This is a two part post.
Often I get emails from moms with young children that look forward to the first few years of the curriculum and don't see science and begin to panic. I also get emails from those that are part of state/governement mandated programs and they worry about the science content as well. Unless you know where to look, it might seem that Waldorf doesn't have a strength in this area until middle elementary and even then it may look weak to some. It leaves an impression that this is only a liberal arts education and not heavy in math or science at all. I am hoping this post will clear up some of that misconception and also help those that might need it to know just what to say when nay-sayers come knocking.
In the text "Rudolf Steiner's Curriculum for Waldorf Schools," Karl Stockmeyer methodically lays out Steiner's recommendations for the first schools - in fact the subtitle is "An attempt to summarise his indications" - I am not sure I would recommend this book for the masses, while it is REALLY good and REALLY deep, it is very much for someone that is ready to jump off on their own with Steiner's work and wants to be able to ponder many works in one place - if this is you, then hop on board, if not, don't stress LOL... it is totally okay to not be there. I use this work a lot when writing our curriculum because it is organized in a way that I don't have to remember what is where, I have it separated with tabs and I can look easily at each year. This is deeper than "Rhythms of Learning" so if you want something to start with, go there first. That all being said, I am going to summarize some of the work in what I would categorize as "science."
First, one of the most remarkable things I have noticed about my own children and others that have been raised from the beginning with Waldorf is their ability to observe. As we work to create a rhythmic, quiet home, they learn to observe what is going on. They are honoring the rhythm in their daily life and it carries over into their studies. Steiner's first science was seen primarily as a study of "Home Surroundings" as he called it and it began in first grade, continuing through third grade.
Grade 1/Class 1: "you can explain to him what lies near at hand and this will later be brought to him again arranged in an orderly way as Geography and Natural History. These subjects are brought close to his understanding by linking them to thing familiar to him - plants, animals, configuration of the land, mountains and rivers." I think about children today... so many of them get a ride to everything and rarely have to effort at all. We live in the same neighborhood as all of the children's playmate and I am the only mother that has the children walk or ride bikes to others homes, everyone else gets a ride. It made me wonder just how well children of today really *know* their surroundings. Many of us can remember spending hours on end outside, it was unheard of to sit all day and watch TV - now it is the norm. My counsel would be to walk A LOT! If you live in the country, make sure your children know what lies beyond those woods or that field, if you live in the city, take time to see just how much you can do without getting in your car. This is science!
Grade 2/Class 2: Home Surroundings continues what was gathered in grade one.
Grade 3/Class 3: This is one of my favorite years. Steiner really wanted children to know what was going on around them - "Now you see that the material you have gathered through describing the environment you employ in a free way for forming your lesson on practical occupations." What trades/businesses/occupations touch your child each day? A bus driver? Lady at the deli counter? The post carrier? The milk man? So many people touch our children's lives each day, there is so much we can do with a lesson block in occupations. It draws children closer to their environment and builds memories. Often, at least in America, we don't go to 4 places and a market for our daily food, it comes to us in one grocer that houses a deli, a butcher, a dairy and often a bank, pharmacy and dry cleaner. It wasn't like that when I was a child. My children love the stories I tell of holding my mother's hand as we walked through our little village in Germany and went to the bakery each day. They have a hard time imagining a world where most of the shopping was done at a market like our local farmer's market. Be sure to share your experiences.
The study of farm animals would be appropriate this year as would farming in general, especially when you can again relate that back to the child and their lives - food consumption, etc. Steiner says "we begin to introduce animal study, selecting animals in such a way that we can relate them to man..."
** Many families will be gardening regularly, this is perfectly natural, but keep things very simple until about grade 5 when it is appropriate to get more technical. More below.
Grade 4/Class 4: At this point the shift moves a bit toward geography and testing that observation a bit. How well do they really know their surroundings? When we moved to our new home in September, my big kids took a few weeks and just rode their bikes, learning the lay of the land and getting comfortable with it all.
This year marks the turn from Home Surroundings to Nature Study. This is the year for introducing zoology. Keep in mind though that Steiner always worked from the whole and we would not really be study the skeleton or anything like that at this point. This year is an opening of sorts to what will come later. In "Rhythms of Learning," Trostli says "Our study of the animals should develop the students' imaginations and nourish their souls. We introduce the animals so that students can recognize that each animal is a reflection of one aspect of the human being. After considering these connections, we must try to awaken in the children the sense that the most perfect parts of our external form are our limbs. Our legs allow us to walk upright, leaving our hands free for work and for creative activity." Steiner says, "There is no more wonderful symbol of human freedom than human arms and hands..." During this study, we look at animals and see that each type of animal is "an enhancement of one pole of our nature - the nerve-sense system, the rhythmic system, or the metabolic-limb system." Children begin with animals in grade 4 and then move on to other animals and insects (also dinosaurs) in grade 5.
Grade 5/Class 5: This year brings the world of plants to life. Botany is the major study - the study of plants in relation to the earth. This is a beautiful time for children of this age... 11 years, or thereabouts. Again this year also brings for a deeper study of animals and how they relate to their environment.
From Steiner, "When we have given sufficient time to speaking of the plants as articulate beings, allowing the child as he looks at the plant world to experience it in living pictures, we can then introduce something he can learn in the best possible way from the plants if we begin to speak of it between the ninth and tenth year, gradually carrying it further during the tenth and eleventh. The human organism is now at this stage ready to relate itself inwardly to the plant-world by way of ideas."
Part 2 will be out in a few weeks and will cover grades 6 and up.
Blessings!
