Waldorf Principles

I have mentioned Marsha Johnson, another of my mentors. By showing me the principles of Waldorf education (as opposed to just examples of Waldorf education), she enabled me to incorporate this model into everything we do. Here are those principles as I understand them:

1. Look for archetypal knowledge, eternal truths--vs. knowledge where the perspective can change with time. Look for cross-cultural lessons from history. Be able to perceive and express these spiritual truths yourself, then teach them without stating them obviously. This can be hard, but it helps so much when you have done your own inner work ahead of time. The truths seem to emanate from you.

2. Identify time period, culture, or sources of info as the foundational core focus for a block. Then plan to present 2 new ideas around that focus each week. (For a 4-week block, you will cover 8 main concepts.) This really helped me, because I'm often guilty of trying to cram in too much!

3. Identify skill threads (vocabulary, grammar, math, etc.) to be incorporated into the lessons. This is pretty easy, for those of us who are used to unit studies. Marsha recommends choosing for each week an artistic goal, an academic goal, and a social goal. (Social would be different at home than in a Waldorf school, I expect.)

4. Be conservative with words. Then we spend more time with hands-on or artistic endeavors, and it isn't just mom talking all the time. (This one's a challenge for me too!)

5. Bring reverence to the lesson--respect for culture, belief, people, nature, God, and the earth. Set the scene, eliminate distractions, incorporate the beautiful.

The idea of Whole to Parts is an important principle as well, one I will cover in a future post.