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Source: Waldorf Today, citing research by James McNeal, professor emeritus at Texas A&M University

Many parents think that the Waldorf curriculum is wonderful for young children with its gentle, nurturing rhythm that supports the child’s continuing growth and development.  But questions often arise when the child is ready for grade school. Parents wonder whether a Waldorf school is still the right choice or whether their child can successfully make the transition into “the real world”  after graduation.  Ms. Young will tackle these questions and more during her talk.

A veteran Waldorf teacher, mentor, trainer, former administrator, and consultant, Kathleen Young has been active in the Waldorf movement since the mid-1970s.  Ms. Young worked as a class teacher at Hawthorne Valley School and the Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs, both in New York state, for over 11 years.  She also co-founded the high school at Saratoga Springs where she subsequently taught history and English.  Ms. Young’s extensive experience as a teacher and parent of five adult children make her uniquely qualified to speak to the topic of what Waldorf Education has to offer students after the early childhood years, and how it serves them throughout their lives.  The talk will present an opportunity for parents with questions or concerns about Waldorf Education over the long-term to talk with Ms. Young and other parents to garner support for their school choice.  Parents of young children, as well as those of middle schoolers are especially welcome to attend this meeting.

The Parents’ Association will meet on Monday, February 27th at 7 p.m. in the Applied Arts Studio.   Childcare will be available for those who need.  Arrangements for childcare can be made by contacting Ania Muñoz Mazurkiewicz or Jim Brannon, PA CoConveners.

You can help! Philabundance adds handmade cards to boxes for seniors. Cards are approximately 4 in. by 6 in. or half a standard sheet of paper folded over. Help yourself to paper located outside the 8th grade classroom. Include greetings like “Have a Great Day” or “Best Wishes” or just a cheerful crayon or colored pencil drawing or construction paper or watercolor paper collage. Examples are on the 8th grade bulletin board. Please drop off your cards outside our room by the end of the school day on Tuesday, February 28th

If you’ve always been curious about needle-felting and how to make those beautiful needle-felted creatures that our children enjoy in the kindergarten classrooms, now is your chance!  Gwyn Linsalata, Waldorf Parent-Toddler Teacher, and parent of two alumni, will be offering a needle-felting workshop at Parent Handwork.  This 3-session workshop will meet Friday mornings on March 16th, 23rd and 30th, from 8:30 until 10:30 a.m. in the Applied Arts Studio.  All skill levels welcome.  The supply fee for this workshop will be around $25 (this includes everything you will need, including lovely plant-dyed wool fleece).  Since supply kits will need to be prepared in advance, please e-mail Gretchen Wright, Parent Handwork Coordinator at nategretch@gmail.com, to reserve a kit if you plan to attend.

Friday, March 2nd, 7 –9 p.m.

Mark your calendar for a coffee house the week we return from break!  Use your down time wisely: practice a poem to recite, jam with your band, or dust off your bagpipes!  (Yes, bagpipes!) On Friday, March 2 from 7—9 p.m. be thrilled, or at least tickled, amazed, or at least amused by our community’s offerings of talent and our 8th grade bakers’ offerings of sweet treats. You know the drill: contact Mrs. Shiffman at cbshiffman@gmail.com if you’re an adult or alum who would like to perform. Use the sign up sheets on the 8th grade bulletin board to sign up to perform if you’re in grades 4 and up.

No! It is not true. Learning to read is an entire process with many contributory facets, and Waldorf Education undertakes reading instruction in almost the opposite way that it is introduced in most schools across the nation Indeed, the foundation for reading instruction is laid already in the kindergarten.

In the United States, the mainstream approach to reading has been to introduce decoding skills as the first step in the reading process. This entails memorizing the alphabet and its corresponding sounds through repetitive drills and then linking these sounds together to read simple words and sentences. This is the approach that is built into early readers. You probably remember: “See Dick run. Run, Dick, run. Run, run, run.”, or some similar type of reading material when you were in school. Because the content of these early readers must be very simple to restrict words to those that can be easily sounded out, teachers are forced to wait until the middle and upper elementary years to work on more sophisticated texts. Then teachers must work hard to improve comprehension since the pupils at this age have already moved beyond the phase of where imaginative thinking is at its peak.

There is a second concern about teaching reading skills in this sequence. This approach is difficult for many young children because, in many cases, their eye muscles have not matured to the point where they can track properly on a page. Thus, a number of children will be labeled as slow or remedial readers simply because their eyes may not have matured as early as other children.

Waldorf Education approaches reading instruction from an almost opposite direction specifically so that instruction is synchronous with the development of children. Reading is much more than recognizing sound/symbol relationships. For true reading to occur, there must be a corresponding inner activity that takes place as the child decodes words: that is, the child must form an inner picture of what he or she is reading so that comprehension develops. The rich life of the imagination is most potent in a child during kindergarten and early elementary years and is present at the same time that the child’s sense for the sound and rhythm of language is at its peak.

To capture these capacities at the time that they are most present in the child is the rationale for a foundation of reading that begins first with spoken language. The rich language of fairy tales, the pictorial imagery of songs and poems and the desire of the young child to listen to stories and repeat rhymes and sing songs all become the basis for a language arts curriculum through which a child may come to love “the word”. Imagine how much more complex and imaginative are the stories to which a child may be introduced if they are orally presented rather than through the simplistic language of a reader. Imagine how much a child’s vocabulary can develop from listening to the content that the teacher brings. Imagine also how much more sophisticated a child’s understanding (comprehension) of the world can become through hearing the rich and complex language in the teacher’s presentations and stories.

For all of these reasons, Waldorf students will be given a strong foundation in comprehension, vocabulary and in the sounds and meanings of their native tongue. Then students will be introduced to writing and spelling the letters and words that are part of their stories. And, as a final step, the students will read from their own texts describing the stories that they have heard. In this way, students have the proper time to develop all of the skills that are part of the complex skill of reading at the time when it is most appropriate for them to do so. When reading is approached in this way, children become voracious readers who love and understand what they choose to read.

The original post can be found at www.whywaldorfworks.org

Bunny Smith was the first WSP Alumna Editor-in-Chief. Bunny graduated from WSP in 2005 and was succeeded as Editor-in-Chief by WSP Alumna and Parsons Freshman, Lizzie Bastian. Lizzie held the position for two years before being succeeded by current Editor-in-Chief, Leah Bakely. Leah graduated from Mrs Persinotti’s class and is now a Senior at Central High School.

Leah will be joining the WSP Alumni Panel on Tuesday, 6th March at 7.00 p.m. Save the date, join us and bring your questions to the panel.

Philadelphia’s Waldorf school is in Mount Airy, the philosophy isn’t just low tech, it’s no tech no computers, no batteries, nothing that beeps- it’s totally unplugged. One of the most obvious differences toys, no electronics, no beeps, felt, real wood, pinecones, nature table, play station, marble roll, balance beam, arrange furniture hang out in. The absence of media, not even technology kids are relentlessly marketed to from the time born, supermarket, movies on yogurt, this school had none of that. The Waldorf philosophy is to let the natural world be the playground to explore and create and imagine put the good stuff in get the good stuff out literally.

Waldorf is becoming especially popular in tech savvy communities. The parents aren’t haters, they just think young children learn best without all the bells and whistles. So what’s it all cost? Waldorf Philadelphia about $12,000, half of their kids get financial aid. There are also schools in Kimberton, Chester County, and Princeton, N.J.

This article is from myfoxphilly.com and was first published on 4th February 2012

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