Story on Waldorf Schools Incomplete

It seems that although your reporter went to school, she didn’t do her homework. Highland Hall School is one of 150 Waldorf Schools in the United States, and more than 500 worldwide, making it the oldest and largest independent school system and growing all the time.

Your reporter presented a disjointed and confusing picture that reflects her incomplete understanding of the Waldorf curriculum. Addressing a few of the more obscure references in the article: Children in a Waldorf school are taught abstraction with reference to tangible experience, to which they can relate. Hence, in teaching the letter M to a 6-year-old, the teacher might draw its likeness in the shape of a mountain range or the letter T as a Tree. This is the way our language evolved, eons ago. It brings the subject to life for the children and provides a type of visual mnemonic.

Two or more subjects are not “taught together” as such, rather, there is a main lesson theme and all other skills may be brought to bear on it. For example, in a history lesson on early California, fourth-graders may study the botany of the region, learn the mathematics of measurement in remaking early regional maps, and write the data of their experiences in their own, colorfully illustrated handmade textbooks. The only thing “bizarre” about all this is that so few other schools have the awareness to adopt these highly successful and time-tested methods of teaching.

Waldorf education is based on a belief in the intrinsic goodness and ability of children. It is interesting, thorough and fun. The children love it. If my daughter, a fourth-grader at the Pasadena Waldorf School, would rather map the constellations of the night sky in her own astronomy textbook instead of playing Ms. Pac Man, who am I to object?

LIZ LYONS

La Canada

Editor’s note: The Assn. of Waldorf Schools of North America, based near Sacramento, counts 99 Waldorf schools in the United States.