Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Waldorf and Unschooling: noticing similar goals and philosophies...

I've been doing a lot of reading about unschooling lately, because I'm sure it's the way for us to go for our family in terms of learning. It feels familiar and rings true to my own beliefs about education and life--that it's best when created in freedom, and in the context of the family's current time and place. I've studied enough Anthroposophy and Waldorf philosophy to know that I believe in its principles--more on those below. And so, when I came upon unschooling and started to read, the concepts described and challenges that we've been having seemed to align with the benefits gained by unschooling while also meeting the needs of my children.

 The goal of Waldorf education is, in the most simple of words, to create happy people. In more words, it's to support children into becoming happy adults who know themselves and their own value in this world--and who are interested in their own world and the people in it, and thus they care for others and the earth with love and consciousness. This philosophy is the means to the ultimate goal, which is to further social renewal--to create a society that will be peaceful, and to create systems that support people and the natural world as opposed to teaching/forcing people into systems in order to support the system itself.

 On to the philosophy of unschooling which, as I've read it in several places, is the following: to help a child be who she is and blossom into who she will become. Unfortunately that will be my only direct comment about unschooling because I'm not experienced enough yet to give any opinion about how this is accomplished in-practice. But this desciption of the unschool philosophy goes to the heart of Waldorf philosophy. In Waldorf education, children are respected for themselves as well as for their potential as human beings. While guided by adults, one of the things that people notice first about Waldorf students is their ability to look adults in the eye and be confident in their communication. I believe this is because the teacher knows the students so well, and practices conscious ways of connecting with them on a daily basis. It's part of the Waldorf teacher's job to help discover where a child shines and where challenging him would help him know himself and the world around him; to help her learn about culture and history in a way that speaks to their inner being as developing humans while showing where we've been in a holistic way; to explore the world with children both in the classroom and out. In unschooling it's the parent's job to support the child's becoming. The other difference is more inferred from the description of the goals described above. Unschooling focuses on the child's experience of the world and herself as the means toward being happy, while Waldorf, also interested in the child's experience of the world and herself as the means to being happy, does this with a greater explicit goal for a community that cares for others and works together in a global community for peace and care of the Earth, our home.

 As a mother, I'm most interested in my child's future life and believe that's my job to care for it as much as possible. I see the years of their childhood as fleeting and want to foster the best possible relationship for them with themselves and due to our proximity, their parents. There is little that I can do directly to affect the fate of the world, but by doing my small part to help my own children with their relationship to and within it, I believe that they will be more open to the care of others. I think that this is implied by the goals for unschooling--happy people tend to have room in their hearts to care about others and be interested in the world around them. At the least, I'm willing to bet that this connection with the world is a side-effect of unschooling even if it never enters the parent's mind to value this for their child.

 Found quotes:

 "...Waldorf Method of Education strives to awaken and ennoble capabilities, rather than to merely impose intellectual content on the child. Learning becomes much more than the acquisition of quantities of information... learning becomes an engaging voyage of discovery of the world, and of oneself.

 Steiner maintained that the materialism underlying modern life was disastrous. He urged his followers to awaken to the spiritual origin of nature and destiny of the human being...A Waldorf Education is meant to be the beginning of a life long love of learning."

 ~WaldorfHomeschool.com --

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Revival

And ten years later, we're back where we started. I've had two kids attending Waldorf school for ten years now and recently decided to bring them home. We did not make the decision lightly or for one reason. The most important reasons are a) the kids asked for it, and b) it's what feels right for our family. I believe that recognizing when you need a change and constantly being aware of what brings you joy, interest, and a feeling that you're useful. That's really the fundamental goal for Waldorf education, as a part of the movement toward social renewal - developing in children (people) the deep knowledge of how to live a happy life. Life, love, interests and happiness are all ever-changing. And here we are again.