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Learning Through Imagination
Beginning around the child's sixth year and becoming fully established
around the age of seven, ability develops to follow processes using
their imagination. Whereas a younger child may have to act out or
demonstrate what they wish to communicate, the 6-7 year-old begins to
inwardly picture a situation and describe it in a more complex
language. At this time the child enters the Lower School, where two
main factors contribute towards the consolidation of this image-filled
feeling for life:
- The
relationship with the Class Teacher, who has overall responsibility for
the core curriculum in relationship to the child's development, ideally
extends throughout the following 8 years, enabling the child to develop
a feeling of trust in the situation and the teacher to develop insight
into each child's particular needs, and to monitor this ongoing process
of growth in every area;
- An
artistic approach to each aspect of the curriculum permeates the
teaching and works directs with the feeling-imagination. Each lesson
could be likened to looking through a window into a world: the teacher
describes the view, pointing out salient features, and inspiring the
child to enter into an enriched experience, through which specific
learning objectives then can be achieved.
During
this time the children will learn those skills so necessary in
contemporary society: Writing, Reading, and Mathematics. Each subject
is established in richly-experienced lessons which lead from the
child's real world of pictures towards the abstract world of our adult
consciousness.
Similarly arising out of stories told by the
teacher, the study of History and Geography helps them to appreciate
more fully who they are, where they are, and how they are indebted to
those who have gone before. This imagination is nurtured through
practice in the Arts, and through the artistic element in other
lessons, to lead the faculty of wonder towards an appreciation and
understanding of the Sciences.
The Curriculum and the teaching method together facilitate a learning
activity through which the child develops an integrated view of human
life in its individual, social and environmental contexts.
Consequently, formal skills are introduced and exercised in a
meaningful context which engages the child's interest and
understanding.
Developing Social Awareness
Several problems seem evident in our society. One is an unbalanced
intellectuality, which results in a detached technical obsession with
knowledge at the expense of human interest. Another is sentimentality
and emotionalism. A third problem is that of impulsiveness, an often
exuberant violence erupting out of the will.
These are prevalent forms of egotism in our time. The Mission Statement
of the School's Charter, that through this education the human being
shall become free and responsible, establishes the development of
social consciousness as a central task. This is approached quite
concretely in the Lower School.
The class is a community in which the contributions of everyone are to
be recognised. The giftedness of any particular child is not something
to be hoarded or promoted for their own ends, but is to be developed
even further through sharing. A gifted child will stay with their
age-group and be encouraged to participate fully in the advancement of
the group; the social ideal is to develop awareness that each
individual has something to give, and has much to receive.
In another significant way, social sensitivity is enhanced. The faculty
for fantasy and imagination in the young child, if cultivated, becomes
a powerful social sense. Although the fear is often articulated in our
society that if we do not make children aware of the `harsh realities
of the real world' they will remain ineffectual dreamers, in fact the
reverse is generally true. The child who is prematurely forced into
this `real world' can be numbed by it, becoming apathetic, while the
imaginative and often dreamy child can become someone whose imaginative
faculty becomes an organ which is able to perceive the viewpoint and
character of another person. Such people often are skilled mediators
and facilitators in social and work situations, and in the adult sphere
of management.
The Class Teacher
A unique feature is that throughout the Lower School, ideally the
children are guided by a particular teacher whose task is to develop
insight into the individual child's needs, to create an appropriate
learning context for the group, and to be an authority in the child's
life. This Class Teacher also is expected to establish an active
working relationship with the child's family, to facilitate a
co-operative and mutually supportive understanding of that child. In
the classroom this teacher is especially responsible for the Main
Lessons, and for the co-ordination of the other core curriculum
subjects.
The Specialist Teachers
A number of subjects are taught by teachers who specialise in that
activity. These include Handwork, Eurythmy, Physical Education,
Gardening, Religion, Maori, and German. In addition, class teachers may
interchange in order to offer their particular talents in other
classes, for instance in art, music, and games.
Main Lessons and Subject lessons
Every morning until morning tea, a particular subject or theme will be
studied for several weeks in the Main Lesson. This structure takes
advantage of the fact that after a time of intensive learning,
experience and skills are further consolidated at a subconscious level.
It also caters for the more intensive nature of learning that occurs
when interest is aroused; for that time, it is the only thing worth
doing!
The content of the Main Lesson is presented by the teacher. Text books
are not used. Instead, the children create their own text, called the
Main Lesson Book, which may include a self-researched project as an
extension-study of the theme. Characteristically these books are works
of art crammed with fascinating accounts of the subject, which become
prized family possessions, and reference material for further study.
Subject Lessons resemble the lessons taught in all schools, in that
they occur regularly throughout the week as timetabled. They may be
taught by the Class Teacher or a Specialist Teacher. In the Lower
School the approach to these lessons is always imaginative, with the
objective of developing both understanding and technical facility.
Co-operative learning is fostered in lessons, especially in the early
years, with the teacher directing the process for the benefit of the
whole group.
The Curriculum and Timetable
The Waldorf Curriculum is comprehensive. A broad range of subjects is
studied throughout the school. Care is taken to develop subject content
in a way that is truly relevant to the inner life of the child.
Consequently some subjects are introduced only at a later stage in the
child's development, while other subjects will be studied in depth at a
very early stage. In general the more intellectual subjects are
approached later, when the child exhibits the appropriate faculty for
understanding.
As much as possible, the timetable is organised so that subjects of a
more academic nature are studied in the morning, while artistic and
practical activities are timetabled into the afternoons. However, the
intention in each lesson is to balance intellectual, artistic and
practical activity so that the child's whole being is involved.
The importance of rhythm in learning, through which new content is
recapitulated and consolidated in subsequent lessons, is a significant
factor in timetabling and structuring lessons. Effective learning
occurs when these rhythms and patterns of assimilation and digestion
are observed.
Because the children are 6-7 years old when entering Class 1, it must
be appreciated that initially their learning attainment in formal
academic learning will not be equivalent to that of peers in other
schools. However, a broad foundation encompassing many skills is
developed which ensures that a normally-developing child readily
reaches similar standards in writing, reading and arithmetic within a
few years, together with a great deal else which ultimately will take
them far on the path of learning. | |
