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Waldorf News

Mother Earth School: First All-Outdoor Kindergarten in the US

June 10, 2013

Mother Earth School started as an all-outdoor kindergarten class of Shining Star Waldorf School in fall 2007 held at Tryon Life Community Farm, an urban permaculture farm and sustainability education center in Portland, OR. In 2008, the Faery Garden Preschool was added and in 2009, both classes became Mother Earth School - a project of Tryon Life Community Farm and an evolving educational paradigm combining aspects of Waldorf education with permaculture practices and traditional living skills. The farm is surrounded by a 700 acre second growth forest (Tryon Creek State Park) and so the school has been a fusion of the European model of 'forest kindergarten' as well as homestead schooling. Our total school year enrollment has not yet exceeded 25. We keep our class sizes small enough to focus on specialized activities as well as to play freely in the forest while remaining visible to the class teachers. Each year our summer camps serve over 50 children ages 4-12, including rite of passage programs for pre-teenagers. Beginning this fall, we will be offering a 1st/2nd grade class at an urban farm in SE Portland. Jean's Farm is also surrounded by woodland and will house our new yurt classroom where an artistic, academic morning lesson inspires the outdoor immersion portion of the day. More »

Educating Children for the Journey: Jack Petrash at TEDxRockCreekPark

May 14, 2013

In order to develop these three capacities, we must educate our children in a multidimensional way in school. The place to begin is through self-directed play with the young child. Play is the wonderfully creative work of early childhood. When young children play, they are focused, attentive, and completely involved in what they are doing. This is a characteristic of genius and innovative individuals often keep this playful nature intact throughout their lives. The second way to educate children for the future is through art. In the grade school it is possible to teach all of the academic subjects in a manner that integrates art. In doing so we create an educational program that addresses a child’s need to be engaged imaginatively and emotionally in each lesson. When we teach children through a foundation of active play and a solid framework of artistic experiences, we help them develop the third essential ability, a capacity for dynamic, curious, and original thinking, a thinking that enables our children to ask the questions that are still waiting to be asked. More »

Inadequacy as a Doorway to Learning

May 13, 2013

Imagine a young child learning to stand for the first time. He has seen his older sister do it countless times, and he is determined that he, too, will stand and then walk towards the things that interest him. He crawls to the coffee table and pulls himself into an upright position, then his legs wobble and he promptly falls back onto his bottom. He pulls himself up again, and falls again. Again, and again. The wise parent watches without intervention, ensuring safety but not interrupting the learning that is going on. The child may become distracted at times, but he will keep trying until he is eventually standing solidly and walking confidently towards his interests. More »

Children Should Be Touching in School: Peer massage - Calm, focused and friendly

May 7, 2013

Touch is a fundamental human need, like eye contact and movement. Touch is a proprioceptive sense meaning that it gives us a sense of our own body. Actually it is quite unique in that it gives us a sense of ourselves and a sense of another simultaneously. Seen in this light it is also a "social sense." The other proprioceptive senses are self-movement, balance, and "life." This last one requires a bit of explanation. It is the life processes you feel inside of yourself. One way to characterize this is feeling well or feeling ill. You could say that a sense of well-being is a sense of life: we sense the life inside our own body. It is closely related to the sense of touch, because nurturing touch increases our sense of well-being. You have probably felt this yourself when you have been upset and then someone held your hand or gave you a hug. More »

Järna Biodynamic Agricultural High School Loses Barn and Herd to Fire

April 13, 2013

JÄRNA, SWEDEN — Seventy cows died in the early hours of Friday, March 22 after a barn at the Järna Biodynamic Agricultural High School about 50 kilometres south of Stockholm caught fire. Emergency services were alerted to the fire at the giant barn at Järna Biodynamic Agricultural High School (Naturbruksgymnasium high school) in the town Ytterjärna at about 2.30am. Firefighters from six nearby stations rushed to the rescue, but the barn's structure had crumbled by morning. "Now we just have minimal presence on site - one fire truck and two staff - to make sure the remains of the fire don't spread," emergency service spokesman Roger Magnusson told the TT news agency. He said the cause of the fire was yet to be determined. "When we arrived the barn was more or less entirely engulfed by fire so it is difficult to even say where it started," said Magnusson. "The other two buildings on campus that contain a workshop, classrooms, a hay loft, and stables seem to be unaffected," he added. No people were hurt in the blaze. The agricultural high school is owned by the Nibble Foundation (Nibblestiftelsen), which focuses on biodynamic milk production. Ytterjärna and its environs are home to many agricultural and educational establishments inspired by the Anthroposophic movement. More »

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