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Waldorf News

Why Waldorf Students Knit

October 15, 2018

Knitting has been gathering a lot of attention lately by crafters and scientists alike. It turns out knitting and handwork provides a host of brain and wellbeing benefits to people of all ages. For students, in particular, knitting provides an essential learning medium. A child who is knitting a hat or a toy kitten sees their will transformed into art. They see their focused, detailed work turn into something beautiful and purpose filled. They experience how the conceptual becomes concrete. This is why Waldorf education founder, Rudolf Steiner, lectured on the importance of handwork for students just under 100 years ago. More »

All together now: singing is good for your body and soul: As scientists show that choir practice is healthier than yoga, Sarah Rainey – who does both – praises the power of song

October 7, 2018

After years of singing in the shower and warbling my way through karaoke duets, 18 months ago I finally joined a choir. Every Thursday evening, I head to a church hall in Marylebone, central London, where, along with 30 others – mostly women, the occasional bloke – I spend 90 minutes belting out Motown, gospel and pop classics, from Abba to Bon Jovi. I’m more of a keen amateur than a wannabe soloist, but even the odd off-key note or wrong lyric can’t detract from how good singing makes me feel. I leave every session uplifted, buoyed by a flurry of endorphins flooding through my body. So it comes as no surprise that scientists have shown that not only does singing in a choir make you feel good, it’s got health benefits, too. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, found that choristers’ heartbeats synchronise when they sing together, bringing about a calming effect that is as beneficial to our health as yoga. More »

A neuroscientist explains what tech does to the reading brain: It’s not a zero-sum game

October 1, 2018

For anyone who has ever been a reader, there’s much to sympathize with in Maryanne Wolf’s Reader, Come Home. The UCLA neuroscientist, a great lover of literature, tries to read Hermann Hesse’s Glass Bead Game, an old favorite, only to realize that she finds him boring and too complex. She wonders why he ever won a Nobel. And Wolf, who previously wrote Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain, is horrified that this is what has happened to her ability to concentrate. Reader, Come Home is about, as its subtitle states, “the reading brain in a digital world.” The Verge spoke to Wolf about how technology is changing the brain, what we lose when we lose deep attention, and what to do about it. More »

A Tour of Discovery in Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria

September 24, 2018

I had the good fortune this summer of spending a month in Eastern Europe with my good friend and colleague, Marjorie Rehbach. We awoke to the sound of church bells each day, for the ‘old’ country still measures time in this way and prepared to experience the activities that were part of  a tour that was organized by Sarnia Guiton of Sophia Services. She titled it; “In Search of the future, A Tour of Discovery in Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria”. Sarnia related to us that Anthroposophy was planted in these Eastern European countries early in the last century. Communism kept it underground, prompting it to grow strong roots. At the end of that era, it grew strong and firm above ground and blossomed with joy that it could now be free. We have known none of that in the West.  We felt the effects of oppression on some of the older generation of people wherever we went, but we also were able to experience firsthand awe and enthusiasm for Waldorf education in the younger people. Indeed, it has been said that the Slavs will lead the way in heart-thinking consciousness in the future. More »

World Language in Waldorf Schools – what to expect and why   

September 17, 2018

“Kopf, Schulter, Knie und Zehe” sings the first grade German class as they touch their heads, shoulders, knees and toes. Frau Geck, Lower School German teacher at Shining Mountain Waldorf School in Boulder, Colorado, then launches into a game of “Frau Geck sagt” (Simon says). The children balance on one leg, jump up in the air, stand on their chairs and touch their nose, laughing if they do it at the wrong time. Later in the day, third graders join in the retelling of  “Die Drei Kleinen Schweinchen” (The Three Little Pigs), giggling when Frau Geck sucks in her cheeks and makes herself look as thin as possible to emphasize how small the wolf has to make himself to fit down the chimney. In these lower school language classes, the students are completely engaged not really noticing that Frau Geck is speaking only German. Across the road in a classroom at the high school, seniors discuss in German the effects of Alzheimer’s on family members and relate stories about people they know with dementia. How did these seniors get from being participatory imitators in the first few grades to being able to converse about a wide range of topics with fluency in the 12th grade? Why do we consider languages so important in a Waldorf school and what kind of fluency can parents expect for their child while in the lower school/middle school language program and at the end of their twelfth grade year? More »

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