A Philosophy That Doesn’t Rush Pupils to Read

The first-graders in Dory Atkinson’s class recite poetry and act out fairy tales. They knit and play the flute. They garden and speak some German.

Yet most don’t read.

Call it educational heresy. While public school teachers urge children to read as early as kindergarten, teachers at the private Highland Hall school in Northridge do not expect their students to read until the third, even fourth grade.

“We live in a very competitive society that believes that earlier is better,” said Lisa Scemama, a Highland Hall teacher. “But we don’t necessarily believe that. Early readers are often burned out by sixth grade. And that’s when we really want them to be inspired.”

Highland Hall teachers do not push phonics. They do not make students memorize the alphabet. And they usually stay away from sight words, commonly used but irregularly spelled words such as “the” and “of.” Rather, they try to motivate children to develop a love of language and literature--through storytelling, music, drama, art and dance.

They believe that students should learn to read at their own pace--when they are developmentally ready.

“I definitely think it is the way to go,” Atkinson said. “We are not directing them toward reading. They come to it with their own enthusiasm.”

Highland Hall is the oldest of a string of schools throughout Southern California that use the Waldorf method, named for the German industrialist who commissioned the new approach for use in company schools after World War I. It takes an alternative approach to education--one that places equal emphasis on arts and academics, teaching each student according to his or her developmental stage.

Students stay with the same main teacher from first through eighth grade, and switch instructors for classes in painting, gardening, musical instruments and eurythmy--a dance that allows students to act out words and sentences.

In Waldorf schools, there are no computers, no televisions, no grades and no exams. Rather, teachers immerse their children in a world of fairy tales, myths and legends--anything that will help develop the imagination. Through the focus on oral language, Waldorf educators say, children slowly learn to read and write.

“It’s not shoving reading down their throats,” said Highland Hall librarian Betty Reilly.

Waldorf officials say that their high school graduates score well on the SAT and frequently get accepted to Ivy League and competitive public universities.

Cal State Northridge instructor Tim Smith said a number of Waldorf graduates have gone through his urban studies classes, and they have shown curiosity, motivation and enthusiasm.

“They do more than other students,” he said. “They write a little more. They use a little bit higher vocabulary. And they ask questions. That’s why I enjoy them so much.”

But even Waldorf teachers acknowledge that their method isn’t for everyone. Some parents pull their children out of Waldorf schools in favor of a more competitive, rigorous curriculum.

One, Debra Snell, formed a nonprofit, anti-Waldorf group called People for Legal and Nonsectarian Schools after pulling her fifth-grade son out of a Waldorf school in Grass Valley, near Sacramento. Despite years of having his imagination tickled, he still could not read.

“My concern is when it’s time to teach the children to read, where is the background to teach these children?” Snell said. “There is no phonics and they don’t have enough of the basics. So many children fall through the cracks.”

Located on an 11-acre campus in the San Fernando Valley, Highland Hall serves about 395 students from kindergarten to 12th grade. The campus opened in 1955 as the first Waldorf School in the Western United States.

Now there are 21 Waldorf schools in California, including campuses in Santa Monica, Costa Mesa and Santa Barbara. There are no entrance exams or qualifications. Highland Hall’s annual tuition varies from $8,550 in first grade to $10,375 in 12th grade.

In kindergarten, children listen to stories, then dramatize or retell them, using costumes, watercolor paints or puppets. In first grade, the students start to learn the letters of the alphabet through stories and poetry.

After telling her children a Grimms’ fairy tale, first-grade teacher Atkinson asked them to draw a picture of a tree, a witch and a cave. In her chalkboard drawing, the cave door was shaped like a C. Later in the week, Atkinson plans to introduce the letter and talk about other words that start with C. The students also frequently sculpt letters out of clay or trace them in sand.

“They don’t learn letters out of context,” Atkinson said. “This brings them a living image. It brings them into the fairy tales so they see the C in cave. It’s alive.”

In second and third grade, Waldorf children start reading and writing stories and working on their handwriting and grammar. And by fourth grade, most are reading and writing fluently.

Although Waldorf children’s reading may be delayed by public school standards, most more than catch up later. By the time they reach fifth grade, they score above average on standardized tests for reading and writing, said Bob Anderson, a Waldorf parent who works in the standards office of the state Department of Education.

“They use a different approach to reach high levels of achievement,” Anderson said, “but they certainly get their students there.”

On a recent day in Robert Murar’s fourth-grade class, his students went up to the front of the room one by one to recite original sentences and stories using their spelling words. Then Murar dimmed the lights, lit candles, and returned to telling a story from Norse mythology, “Iduna’s Apples.” The students listened attentively and asked questions along the way.

Dante Bisson, 9, said he loves to read. And he likes to write his own stories. Dante said he is glad nobody made him start reading in kindergarten or first grade.

“I think that’s too early because you haven’t learned about everything,” he said. “It’s hard to start all at once.”

Fionn Lemon, who is a parent and a graduate of Highland Hall, said she does not understand why public school parents get so worked up about their children learning to read early.

“It’s an irrational fear,” she said. “What do they need at age 6 that will help them get into Harvard?”

* SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LIVING

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