Waldorf News

The Rubicon (from Ukraine)

A 9-year-old child is going through a special period of his life. Our school uses the term Rubicon.

Rubicon, it’s like being banished from paradise.

The magic gradually dissipates and children begin to see reality as it is.

Reality can be unexpected, scary or frustrating.

Therefore, the purpose of the 3rd grade is to help the child learn to live in this reality.

Learn to do everything that humanity once learned to do before coming into the modern world.

The Rubicon is a time when you need to make decisions and act.

And teachers help the child learn to act in this world. In the 3rd grade we learn to cultivate the land, cook, make clothes or utensils, build a house.

Through work, we learn to be confident, and we also learn to value each other’s work.

-Olga Blesnova, a third-grade teacher at the Waldorf School, Dnipro, Ukraine. (Вальдорфська школа м. Дніпро)