (founder of Spacial Dynamics), Rudolf Steiner, and Emmi Pikler.

The Competent Infant
Emmi Pikler (1902-1984), was a pediatrician who founded the Pikler Institute in Budapest, Hungary. Early in her career, she lived in Triest, Italy for a year, where she spent time on the beach observing parents with their infants. Pikler witnessed parents teaching their infants to sit, stand and walk before they were able to do so on their own. She asked the question, does this communicate to the child that what he is doing is not good enough, and that he should be doing something of which he is not yet capable? Essentially Pikler’s answer was that what the infant is capable of doing at a particular time is the perfect thing for him to be doing.

Download the article: Moving with Soul, Supporting Movement Development in the Early Years (part one)

This article is an extended version of a lecture given at the National Early Childhood Conference
at Ringwood Waldorf School in England on October 17, 2009. Part Two of the article will be published
in the Fall/Winter issue of Gateways.

Significant research has been done on the importance of movement for the development and learning of children. Sally Goddard Blythe’s work on brain development and the understanding / treatment of retained reflexes in the movement patterns of children with learning difficulties should be mentioned here (Goddard, 2002 and Goddard Blythe, 2004). Audrey McAllen, who was a Steiner teacher, created “The Extra Lesson”  remedial program, which is partly based on movement therapy and is used in many Steiner schools around the world  as learning support for children at school age (McAllen, 2004).