From: darsie@eecs.ucdavis.edu (Richard Darsie)
Newsgroups: misc.education
Subject: Waldorf Education: Curriculum
Date: 2 Oct 92 22:14:30 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: University of California, Davis

This is the second of three posts on Waldorf Education.

                      WALDORF SCHOOLS: Curriculum

The Nursery-Kindergarten
	Young children are gifted with the ability to explore and identify with the 
world around them.  In the nursery-kindergarten we seek to enhance and nurture 
these qualities by creating a natural and warm environment worthy of imitation.
	A comfortable structure is provided through the rhythmical ordering of daily 
activities.  Teacher and students engage in artistic experiences such as 
watercolor painting, crayoning, beeswax modeling and eurythmy, and meaningful 
domestic tasks, such as bread-baking and building.  Playthings are natural and 
simple, allowing for the freedom of the child's imagination.  Circle games and 
stories also nourish and enhance the child's creative play.
	Through walks in the neighboring fields and woods the children can discover 
and watch changes in nature.  Seasonal and traditional festivals are prepared 
for and celebrated.  The Waldorf kindergarten strives to recognize the spirit 
in each child, the child's imitative openness to the world, and his/her 
natural sense of gratitude, wonder and reverence.

The Grade School
	Balance is one of the goals in a Waldorf school during the early years of a 
child's education.  We are dealing to a great degree with the developing 
feeling life of the child, which in itself is a balance between the intellect 
and the will.  It is the sphere in which the child lives most deeply during 
these years.
	Feeling is closely allied with the aesthetic, with the arts, which is one 
reason why each subject is presented from an artistic point of view.  The arts 
are not really separate subjects; rather, they are integrated with the subject 
at hand.  History, botany, chemistry and mathematics are all living subjects 
closely tied to the human being, and they may profitably be treated 
artisticallyQrather than as series of facts and concepts to be memorized.  Art 
becomes the great balancer, making the driest subject come alive, stirring the 
imagination and becoming an aid in a child's acquisition of knowledge.
	Movement, so closely connected with our physical balance, is also of great 
importance for grade school children.  A child will gesture while reading a 
poemQindeed, he will even gesture with his voice.  We move across the floor 
"drawing" the letters of the alphabet or a form in our form drawing; we move 
with music and poetry in our eurythmy work.  We move our vocal cords in new 
ways when we speak French and German; we move our fingers when knitting.
	The Waldorf approach attempts to keep alive a child's wonder and love of the 
world.  With a curriculum which includes fairy stories, the Old Testament and 
mythology from many cultures, as well as history and science and math, a child 
gains a wide knowledge about the world and a deep feeling for his own 
connection with it.  A curriculum so rich in the whole tradition of Western 
culture is probably unique to the Waldorf schools.  Yet it is so essential in 
a world in which we have to a certain extent lost our moorings, a world in 
which cultural illiteracy is rampant.  In a Waldorf school we try to give 
children a strong sense of continuity with the whole history of mankind.

Main Lesson Teacher
	Unique to Waldorf schools is the commitment of the main lesson teacher to a 
group of children for eight years, moving through the grades with them.  This 
offers children a continuity and a sense of security not routinely offered in 
other elementary school settings.  The main lesson, a two-hour period at the 
beginning of the day, is taught in a block format, offering students an 
immersion into a subject for three to six weeks at a time.  Teachers do not 
use textbooks, but teach the children out of their own study, be it mathematics, history or science.  Students write and illustrate their own 
main lesson books.

Special Subjects
	Special subjects follow the main lesson.  These include Spanish and German 
as the two foreign languages taught in our school.  Music (singing and recorder 
throughout the grades, strings and orchestra in the upper grades), painting, 
clay and beeswax modeling, handwork, form drawing and drama start in the first 
grade.  In the older grades, woodworking, sculpture, pottery and gardening are 
added.  EurythmyQa form of movement which brings to expression the elements of 
speech and musicQis also an essential part of Waldorf education.

The Grade School Curriculum
	The following is a brief overview of the main lesson work done in grades 
one through eight.

Grade 1
	Fairy tales, folk tales and nature stories.  Developing letters through 
pictures, then learning to recognize and draw large and small letters.  
Phonetic value of each letter.  Introduction to reading through writing.  
Numbers, both Arabic and Roman numerals.  Introduction to the four processes 
of arithmetic.  Lower multiplication tables.  Form drawing.

Grade 2
	Legends, animal fables and nature lore.  Writing and reading.  Some study 
of phonetics.  Arithmetic, including multiplication tables.  Retelling of 
stories through composition-writing.

Grade 3
	Old Testament as introduction to history studies.  Reading, spelling, 
original composition-writing.  Introduction to elements of grammar.  
Introduction to cursive writing.  Higher mathematical tables.  Measurements.  
Studies of occupations and practical life, including farming, housing, 
clothing, and nature.

Grade 4
	Norse mythology and sagas.  American Indian myths.  Spelling, reading,
composition, letter-writing, grammar.  Fractions.  Local geography and 
map-making.  Study of the animal kingdom and man's relation to animals.

Grade 5
	History of ancient civilizations through Greek times.  Composition, grammar, 
spelling, reading.  Decimals, ratios, and proportions.  North American 
geography.  Botany.  Arts and crafts.  Gardening.

Grade 6
	Biographies.  Roman and medieval history.  Composition, grammar, spelling.  
Introduction to classical literature.  Algebra.  Euclidean geometric drawing 
with instruments.  Physics (acoustics, electricity, magnetism, optics).  
Mineralogy.  Astronomy.  Geography.  Arts and crafts.  Gardening.

Grade 7
	Biographies.  Voyages of discovery.  The Renaissance.  The Reformation.  
Early American history.  Composition, grammar, spelling, literature.  Algebra 
and geometry.  Physics, inorganic chemistry, physiology.  Geography.  Arts and 
crafts.  Gardening.

Grade 8
	Biographies.  History from the 17th century to the present.  Composition, 
grammar, spelling, literature.  Algebra and geometry.  Physics, organic 
chemistry, physiology.  Electricity, magnetism.  Geography.  Arts and crafts.  
Gardening.