<<

Research

Bulletin

Research Bulletin Volume Autumn/Winter 2014

Volume XIX á Number 2 XIX

Number

2 Research

Institute

for RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR

Waldorf RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR WALDORF EDUCATION

P.O. Box 307 Education Wilton, NH 03086 EDUCATIONWaldorf

Table of Contents

From the Editor Elan Leibner...... 3

From the Executive Director Douglas Gerwin...... 5

The Value of Risk in Children’s Joan Almon ...... 7

Learning in Relationships Thomas Fuchs, translated from German by Nina Kuettel...... 17

Encountering Sophia in the Classroom: Gender Inclusion in the Waldorf Curriculum Kristin Agudelo...... 27

Imagine Knowledge: A Livable Path Paula C . Sager...... 39

The Formative Qualities of Foreign Language Teaching Erhard Dahl ...... 47

Core Principles of Waldorf Education: An Introduction and First Discourse Pedagogical Section Council of North America...... 52

A Contribution to the First Core Principle Elan Leibner...... 55

A Contribution to the Second Core Principle Holly Koteen-SoulŽ...... 57

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 2 • Table of Contents

A Call for Reports on Responsible Innovation Elan Leibner for the Research Bulletin...... 61

Report on the Online Waldorf Library Marianne Alsop ...... 63

Report on Waldorf Publications Patrice Maynard...... 64

Indices of Past Research Bulletins...... 65

About the Research Institute for Waldorf Education...... 71

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 From the Editor

Elan Leibner

ear Readers, so-called ÒsafeÓ playgrounds and offer many My previous editorial (Volume 19, Number more benefits for the children who use them . D1) elicited an unusual number of comments . If Almon and her colleagues have their way, The themes of renewing and making Waldorf a new generation of capable and responsible education more localized seemed to touch a risk-takers will rise from the ranks of todayÕs nerve . Thank you to those who responded . toddlers . We can only hope that many adults These themes are continued in this issue; will read and follow her suggestions . several articles describe and advocate new Thomas Fuchs is a university researcher approaches, and we are sending out a request working in Germany . In a thoughtful and for papers that document innovation in schools . comprehensively researched article, he At the same time, we continue to publish describes how the entirety of a childÕs learning research that describes the physiological and process is based on relationships with others . theoretical foundations of sound practices For human beings, every already familiar to most of our readers . from birth onwards is a social process, and the These two directionsÑthe one Òdeep-wardÓ cognitive epicenter of our physiology, the brain, that seeks to renew and inspire practicing can develop as the instrument of cognition teachers, the other Òout-wardÓ that provides only through relationships with other people . supporting evidence through contemporary He concludes with a useful section on what scientific research and language for what contemporary cognitive research can and Waldorf education is already doingÑhave been cannot offer educators, and shows that what signature gestures of the Research Institute for we do know about brain development suggests Waldorf Education (RIWE) since its inception . pedagogical practices that will seem rather During an Institute Board retreat in May of this familiar to Waldorf educators . year, Susan Howard described the history of Kristin Agudelo is a humanities teacher the Institute, and those of us newer to RIWEÕs at the Merriconeag Waldorf School in Maine . work came to appreciate how presciently Her contribution makes a persuasive case for the founders saw the need for both of these the need in Waldorf schools to enhance our gestures . awareness of women in the study of history . Joan Almon is a founding member of Drawing from an important lecture by Rudolf the Alliance for Childhood, an organization Steiner and from contemporary educatorsÕ whose first great deed was to help restore thinking on the subject, as well as her own play as an acceptable component of early historical examples, she gives compelling childhood education . Now she is setting her reasons for introducing transformational sights on another Òfour-letter wordÓÑrisk . In figures from the most remote past to more a persuasive (and in places surprising) piece, modern times, who can be, but rarely are, she details the benefits and debunks the myths included in the curriculum . Agudelo is a concerning risk on the playground . Many new voice in these pages, but judging from years of tracking playgrounds of different the passion and fullness of her inaugural kinds have shown that appropriately designed, contribution, it seems safe to assume that we risk-encouraging settings are as secure as the will hear from her again .

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 4 • From the Editor

Another first contribution comes from work of Waldorf pedagogues . The resulting Paula Sager, an early childhood educator document, which is included as part of this working in Rhode Island . She discusses the issue, was widely disseminated to Waldorf role of imagination in developing healthy and teachers in independent Waldorf schools and insightful cognitive relationships with nature in public charter schools working with Waldorf and with children . Readers who followed principles . Several of the recipients asked for Frederick AmrineÕs series on the philosophical additional content to enhance the study of this roots of Waldorf education will not be surprised document . Various PSC members agreed to by her tribute to Amrine for inspiring her in the write short contributions in support of such a writing of this piece . She is well grounded in the study, and the first two (one by Holly Koteen- work of the European philosophers and poets SoulŽ and one by me) appear in this issue. discussed in that series . Further contributions will appear in future Yet another teacher writing for the first issues of the Research Bulletin . time in our Bulletin is Erhard Dahl, a language A Call for Papers arises as a direct follow- teacher working in Germany . His article up to the aforementioned editorial of the last describes some of the subtle but crucially Bulletin. In a process that I named ÒResponsible important aspects of language teaching in a Innovation,Ó teachers are encouraged to Waldorf school, especially the opportunity to follow a protocol of study, discussion, develop flexibility of thinking and appreciation experimentation, and then review of new of cultural perspectives through discussion possibilities in the curriculum . We hope to of linguistic differences among languages . publish the reports of their work . Dahl reminds us that, like other subjects in The Online Waldorf Library and Waldorf the curriculum, foreign language is a tool for PublicationsÑtwo branches of the Research cultivating suppleness and liveliness in the Institute dealing with virtual and actual minds of our students . putting-the-word-out effortsÑround out this The final contributions to this issue issue with brief reports on their extensive and come from members of the Pedagogical fruitful work . Section Council (PSC) . A few years ago, Finally, an index of past issues is included in a brief document titled ÒCore Principles for your convenience . of Waldorf Education,Ó the Council tried to distill the core thoughts that guide the Happy Readings!

Authors who wish to have articles considered for publication in the Research Bulletin should submit them directly to the Editor at: waldorfresearchbulletin@gmail .com .

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 From the Executive Director

Douglas Gerwin

iving organisms have three choices: They can and special care will be taken not to duplicate grow, they can decay, or they can take on new services already offered on our own sites . Lforms . Following a huge organizational growth With growth in traffic, especially from spurt last year with the acquisition of Waldorf abroad, the OWL continues to serve a Publications (formerly AWSNA Publications), worldwide readership, mostly in English but the Research Institute for Waldorf Education increasingly in Spanish . More than 700 books (RIWE) focused its attention initially on an and some 1400 articles are now available for outpouring of publications and booksÑboth downloading at no cost to our readers, who printed and electronic . These will continue topped 65,500 site visits during the first half of with the publication of new and revised titles this year . (previewed in the last Research Bulletin) as the The Research InstituteÕs website has also Institute now shifts its attention to innovative been expanded this year with pertinent non- forms of collaboration and research as a result anthroposophical research that supports the of a retreat staged during the spring term . Waldorf approach to educationÑspecifically in At the suggestion of its trustees, the the areas of , brain research, Research Institute invited a circle of guests to technology, and the essential role of play in a attend a weekend retreat in the context of its young childÕs life . annual board meeting to explore two distinct Thanks to a growing pool of available yet related themes: Òtechnology and morality translators, a further 10 titles underwent in educationÓ and Òassessment and morality translation from English into Spanish during in education .Ó From a stimulating ten hours the course of last year . Primary focus of these of presentation and discussion arose a new translations was on materials concerning early impetus to broaden our reach to academic childhood . Also published for Spanish readers institutions engaged in similar work, while was Poesia (an illustrated collection of songs simultaneously undertaking fresh research to and games for teaching Spanish in the lower deepen our understanding of these themes grades) . as they relate to Waldorf education . The Some 70 new titles were created in eBook importance of sharing these results with our form during the course of the year, bringing the growing Spanish-speaking readership was total number of manuscripts available in PDF stressed . format to around 200 . Among them are further New links were forged meanwhile with examples in a sequence of WECAN and Waldorf the leadership of the Pedagogical and Medical Publications books freshly translated into Sections at the Goetheanum, including the Spanish . In addition, a further series of articles inauguration of a joint venture to promote was collected and posted on OWL, including a multi-lingual website for educators and new curriculum suggestions on the teaching pedagogical counselors . This project focuses of science in both the lower school and high on the works of Rudolf Steiner and related school . German-speaking authors . This site is linked to The Research Institute completed two the Research InstituteÕs Online Waldorf Library more cycles of its popular ÒTeaching Sensible (OWL) as well as to the InstituteÕs own website, ScienceÓ program, one in Baltimore and

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 6 • From the Executive Director the other in Seattle . Already the next cycle is being planned for Ann Arbor, starting in February 2015 . As with previous rounds, the objective of this course is to engage teachers in the transformation of their own teaching, especially as it relates to the sciences . Details of this latest cycle are available on the website of the Research Institute:

www .waldorfresearchinstitute .org

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 The Value of Risk in ChildrenÕs Play

Joan Almon

Better a broken bone than a broken spirit. or ten or even thirteen seems about as Ð Lady Allen of Hurtwood, founder of responsible as throwing them in the shark adventure playgrounds in England tank at Sea World with their pockets full of meatballs . ight years ago, when the US Alliance for Childhood began its campaign to restore play Any risk is seen as too much risk . A crazy, Eto childrenÕs lives, we were told repeatedly, not-to-be-taken, see-you-on-the-local-news risk . ÒWhatever you do, donÕt use the word play . And the only thing these donÕt seem to ItÕs become a four-letter word .Ó We gave it realize is that the greatest risk of all just might much thought but could find no better word be trying to raise a child who never encounters to describe this essential activity . It was time any risks . (p . 5) to redeem the word . Since then many articles Gradually, parents, teachers, and other have appeared in the popular press about play, professionals are taking a fresh look at risk . including cover stories in The New York Times There is a growing recognition that 21st Magazine and Scientific American . Documentaries century skills include creativity, invention, have been made, the American Academy of resilience, and problem solving . Adventurous, has issued position statements on the child-initiated play is full of opportunities for importance of play, and developing these capacities, new books have appeared Adventurous, child-initiated but many children are on the subject . On the play is full of opportunities deprived of the chance to whole, play has become an play freely and meet age- acceptable word again . for developing creativity, appropriate risks . As a result, Now it is time to invention, resilience, and aspects of their development tackle another four-letter are often stunted . For wordÑrisk . To say that problem solving . example, they frequently children benefit from risk lack skills in the use of their is almost heresy in the United States . We have hands, and public schools have begun hiring become very risk-averse . As Lenore Skenazy, occupational therapists to work with large the humorous critic of modern , says numbers of children . Also, business leaders tell in her book, Free Range Kids,1 us that many of the young people they hire have great difficulty in working with others . Éa lot of parents today are really bad They may be fine on Facebook but lack face-to- at assessing risk . They see no difference face skills that are essential in the workplace, between letting their children walk to skills acquired in part through social play on school and letting them walk through the playground . Professors tell us that their a firing range . When they picture their students today need things very clearly spelled kids riding their bikes to a birthday party, out, more so than did previous generations . they see them dodging Mack trucks with They lack confidence to deal with uncertainties . brake problems . To let their children All of this has long-term consequences for the play unsupervised in a park at age eight children themselves but also for society .

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Waldorf students usually fare better than third requires much practice and often some many others in handling risk, in part because instruction by adults . The second level is the the education is so broad-based and stimulates type of risk children have always sought out physical and social development, as well as and learned to deal with on their own . It is cognitive development . The close ties among the primary level for which the Alliance is the children within a class strengthen their advocating . social capacity, while woodworking, knitting, 1. Challenging activities. These look risky and spacial dynamics, circus skills, eurythmy, and a take courage to do, but they come with plenty host of other activities develop the hands and of safety features . Examples: Ropes courses and limbs in an integrated way . climbing walls where children are harnessed Yet even Waldorf students probably require courage, for they look scary, but the have far fewer opportunities to play freely safety features mean that children cannot in adventuresome ways than did earlier fall far . Bungee jumping is another example . generations . One way to assess the changes No skills are neededÑjust a brave heart and in encountering risk is to confidence that the company ask parents how far they This is a good moment handling the bungee jumps roamed as children and takes safety seriously . what adventures they had to ask whether Waldorf 2. Moderate risk. Things playing without parental students of all ages could go wrong but oversight . If they are over are getting enough generally donÕt, provided thirty they probably had quite the child has experience in adventuresome childhoods . opportunities to develop risk-assessment . Examples: Under thirty they may have their capacity for meeting zip lines, high climbing been allowed to play only in equipment, and building organized sports or under risk and dealing with it . forts or play houses with strict adult supervision . But tools . Some skills are needed, if they played freely as children, one can ask but children develop them as they play . Bumps if they would allow their children the same and bruises are part of the learning process and freedom . Almost always the answer is, ÒNo!Ó can be expected . Sprains and broken bones also As modern culture begins to consider the happen on rare occasions . No one wants to see importance of risk, it is a good moment to injuries, but fortunately children heal well and ask whether Waldorf students of all ages are are not stopped from play for long . getting enough opportunities to develop their 3. Advanced/extreme risk. These activities capacity for meeting risk and dealing with it . require much practice and advanced skills . They Are school playgrounds, for instance, providing are very attractive to teens and young adults children with enough challenges as they go who favor extreme risks . Examples: parkour through the grades? Also, are there ways in which young people climb anything in their that Waldorf education can contribute to the path, leaping from one place to another and movement for play and risk by sharing insights trying not to touch the ground . When taken to and examples? extremes, participants leap from building to building across wide divides . Other examples Understanding Risk include advanced leaps with skateboards, Several years ago the Alliance for motorcycle stunts (think Evel Knievel), and Childhood began researching risk in childrenÕs cliff diving . Injuries can be serious, but people play . We identified three levels . The first has drawn to this level of risk seem willing to take a great deal of oversight by adults, and the the chance .

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 Joan Almon • 9

To go deeper into the question of risk, we of play not that long ago . Through it children commissioned a survey that included interviews learned to manage fire and contain itÑand with directors of adventure playgrounds in to manage themselves at the same time . They California . These playgrounds, described knew that if they were too wild in handling fire, in some detail in this article, provide risky, serious injury could occur . adventuresome opportunities to build with Bob Hughes, a play advocate and writer in hammers and nails, to engage with fast-moving England, describes playing with the elements zip lines, and much else . The researcher, as a form of recapitulative play . He sees such Halcyon Reese-Learned, also spoke with play as a vital part of human evolution . He also leading play advocates to gather their views . describes a close connection between such play The survey became the basis of an Alliance and another type, which he calls Òdeep play .Ó In publication, Adventure: The value of risk in deep play children confront the things they are children’s play. most fearful of, and this can be scary for adults The basic findings of the survey contradict who are watching . But Hughes describes how a number of myths about play children approach such play with that often serve as barriers to When children are surprising caution and rarely its pursuit . experience injuries . •• Risky playÑin contrast to faced with risk, they Deep play represents a very hazardous playÑdoes not rise to meet and real journey on the part of every lead to high accident rates . overcome it . child who engages in itÑ •• Park districts that offer whether that journey includes adventure playgrounds are standing up against a bully, not beset by lawsuits . climbing to a challenging height, swinging •• Parks that offer adventure playgrounds do perilously close to solid objects, confronting not pay higher insurance rates . a phobia . In my experience, it is very rare that children actually injure themselves When children are faced with risk, they when they engage in this playtype . They rise to meet and overcome it . One sees them extend their limits gradually and are looking move cautiously, testing a branch or deciding to experience only a representation rather if theyÕre up to the challenge of the huge slide . than the reality of death or damage . When Such assessments have been part of human they do, it normally means they have either nature, probably from the beginning of human been pushed by someone or have pushed development . Without the capacity to assess, themselves significantly beyond their abilities . we could not have survived the risks of living in This possibility and its potential consequences the wildÑor even the risks of urban life today . should act as a serious reminder of the impact Through play, children prepare themselves of peer pressure (or even playworker pressure), for the risks of life . They play in every or the development of a culture between environment and with every element, including children in which they move past risk and fire . When I meet with staff from parks engage in foolhardy or potentially suicidal departments, in particular, I always ask about activity of the serial thrill-seeker 2. the types of play they enjoyed as children . They What saves children from serious injury tended to be very adventuresome . When I ask is their ability to weigh risk . This is a capacity if they built fires with their friends, about half to assess the outer risks and match oneÕs own raise their hands, somewhat sheepishly . They capacities to them . Thus one child may feel would be appalled to find children building fires secure to climb very high in a tree, as was on their own today, but it was a common form the case with a five-year-old girl in my first

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 10 • The Value of Risk in Children’s Play kindergarten, while others of that age would of adventure . Always, their behavior became not dream of taking such a risk . Yet she did it much better once they had confronted a new over and over and never came to any harm . challenge and mastered it . Occasionally I had How do children know how to assess risks? to stop a child who was clearly having a hard The apparently innate ability begins in infancy . time assessing risks . One large three-year-old With experience it advances all through life . wanted to keep up with the older children who An interesting experiment marked its presence climbed on tables and built high . After his third in babies . Researchers Eleanor Gibson and fall from the table, I told him he needed to wait Richard Walk placed six-month-olds who a while until he was older . He seemed relieved . could crawl on a large sheet of Plexiglas with The teacherÕs role in risk assessment is a checkerboard design underneath . As they important . To begin with, the teacher creates crawled, the infants came to a point where the play environment by deciding which the checkerboard dropped by a foot or more, equipment, materials, and opportunities although the Plexiglas stayed at the same level . are appropriate . One observes, learns, and The experiment was originally designed to test adjusts the environment over time . Regular depth perception in babies, but the researchers inspection of the equipment and grounds is noticed something more . Already at six months also very important . While children are good at the babies recognized risk and assessing visible risk, they cannot showed an ability to assess it . They The apparently be expected to take hazards into noticed the drop-off and hesitated innate ability to account . A hazard might be broken while deciding how to navigate glass that is not visible or a piece of it . Some retreated while others assess risk begins equipment that is broken or poorly cautiously crawled forward, testing in infancy . designed . the surface to be sure they would Joe Frost, a professor emeritus not fall down . at the University of Texas, is widely recognized In my own mixed-age kindergarten as a leader in the play movement . He is a classes, I watched children assess risks while strong advocate for adventuresome play . climbing a tall ladder . Each year during spring He has helped research play equipment and housecleaning I brought in an eight-foot has often been called as an expert witness stepladder in order to dust the upper walls and in lawsuits where children have been injured ceiling . When I was finished, the children had on playgrounds . He notes that the problems a chance to climb it . Year after year, I watched are generally from poor design and improper children advance up that ladder . As fours they maintenance . usually went up only a few steps . As sixes they There is a next level beyond risk assessment climbed to the top . Sometimes they would which is very helpful, and that is risk-benefit go up a step and then back down when they analysis . At this level, adults knowingly accept realized it was too high for their current level of certain risks because the benefits are great . For ability . example, injuries from sports are common, and I gave children in my classes as much the CDC reports that 775,000 children ages 14 freedom as I could to climb, tunnel, run, sled, and under are treated in emergency rooms for and ski down hills on planks of wood . They sport-related injuries each year . But because chose their own levels of comfort and then the benefits of sports are perceived to be great, advanced slowly . They suffered very few the tolerance for injury is also great . injuries, and I rarely had to intervene to stop An excellent British publication on risk them . Occasionally I encouraged children contains two chapters on risk-benefit analysis . who seemed ÒstuckÓ to explore a next level Available online, it is called Managing Risk in

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 Joan Almon • 11

Play Provision: Implementation Guide by David and few sidewalks in some neighborhoods . Ball, Tim Gill, and Bernard Spiegal . Another Many subdivisions have restrictions on British publication on risk by Tim Gill, also childrenÕs free play . They cannot build forts online, is called No Fear: Growing Up in a or tree houses or even draw chalk on the Risk Averse Society. These and the AllianceÕs sidewalks . Many safe neighborhoods often look Adventure: The value of risk in children’s play like ghost towns if one is looking for children provide data and insights that can be very at play . Most play activities are to be found helpful in talking with parents, board members, instead at organized activities or indoors with inspectors, and others about why risk in play is screens . At the same time, areas beset by crime so important and why it does not increase rates pose some real dangers for children, although of injury . one does see children playing in groups in daylight hours . Obstacles to Risk and As a result of these obstacles, todayÕs Adventuresome Play children have few opportunities to play without One of the most dangerous things we adult oversight . If parents are courageous can do in raising and educating children is enough to let their children outdoors to play, to deprive them of opportunities to develop the children rarely find other children to play their ability to assess risks and with . We have also heard from build the confidence that goes We cannot afford parents who let their school-age with that . Many of todayÕs another generation children out to play, and who children seem especially fearful were then visited by the police of anything uncertain . This is the that is risk-averse after neighbors reported them for generation that grew up with and unskilled in neglecting their children . It is well helicopter parents who hovered assessing risks . worth asking the parents in oneÕs over every aspect of their lives, class about their experiences giving little freedom to take risks in play and their experiences in or make mistakes . Is the pendulum swinging? letting their own children play . Then one can We see signs that it is beginning . We cannot work with parents on how best to compensate afford another generation that is risk-averse for lost, valuable opportunities for play and risk and unskilled in assessing risks . at home and in school . There are many obstacles that prevent children from playing freely . Chief among them Developing Adventuresome Play Spaces is the widespread, although often unrealistic, In recent decades playground designers fear of stranger danger . It is a tragedy when have become more and more safety conscious, terrible things happen to children, but the with the result that public playgrounds are so highly dramatic reports in the media keep tame they rarely appeal to children over five . In parents in a constant state of fear, even if their the past few years, however, there have been own community has proven to be very safe over efforts to extend the age range, and one sees long periods of time . Recent surveys of parents more challenging equipment being installed . show, however, that they want their children Yet one could go much further, while still to play more freely, but they want some form taking basic safety standards into account . of supervision to be sure they are kept safe . If Good examples are provided by adventure handled well, adult oversight and childrenÕs free playgrounds in the US and abroad . play can go together . During the German occupation in World Other obstacles that keep children from War II, Denmark saw a rise in juvenile playing freely include problems of dense traffic delinquency . Its answer was unusual: build

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 12 • The Value of Risk in Children’s Play more playgrounds . The government consulted Adventure Playground,3 which has been in with Carl Theodor S¿rensen, a Danish existence since 1979: landscape architect who had designed many playgrounds before the war . He revisited them Scattered around the one-acre lot are and found them largely vacant . Where were the at least 15 wooden forts of varying children playing? The answer was in bombed- sizeÑsome two stories high, others with out building sites . He took his cue from the only two walls . TheyÕre all covered in children and helped create a Òjunk playgroundÓ paint, and many bear the names of the on the outskirts of Copenhagen . There the children who had a hand in their creation: children played freely under the benevolent Sophie, Bobby, Roger, Morita . There are eyes of a Òplayworker,Ó as such playground also piles of scrap wood, old boats, staff later came to be known . fishing-net, tires, you name it . From Denmark the idea for such playgrounds was brought to England after In a Swiss adventure playground near the war by Lady Allen of Hurtwood, also a Zurich called Holzwurm, I was intrigued by landscape architect . She called them adventure the three-story buildings the children had playgrounds, and they have grown to several constructed . They looked ramshackle and hundred throughout the UK . They are staffed ready to tip over, but that was misleading . by trained playworkers who open the sheds, Typically children test their houses for safety as take out the scrap materials called loose they build, and they use so many nails that the parts, and let the children play . Playwork structure is not about to fall over . Indeed, when is a profession, and many trainings exist in itÕs time to take one down to make room for the UK, ranging from certificate programs to more, staff use chain saws to cut them down . undergraduate and graduate degrees . Then great bonfires are built! Playworkers know a great deal about In the United States there are currently play and work with children of all ages . three such playgrounds on the West Coast, They intervene only when needed, for their run by city parks departments in Huntington guiding principles include an Beach, Berkeley, and Mercer understanding that play is Òa The fine art of playwork Island by Seattle . One might set of behaviors that are freely think they are beset by chosen, personally directed, lies in knowing when to accidents and lawsuits, but the and intrinsically motivated .Ó intervene and when to opposite is the case . Insurance This means that the ideas for let children work things companies do not charge play bubble up from within parks departments extra the children, who then get out on their own . for adventure playgrounds, to choose and direct how and the two California they will play . Playworkers help create play playgrounds, which are over thirty years old, environments and then put on their cloaks of have had one lawsuit each at most . invisibility so children can have an experience When the Huntington Beach adventure close to that of earlier generations who played playground began in the 1970s (near Los without constant interference from adults . The Angeles), the staff persuaded the insurance fine art of playwork lies in knowing when to company to monitor its safety record . After intervene and when to let children work things three summers, the insurance company out on their own . determined that the adventure play safety Several years ago, a National Public Radio record was so close to that of traditional reporter described what he saw at the Berkeley playgrounds that no additional premiums

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 Joan Almon • 13 would be needed . The same is true at other setting itÕs a great help that children are good adventure playgrounds . with their hands and have developed their In 2001 the highly respected National coordination through games and play . Chances ChildrenÕs Bureau in the UK was asked to are they handle risk very well . examine evidence of accidents, risk, and risk If a child is injured on a frequent basis, it management at adventure playgrounds in three is well worth asking why . Perhaps there is a of LondonÕs boroughs . They examined data problem with balance or other senses that can from more than a dozen adventure playgrounds be improved through remedial exercises . Or and concluded that accidents, particularly perhaps thereÕs an underlying issue, such as serious accidents, were rare at a need to prove something the adventure playgrounds . Adventure playgrounds to others that overrides Similar results were the childÕs good sense . found in Ottawa in the 1970s turn the Òas little risk Occasionally one sees a when adventure playgrounds as possibleÓ adage on natural daredevil who relishes existed there . While strict its head . the thrill of the risk and does comparisons were not possible not mind a broken bone . because of a lack of systematic record-keeping, Evel Knievel, for instance, is listed in the the qualitative accounts from adventure Guinness book of world records as having playgrounds indicated that the accidents were the most bone fractures of any human being low in frequency and severity . The researchers Ñ433 . Imagine having had him in your class commented that children seemed to be more as a child or teen! On a more serious note, careful when they knew they were handling children sometimes seek injury for complex, tools that were potentially dangerous . psychological reasons . Knowing this is a first While serious accidents are rare step toward providing help . when children are given opportunities for adventurous play, smaller injuries do happen . Encouraging All Forms of Play Bumps and bruises and even an occasional There are many types of play, and a broken bone have always been accepted as part good player engages in all of them, often in a of an active childhood . As the excellent British single play session . A rich play environment publication Managing Risk in Play Provision is designed to support all forms of play . Some states, ÒIn a playground, bumps, bruises, key play types are make-believe play, large motor scrapes and even a broken limb play, and fine motor play . are not necessarily warning There are many types Most playgrounds include signs of greater dangers, as equipment and space for they might be in a factory or of play . A good player running, climbing, swinging, an office environment . They engages in all of and sliding, all of which are to be expected as part them, and a rich play exercise large motor skills . of everyday life for children Ideally the play space should growing up .Ó (p . 29) environment is designed also offer sand and water, Nonetheless, most to support every type . earth and mud for fine motor playgrounds are designed shaping and modeling . Play today to pose as little risk to children as materials that children can use for building or possible . Adventure playgrounds turn that dressing up encourage make-believe play . These adage on its head and offer children as much can be stumps and branches for building forts risk as they can handle . How much risk children and dens, fabric for dress-ups and houses, and can handle varies by age and skill . In a Waldorf much more .

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 14 • The Value of Risk in Children’s Play

There are other types of play that regularly body, and the eyes and face look more focused appear on a playground . These include mastery and aggressive . ThatÕs a good moment to play, in which children repeat an action again watch and see if the children can pull back into and again until they have mastered it . Jump rough and tumble play or if they need help to roping is one example, as is challenging oneself keep from hurting each other . to leap from ever higher places . Rules-based play is most common in the elementary grades, in Adventuresome Play in a School Setting which children make up rules for their games There are many ways to enhance childrenÕs and change them as needed . Or they play play opportunities at school, especially on traditional games, learning their rules and then the playground . Some require building new adapting them to meet the circumstances . equipment, but others require very little In symbolic play children change objects expense . Here are some examples that have into whatever is needed for their play . A stick worked well in playgrounds IÕve visited . can become a fishing pole, a crutch, part of a Loose parts: A first step to improving a play house, or much more . All sorts of play objects space is to bring in movable, loose parts . These lend themselves to symbolic play . They can be are simple objects from the natural world or natural materials as well as objects cast off by cast-offs from the adult world that children can adults, such as cardboard boxes . Children know use in their play . Stumps, branches, tree slices, they wonÕt get into trouble for harming such stones, fabric, and other natural materials are objects, and they feel free to explore their use frequently found on Waldorf playgrounds . But with great imagination . if a school can bear the mess, boxes, tubes from In arts-filled play children use chalk for rugs, and other such artifacts also make great sidewalk art, paint with water on outdoor play materials . One of my favorite examples surfaces or with colors if available . They create took place at a play day in Central Park . The instruments and make music, do puppet shows, children played with large boxes, cloths, rope, act out stories, and invent dance routines . and tape, plus a few odd things like an old The most troublesome forms of play from venetian blind . This was frequently integrated an adult perspective are rough and tumble play into the cardboard houses, but one boy slipped and risk-taking, deep play (which is discussed it over his head and it became his armor . He elsewhere in this article) . These types tend to was so proud . awaken uncertainty in adults about appropriate A growing number of public schools in boundaries . Rough and tumble play is the type England are providing loose parts at recess and of physical play found in the animal kingdom storing them in playpods . There is a delightful as well as among human beings . It is different film on YouTube showing the use of such a from aggressive play, which aims to dominate container . Just Google ÒScrapstore PlayPodsÓ and even do physical harm . Rough and tumble for examples . play is a form of cooperative play that can be On a recent trip to the UK, a fellow play- seen in puppies tumbling over one another . enthusiast and I visited a number of adventure For teens and older children it can take the playgrounds and met with leading play form of complex wrestling moves that they advocates . A frequent question we asked was choreograph for themselves and act out on what makes a playground an Òadventure mats or soft ground . For younger children it playground .Ó Some that we visited looked like is just good-natured roughhousing . One can the original junk playgrounds . Others looked usually tell if itÕs slipping into aggressive play, very neat with large structures designed and for the childrenÕs gestures become less rounded built for that setting . The best answer we and more pointed . A hardening comes into the heard was that an adventure playground

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 Joan Almon • 15 allows children to move things around . It looks their balance . These can be made of rope or different every day . Children may build with other materials . An ingenious example made hammers and nails or hang ropes and drape of knotted plastic bags can be seen on the cloths, but they ÒownÓ the play space in ways TED talk given by Gever Tulley, founder of the that are not possible if there is only fixed Tinkering School . ItÕs hard to imagine how equipment . many plastic bags were needed . Swings: Most playgrounds have traditional At LondonÕs Victoria Park can be found swings or horizontal tires, but there are other a series of long planks overlapped at various options that children . Many adventure angles . The result is something between playgrounds build swing structures that are a balance beam and a seesaw . The planks circular in form with six or eight sides . A swing move gently up and down as one walks on hangs from each overhead beam so that when them . Teens also love sitting on them and the children swing they look inward and swing experiencing a rocking movement as they chat . toward each other . Facing each other adds Slides: Sliding boards are being given new much enjoyment and makes one wonder why life in adventuresome ways . The City Museum swings are not all built in this way . in St . Louis has a remarkable collection of slides In addition to horizontal tire swings, which that go down two or three stories in the old can be a car tire for one or two children or a shoe factory that houses this play space . The tractor tire for many, there are also horizontal newest and most remarkable one extends from circle swings with netting in the center . One or the roof on the 11th floor to the first floor, with more children can sit or lie down on the swing . many twists and turns . ItÕs not well-suited for a It serves a purpose similar to a hammock in school, but children adore it . which children love to swing wildly or curl up ItÕs becoming more common to see very tall with their friends for peaceful conversations . slides on playgrounds . They usually are set into A swing-like piece of equipment installed a hillside that may be natural or constructed at Victoria Playground, a lovely destination of earth and rocks hauled in for the purpose . A playground in London, is comprised of a log wonderful slide can be found at Teardrop Park suspended horizontally by chains from an in Battery Park City in lower Manhattan by the overhead beam . One or more children can Hudson River . Although there are stone steps stand on the log, holding onto the chains and going up the hillside to the top of the slide, propelling the log forward and back . nearly all the children prefer to scramble up the One of my favorite swings as a child was large rocks . a large boat swing that was moved back and At the Holzwurm Playground near Zurich, forth by pulling on stout ropes . The larger the a tower-like play structure was built, perhaps boat, the more strength it took to move it . three stories high, with a slide running down Children love using their full strength in one side . And three tall slides descend on a tall play, and any activity that gets them pulling hillside at Victoria Park . together is a plus . Climbing structures: Some of my favorite Balance beams: A traditional balance climbing equipment looks like the crown of a beam is mounted a short distance above the tree with many thick branches jutting out from ground . ThatÕs fine for young children, but the ground at various angles . Children can older children need more of a challenge . Some climb quite high on the branches or stay low playgrounds have thick wire for balancing on, to the ground . They can also build houses and as in a circus . It may be a foot or two above forts on the ground under the branches . One the ground, but on either side are railings also sees combinations of branches, telephone that children can hold onto as they develop poles, and beams fastened together in odd

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 16 • The Value of Risk in Children’s Play shapes, sometimes enhanced by cargo nets for saying in the reports mentioned in this article, climbing . and also to consult with the play expertsÑthe Climbing walls have also become very children . Changes to a school playground, popular and can become as high and both large and small, need not be sudden . challenging as one wants . ItÕs also possible to Playgrounds can grow and develop organically have metal poles, sometimes with a bell at the over time . top, for children to shimmy up . A few years ago When it comes to adventurous spaces, I saw one at a playground and asked a fourth itÕs good to watch the children and see how grader if he could climb it in order to show they meet new challenges . Generally, adult me how it was done . Watching him was like confidence grows as we watch the children . watching native children climb coconut palms Also, consider running adventure play in tropical countries . Up he went camps that are advertised as such, and rang the bell with no trouble In general, the with house-building opportunities, at all . more adventurous mud pits, water slides on wet Fixed Equipment: Adventure tarps, and more . ThereÕs great playgrounds typically have some the play, the interest in adventure experiences fixed equipment . It is often unique greater its value . among some and also and built for that playground, tinkering opportunities . Both are much like my experience with natural outgrowths of the Waldorf Waldorf early childhood playgrounds . Such approach . Such camps may also attract new playgrounds grow and develop over time . There families to the school, and they are likely to be are some good examples of adventuresome just the kind of families that will love Waldorf equipment on the website of Architectural education . Playground Equipment, distributor in North As a first step one could consider running America for the German firm Richter . Some some play days for the school community and North American firms are also becoming more the public . Ideas can be found at the website of adventurous with their designs . pop-up adventure playgrounds . For more ideas about play and risk and for Suggestions photos and videos of many of the play ideas Based on our research and visits to presented here, go to the website of the Alliance adventurous play spaces, a few ideas stand for Childhood: www .allianceforchildhood .org . out for schools . One is to take childrenÕs outdoor play as seriously as other pedagogical Endnotes considerations . ItÕs a vital part of childrenÕs 1 Lenore Skenazy, Free-Range Kids: Giving Our Children learning experience . As one seven-year-old said, the Freedom We Had without Going Nuts with Worry ÒAt recess I remember everything I learned .Ó (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009) p.5 . Play is a powerful tool for learning, but it 2 Bob Hughes, Play Types: Speculations and Possibilities, (London: London Centre for Playwork Education and also strengthens childrenÕs physical, social, Training, 2006) pp .41Ð42 . emotional, and cognitive development . In 3 The web site for the Berkeley Adventure Playground general, the more adventurous the play, the is http://www .ci .berkeley .ca .us/contentdisplay . greater its value . aspx?id=8656 . There will always be objections to adventuresome play, so itÕs a help to form a Joan Almon, a Waldorf early childhood educator for school committee to study the issue . Parents over 30 years, co-founded the Alliance for Childhood, need to be involved in the process . One also which seeks to improve the health and well-being of all needs to be aware of what the risk experts are children. [email protected].

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 Learning in Relationships

Thomas Fuchs

uman beings are distinguished from learning in intercorporeal relationships . I will other living creatures by their language . begin with a brief look at brain development HComparative evolutionary research and human because the brain presents itself as the matrix, infancy research of the last few decades have so to speak, for all learning processes that take shown what a wealth of communication place during childhood . Then we will trace a abilities develop in human beings before few basic features of the steps of development spoken language is learned . Non-verbal in human social learning . communication­ÑÒbody languageÓ as it is also calledÑis expressed through facial expression, Neuroplasticity and Development gesture, touch, vocal intonation, and whole Human beings, like no other living body posture . These human expressions creatures, require the presence of their fellow of communication exhibit a differentiation beings in order to develop their abilities . No and variety that is unique and distinct from other species comes into the world with such a communications in the animal kingdom . malleable, or what is called plastic, brain as the As adults we regulate our lives, our human being . By reason of neuronal plasticity information, and our relationships to a large (that is, development of synaptic structures, degree through language . Increasingly, especially in early childhood), the brain we accomplish these things also through develops into an organ that, as a complement communication of digital-electronic symbols . to its environment, fits like a key in a lock . That But this symbolic language is always dependent characterization applies first and foremost to upon a more primordial form of communication the social environment . Our neurobiological that, in a manner of speaking, already structures require appropriate emotional and connects our physical bodies intellectual offerings from our with each other and produces a Human beingsÕ attachment figures in order to fundamental relationship that physical organisms, develop . In other words: The the French philosopher Maurice human brain is essentially a socially Merleau-Ponty once described as including the brain, and biographically formed organ . Òintercorporeity Ó. (Merleau-Ponty are formed through In 1949 the American 1960) It is the basis of what I association and neurophysiologist D .O . Hebb will be examining in this essay: formulated the basic law of learning in physical interactions, interaction with synaptic learning: Simultaneously in intercorporeal relationships . others . activated neurons strengthen Aristotle knew that the human their synaptic couplings and, being is a zoon politikon, a social being . But accordingly, form additional connections . we now have additional understanding of (Hebb 1949/2002) This leads to facilitation, what that means: Through association and that is, future increased signal transmission . By interaction with others, human beingsÕ physical contrast, connections that are seldom or never organisms, including the brain, are formed . used are dismantled, which is the equivalent In the following I will outline the biological, of forgetting . Compare it to a jungle path that, psychological, and social foundations of with frequent use, gradually becomes wider

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 18 • Learning in Relationships until finally it is a comfortable road . However, ÒIn the beginning was relationship,Ó and if it remains unused, it will become overgrown the most immediate form of relationship to and finally disappear altogether . Frequently the world is through the sense of touch . Tactile used neuronal connections are the same as bodily contact (touching, lifting, rocking, and, well-trodden paths, while seldom-activated of course, breastfeeding) is the first form of connections are lost . communication between mother and child . A massive surplus of neurons and synapses It conveys not only the experience of being is formed during the first months of a childÕs carried, being held, receiving warmth and life . Initially, there are nearly double the protection, but also pivotal experiences for number of synapses that will eventually be the development of trust in the world and in needed . Then, according to their stimulation other people . From a biological standpoint, all and use, these synapses are either strengthened of these tactile experiences also bring about a or dismantled . Up to the end of the second release in the mother of oxytocin, a hormone year of life, this experience-dependent selection that not only stimulates breast-milk production, process forms the basic, permanent nerve but also supports bonding between mother network . However, its microstructure remains and child . Even in animals, mothers care for alterable throughout life in the their young more intensively if form of synaptic connection Through our they experience higher levels of patterns . In the same way that experiences, we oxytocin . muscles grow through training Let us now examine the but atrophy with inactivity, constantly create and sense of sight . Here also, infants the capacity of the responsible change the neuronal are biologically attuned to neuronal network either grows structure of our social interactions . For one or degenerates depending upon thing, they have an inborn the frequency of its use . brain, and with it also ability to differentiate between The structure of our our dispositions of animate and inanimate objects . brain changes with every perception and action . For another thing, newborns use, depending on the stimuli already exhibit a heightened the brain encounters and the relationships it attentiveness to faces . WhatÕs more, from the mediates . The human brain represents, as it beginning they are also able to accurately were, all of the experiences from its past . The imitate adultsÕ gestures such as sticking out younger the child and the more intense the the tongue, opening the mouth, wrinkling impressions, the more impressionable is the the forehead, and so forth . (Meltzoff and brain . Basically, this applies throughout our Moore 1977) They possess an inborn social lives; through our experiences, we constantly body schema so that the infantÕs own body create and change the neuronal structure of connects with the perception of the other; that our brain, and with it also our dispositions is, from the outset, the child experiences both of perception and action . In short, we alter as related . A newborn does not perceive its ourselves through our conduct of life . mother as just an image, or something vis- ‡-vis, but rather the newborn emulates her Primary Intersubjectivity expression within itself . Research in the last With these introductory remarks in mind, couple of decades supports the premise that I will now turn to my actual theme, which is human infantsÕ ability to spontaneously imitate the development of communication in early the expressions and actions of others is the childhood . Let us begin with the first year foundation for empathy . I will return to this of life . subject later .

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 Thomas Fuchs • 19

Through numerous comparative culture expression: rhythm, the dynamics of facial studies, it has been shown that certain expressions, vocalization, and gestural basic patterns of human facial expressions interaction (crescendo, decrescendo, flowing, are innate . There is a series of six basic soft, explosive, and so forth) . This leads to emotionsÑhappiness, sadness, anger, the interactive Òemotional attunementÓ that revulsion, surprise, and infancy researchers have fearÑthat are associated with Research supports the highlighted . Daniel Stern the same facial expressions premise that human (1985) speaks about a in all cultures . Associated Òshared danceÓ that mother forms of expression are infantsÕ ability to and infant spontaneously wrinkling the forehead, nose spontaneously imitate perform together . During wrinkling, widening the eyes, the expressions and this communication process, crying, smiling, and lifting the child increasingly learns the eyebrows . About six to actions of others is the to differentiate between the eight weeks after birth, infants foundation for empathy . various signals of the motherÕs develop the ability to react emotional expressions . At the to their surroundings with same time, the infant becomes smiling, thereby interacting with other people better able to understand and differentiate and forming connections with them . Later on, its own emotions . But, above all, the infant other culturally influenced emotions and forms develops the prime feeling of living together of expression appear . with others in a world of emotions and of being Over and above these forms of imitation connected with them . and expression, there is also increasing If we combine all of these observations development of emotional resonance between of emotional expression and imitation, infant and mother . She intuitively answers the then we can speak about a primal, and childÕs signals and initiatives with appropriate biologically rooted, system of resonance and responses of voice and gesture . Mothers empathy that is engraved upon a childÕs early unconsciously use simplified manners (baby development . We grow up in a primal sphere talk, facial expressions, eye contact, reaction of communicative ÒintercorporealityÓ within to greeting, and so forth) that which we remain throughout are appropriate for the as yet This early dialogue our lives . Whenever two people undeveloped repertoire of the encounter each other, they are, child . Two infancy researchers, between mother and from the beginning, drawn into M . and H . Papousek (1995), child is infused with an interaction that connects describe these and other musical qualities of them bodily, creating an intuitive similar behaviors as Òintuitive understanding between them . mothering skills .Ó Mothers expression . The emotions of the other (and also fathers) possess are immediately understood biologically-based, unconscious knowledge that by their expression, because they elicit in us affords them the ability, through voice, facial a mostly unnoticed bodily impression with expressions, and gestures, to make themselves subtle sensations and emotions . The result is understood by the infant, and to appropriately an intercorporeal resonance: The other person calm or stimulate a child, while letting is literally felt in oneÕs own body . (Fuchs & de themselves be guided by the childÕs signals . Jaegher 2009) This early dialogue between mother and child is infused with musical qualities of

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 20 • Learning in Relationships

Mirror Neurons At present, further research is being applied The result of this resonance is empathy . to emotional reactions; if one observes, for It is the foundation of our social life, the example, the pain or revulsion of another, a reason communication is even possible in the center in the anterior insula is activated which first place . People constantly empathize with is involved in oneÕs own reactions of pain or the feelings and expressions of others . They revulsion . (Wicker et al . 2003) feel and share their joy or their pain; they Admittedly, this biologically rooted system understand the intention of a hand offered for does not bring about human sociability; the welcome, and they understand latter is not simply inborn, but why another reaches for a glass of The mirror neuron rather is based upon typical, water . One of the neuronal bases system can develop recurring interactions with of empathy, the subject of intense others . The mirror neuron research during the last ten years, correctly only if it system can be activated by is called the mirror neuron system . is embedded in a reaching for an apple, for (Gallese et al . 1996, Gallese 2001) context of social instance, only after the child has These neurons were first grasped the meaning of reaching identified in the premotor cortex interactions and for the object . In the same of monkeys, an area of the brain meanings . way, empathy with emotional responsible for organization and reactions like revulsion requires regulation of movement . Since then, neuron an understanding of the situation, such as the groups of this kind have been shown to exist connection between odor and revulsion . The in various areas of the human brain . Mirror mirror system can develop correctly only if it is neurons are activated when we carry out very embedded in a context of social interactions and specific actions such as reaching for an apple meanings. or a cup, as well as when we perceive the same action carried out by someone else . The effect Implicit Memory can be explained in this way: I understand what Let us go further along early childhood it means when you reach for a cup because it development . How does social learning take indicates a similar movement in my own arm . place during the first year of life? Memory, As far as we can tell today, the system has two in which singular biographical experiences or main functions: learned facts are retained, begins to mature It creates resonance between oneÕs own only in the second year of life . But there is body and that of the other, thereby making it a very different kind of memory . The vast easier to understand the otherÕs actions . majority of all we have learned we make use Resonance of the mirror neurons paves the of quite automatically during the course of way for willingness to act . The more often an daily life without its prompting us to remember action by another is observed, the lower the the past . Through repetitive experiences or threshold for imitation and the easier it is to practice, abilities and habits have formed that imitate that action . Imitation in infants also has are involuntarily activated during applicable to do with the activity of mirror neurons . The situations: walking, swimming, riding a bicycle, mirror neuron system seems to be the basis of speaking or writing . This also applies to the imitation and model learning; these, in turn, are ability to associate with others at any moment, centrally important human abilities affecting without having to consciously pay attention cultural development . to the bodily interaction . In the field of Neuronal mirror systems also play a role memory research, the term implicit­—meaning in contagious laughing, crying, and yawning . involuntary, automaticÑis used to differentiate

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 Thomas Fuchs • 21 this kind of memory from autobiographical infants of mothers who are more detached memory . and lacking resonance (for instance, because Implicit memory relies upon different brain of post-partum depression), react differently; structures than autobiographical memory; in the beginning they are restless and quickly it is subcortically organized and becomes become passive and helpless . They have not functional much earlier in a childÕs life . Through learned to effectively use their behavior to bring implicit memory, infants are able to recognize about contact . However, if the children do not regularities in repeated experiences, acquire acquire relationship patterns through which faculties, and learn, already at the age of 3 to they may enter into secure contact with others, 4 months, from events in their environment . then their bonding with others cannot develop Above all, through contact with others, they appropriately . Later on they show a marked acquire behavioral patterns that organize weakness in bonding . (Field et al . 1988) their interactions . ÒSchemes-of-being-with,Ó So we see that, from the beginning, early as Daniel Stern described them, include ÒMe- interactions are laid down in the memory and with-Mother-breastfeeding,Ó ÒMe-with-Father- brain structures of the child, and thus, in his or playing-ball,Ó and so forth . This results in what her behavioral dispositions . can also be described as implicit relationship knowledge (Stern 1998): knowing how to relate Bonding System to others, have fun together, express happiness, We now come to a central concept of get attention, avoid rejection, and so on . It that has been the is, to a certain degree, a ÒmusicalÓ memory, subject of intense research in recent decades: organized in time according to the rhythm, the bonding theory . According to John Bowlby, dynamics, and undertones that inaudibly who first developed this concept as far back resonate within interactions with others . as the 1950s, social relationships in early Already in the first few months of life, childhood are regulated by Òa biologically- infants demonstrate memory for shared based bonding system that fulfills the function interaction sequences through the way they of securing the emotional proximity and care expect their mothers to react . Babies quickly from the most important attachment figures .Ó learn which emotional expressions parents (Bowlby 1982) It includes: respond to, are spurned to action by, or rather dismiss, for example . This can be very •• Biologically anchored, coordinated signals nicely shown through the so-called still-face such as searching, calling, gazing, crying, experiment . (Weinberg & Tronick 1996) During clinging . play with her infant, the mother is asked to •• The corresponding driving emotions and assume a blank facial expression and stare needs for things like security, care, warmth, straight ahead for two minutes . Babies usually and affection . react with clear irritation and uneaseÑthe •• The attendant physiological, e.g., expected resonance from the mother is neuroendocrine functions . absentÑand they try every possible way, with gestures and vocalizing, to bring their mother The infantÕs basic needs are fulfilled back into the familiar form of contact . through this system: The infant is dependent Through this, two groups of children can be upon the motherÕs body warmth, her smell, her differentiated (Field 1984): Infants of sensitive touch, her loving attention, and appropriate and lively mothers remain active even in the stimulation and calming . These interactions still-face situation, and obviously expect to bring play an irreplaceable role in the emotional and their mother back into contact in this way . But social development of an infant . The childÕs

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 22 • Learning in Relationships early experiences of relationships are stored attention by giving them short glances . Babies in the implicit memory and anchored as secure also soon transition to attracting an adultsÕ bonds. The infant gains the basic trust and attention through pointing gestures . They secure basis with which to actively explore the will point to a glass so that the mother fills it, world . The first relationships also become inner to an animal so that she may see it, or to an models that put their significant stamp upon object their mother is searching for in order to later relationships, well into adulthood . (Brisch help her . By the same token, babies also now et al . 2002) begin to understand the pointing gestures of Conversely, however, insufficient attention, adults, that is, the meaning of the pointing lack of feelings of security, or separation from hand . Pointing implicates a joint relationship the mother lead to psychophysical stress to a third object seen or comprehended by reactions in infants, with rising agitation at both partners . A specifically human form of first, but then increasingly to resignation and communication is manifested by the pointing apathy . Studies by Rene Spitz in the 1960s gesture: coming to an understanding about a with orphanage children are well known . (Spitz shared outside point of reference . Here lies the 1967) Complete withdrawal of emotional care fundamental limit of the mental capabilities of and attention resulted in the development of other primates such as chimpanzees, who are serious deprivation syndromes with apathy, unable to develop joint attention . (Fuchs 2008) depression, and higher death rates . Even less It is such a radical, new level of development serious relationship dysfunctionsÑarising, for that one speaks of the nine-months-revolution . example, from post-partum depression in the (Tomasello 2001) motherÑhave negative effects on the childÕs First words are now also combined with cognitive and emotional development . (Murray pointing gestures . Parents point to an object & Cooper 2003) The maturing of the emotional and name it . And, likewise, the first words relationship system is an experience-dependent children use are often combined with pointing . process that is susceptible to disruption from These are integrated into cooperative activities many different causes . in which the children are involved and that are structured by the parents: diaper changing, Secondary Intersubjectivity eating in a highchair, riding in an automobile, I have now presented the earlyÑthat feeding ducks, building a block tower together, is, non-verbalÑform of communication and so forth . The capacity of speech thus and relationship, which is also described as develops in the course of shared practices ÒPrimary Intersubjectivity .Ó (Trevarthen 2001) directed toward the environment . The children During the next phase, called ÒSecondary must recognize that their caregivers use words IntersubjectivityÓ (Trevarthen & Hubley 1978), purposefully, that is, with the intention of verbal-symbolic communication develops: the describing . They adopt a word for a new object actual human ability for dialogue . Let us take a only when the adultÕs attention is actually closer look at this development . directed toward that object . If the caregiver One crucial step is the development of looks in another direction, or if the voice comes Òjoint attention,Ó whereby the mother and from a recording, the child does not make the child together turn their attention to an outside connection between the word and the object . object . This ability is developed exclusively in human infants around the age of nine months . of Perspective and Self-awareness At this age, babies begin to turn their attention With speech, children learn a fundamentally to outside objects together with adults, and new medium of communication, along with also to make certain that adults are paying knowledge of the world and of their own selves .

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They are now better able to put themselves experiment whereby a red dot is put on the in the position of others, comprehend their childÕs forehead unnoticed . As early as the intentions, and take their perspective into age of 16 to 18 months, when he looks in the account . But how does a child actually learn mirror, he will grasp at his own forehead . That to say ÒIÓ? How does it come to develop self- means he understands that the image in the awareness? We will see that this phenomenon is mirror represents him . Before that age, the also linked to relationships and communication image in the mirror is simply a funny face . with others . Recognizing oneself in the mirror signifies the The infant does, in fact, bring with it a very ability to view oneÕs self from the perspective elementary, bodily sense of self . Already before of others, in a certain way, to see oneself from birth it has basic sensations the outside . This is a milestone of touch and movement in The precursor of self- in the development of self- which it likewise senses its awareness develops consciousness . (Fuchs 2013) own self . However, in the first From the second or third year months of life this elementary with the reflection of of life, the child finally learns to sense of self develops and oneÕs self in the eyes utilize the ÒIÓ pronoun . Indeed, differentiates itself, above of the mother, that is, the ÒIÓ stands for Òme,Ó but it all, through experiences with is also a changeable word that others who look at and speak in being addressed by constantly shifts its location to the infant . The precursor of others . according to who is speaking . self-awareness develops with Only when the child understands the reflection of oneÕs self in the eyes of the that everyone alike can say ÒIÓ does it grasp mother, that is, in being addressed by others . the universality of personal perspective . Now, (Fuchs 2013) the child has come to understand that it is one The pivotal step on the path to self- among others, that it belongs to a community consciousness takes place from the age of nine of people . The structures in the prefrontal months, when the infant has learned joint brain necessary for this purpose mature with attention and begins to grasp the perspective interactive experiences in which others speak of others . The infant then learns to also see to, and treat, the child as a person of its own . itself Òwith othersÕ eyes,Ó for that is how self- Self-consciousness and, likewise, the ability to consciousness develops . For be considerate of others are example, the child learns what Self-consciousness and, socially acquired abilities . it means to have a name: likewise, the ability something like, ÒI am Monica .Ó Summary This happens when the child to be considerate of Human beings do not realizes that the name points others are socially come into the world simply to itself . The child begins to as single beings who must understand this significance acquired abilities . be gradually introduced into during the second year of life . community . Right from the Interestingly, at first, the child will say: ÒMonica beginning, they are biologically inclined to is playing with dollsÓ or ÒMonica did that .Ó She relationships with others . For the infant, this refers to herself by her own name before she bonding system carries out the task of securing uses the word ÒIÓ to designate herself . close proximity to, care from, and emotional Between the ages of one and two, it will connectedness with the most important also become possible for the child to recognize attachment figures . Above and beyond that, itself in the mirror . There is a well-known with the resonance and empathy system, a

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 24 • Learning in Relationships biologically based system for a subtle, bodily this the brain becomes the organ of the mind . understanding develops . Upon this basis, However, the mind is a gift from othersÑthe human beings, like no other species, develop communityÑand not a product of the brain . the abilities of empathy, sympathy, and verbal communication . Within the first year of life the Final remarks foundation is laid for relationship, bonding, and Finally, let us take a look at the relationship mutual understanding that is necessary for the between the neurosciences and education . development of symbolic-verbal communication Essentially, the relationship between these two during the second and third fields is just beginning to be years of life . É [T]he mind is a known . What can one say with In early childhood reasonable certainty? development, this symbolic gift from others Ð the In many cases, learning communication appears for community Ð and not takes place implicitly, that the first time in the form of a product of the brain . is, Òalong the way,Ó and not spontaneous gestures and through directed feeding pointing . They are based upon of material . It begins with the ability of human beings to establish joint relationship learning in early childhood, with attentionÑthat is, connection with another walking and speaking, and it continues with personÑto direct oneÕs attention to an object learning processes in groups whereby social and to know that the other person is doing behaviors are learned through shared practice the same, and to form common objectives, and imitation . intentions, and mutual knowledge . Speech The basic pattern for human learning from development is likewise based upon the primary early childhood on is in relationships to others, motives of human communication, namely, to specifically, in personal contact with those inform others, help others, and share emotions teaching and with other learners . Relationships with them . This altruistic and activate the motivation cooperative primary focus Knowledge of neuro- system; neglect cripples it, differentiates humans from plasticity already can and, in consequence, increases even the most highly developed aggressiveness . No lessons are primates, since the latter make support an approach as well remembered as those use of gestures only to secure to education that combined with meaningful, some advantage for themselves looks upon learning intensive experiences of with the help of others . relationship . (Tomasello 2009) as a development The years up to the end of I would like to make one that integrates puberty are especially sensitive last observation about the role knowledge, feelings, phases of learning . The earlier of the brain . We have seen that children begin to play a musical human communication, speech, senses, and practical instrument or learn a foreign and self-awareness can develop experiences . language, the better . Some only through interaction with abilities are dependent upon others . The corresponding neuronal patterns certain windows of opportunity in a childÕs are impressed upon the brain during the course development during which they must be of early childhood development . The brain cultivated, while others can be learned at any works like a matrix that takes in the childÕs time during oneÕs life . relationship experiences and transforms them Learning is a holisticÑthat is to say into permanent abilities . (Fuchs 2008) Through cognitive, emotional, and bodilyÑprocess .

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Cognitive, emotional, and physical memories of neuroplasticity already can support an are inseparably woven together, and the approach to education that is not primarily various kinds of memory support each other in cognitively oriented, but rather looks upon learning . As a result: learning as a development that integrates ¥ Children can better retain what is knowledge, feelings, senses, and practical learned when learning takes place in a positive experiences . Learning is more than acquiring atmosphere and is associated with positive knowledge and abilities; it is also the formation feelings . Thus, a central concern of education of the personality, of patterns of experience and should be to create beneficial and wholesome relations . Indeed, it goes clear into the organic social and spatial environments . structure of the body, into the brain . We carry ¥ Facts should be embedded in a familiar the responsibility for creating educational frame of reference and connected with environments that foster childrenÕs natural emotional and intermodal experiences . tendency to learn in and through relationships . History, for instance, must be given a ÒfaceÓ and connected with real people . Patterns and pictures support memory formation (e .g ., Sicily References is triangular; Italy is a boot) . Bowlby, J . (1982) Attachment: Attachment and Loss Vol. I. ¥ Unattractive environments that arenÕt Basic Books, New York . true to life hinder learning . By contrast, Brisch, K .H ., Grossmann, K .E ., Grossmann, K ., Kšhler, L . environments that exhilarate the senses and (2002) Bindung und seelische Entwicklungswege . Klett- Cotta, Stuttgart . appeal to the whole body have a stimulating Catmur, C ., Walsh, V ., Heyes, C . (2007) ÒSensorimotor effect . Children retain information more readily learning configures the human mir­ror system .Ó Current when it is presented through multiple senses Biology, 17: 1527Ð1531 . and when they can approach it practically, Field, T . (1984) . ÒEarly interactions between infants and through movement and touch . their postpartum depressed mothers .Ó Infant Behavior Admittedly, neurobiology cannot specify and Development 18, 1Ð3 . Field, T ., Healy, B ., Goldstein, S ., Perry, S ., Bendell, D ., upon which image of humankind we should Schanberg, S ., Zimmermann, E .A ., Kuhn, C . (1988) . base our education, what goals we should ÒInfants of depressed mothers show ÔdepressedÕ attain as teachers, or what form of education behavior even with nondepressed adults .Ó Child Dev . should be provided to our children . Those 59, 1569Ð1579 . who expect such fundamental guidance from Fuchs, T . (2008) Das Gehirn: ein Beziehungsorgan. Eine neurobiology will be disappointed . The brain phänomenolo­gisch-ökologi­sche Konzeption. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart . is a matrix that absorbs what it encounters . ______. (2013) ÒThe phenomenology and But definite answers to the questions of what development of social perspectives .Ó Phenomenology we should do in the field of education and and the Cognitive Sciences 12: 655Ð683 . why we should do it cannot be expected from Fuchs, T ., De Jaegher, H . (2009) ÒEnactive this field of brain research . In addition, many Intersubjectivity: Participatory sense-making and questions about brain development and the mutual incorporation .Ó Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 8: 465Ð486 . connection between the brain and the mind Hebb, D . (2002): The Organization of Behavior. A remain largely unanswered; among them are Neuropsychological Theory . Erlbaum Books, Mahwah, NJ the nagging questions about how information (reprint of first ed ., 1949) . relates to sense structures, or how higher Gallese, V . (2001) ÒThe Ôshared manifoldÕ hypothesis . cognitive functions come into being . At this From mirror neurons to empath­ y .Ó Journal of time, cooperation between education and Consciousness Studies 8: 33Ð50 . Gallese, V ., Fadiga, L ,. Fogassi, L ., Rizzolatti, G . (1996) neuroscience can address only very basic ÒAction recognition in the premotor cortex .Ó Brain 119: learning processes . That being said, knowledge 593Ð609 .

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Markowitsch, H .J ., Welzer, H . (2005) “Das Thomas Fuchs is the Karl-Jaspers-Professor for autobiographische GedŠchtnis ”. Hirnorganische Philosophy and Psychiatry and the head of the research Grundla­gen und bio­soziale Entwicklung . Klett-Cotta, section, “Phenomenological Psychopathology and Stuttgart . Merleau-Ponty, M . (1960) ÒLe philosophe et son ombre .Ó Psychotherapy,” at the Psychiatric Clinic, University of In: Signes . Paris: ƒditions Gallimard . Heidelberg. He can be reached at: thomas.fuchs@med. Meltzoff, A .N ., Moore, M .K . (1977) ÒImitation of facial uni-heidelberg.de. His homepage is www.thomasfuchs. and manual gestures by human neonates .Ó Science 198: uni-hd.de. 74Ð78 . Murray, L ., Cooper, P . (2003) ÒIntergenerational transmission of affective and cognitive processes associ ­ated with depression: Infancy and the pre-school years .Ó In: Murray L ., Cooper P . (Editors) Uni ­polar Depres­sion: A Life­span Perspective, Oxford Univer­sity Press, 17Ð46 . Pa ­poušek, H ., Papoušek, M . (1995) ÒVorsprachliche Kommunikation: AnfŠnge, Formen, Stšrungen­ und psychotherapeutische AnsŠtze .Ó In: Petzold, H .G . (Editor) Die Kraft liebe­voller Blicke. Psychotherapie und Babyforschung Bd. II . Junfermann, Paderb­ orn, 123Ð142 . Spitz, R .A . (1967) Vom Säugling zum Kleinkind. Naturgeschichte der Mutter-Kind-Beziehun­gen im ersten Lebensjahr . Klett, Stuttgart . Stern, D . (1985) The Interpersonal World of the Infant . Basic Books: New York . Stern, D .N . (1998) ÒThe process of therapeutic change involving implicit knowledge: Some implications of developmental observations for adult psychotherapy .Ó In ­fant Men­tal Health Journal 19: 300Ð308 . Tomasello, M . (2001) The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition . Harvard University Press . ______. (2008) . Origins of Human Communication . Cambridge MA, MIT Press . Trevarthen, C . (2001) ÒThe neurobiology of early communication: intersubjective regulations­ in human brain development .Ó In: Kalverboer, A .F ., Grams­berg, A . (Editors) Handbook of Brain and Behaviour in Human Development . Kluwer Academic­ Publishers, Dordrecht, Boston, London, 841Ð881 . Trevarthen, C ., Hubley, P . (1978) ÒSecondary intersubjectivity: confidence, confiding­ and acts of meaning in the first year .Ó In: A . Lock (Editor) Action, Gesture and Symbol: The Emergence of Language, Academic Press, London, 183Ð229 . Weinberg, M .K ., Tronick, E .Z . (1996) ÒInfant affective reactions to the resumption of maternal interaction after the still-face .Ó Child Development 67: 905Ð914 . Wicker, B ., Keysers, C ., Plailly, J ., Royet, J ., Gallese, V ., Rizzolatti, G . (2003) ÒBoth of us disgusted in my insula: The common neural basis of seeing and feeling disgust .Ó Neu ­ron 40: 655Ð664 .

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 Encountering Sophia in the Classroom: Gender Inclusion in the Waldorf ArticleCurriculum Title

KristinAuthor’s Agudelo Name

ver 200 years ago Abigail Adams wrote to already present in our Waldorf curriculum, her husband, John, asking him to Òremember should we make a special effort to teach about Othe ladies and be more generous and favorable women? to them than your ancestors .Ó Since AbigailÕs time, the necessity of Òremembering the What Non-Waldorf Educators Say ladiesÓ in various educational canons has been Before we jump into SteinerÕs thoughts on argued persuasively by a number of scholars the subject, it will be helpful to briefly review in a variety of contexts . However, very little some of the most popular arguments made by on women has been written in the Waldorf the non-Waldorf educational community for curriculum and how the issue of gender gender inclusion in the classroom . Most non- inclusion might unfold, both in theory and in Waldorf discussions of gender in the classroom practice, in the Waldorf high school classroom . are based on concerns about the ways in which This article will attempt to take some first curriculum content affects male and female steps towards rectifying this overlooked area studentsÕ self-image and -development . Since of Waldorf pedagogy . First, IÕll Waldorf education is based on address the more theoretical Why, given all the a fundamental desire to help aspects of the question, many valuable elements each student evolve his or her focusing especially on Rudolf highest capacities, it seems SteinerÕs insights about already present in our critical to familiarize ourselves gender and offering practical curriculum, should we with these arguments and suggestions for Waldorf make a special effort to to look at how our teaching teachers based on his work . might affect the personal Then I will very briefly take a teach about women? development of both male peek at a few major female and female students 1. Also figures who should find their way into every pertinent to the Waldorf classroom is the Waldorf high school curriculumÑnot only claim, made by mainstream educators, that because they are fascinating and important non-inclusive teaching is simply historically historical figures in and of themselves, but more inaccurate; this question of specificity and critically, because they played pivotal roles accuracy was raised by Steiner himself in in the development of human consciousness a lecture on gender parity, so we would be as outlined by Rudolf Steiner . Looking ever so wise to pay attention to the work of our non- quickly at these women will give you a taste Waldorf colleagues . for just how rich our curriculum could be if In general, non-anthroposophical we were to incorporate even just a few of the arguments for gender inclusion in the women who have contributed greatly to the classroom can be grouped under several broad evolution of consciousness . themes: LetÕs start with a fundamental question: Girls are damaged by the lack of positive role Our curriculum is already very rich (some models in traditional curricula, which have tended would say, already over-filled with content) . to portray women as passive and dependent Why, given all the many valuable elements on men (or at best, an inspiration to themÑ

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 28 • Encountering Sophia in the Classroom e .g ., Beatrice to Dante, or Pocahontas to John The third argument is perhaps the simplest: Smith); to limit their inclusion to a few token Women have been active contributors to the major historical figures (such as Sappho, Queen social, economic, and political arenas since the Elizabeth I); or to ignore them altogether . This beginnings of time, so representing them is simply latter attitude of benign neglect is especially a matter of accurate, thorough scholarship. In prevalent in political histories, which by their this view, introducing women and womenÕs very nature focus narrowly on one area of accomplishments into our curricula is simply human interaction from which women have, a corrective to what has historically been a for the most part, been excluded . The lack of sometimes unconscious, sometimes willful women in traditional literature and history blindness on the part of scholars . For example, curricula, so the argument goes, makes girls an accurate understanding of Ancient Egyptian feel invisible and, therefore, holds them back society must try to recreate (to the best of in their own self-development (which, in turn, our ability) the lives of half its population, as reinforces the overall aims and social structures well as the contributions of individual women, of our patriarchal culture) . ranging from the great female pharaohs to the The second argument is a positive corollary women named in specific court documents and to the negative one outlined above: Girls need papyri . The fact that reconstructing the lives to be inspired by powerful female characters and and perceptions of women is often a difficult historical figures to whom they can relate and challenge does not excuse us from the attempt on whom they can model their behavior. Many to do so . And advances in historiography, commentators also argue that boys benefit which has come to include a greater reliance from exposure to inspirational and/or powerful on evidence such as court records and female characters, since it fosters an attitude archaeological excavations rather than purely that women as well as men are worthy of textual and/or political data, have often made it respect and emulation . This argument moves possible to construct at least a broad picture of beyond tokenism (the inclusion of a few notable what womenÕs lives entailed (as in the case of women as a sidebar to the main lesson) when Ancient Egypt, for instance), even if we are left the curriculum includes a broad spectrum of with relatively few personalities that emerge women as a matter of course, aiming to make from the somewhat impressionistic canvas . visible the lives of women in general . There are, of course, many more subtleties This can be achieved, for instance, by to the argument in favor of including women in discussing the economic role that womenÕs the canon, but, to my mind, they all fall under (often unpaid) labor plays in various cultures, one of the three arguments presented above . by consciously examining the roles and Waldorf educators, like any others, should be expectations placed on women across different mindful of these very persuasive arguments cultures and times, or even by something as in favor of inclusion when considering how simple as saying, ÒWe donÕt know much about to structure their lessons . However, there are the lives of women in pre-Vedic India, but the even further reasons for making efforts to be evidence we do have suggests . . .Ó Both types inclusiveÑreasons based on Rudolf SteinerÕs of inclusionÑ heroic female characters and a own teachings . broad-based look at the roles of women in a given time, culture, or textÑare necessary for Steiner on “Woman and Society” fostering healthy self-development in girls and It should come as no surprise to any boys . Put simply, we need both to be inspired Waldorf teacher, given the nearly infinite list by the heroic actions of the few and to know of subjects Steiner addressed, that he had that the humble lives of the many are valued . also thoroughly thought through the issue of

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 Kristin Agudelo • 29 gender . Perhaps the place where he addressed followers), we would find that these ÒexpertsÓ the topic most comprehensively is in his lecture were severely limited by the narrow data they ÒWoman and SocietyÓ (Die Frauenfrage), given in collected . November of 1906 2. ItÕs worth taking a moment Investigation of other times and cultures, he to review the main arguments he puts forth stated, would reveal women who participated there . For what may at first appear to be a in what we define as ÒmasculineÓ work . rather academic discussion of womenÕs role in This observation about the cultural and society has direct, practical applications for our temporal context of gender roles might seem pedagogical practice . With that in mind, letÕs commonplace to the 21st century reader, but delve into SteinerÕs insights on gender so that at the time, it was incredibly provocative . ItÕs we can better appreciate both the ÒhowÓ and hard to imagine Havelock Ellis or any of the ÒwhyÓ of gender inclusion in the classroom . other contemporary intellectuals he mentions In ÒWoman and SocietyÓ Steiner takes up accepting that their theories might be culturally the questions raised by the nascent feminist limited . Furthermore, Steiner points out (and movement, especially as it was expressed this is especially important for historians) in suffragist literature and demonstrations . that the concept of ÒWoman,Ó even within Acknowledging the growing importance of this a given culture, is itself Òan unacceptable movement, Steiner stated point blank that the generalization .Ó Which women? Where? In question of womenÕs inclusion into hitherto what contexts? Are they from the lower or un-integrated portions of society upper class? Steiner insists Òis one of the greatest present Steiner was already we be specific . questions of our culture,Ó and he anticipating much Even further, he argues: observed that the issue involved if we investigate ÒinfluentialÓ much more than simply the later understandings women and conclude there are admission of women into higher of power as a very few of them out there, education and the professions, dynamic, culturally arenÕt we being confined by our or even the question of universal own cultural assumptions of suffrage . Rather, he noted, constructed what constitutes ÒinfluenceÓ? Òthe issue concerning women relationship, not a We need to examine our own embraces an economic, a social, thing to be wielded biasesÑtowards privileging and a psychological side, and public spheres over private and many other aspects as well .Ó or held . political power/voting over other These two statements alone ways of exercising influence . should be incentive for Waldorf teachers to be If we have confronted the issue of womenÕs diligent about the inclusion of women in the inclusion only in these last hundred years or canon! so, that is because our culture is itself both the After laying out what was at stake in the creator and product of conditions in which it first part of the lecture, Steiner went on to is possible to think about arenas such as Òthe consider a number of the prevailing theories politicalÓ or Òthe academicÓ as abstract entities, concerning women, correctly observing that within which the equally abstract notion of in most cases they directly contradicted each Òhuman rightsÓ (applicable to both male and other . Moreover, he continued, if we were female) can be applied . to look at the scientistsÕ and psychologistsÕ I find it exhilarating to think that, in 1906, conclusions about women (which, at the time Steiner was already anticipating a much later Steiner was lecturing, were that men were post-structuralist understanding of power as active and creative, and women were natural a dynamic, culturally constructed relationship,

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 30 • Encountering Sophia in the Classroom not a thing to be wielded or held . He would Jung, but also backwards to Aristophanes be right at home, for example, with Michel (or, at least, to Aristophanes as described by FoucaultÕs description of power as Òrelations Plato in his Symposium) . In what we might call É interwoven with other kinds of relations the ur-myth of the bi-gendered human being, (production, kinship, , sexuality) for AristophanesÕ tale proposes that the original which they play at once a conditioning humans were composed of two gendered and a conditioned role .Ó3 For Steiner, as for parts that made up a complete whole (though Foucault, power or influence in a culture is unlike Steiner, Aristophanes held that these not a weapon that the dominant class (men) two halves could be male-female, male-male, uses to oppress its inferiors (women), but a or female-female, thus explaining the varieties network of relationships between men and of human love as we each search among our women that includes spheres normally thought prospective lovers for our severed half) . of as outside the realm of Òthe powerfulÓ: the Steiner was less interested than home, the intellectual salon, and the everyday Aristophanes (at least, in this context) in the marketplace, to name a few . effect of this double gender on human sexual behavior than he was in the way in which we Gender and the Human Being can harness this dual energy to best develop Steiner does not stop with his presciently, our full potential as human beings . In this post-structuralist redefinition of power that emphasis, he once again anticipated JungÕs takes into account the ways in which women work on individuation . We must consider in might exercise cultural influence . Towards the every human being, Steiner urges, the totality end of the lecture, he moves from considering of that personÕs nature, both the revealed the various culturally and materially and the hidden partsÑthe male and the determined aspects of the Òwoman questionÓ female . Moreover, we must strive to integrate (class, time period, societal within ourselves whichever context, and so forth) into what We must consider in characteristics we are missing . he considers the heart of the In other words, a complete matterÑthe essential nature of every human being human being combines so-called the human being . the totality of that male and female characteristics At that point, Steiner person's nature, so that our external gender is introduces a surprising twist complemented by an internal to the discussion . Anticipating both the revealed tendency towards the traits of Carl JungÕs theory of the anima/ and the hidden the opposite . animus by about ten years, parts Ð the male Not content to simply scoop he claims that, if considered Jung, Steiner goes on to insist in totality, each human being and the female . that gender discrimination is encompasses two poles, male inherently tied to a cultureÕs and female . According to Steiner, the physical means of production 5. He argues that, if we body expresses only one or the other of find ourselves in an entrenched patriarchy, it these poles 4. In the emotional life, however, is because materialism Òimpels itself towards he claims that we can clearly see that both an external culture .Ó In other words, the same stereotypically feminine and masculine qualities impulses (or discourses, if one prefers a post- can, in fact, belong to human beings of either structuralist term) give rise to both patriarchal physical gender . attitudes, that place a premium on male In this description of the human being as bodies and experiences, and to our materialist/ two-poled, Steiner looks not only forward to positivist culture . The twoÑpatriarchy and

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 Kristin Agudelo • 31 materialismÑare coeval, birthed by the same ItÕs a gendered version of Òthink global, act forces . local .Ó If we want to change the world, we To support his startlingly contemporary need to change the selfÑbecome the doubly- assertion about the interdependence of gendered human being we are meant to be . In patriarchy and materialism, Steiner turned so doing, we will change the culture around to a somewhat counterintuitive source: the us . Patriarchy, by definition, requires men and language of mystics . Mystics, he claims, on women to adhere to strictly defined gender some level understand that our material age is roles; if we bring those roles into balance within a reification of masculine forces at work in our ourselves, cultural renewal will be the inevitable bodies and our world . In other words, mystics outcome . see the world of things as a sort of calcification ÒWhat does all this have to do with or hardening of fundamentally spiritual pedagogy?Ó you may ask . Quite simply, it is impulses . Steiner argues that therefore mystics one of our main tasks as Waldorf educators often use feminine imagery to to help young people experience describe their journeys in the non- If we bring those and develop both sides of their material world of Spirit . And it is human nature . We can do this in true that many female, as well as (gender) roles into many waysÑby encouraging, as male, mystics frame their union balance within Steiner did in some of his lectures with the divine using female ourselves, cultural to the first Waldorf teachers, imagery .6 The prime example, both genders to participate in for Steiner, of this feminine renewal will be the stereotypically male and female spirituality is Goethe, whose inevitable outcome . crafts (woodworking, knitting, ÒEternal-feminineÓ leads Faust and so forth), and by nurturing (and us) from the illusory world of material through skillful pedagogy certain behaviors to the immaterial ÒeventÓ of Presence . Or that we notice are dormant in our students Dante, who is guided to Paradise through the (e .g ., encouraging retiring students to become intervention of Beatrice . braver about speaking, encouraging aggressive If, however, one is not an accomplished students to become more compassionate) . mystic and the prospect of a deeply entrenched Perhaps just as important for the Waldorf patriarchal materialism is dispiriting, Steiner humanities teacher, we can also accomplish reminds us not to indulge in apathy or this by encouraging our students to live into despair . Cultures change, and it is our job, as the experiences of both genders by offering human beings, to change our surroundings by them opportunities to do so in literature, story, developing ourselves to our highest capacity . To song, film, and so on . We all know how a work this end, he urges: of literature can get us Òinside the headÓ of characters far removed from our own lives: Men and women must look on their Odysseus, Dante, and Parzifal are examples physical body as an instrument which from our own curriculum . If we harness this enables them, in one direction or another, power of imagination (something which, to be active as a totality in the physical incidentally, Steiner describes as ÒfemaleÓ) so world . The more human beings are aware that students can live with and inhabit the of the spiritual within them, the more does perspectives, feelings, and bodily experiences the body become an instrument, and the of women as well as men, then we will have more do they learn to understand people gone a long way towards accomplishing two by looking into the depths of the soul .7 goals: countering the prevailing patriarchal/ materialist world-view and encouraging the

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 32 • Encountering Sophia in the Classroom studentsÕ inner growth along the lines Steiner is examples of both heroic/outstanding women advocating 8. and everyday women . On a practical level, this means that in addition to covering famous Recommendations for Gender Inclusion queens, female authors, and other notables, we in Waldorf Classrooms also need social history . When discussing cities, So what is the Òtake-homeÓ of the foregoing teachers can describe what the homes looked re-cap of SteinerÕs consideration of ÒWoman like and what activities might have taken place and SocietyÓ? IÕve boiled it down to six goals to in them . Who provided the childcare? Who strive for in our classrooms: made the food? Who did the farming? Who 1 . Given the importance Steiner placed on made the clothes? Good social and economic gender issues, it is imperative that we make history will address the role of women 11. an active effort to include womenÕs voices and 5 . As Waldorf teachers, we must nurture perspectives in all aspects of our curriculum, those gendered aspects of our own personality from literature and history to math, science, that are less well-developed . Although these physical culture, and the arts . One simple first Òhidden sidesÓ are often qualities associated step is using gender-neutral language such as with the opposite sex, they vary tremendously ÒhumanÓ or ÒhumanityÓ instead of ÒmanÓ or from person to person . As with all things Òmankind .Ó This is standard practice in public anthroposophical, there is no single answer to schools but has been painfully slow to catch fit all men or all women; each of us must make on in Waldorf circles, perhaps because of a an honest appraisal of the gendered qualities somewhat misplaced wish to remain faithful to we most need to develop in ourselvesÑnot SteinerÕs German 9. However, if we are going to only once, but again and again over the course move towards a more balanced experience of of our spiritual and professional development . gender, we need to be intentional in our use of Bringing this question of gender into our gender-inclusive language, inside and outside ongoing meditative practice can be extremely the classroom . This means using ÒhumanÓ and useful in helping identify and address areas of ÒhumankindÓ whenever we are speaking of weakness . both genders, reserving ÒmanÓ and ÒmankindÓ 6 . We need to be intentional about the for situations in which we are specifically importance of the moral/spiritual work we are referring to the male gender 10. doing when we engage in questions of gender 2 . We need to embed womenÕs voices and in the classroom . ItÕs all too easy to feel like perspectives in their specific socio-economic, gender inclusion is something we Òadd onÓ political, geographic, and temporal locations . to our usual lesson, or that we simply donÕt 3 . We should expand our notions of have time to be as inclusive as we would like Òinfluence,Ó Òpower,Ó and ÒcontributionsÓ to be . But Steiner has assured us that the beyond those valued by our own culture and question of inclusion is of vital importance look towards ways in which women have and is not a matter of trends . In fact, in historically exercised their personhood, power, seeming anticipation of the accusation that and influence . This will vary by geography heÕs just espousing some sort of newfangled and culture . Be alert to ways in which women, feminist claptrap, he emphatically declared through their domestic, religious, and economic that we Òcannot solve the WomanÕs question endeavors, might be participating in networks with trends and ideals!Ó12 Rather, as he of power that we, with our contemporary painstakingly shows, he is arguing for the Western lenses, might not immediately see . centrality of gender inclusion as a spiritual 4 . Tokenism is insufficient to do justice practice . He sums up: ÒIn reality you can only to womenÕs voices and experiences . We need solve it [the ÒWomanÕs questionÓ] by creating

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 Kristin Agudelo • 33 that concept, that disposition of soul which poetryÑmost in the form of temple hymns and enables men and women to understand each other longer works in praise of the gods . Aside other out of the totality of human nature .Ó13 from archaeologists and ancient historians, few people today have ever heard of her, A Quick Introduction to a but she has the distinction of being the very Few Notable Women first named author in human history . ThatÕs I hope the foregoing overview of the rightÑthe very first author who thought to put ÒwomanÕs questionÓ has convinced you to take his or her name to paper (or in this case, clay up for yourself the study of how gender plays tablets) was a woman . And, just to give you a out in your own classroom and particularly sense of how revolutionary Enheduanna was, how you might strive to be more inclusive in she was writing about 800 years before The your pedagogy . Being inclusive can be a lot of Epic of Gilgamesh, a much more famous work workÑfinding new resources and adjusting (attributed to a man) that is commonly cited as tried and true lesson plans take time . For the beginning of literature . that reason, I maintain a website, www . You can go to my website to find out much notablewomen .wordpress .com, designed to more detail about EnheduannaÕs biography help Waldorf schools and teachers include more and literary output, but for now, IÕll point women in their curricula by providing relatively out briefly: As far as we can tell, before short, easy-to-read articles on a number of Enheduanna, no one anywhere (not China, not women from history (and a few more current Ancient America, not Egypt) had ever thought figures), along with suggestions for lesson to either name him- or herself as an author 14. plans . Moreover, no one had ever thought to write To demonstrate briefly the type of luminary about his or her inner feelings and experience . I profile on the site, I will ÒintroduceÓ you here We have writing from before EnheduannaÕs to one of the women I believe to be among timeÑall sorts of data lists involving the most important for the evolution of accounting and some praises of gods and consciousness, the Ancient Sumerian priestess goddesses (though even there, EnheduannaÕs Enheduanna . Though she is are among the first) . However, no only one among many women Before Enheduanna one had ever used the word ÒIÓ in who were game changers for É no one had ever writing, and certainly no one had human consciousness, her ever gone on to use that ÒIÓ as a example should be enough to used the word ÒIÓ in way to explore his or her inner indicate both the quality of the writing É or gone landscape . individualities IÕm interested In contrast, Enheduanna in unearthing, and the degree on to use that ÒIÓ not only named herself as to which our curriculum is as a way to explore author, but wrote in vivid detail impoverished if we do not make his or her inner about her feelings towards the every effort to include them . goddess Inanna, and the way landscape . in which her biography and her Enheduanna: The World’s First spiritual experience of Inanna Named Author intersected . ItÕs literally a world-changing To the best we can tell, Enheduanna lived moment in human consciousness: the first sign around 2300 bce . The daughter of the famous that humans had entered SteinerÕs ÒEgypto- Assyrian king Sargon, she was high priestess Chaldean EpochÓ (2900Ð750 bce), the era he of the moon god Nanna in the city of Ur and describes as being that in which humanity author of more than 4500 extant lines of comes into awareness of its inner emotional

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 34 • Encountering Sophia in the Classroom life 15. Enheduanna herself apparently knew that are not women to be ignored, nor are they she was doing something entirely new . In one of mere add-ons to the important male figures her temple hymns, she wrote, we already privilege in our curriculum . Rather, discovering more about these women and The person who bound this tablet together integrating them into our lesson plans at all is Enheduanna . / My king, something never levels will constitute a giant step forward in the before created, did not this one give birth project that Steiner challenged us so eloquently to it?16 to undertake: to bring balance to ourselves, our studentsÕ lives, and the world as a whole This passage (among others in her work) is by fully developing both sides of our human breathtaking in its novelty and in its self- nature . awareness of that novelty . The fact that the hymns themselves are masterworks of Final Thoughts: Building a “City of Ladies” poetry adds to their splendor . So gifted was To do justice to SteinerÕs vision, it seems Enheduanna, in fact, that her works were appropriate to end by taking a turn toward copied down as models for hundreds of years the metaphysical . I began this article with a afterwardÑfirst by Sumerian scribes and reference to an 18th century American first later by Babylonians . The early 20th century ladyÕs plea to her husband to Òremember Assyriologist William Hallo termed her Òthe the ladiesÓ as he governed what was then a Sumerian Shakespeare .Ó To which I would relatively new country founded on democratic counter: Given that she preceded Shakespeare ideals . IÕd like to end with another image from by about 3800 years, it might be more apt to a female author, this one from the 14th century dub the bard Òthe English Enheduanna .Ó Her scholar and advocate, Christine de Pizan . Pizan work is just as earth-shattering, if not more is a remarkable figureÑperhaps the worldÕs so . How can we profess to teach a curriculum first self-conscious Òfeminist,Ó in that she that works with SteinerÕs indications about the intentionally set about not only to persuade evolution of consciousness if we are missing her male peers (and the world at large) to such a critical figure? respect women and their work, but she went on to contribute materially to these efforts A Few Other Female Luminaries by founding an all-female scriptorium that Enheduanna is just one such luminary churned out copies of her own considerable female missing from our rolls; others include oeuvre, which was much in demand by her Perpetua, a Roman woman who wrote the contemporaries . worldÕs first diary while imprisoned waiting Pizan is a particularly interesting figure to be thrown to the beasts; Marie de France, for anthroposophists, because her concept who single-handedly invented the genre of of the way in which humans work in and on courtly romance by combining into a single the spiritual world parallels some of SteinerÕs genre the two extant strands of Celtic fairytales views . In her Book of the City of Ladies, for and courtly poetry from Aquitaine (and not instance, she wrote of a vision in which she coincidentally, stands at the beginning of was visited by three spiritual beings she a direct line of transmission from herself called Òdaughters of GodÓ: Lady Reason, to Chretien de Troyes and Wolfram von Lady Rectitude, and Lady Justice .17 These EschenbachÕs Parzifal); Hildegard von Bingen, Ladies, whose illuminated countenances and whose theology and cosmology encapsulate melodious speech overwhelmed ChristineÕs many of the same ideas later unpacked by senses, tasked her with what became her lifeÕs Rudolf Steiner, and many, many more . These workÑfounding a Òcity of ladiesÓ that would

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 Kristin Agudelo • 35 exist in both the spiritual and earthly realms . of gender inclusion, I would posit, is a matter In her vision, Christine worked alongside the not just of pedagogy, but of theology and ladies to dig and excavate the foundations of cosmology as well . the city, lay down the walls, and otherwise construct a strong, impregnable fortress Practical Steps Forward wherein unjustly treated women could find Reflecting on SteinerÕs and PizanÕs insights refuge . However, this foundation, these walls is pretty heady stuff, and I hope you will were formed not out of material clay and stone, find their indications on gender, as I have, but out of the scholarly discourse between worth contemplating and taking into your herself and the three Ladies on the subjects meditative life . However, as anthroposophists of the origins of inequality, womenÕs rights, and teachers, we also need to take some on- and virtuous womenÕs biographies . Her words, the-ground, concrete steps . IÕve sketched out then, were the foundation of the city . In effect, below two imaginations for the future: first, Christine built up an edifice in the spiritual for the Waldorf curriculum, and second, for realm that was able to then nourish and sustain anthroposophical/spiritual work on gender . women here on earth . I find it remarkable that a 14th century For the Classroom Venetian-born Frenchwoman described In my perfect world, I would take a walk nearly exactly the type of concrete spiritual through the grades in a Waldorf school work Steiner envisioned when he enjoined his in which, upon entering the second grade followers to actively nourish and build up the classrooms, IÕd hear some of Marie de FranceÕs spiritual being ÒAnthroposophia .Ó animal fables being retold . Then, Like Steiner, Pizan saw her work Like Steiner, Pizan moving up to fifth grade, IÕd hear here on earthÑher writing, her about Enheduanna when the class scholarly activity, her ethical saw her work studied Ancient Mesopotamia . and spiritual practicesÑas here on earth as Perhaps (a slightly toned-down contributing in a concrete way contributing in version of) Perpetua or Hypatia to the evolution not just of would make an appearance in human consciousness, but of the a concrete way sixth grade during the Roman spiritual world itself . At the risk to the evolution block . In high school, IÕd hear of sounding overly grandiose, I not just of human about Marie de France once would suggest that, like Steiner again during the Parzival block, and Pizan, we should see our own consciousness, this time for her courtly tales . efforts at gender inclusion on the but of the spiritual Enheduanna might reappear same large scale . in 10th grade Ancient Cultures Specifically, I would encourage world itself . (where the teens would read some the anthroposophical community of her poetry and contemplate at large, and especially those involved in what it says about human consciousness education, to consider that our efforts at that Enheduanna chose to name herself in it) . gender inclusion actually go way beyond Hildegard von Bingen would be taught not only simply validating the experiences of girls in in music and art history, but also during science todayÕs classrooms, or even helping all students blocks as a representative (alongside Dante) develop their full, bi-gendered selves . Rather, of the archetypal medieval cosmology or as like Christine de Pizan, our teaching, done with a counterpoint to later Enlightenment views right intention, builds a spiritual edifice that of Reason . The model here would be to teach fortifies the entire spiritual realm . The question game-changers like Enheduanna and Hildegard

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 36 • Encountering Sophia in the Classroom just as we teach Shakespeare and PlatoÑmore of biblical criticism that prioritized the historical than once, in a variety of settings, in both Jesus; in order to reinvigorate the Wisdom in upper and lower school . Christ, he called upon the anthroposophical Just as (or even more) importantly in my community to search for Mary/Isis as a ideal scenario, when I would step into faculty manifestation of Sophianic presence 18. Of meetings, I would overhear conversations in course, rediscovering the presence of Mary/Isis which teachers (male and female) were taking in myth, story, and ritual is one important way the lead in being consciously inclusive in to pursue this search . However, I would argue their lesson plans, their work being founded there might be other (even potentially more in a deep consideration of the spiritual labor fruitful) ways to engage with Divine Wisdom . that Steiner has called us to The first of these other undertake . They would be paying Our teaching, done methods would be to work attention to how their course with right intention, and study more closely those material might affect girls and individualities who have grappled boys differently, how to create builds a spiritual with, reflected on, and (in some gender parity among students edifice that fortifies cases) had ecstatic experiences in class and the means by which the entire spiritual of Divine Sophia Herself . IÕm we might encourage, within each thinking here specifically of student, the development of his/ realm . Hildegard von Bingen, but there her Òother half .Ó When designing are others (male and female) courses, the question of gender inclusion as well: Theresa of Avila, Julian of Norwich, wouldnÕt be an afterthought or an Òit would Mechtild of Magdeburg (among the female be nice ifÉÓÑit would be thought through medieval mystics), Solovyev and Bulgakov and integrated from the get-go . But even more (among the Eastern Orthodox), Jane Leade importantly, I would see faculties looking at and Jakob Bšhme (among early Protestants), how they might strive spiritually to bring a Matthew Fox, Mary Daly, Rosemary Radford balance between male and female modes of Reuther, and others (among modern-day relating to and being in the world, both as feminist theologians) . Some of these figures individuals and as a teaching body . are already relatively well-studied within anthroposophy; others are less so . Making For the Spiritual World: efforts to uncover and study the life and works Unfolding the Sophianic Impulse of each of them (plus the many more not listed But there is still another vision that I think here) can further our understanding of SophiaÕs supersedes the strictly pedagogical imagination work in the world, even if we donÕt adopt every IÕve outlined above . It refers to Christine de precept of each personÕs theology . PizanÕs spiritual edifice: the continued spiritual A second method would be to study work on the part of dedicated anthroposophists various luminary women to see if there are to further unfold the Sophianic impulse that any underlying similarities between them that Steiner has said characterizes our age . I do might help us understand the particularly not think it is a coincidence that Sophia (and feminine qualities of the spiritual world as it Anthroposophia) are linguistically feminine . is manifest in and interpreted through female That is to say, the work of our era involves a bodies . I hope that the very brief presentation raising up of a specifically feminine type of in this article of EnheduannaÕs biography and wisdom or insight . Steiner stated that in the work is enough to convince you that these 19th century the Christ Impulse became overly notable women are worth spending some time materialized due to the growth of a certain type getting to know . Comparing the narratives of

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 Kristin Agudelo • 37 several of these female luminaries might lead us Endnotes to interesting insights about how gender plays 1 The following website contains a good recap of the a role in the evolution of consciousness . evidence from mainstream educational sources in Finally, thereÕs the very real work of favor of inclusion . Holt, Evelyn R . ÒRemember the meditating on and contemplating the figure LadiesÑWomen in the Curriculum .Ó ERIC Digest . http://www .ericdigests .org/pre-9215/ladies .htm, of Sophia herself . To that end, I offer you this March 1990 . Accessed July 28, 2014 . image of Divine Sophia enthroned, taken from 2 Rudolf Steiner, ÒWoman and SocietyÓ [Die a Russian icon found in the church of St . George Frauenfrage] (lecture given in Hamburg, Germany, in Novgorod . Sophia is the figure at the center, November 17, 1906) . http://wn .rsarchive .org/ with the Virgin on her right, Christ and the Lectures/19061117p01 .html . Steiner also spent archangels above her head, and much of Chapter 14 in his Philosophy of Freedom considering the question of John the Baptist on her left . What Finally, there is the gender . Though I make more explicit you may not be able to tell from very real work of reference to Die Frauenfrage here, his a black and white reproduction is thought as outlined in Philosophy of that Sophia is entirely redÑher meditating on and Freedom also informs my considerations . clothes, wings, skin are all a muted contemplating the ItÕs also important to note that Steiner scarlet . This coloring is important: insisted that Waldorf education be figure of Sophia co-educational in an era when students in iconography, red is the color of herself . were educated in gender-separated the incarnation . classrooms . This surely is a powerful What I take from this image, model not only for our own classrooms which is famous as being the prototypical icon (which are, of course, already co-ed), but also of the of Divine Sophia, is the fact that, for all her larger sense of intentionality in actively working for divinity, Sophia is very much involved in the gender parity that Steiner was modeling for us . 3 Michel Foucault, ÒPower and StrategiesÓ in Power work of incarnation . In other words, Sophia and Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, (and, by extension, the Sophianic impulse 1972-1977 (New York: Vintage Press, 1980), 142 . Steiner described) cannot be seen as some far- 4 We might wonder, here, about transgendered people, away, esoteric idea that we look forward to including hermaphrodites . Steiner was writing at welcoming one day . On the contrary, Sophia is a time when such questions were not as present involved in how we incarnate, and if we wish to for the public as they are these days . My strong suspicion is that he would not have been terribly further her work in the world, we are called to satisfied with descriptions of transgendered people, embody her impulse in our own lives . For us as for instance, as Ògender dysphoricÓ or struggling teachers, this means working with the feminine with Ògender identity disorder .Ó Rather, I believe he in an active way in our curricula and in our probably would have seen the discrepancy between classrooms . It is important, vital workÑnot the personÕs biological (physical) body and his/ just a matter of tipping the scales a bit in favor her subjective (emotional/spiritual) experience as a person of the opposite gender as an indication that of women and girls, but a matter of furthering these two poles of gender experience were beginning the evolution of human consciousness . Steiner to express themselves in new ways . He clearly states himself has explicitly enjoined us to take up this that our future development as a species is on a call, both exoterically, in our social and work trajectory towards unisexuality . What role intersex lives, and esoterically, in our spiritual work . I (hermaphrodites) and transgendered individuals invite you and your school community to join might play in this evolution is, to my mind, an intriguing question raised by SteinerÕs indications, me in that journey . and would be a fascinating research project in its own right . 5 Here is an interesting point of overlap with Marxist feminists . While Steiner is not himself a Marxist (indeed, his economic theory could be understood

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 38 • Encountering Sophia in the Classroom

as a rebuttal to the Marxist theories that were 11 ItÕs interesting that if we simply follow the template so popular among intellectuals of his day), his of SteinerÕs threefold social organism when planning understanding of gender does share with Marxist our history lessons (making sure to always cover the feminism the linking of economic and gender political, economic, and cultural spheres), itÕs hard to injustice to a single underlying materialistic force completely exclude women . of oppression . Where they differ is in SteinerÕs 12 Op . cit ., Rudolf Steiner, ÒWoman and SocietyÓ [Die insistence that this materialism can ultimately be Frauenfrage] . countered only by a spiritual resistance to the forces 13 Ibid . of materialism itself, rather than in the replacement 14 The first named Chinese authors (many of whom of one form of materialism (capitalism) by another are quasi-historical) appear in the 8th c . bce; Indian (communism) . Vedic texts (the earliest of which are believed to have 6 Though there are exceptions on both sides as been compiled c . 1500 bce) were not ascribed to wellÑmen and women who envision themselves as individuals, and the earliest pre-Vedic Indic writing ÒmarryingÓ or otherwise communing with a male (from the Harappan civilization, which flourished in deity or spirit . Consider, for example, John of the EnheduannaÕs time) has not been deciphered . CrossÕs somewhat homoerotic mystical imagery or 15 ItÕs almost certain that Steiner didnÕt know of Catherine of SienaÕs mystical to Christ . EnheduannaÕs writings, since Leonard Woolley, the 7 Op . cit ., Rudolf Steiner, ÒWoman and SocietyÓ [Die archeologist who first rediscovered her work, did not Frauenfrage] . even begin excavating in Ur until 1922 . I have been 8 The question of whether other minority perspectives unable to pinpoint the date that he revealed the disk might open up similar ÒbreachesÓ in the patriarchal/ of Enheduanna to the world, but it appears that his materialist discourse is a fascinating one and, earliest publications (for the Trustees of the British though beyond the scope of this paper, deserves and University of Pennsylvania Museums) were in the consideration . To what degree would post-colonial late 1920s and early 1930s, after SteinerÕs death . ItÕs narratives (which disrupt the dominant discourses of even more amazing, then, that EnheduannaÕs work imperialism and capitalism) have a similar effect on fits so nicely with the Egypto-Chaldean period as spiritual growth? outlined by Steiner, given that the earliest literature 9 I say ÒmisplacedÓ because Steiner nearly always Steiner would have had access to was the Gilgamesh uses Mensch and Menschen when speaking of humans epic, which post-dates Enheduanna by about 700 in general, a word that most modern German years . translators translate as Òhuman,Ó Òhuman being,Ó or 16 From an online translation by Betty de Shong Meador ÒpersonÓ to distinguish it from the narrower Mann, a of EnheduannaÕs hymns: http://www .atanet .org/ word that specifically denotes males . publications/beacons_10_pages/page_15 .pdf . 10 Teachers of English might also seriously consider 17 Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies, trans . accepting ÒtheyÓ as a substitute for the old universal Earl Jeffrey Richards (New York: Persea Books, 1982) . Òhe .Ó In many academic environments (including top 18 He did this perhaps most clearly in his Christmas universities), professors now encourage students to address of 1920: ÒThe Quest for the New Isis, the either use Òhe/sheÓ in their academic writing, or even Divine Sophia: The Quest for the Divine Sophia .Ó ÒtheyÓ as a singular (as in the sentence Òeveryone Available online at http://wn .rsarchive .org/ take out their pencilÓ) . What in earlier days would Lectures/19201224p01 .html . have been seen as an unforgivable breach of subject/ number agreement is now seen as the lesser of two evilsÑbetter to have a disagreement in number (the Kristin Agudelo teaches humanities at Merriconeag argument goes) than exclude half the human race by Waldorf High School in Maine. In addition to being insisting on ÒheÓ as the singular . As Steiner and Owen Barfield have so amply demonstrated, languages a blogger, she is also a poet and single mother to her evolve along with consciousness, and it is becoming nine-year-old son. She can be reached at krisagudelo@ increasingly acceptable in academic circles to insist alumni.brown.edu. on gender inclusive language, even at the expense of agreement in number . In my opinion, we should welcome this change as evidence of an increasing consciousness about the importance of Òremembering the ladies .Ó

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 Imagine Knowledge: A Livable Path

Paula C. Sager

You cannot depend on your eyes when your and process . In the first case, a domain of imagination is out of focus . knowledge, in this instance, science, sets and Ð Mark Twain1 maintains the presumption of intelligence . In the second case, it is the individual who nly by imagination,Ó writes Owen Barfield, establishes a relationship of inquiry to the living Òcan the world be known .Ó While it is important activity of intelligence . ColeridgeÕs philosopher Oto develop ever more powerful, ever more has not only the right as an independent, sensitive instruments to aid perception, he thinking person to inquire into the nature cautions such perception will not lead to moral of Òthe worlds of intelligence,Ó but also the action, without the human mind becoming capacity to do so 6. Òincreasingly aware of its own creative Crediting Kant as Òan effective pioneerÓ activity .Ó2 of this Òmaster-thought,Ó Coleridge references Barfield, whom C .S . Lewis called Òthe wisest KantÕs investigation of forces in opposition to and best of my unofficial teachers,Ó was not the each other and raises the question of how two first to point to imagination as fertile ground co-existing, indestructible and infinite forces for understanding how and what the human (sense and reason) might interpenetrate and mind can know . The philosopher Immanuel with what result . He famously concludes: Kant, who two centuries earlier described imagination as a Òblind but indispensable The primary IMAGINATION I hold to be the function of the soul,Ó3 came, by the end of his living Power and prime Agent of all human life, to a different conclusion: that the faculty of Perception, and as a repetition in the finite imagination, in its inherently free and creative mind of the eternal act of creation in the scope, is inclusive of both the rational and infinite I AM . The secondary Imagination empirical mind . While Kant could appreciate I consider as an echo of the former, co- the primacy of individualized imagination, existing with the conscious will, yet still as he could not philosophically account for it . identical with the primary in the kind of its Nonetheless, as a new direction, his thinking agency, and differing only in degree and in in the Critique of Judgment4 inspired some of the mode of its operation 7. KantÕs followers to undertake a serious study of imagination and the aesthetic experience . With these two sentences, Coleridge makes a very large move toward unity . Unlike Kant or Post-Kantian Integration of John Locke before him, who both insisted that Sense and Reason all cognition must be logical and analytical, Samuel Taylor Coleridge was one such post- Coleridge proposes that imagination is Kantian, and in Chapter XIII of his Biographia the link between the finite faculties of the Literaria, he distinguishes between a science human mind and the eternal creative source that Òpresupposes intelligence as already of human consciousness, what he calls Òthe existing and completeÓ and a philosopher infinite I AM .Ó As such, primary imagination who Òcontemplates it in its growth .Ó5 This is the unconscious activity that mediates is not simply a difference between product the external world of phenomena and the

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 40 • Imagine Knowledge: A Livable Path internal world of human perception . Secondary when Òthe sun / Unfelt shone brightly round us imaginationÑan echo of and not in any way in our joy,Ó9 leads to adolescence when books severed from the power and agency of primary and schooling claim attention: ÒRank growth imaginationÑmakes possible the process of of propositions overruns / The StriplingÕs synthesizing perceptions and thoughts so that brain .Ó10 While literature and poetry bring the the result is a way of knowing that is alive, young Wordsworth Òtouches of deep joyÓ11 and creative, and fresh . later geometry offers its own deep pleasure,12 Coleridge draws a distinction between the a mood of melancholy sets in followed by vital quality of imagination and something the Òstormy courseÓ of his college years 13. he calls fancy, which he describes as a kind As a young man in London, Wordsworth of imaginative thinking that emerges from books and does not draw directly from Coleridge proposes formal learning to become the indestructible and infinite that imagination is the fully conscious of his own forces of creation . Fancy, as alienation from the people a mental activity, recombines link between the finite and life around him . Seeing a already-known elements of faculties of the human blind beggar Òpropped against perception and thought but mind and the eternal a Wall,Ó a sign hanging from relies upon association and his neck to tell his pitiful story, a state of mind that is creative source of Wordsworth experiences a essentially separate from human consciousness . ÒturningÓ of his mind and, as any continuity between the if in a mirror, Òon the shape of capacity to think and the generative source of that unmoving man, / His steadfast face and that capacity . For Coleridge, access to primary sightless eyes, I gazed / As if admonished from and secondary imagination is necessary to another world .Ó14 original and transformative creativity, while The city and this time in WordsworthÕs fancy serves to make use of creative insights . life stand as a dark and diminished contrast A mind dwelling solely in the mode of fancy, to the beloved countryside of his childhood . however, may be subject to recycled or clichŽd It is a place where, he writes, ÒI feel the acts of imagination . imaginative Power / Languish within me .Ó15 By the conclusion of The Prelude, this imaginative Paradox of Language power is reclaimedÑtransformed evenÑand At the same time that Coleridge was identified by Wordsworth as Òa genuine developing new perspectives in philosophy Liberty .Ó The commitment to it, he calls an and epistemology, his good friend William enlarging of freedom 16. Wordsworth was re-inventing poetry . Using In tracing the development of his creative the medium of language to describe his imagination, Wordsworth delineates a path deepening relationship to nature and his own from the childhood innocence of his Òearliest consciousness, Wordsworth also identifies visitations,Ó when he was not conscious of their imagination as Òthe main essential Power .Ó8 import, to the lonely estrangement of his young In his long autobiographical poem, The adult years and to his full maturity Òwhere now Prelude, dedicated to Coleridge, Wordsworth I range, / A meditative, oft a suffering, man .Ó17 tracks the journey, not just of his own life, but Consciousness of imagination, in other words, the life of humanity . Echoing passages from does not preclude suffering . The hard-won MiltonÕs Paradise Lost, he interweaves images capacity for rational thinking is what enables of the ÒFall of ManÓ through a narrative of the poet to be conscious and literate about his his own coming of age, a parallel downward or her own aesthetic experiences, unlike the trajectory . The innocence of his own boyhood child . It is, however, this very thinking that can

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 Paula C. Sager • 41 separate the poet from the unified state of such True Metaphor: In Flight an experience, hence suffering . An example of a true metaphor, from In Poetic Diction, Barfield argues that my own experience, arose in response to an language itself holds the mystery of this incident on an airplane . It was March of 2004 paradox . Etymology reveals that the derivative and I had been traveling with my family in of most, if not all, words, even the most France when the train bombings in Madrid abstract and contemporary, Òreferred in earlier occurred . Everywhere we went, security was days to one of these two thingsÑa solid, heightened, along with a general level of sensible object, or some animal (probably anxiety and suspicion, especially palpable in human) activity .Ó18 Modern languages, ParisÕ Charles DeGaulle Airport as we prepared he writes, trade in dead to head home . metaphorsÑEmersonÕs Òfossil Barfield considers On the plane, I watched poetryÓ19Ñand are mostly imagination to be the as two flight attendants grasped by what Barfield transferred a man from a calls Òlogical mind .Ó Language human capacity to wheelchair to the seat in front grasped by Òpoetic mindÓ experience reality and of me . He was wearing his West recognizes that the world and create a metaphorical African robes inside out and for the individual self share a living the first hour of the trip chatted reality that can be known and representation of its amiably in French with nearby experienced as the continuum truth . fellow passengers . After takeoff, within which perception Òflows I settled into a book but was from two different sources, one of these being suddenly startled by the sound of wailing . With the nature of language itself, especially in its despairing groans, the man sitting in front of earlier stages, and the other the individualized me repeatedly raised his arms high into the imagination of a poet .Ó20 air, letting them fall onto the headrest in front A true metaphor, therefore, would be of him, each time shaking the whole seat and one that activates a sense of connection to the woman in it . My first reaction to these wild living reality, with imagination being the gestures and strange, despondent sounds was human capacity to experience that reality fear, followed by concern, and then curiosity and create a metaphorical representation of about how others would respond . its truth . Barfield explains it as a progression A couple of passengers on either side of from Òinspiration grasping the hitherto the distraught man began to speak gently to unapprehended, and imagination relating it him, trying to discern the problem . A flight to the already known .Ó21 The apprehension attendant joined them, and as I observed their of a true metaphor marks a turning point interactions, I was struck by their care and in consciousness and acknowledges a mindfulness . They artfully modulated their tone reciprocal relationship between self and of voice and choice of words as they spoke to world . The experience of a true metaphor is him and, as I listened, it occurred to me that a reminder that everything can be known, in I could likewise modulate, not my voice, but a participatory manner, both as substantive my thoughts . I could quietly join the efforts form and dynamic manifestation of source . to create an atmosphere that might support As Barfield describes it, imagination, as a the man . I closed my eyes and spent some fundamental vehicle for knowledge, is available moments becoming aware of how constricted to serve all domains of inquiry . Imagination is my chest felt, how tight and raised my equally essential to the process of assessing shoulders were . Fear had settled into my body and responding to the unique qualities and even though I no longer felt afraid . I spent some needs of each moment or situation . moments feeling the sensations in my body and

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 42 • Imagine Knowledge: A Livable Path how they evoked an emotional texture of fear . activity of the mind as a whole through mental By becoming conscious of the emotion in this images .Ó22 As clarification, he writes: way, it no longer had a grip on me . My body became more relaxed, more open . My mind What Coleridge considers as primary could now return to the situation in a calmer imagination will then be considered state . as the display through such images The woman across the aisle from me of creative and original insight, while was also watching the situation attentively . what he regards as fancy will be taken Apparently, she, like me, was choosing to be to be the corresponding display of the involved as a silent witness . I remembered what more mechanical and routine aspects of a friend had told me recently about witnessing thought . Thus, the one activity, indicated a compassionate space around one who is by the word “imagination,” is to be suffering . So, as the man continued loudly distinguished mainly according to the and fitfully to be in distress, I thought about order of its content, which moves between compassion and imagined it arising in me and the extremes of imaginative insight and spreading into the space around him . I began imaginative fancy .23 to be aware of an inner quality, something that felt like spaciousness . Out of this sense of The word, display, as Bohm uses it, points to space, silently, came the words: a blanket the phenomenal aspect of imagination and of love . offers a way of understanding my experience I visualized the weaving of the blanket, on the plane . imagining it being woven by the undulating At first the phrase, blanket of love, evoked threads of feeling that were present in the a sense that the mood created in the cabin spaciousness of my experience . When I started of the plane was like a soft blanket . As I held to picture wrapping the man in this blanket, the image in my mind, I experienced a kind of it felt too invasive, too busy . By far the most inner activity that had qualities of weaving, simple, direct, and powerful way for me to warmth, spaciousness, and energy . It was act was to just allow the words to be present, as if the image-phrase had changed from a to feel them arise from a source of energetic noun to a verb . Blanket of love had become activity within me . love-blanketing . I began to be less aware of the After about fifteen minutes of our small image and more aware of the qualitative nature groupÕs vigilant participationÑboth visible and of the experience . I was in the experience, invisibleÑthe man put his head back, laid his not having it . No longer was it just about hands in his lap, and fell asleep for the next six doing something to support another person; hours . About forty minutes before we landed it seemed that I too was being supported . I in Boston, he woke and stayed peaceful for the felt expanded and yet held . This changeÐÐI remainder of the flight . would call it a shift in consciousnessÐÐhad significance . Even though I could not verify Imagination and Truth what anyone else was experiencing, I could I thought of this experience while reading perceive inwardly that something had changed . an essay written in tribute to Owen Barfield, External evidence of this could be construed by by the physicist David Bohm . In it, Bohm the fact that the man became calm and went to streamlines ColeridgeÕs somewhat vague sleep, an observation that, of course, raises a use of the terms: first imagination, second thorny issue: how can one know when an inner imagination, and fancy . Bohm, instead, defines experience is true or not? imagination Òas the power to display the

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On the subject of truth, Rudolf Steiner, who to others or to society . This is a subject that as a philosopher and spiritual teacher had a Friedrich Schiller, also inspired by Kant, tackles deep influence on Barfield and his work, wrote: in a series of ÒLettersÓ in his book, On the Aesthetic Education of Man . Here, he extends the We no longer want merely to believe; application of art and imagination (words he we want to know . Belief demands the has transposed into the more philosophic term, recognition of truths that we do not quite aesthetic) into the realm of politics and moral understand . But whatever we do not action . In a footnote to the Thirteenth Letter, completely comprehend goes against the Schiller wrote: individual element in us that wants to experience everything in its deepest inner If we are to become compassionate, core . The only knowing that satisfies us is helpful, effective human beings, feeling and the kind that submits to no outer norm, character must unite, even as wide-open but springs from the inner life of the senses must combine with vigor of intellect personality 24. if we are to acquire experience . How can we, however laudable our precepts, how Can such a knowing be cultivated and can we be just, kindly, and human toward trusted? Arthur Zajonc, physicist and president others, if we lack the power of receiving of the Mind and Life Institute, observes: ÒWe into ourselves, faithfully and truly, natures require a way of bringing unlike ours, of feeling our experience and reason The faculty of way into the situation of together, a way of perceiving others, of making other meaning in the given, even imagination can lead peopleÕs feelings our own?26 when the given arises through not to flights of fancy deep meditation .Ó25 Zajonc but, on the contrary, to Imagination and what suggests that the way to bring Schiller calls the play-drive experience and reason together a centered awareness are what allow for Òfeeling is through contemplative of the unfolding of our way intoÓ the situation of inquiry . Meditation and other others or into an issue or social forms of contemplative inquiry conscious experience . question . In SchillerÕs vision of provide a discipline that a community that embodies supports entry into the subjective realm where the ÒAesthetic State,Ó love, work, and play are it is possible to investigate the relationship synonymous . between interior experience and the exterior Schiller benefited from an inspired world with safety and discernment . The faculty friendshipÑmuch like that between of imagination can lead, not to flights of fancy Wordsworth and ColeridgeÑwith the great but, on the contrary, to a centered awareness German writer, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . of the unfolding of conscious experience . Entirely out of his own investigation, Goethe developed a scientific approach to feeling the The Aesthetic State and Moral Action way into nature that he describes as Òa delicate As Wordsworth and Coleridge advocate, empiricism which makes itself utterly identical imagination is a power worth cultivating and with the object, thereby becoming true appreciating . Both writers insist that this power theory .Ó27 GoetheÕs approach allows the is about individual freedom in the largest theory to stay closer to, even Òidentical withÓ sense . What they donÕt address in any detail phenomena instead of becoming separate is the relationship of free-aspiring individuals and abstract . In my example of applied

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 44 • Imagine Knowledge: A Livable Path imagination on the plane ride, the theory that but rather precipitate action . Awareness of I both experienced and could propose is that the relationship between perception, thought, a person staying present with his or her own and will becomes the portal to the domain inner experience can be open and attentive to of freedom and ethical action . Steiner put it another person, thereby supporting the other simply: ÒTo be free means: to be ableÑon my without compromising self-autonomy . own, through moral imaginationÑto determine the mental pictures (motives) underlying an Theory as Participation as Theory action .Ó30 As in GoetheÕs way of knowing a The word theory shares the same Greek root phenomenon through direct experience, acting as the word theater . Both derive from a verb out of moral imagination requires developing a that means Òto viewÓ or Òto make a spectacle,Ó more receptive mode of consciousness toward suggesting, as Bohm points out, Òthat theory our own experience, which is exactly what is to be regarded primarily as a way of looking a commitment to contemplative practice at the world through the mind .Ó28 Perhaps the can offer . word theory, like the word theater, can also be seen to include, in addition to the spectator, Theory a Context the performerÑthe one who enacts the Theory is situational; it thrives in a Òspectacle .Ó Theory can then be understood to context . In Providence a group of us are result from an activity that is inclusive of two creating a learning communityÑThe Mariposa generally polarized modes CenterÑfocused on early of participation: one more Therefore, the word childhood education . A passiveÑthe perceiving theory tells us something seasonal, nature-based faculty of the viewer; the curriculum in an urban setting other more activeÑthe about how human beings is our context; working activity of the player or can participate in the closely with a diverse group that which is being viewed . of families is our context; Goethe wrote: ÒThe ultimate world, not just view it . participating in a standards- goal would be: to grasp based state public pre-K that everything in the realm of fact is already program is our context; and a commitment to theory . ÉLet us not seek for something behind faculty professional development grounded in the phenomenaÑthey themselves are the reflective and contemplative practices is our theory .Ó29 context . GoetheÕs understanding of theory, as the Mariposa co-founders and faculty engage in facts of phenomena, by necessity includes on-going contemplative and reflective inquiry to the presence of the observer . It is the viewerÕs deepen our understanding of how the teacher imagination, then, as an infinite faculty, that perceives and learns from the activity of the initiates a process of discerning particular children and how the children perceive, imitate, phenomenal content within a participatory and learn from the teacherÕs activity and unity of wholeness . Therefore, the word theory presence . Through imaginative consciousness, tells us something about how human beings each teacher cultivates awareness of his or her can participate in the world, not just view it . own body in space, his or her own experience In this new mode of participation, the distinct of thinking, feeling, and willing . Cultivating self- roles of viewer and actor or player become witnessing supports the teachersÕ capacities integrated; they become a way of being . In both to see the child and experience being seen this way of being, a personÕs thoughts and by the child . The teachers become conscious perceptions are not in conflict with their actions of a process that happens automatically and

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 Paula C. Sager • 45 unconsciously for the children as they take in, Imagination and the Theater of absorb, and learn by imitation and their own Everywhere developing imagination . Human freedom arises spontaneously One way to imagine the exchange between when inner self-awareness, or I-consciousness, teacher and child is to picture a horizontal responds to and interacts with life as it figure eight . On one side, the teacher brings spontaneously manifests . Remember, forthÑout of his or her own enlivened Wordsworth calls the power of imagination imaginationÑstory, song, movement and an enlarging of freedom . Without imagination, gesture, images, ideas, and feelings . On the a person cannot generate ethical ideas . Such other side, the child absorbs what is received, a person, writes Steiner, Òmust receive these and a process of integration begins which ideas from without .Ó31 Imagination is essential may become activated and furthered through in order to maintain the freedom to think and imaginative play . The more intentional and act independently . Steiner adds that Òfreedom sensitive the teacher can be to the mood is to be found in the reality of human actionÓ created in the classroom and by his or her own and by this he means action that realizes presence, the more receptive the child can be . Òconceptual intuitionsÓ32 or what he elsewhere The teacher may observe and reflect upon what refers to as Òliving thinking .Ó The word living, the child reveals of his or her inner learning as applied to thinking, suggests that a person process through play, speech, drawing, and may experience Òin consciousness the intuitive interactions with others . thinking that also has reality Witnessing such moments Cultivating self- beyond consciousness .Ó33 provides creative opportunities witnessing supports Bohm, too, discusses for teachers to adapt and qualitative distinctions between develop curriculum and the teachersÕ capacities kinds of thinking and notes the intention accordingly, looping both to see the child difference between reactive the expression of these back thought, based on memory again to the child . Needless and experience being and association, and reflective to say, this figure-8 picture seen by the child . thought, which occurs when of relationship is not a static an experience proves to have image, programmatic model, variables that call for a review nor is it necessarily a smooth, unhindered of what would otherwise prompt a reactive process . Instead, it is a continual unfolding of response . He asks: ÒHow then can thought possibility, of learning and shared connection respond to a problem or a difficulty without between and within both teacher and child, of being dominated by an irrelevant, confusing, teachable moments that may take minutes or and generally destructive mechanical pattern months to integrate . of reaction?Ó34 BohmÕs antidote is Òa quality of This central relationship between teacher insightÓ that transcends reactive or associative and child that forms the heart of Mariposa is thinking . Insightful thinking must be Òfresh held in an encircling gesture of support that and new, creative and original .Ó And here, requires participation, offered out of individual Bohm, the scientist, reframes ColeridgeÕs freedom, from families, staff, board members, understanding of imagination, replacing it and the wider community . We are all learning with the word, Òintelligence .Ó Paraphrasing from the process while doing it . Coleridge, Bohm writes, ÒThe deep source of intelligence is the unknown and undefinable totality, from which all perception originates .Ó35

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The challenge, it would seem, is to bear 19 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, ÒThe Poet,Ó in Nature and the humility of seeking knowledge in the larger Selected Essays, edited by Lazar Ziff . (NY: Penguin context of Òthe unknown and undefinable Books, 2003), p .271 . 20 Op . cit ., Barfield, p .29 . totality .Ó No single system can absolve that 21 Ibid ,. p .141 . challenge . The best recourse, suggests Bohm, 22 Bohm, David, ÒImagination, Fancy, Insight, and is to have Òa general alertness, which makes us Reason in the Process of Thought,Ó in Evolution of aware, from moment to moment, of how the Consciousness: Studies in Polarity, edited by Shirley process of thought is getting caught in fixed Sugarman . (Middleton, CT: Wesleyan University sets of categories .Ó36 With such presence of Press, 1976), p .52 . 23 Ibid . mind, the poet and the scientist, the teacher, 24 Steiner, Rudolf, Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path . the , and the community member can (Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1995), p .254 . meet in the theater that is everywhere . With a 25 Zajonc, Arthur, Meditation as Contemplative Inquiry . modest intent to be Òjust, kindly, and human (Great Barrington, MA: Lindesfarne Books, 2009), toward others,Ó may we bring our powers, our p .179 . intelligent imagination and our imaginative 26 Schiller, Friedrich, On the Aesthetic Education of Man . (NY: Oxford University Press, 1982), p .89, footnote 3 . intelligence to the shared endeavor of knowing 27 Goethe, J .W ., Goethe: Scientific Studies; the Collected the living-world, even as we continue to make Works, Vol . 12, edited and translated by Douglas the creative mystery of it more explicit . Miller . (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995), p .307 . 28 Op . cit ., Bohm, p .53 . Endnotes 29 Op . cit ., Goethe . 1 Twain, Mark, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s 30 Op . cit ., Steiner, p .191 . Court . (New York, NY: Airmont Publishing Co ,. 1964), 31 Ibid ,. p .221 . p .276 . 32 Ibid ,. p .239 . 2 Barfield, Owen, Poetic Diction: A Study in Meaning. 33 Ibid ,. p .240 . (Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1973), 34 Op . cit ., Bohm, p .67 . p .28 . 35 Ibid . 3 Kant, Immanuel, Critique of Pure Reason, translated by 36 Ibid ,. p .68 . J M. .D . Meiklejohn . (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1990), p .401 . 4 Kant, Immanuel, Critique of Judgment, translated Paula C. Sager is a writer, educator, and by J H. . Bernard . (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, consultant. Her work focuses on somatic awareness 2000) . and contemplative inquiry in support of cognition, 5 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, Selected Poetry and Prose of Coleridge, edited by Donald A . Stauffer . (NY: The creativity, and presence for teachers in the field of Modern Library, 1951), p .258 . education (http://threestonestudio.org). Her research at 6 Ibid . the Barfield School, with mentors Arthur Zajonc and 7 Ibid ., p .263 . Janet Adler, looks at the phenomenon and development 8 Wordsworth, William, The Prelude in The Major Works . of witness consciousness, and her work with Frederick (NY: Oxford University Press, 1984), Book XIII, line Amrine at the Barfield School inspired this essay. 289 . 9 Ibid ., Book II, lines 97Ð98 . Paula is co-founder and board president of The 10 Ibid ., Book V, lines 323Ð324 . Mariposa Center (http://mariposari.org) a non-profit 11 Ibid ., line 617 . that incorporates contemplative and Waldorf-inspired 12 Ibid ., Book VI, lines 136Ð137 . approaches to the teaching of early childhood education 13 Ibid ., line 291 . in Rhode Island. 14 Ibid ,. Book VII, lines 610Ð623 . 15 Ibid ., lines 499Ð500 . 16 Ibid ,. Book XIII, lines 120Ð122 . 17 Ibid ,. lines 124Ð126 . 18 Op . cit ., Barfield, pp .63Ð64 .

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 The Formative Qualities of Foreign Language Teaching

Erhard Dahl

fifth grade teacher in Germany had been Now she wrote a second set of German reciting ÒThe Ballad of SemmerwaterÓ at the words on the blackboard: Schnecke, Affe, Straße, Abeginning of the English lessons for some time . and next to each she wrote two English words: So the children knew the following lines by next to Schnecke ÒsnailÓ and Òslug,Ó next to Affe heart: ÒmonkeyÓ and Òape,Ó and next to Straße ÒstreetÓ and Òroad .Ó The children looked confused and Once there stood by Semmerwater the teacher asked again, ÒDoes anything strike A mickle town and tall; you here?Ó KingÕs tower and QueenÕs bower, After a few moments a girl raised her hand, And the wakeman on the wall . ÒNow itÕs just the other way round . For each German word there are two English words .Ó During this particular week the teacher had ÒQuite right!Ó the teacher said . ÒGermans intended to practice listening comprehension . see differences between Wand and Mauer, She wanted the pupils first to listen carefully English speaking people donÕt . However, they and then do what their classmates asked them distinguish between a snail and a slug, a road to do . Jakob was standing beside the teacher . and a street and a monkey and an ape . We will He told his classmate Rosanna, ÒGo to the wall come across many other English words in our and point at the picture .Ó As quick as a flash English lessons, and a lot of them will remind SabineÕs arm shot up . The teacher asked her to us that people who speak a foreign language tell the class what was on her mind . In German look at humans, plants, animals, and objects in Sabine said, ÒThatÕs wrong . A ÔwallÕ is not a different ways .Ó Wand . You told us when we recited the poem The little boy who had been so happy about that the wakeman stood on a wall (in German: the small number of English words blurted out, Mauer), a town wall (Stadtmauer)!Ó ÒWhat a shame!Ó Without saying a word, the teacher wrote What did the teacher accomplish during on the blackboard the German words Mauer these few minutes? Spontaneously she picked and Wand, then essen and fressen, and finally up a neglected aspect of language instruction, Brief and Buchstabe . Next to each pair she wrote that is, she set aside pragmatic goals having a single English word: next to the words Mauer to do with utility in order to reflect on the and Wand the word “wall,” next to essen and differences between two languages . One could fressen the word “eat,” and next to Brief and say that she offered the children a chance to Buchstabe the word “letter ”. ÒWhich of you has glimpse the ÒothernessÓ of the language they noticed something?Ó she asked in German . were learning . In short she was encouraging ÒTwo different German words have only one these children to think . English word,Ó a girl observed . During a lecture given in Yorkshire, A boy shouted out, ÒHow marvellous! Now I England, on August 15, 1923, in reference wonÕt have to learn so many English words!Ó A to the characteristics of different languages, wave of laughter rippled around the classroom . Rudolf Steiner said that it is the task of Said the teacher: ÒWouldnÕt that be teachers to compensate for the constricting nice!Ñbut look here!Ó effects of the childrenÕs mother tongue by

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teaching them other languages 1. Steiner was recognize ÒshellÓ as being a distinctive attribute, aware that our mother tongue could limit our thenÑas for instance in GermanÑyou will not worldview, thereby exerting a sort of bondage distinguish between a snail (with a shell) and a on our thinking . I believe this was SteinerÕs slug (which has no shell) . prime motive for including two modern foreign Besides attributes such as these, the languages in the curriculum of the first Waldorf teacher should also demonstrate how school . Of course, he wanted the pupils at semantic dimensions lead to a certain way this school to become good of categorizing reality . For speakers of English; however, It is the task of teachers example, the distinction in as he made clear to his English- to compensate for the English between ÒtakingÓ and speaking audience in Yorkshire, ÒbringingÓÑwhich are both the crucial pedagogical aim of constricting effects of translations for the single self-awareness, of thinking for the childrenÕs mother German word bringenÑdraws oneself, cannot be achieved tongue by teaching attention to the direction of merely by using language movement, something the instinctively . If they are to them other languages . German language does not become free thinkers, children recognize: the difference need to transcend the barriers of their native between moving away from someone (ÒtakingÓ) speech . and moving towards someone (ÒbringingÓ) . Rudolf Steiner is not the only philosopher of education to have argued that language Habits of perception is far more than simply a neutral mirror of In working with vocabulary, the pupilsÕ reality . Language embodies an active view of powers of perception can be refined in two the world that favors certain possibilities of different ways . On the one hand, by studying human behavior, certain ways words, metaphors, and of recording experience . A If they are to become expressions that convey language carves out its own reactions of soul, they acquire perspective on reality; no two free thinkers, children enhanced skill to describe languages set the world in the need to transcend the their sensations with greater same mold . barriers of their native nuance . On the other hand, In the sections that follow, there is also a sensorial two aspects of teaching foreign speech . element to their perception . languages will be pursued: This is why the teacher •• Examples in the English language that should not forget to describe the emotional demonstrate its ÒothernessÓ quality of words and the emotional effect •• Other activities that can provide the words have in different languages . The well- children with formative educational known German translator Walter SchŸrenberg experiences writes, ÒIf I use the word Psychologie for the English word Ôpsychology,Õ then I use the same The “Otherness” of the word . However, it possesses a completely English Language different specific gravity in German; a heavy load of pretension and education sticks with The categorization of reality itÓ2Ñwhich is not the case in English . Similarly Each languageÑand hence, any speaker you cannot translate the English word ÒguideÓ of that languageÑdraws attention to different as Führer because this word is so charged in aspects of the world . If, for example, you do not Germany as a consequence of its use by the

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Nazis . Another German translator, Esther The imagery of language Kinsky, asks, ÒHow bright or dark does my rot Drawing attention to the imagery become when I learn that in other languages embedded in a foreign language can also it is called ÔredÕ or ÔrougeÕ? How lanky or stimulate pupils to reflect on the tight-knit overhanging is my Baum suddenly when relationship between word and reality . The compared to ÔtreeÕ or ÔarbreÕ?Ó3 German expression Gedankenkette (literally And finally there is the famous example of Òthought-chainÓ), for example, evokes the the German word Heimat . Which language can image of a chain; in English we find a different offer a true equivalent here? In this German image: a Òtrain of thought .Ó Other examples noun are interwoven allusions of imagery that may arise in to Òheritage,Ó Òyearning,Ó Foreign language the English classroom: eyeball Òobligation,Ó and Òpride .Ó learning in the (German: Augapfel, literally Òeye- Even the simplest words appleÓ), horseshoe (Hufeisen, are charged with a particular Waldorf school literally Òhoof-ironÓ), windfarm energy, historical association, develops capacities (Windpark) or running neck or emotional attachment; of empathy, not and neck (Brust an Brust laufen, translators speak of Òsentimental literally Òrunning breast next to valueÓ and Òaffective investmentÓ by discussion or breastÓ) . All of these metaphoric inherent in words . As foreign instruction but images appeal directly to the language teachers we need to by developing imagination, yet they also attest point out occasionally that for to the different worldviews foreign speakers certain words perceptiveness . inherent in any language . and expressions have emotional echoes that are untraceable in the studentsÕ The silence of one language and the own mother tongue . If pupils experience this talking of another fairly regularly in the course of twelve years, Every language suffers from gaps caused we help them develop an inner suppleness, by the absence of a certain word, expression, or as it wereÑan ability to perceive in a more grammatical structure that another language differentiated way . The greater the number can easily fill up . To make our pupils aware of of impressions that arise in my soul, the these voids, to sensitize them to such absences, more alert and awake will be my perception . provides another opportunity to experience Conversely, I will also be ready and eager to the formative potential of the foreign language meet my surroundings more actively . classroom . I find German students are quite A conscious encounter with the ÒothernessÓ amazed to discover such gaps in their mother of another language will help me to confront tongue or in the foreign language they are my own, native consciousness and thereby learning . A few examples: promote better self-understanding . In this way the foreign language classroom fosters not so Ð An English speaker is able to distinguish much an expression of internationality as of among Òbig,Ó Òtall,Ó Òlarge,Ó Ògreat,Ó whereas a cosmopolitanism . As Johannes Kiersch puts German speaker is confined to groß. An English it, ÒForeign language learning in the Waldorf speaker can distinguish among the actions Òto school develops capacities of empathy . It reach,Ó Òto achieve,Ó Òto gain,Ó Òto attain,Ó Òto fosters Ôsocial pedagogy,Õ peace education, not arrive atÓÑwhereas in German there is just by discussion or instruction but by developing erreichen. perceptiveness .Ó4 Ð Germans, on the other hand, can distinguish between a male and a female

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 50 • The Formative Qualities of Foreign Language Teaching neighborÑNachbar and NachbarinÑand many Among commonly used words that lack a other male and female forms of a noun . Here counterpart in English are: Angst, Zeitgeist, the void resides in the English language . This Bildungsroman, Doppelgänger, Ersatz, Leitmotif, may lead to extraordinary difficulties for Bildung, Schadenfreude, Weltanschauung, Gestalt, translators . In a recent German translation of Feierabend . Henry JamesÕs narrative ÒThe Path of Duty,Ó Conversely the German language is unable the German translator, Ingrid Rein, admits to translate English words such as Òduty,Ó to being at a loss whether the protagonist is Òcommon sense,Ó Òaffirmative action,Ó Òrusset,Ó telling his story to a lady or to a gentleman and many others . because Henry James has his protagonist To my mind (another English word with no address the other with words such as direct German translation!), in short, it would Òcompatriot,Ó Òmy dear,Ó and ÒAmerican,Ó all be a missed opportunity if we didnÕt point out of which can be translated into German male or in our classroom those human experiences female nouns . which can not be expressed either in the pupilÕs A significant gap opens up in the German mother tongue or in one of the languages the language when introducing the use of adverbs pupil learns at school . in the English-language classroom . Germans donÕt see any reason to alter the adjective in the Other Activities sentence Sie ist sorgfältig (ÒShe is conscientiousÓ) Proverbs when they say Sie schreibt sorgfältig (ÒShe writes If we want to get to know the collective conscientiouslyÓ) . The distinction between experience of a people through their language, ÒcarefulÓ and ÒcarefullyÓ is completely unknown to appreciate what we might call folk wisdom, in the German language . By we can do no better than to making students aware that a If we want to get to learn some of their proverbs . If foreign language ignores certain a German cautions you again linguistic distinctions, they know the collective risking it all for a particular thing, develop a new relationship to experience of a he would say: ÒSetz nicht alles auf their mother tongue . people through eine Karte!Ó (ÒDonÕt put everything No discussion of linguistic on a single mapÓ) . An English gaps is complete without their language, we speaker would say: ÒDonÕt put a consideration of subtle can do no better all your eggs in one basket!Ó In distinctions in English having to than to learn some German you get Òvom Regen in die do with time . Here is a quotation TraufeÓ (Òfrom the rain into the from Winnie the Pooh: ÒTheyÕre of their proverbs . troughÓ) while in English you get funny things, Accidents . You Òout of the frying pan into the never have them till youÕre having them .Ó The fire .Ó Almost in a pseudo-philosophical manner German language has no expressive form for a German would say: ÒWer A sagt, muss auch B this experience of time . Johannes spielt Geige sagenÓ (ÒHe who says A must also say BÓ) while (ÒJohn plays the violinÓ or ÒJohn is playing the a more pragmatic English speaker would say: violinÓ) could mean he does that regularly or he ÒIn for a penny, in for a pound!Ó Proverbs make is doing it right now . the pupils see and feel the otherness of another English often appropriates certain German languageÑand hence of their own . words when there is no English equivalent . Here is a line from the novel Fugitive Pieces Stereotypical comparisons by Anne Michaels: ÒThe October twilight Like proverbs, certain clichŽ comparisons was radiant with a pure pale gegenschein .Ó can provide lively debate in the classroom .

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For instance: kerzengrade (Òcandle-straightÓ) to Conclusion mean Òstraight as an arrowÓ; sich gleichen wie Rudolf SteinerÕs suggestions for teaching ein Ei dem anderen (Òto resemble each other leave much leeway to pursue not just the as one egg resembles anotherÓ) to mean Òlike pragmatic side but also the philosophical two peas in a podÓ; mausetot (Òmouse-deadÓ) to depths of foreign languages . Consideration of mean Òdead as a doornail .Ó the philosophical implications of a language not only guards us from using it out of mere Encountering Foreign Literature instinct but also enriches our appreciation of A work of art remains silent if we the wisdom hidden within its structure and donÕtÑwhile readingÑwander through its conventions . It does so by providing pupils the rooms of our soul, if we donÕt awaken with other ways of seeing the world and of the experiences, sensations, expressing their relation to the values, and attitudes we have Once liberated from world, by providing different developed . Foreign literature instruments of consciousness, easily offers new experiences the constrictions of a perception, and feelings, by that will confound what particular worldview, giving them a chance to escape we have thought, felt, and [students] will be from the narrowness of the believed . By encountering this life they have led in their first strange reality, unexpected able to choose their language . possibilities of emotional perspectives on life IsnÕt this what distinguishes reactions, imagination, foreign language teaching in the memory, identification, more freely . education of young people? All perceptions, associations, too easily we may approach the and ways of thinking will emerge . ÒAccess to learning of foreign languages for its pragmatic world literature,Ó Susan Sontag said when she utility . Foreign language teaching at Waldorf was awarded the Friedenspreis des Deutschen schools, however, is legitimized when it also Buchhandels in Frankfurt in 2003, Òprovides points well beyond its pragmatic goals and sets escape from the prison of national vanity, of out to explore its philosophic roots . Philistinism, of compulsory provincialism, of imperfect destinies and bad luck . Literature is Endnotes the passport to enter a larger life; that is, the 1 Rudolf Steiner, Gegenwärtiges Geistesleben und zone of freedom .Ó Erziehung, GA 307 (Dornach 1986), p .200 . 2 Akzente, 3 (1956), p .422 . Foreign literature prompts the reader 3 Esther Kinsky, Fremdsprechen (Berlin 2013), p .34 . to understand otherness, to see a view that 4 Johannes Kirsch, Fremdsprachen in der Waldorfschule differs from the perspective which has been (Stuttgart 1992), p .30 . shaped so much by oneÕs own culture . If the teacher helps students to see this otherness not as a deviation from social norms of their own culture but as an alternative world of Erhard Dahl studied English and Pedagogy in equal value, then lingering experiences that Germany, completed his doctorate, and qualified have blindfolded them may lose their grip, and as a professor of English literature and Teaching absolute bonds that tie them to a particular English as a Second Language. He taught at two worldview may weaken or dissolve . Once German universities, then decided to teach at the Freie liberated from these constrictions, they will Waldorfschule Uhlandshöhe in Stuttgart. Retired in be able to choose their perspectives on life 2012, he continues to give courses for foreign language more freely . teachers in Germany and abroad.

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 Core Principles of Waldorf Education: An Introduction and First Discourse

n January 2013 the Pedagogical Section Core Principles of Waldorf Education Council of North America (PSC) crafted a by the PSC of North America Idocument entitled ÒCore Principles of Waldorf (amended August 2014) EducationÓ; since then it has been periodically revised . As the document circulated within the Waldorf education can be characterized as Waldorf movement, the PSC received several having seven core principles . Each one of requests for further elaboration on these them can be the subject of a life-long study . principles, as well as supporting references . Nevertheless, they can be summarized in the With this issue of the Research Bulletin, following manner: we begin a series of short articles in which members of the Council offer study materials Image of the Human Being: The human and commentary that elaborate on these Core being in its essence is a being of Spirit, soul, Principles . and body . Childhood and adolescence, from birth to age 21, are the periods during which A Little Background the Spirit/soul gradually takes hold of the The impetus for drafting this document physical instrument that is our body . The Self was a prolonged period of debate over the use is the irreducible spiritual individuality within of the name ÒWaldorfÓ in non-independent each one of us which continues its human (public charter) schools . Members of the PSC, journey through successive incarnations . like others in the Waldorf movement, were not all in agreement about the questions raised by Phases of Child Development: This this debate . However, since the Pedagogical process of embodiment has an archetypal Section includes teachers who work in both sequence of approximately seven-year phases, independent and in charter schools, and since and each childÕs development is an individual the question of ÒWhat is a Waldorf school?Ó expression of the archetype . Each phase has has become a legal question, the Council unique and characteristic physical, emotional, decided to focus on the pedagogical rather and cognitive dimensions . than on the legal aspects of this question . We have attempted to identify the essential aspects Developmental Curriculum: The of Waldorf education so that every school curriculum is created to meet and support the and every teacher can study them and then phase of development of the individual and assess their work relative to these principles . the class . From birth to age 7, the guiding The document was never meant to be an principle is that of imitation; from 7 to 14 enforceable criterion, but rather an anchor for the guiding principle is that of following the discussion and study on the meaning of the teacherÕs guidance; during the high school term ÒWaldorf education .Ó years, the guiding principle is idealism and the We now present these principles and the development of independent judgment . first in our series of contributions, starting with Elan Leibner and Holly Koteen-SoulŽ, who offer Freedom in Teaching: Rudolf Steiner elaborations of the first two Core Principles . gave indications for the development of a

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 Core Principles of Waldorf Education • 53 new pedagogical art, with the expectation colleagues are also essential to the wellbeing of that Òthe teacher must invent this art at the class community and the school . every moment .Ó Out of the understanding of child development and Waldorf pedagogy, Spiritual Orientation: In order to cultivate the Waldorf teacher is expected to meet the the imaginations, inspirations, and intuitions needs of the children in the class out of his/her needed for their work, Rudolf Steiner gave insights and the circumstances of the school . the teachers an abundance of guidance for Interferences with the freedom of the teacher developing an inner, meditative life . This by the school, parents, standardized testing guidance includes individual professional regimen, or the government, while they may be meditations and an imagination of the circle necessary in a specific circumstance (for safety of teachers forming an organ of spiritual or legal reasons, for example), are nonetheless perception . Faculty and individual study, compromises 1. artistic activity, and research form additional facets of ongoing professional development . Methodology of Teaching: There are a few key methodological guidelines for the Endnotes grade school and high school teachers . Early 1 A note about school governance: While not directly childhood teachers work with these principles a pedagogical matter, school governance can be an appropriate to the way in which the child essential aspect of freedom in teaching . Just as a before the age of 7 learns, out of imitation developmental curriculum should support the phases rather than direct instruction . of child development, school governance should Artistic metamorphosis: The teacher should support the teachersÕ pedagogical freedom (while maintaining the schoolÕs responsibilities towards understand, internalize, and then present the society) . 2 topic in an artistic form . 2 The term ÒartisticÓ does not necessarily mean From experience to concept: The direction of the traditional arts (singing, drawing, sculpting, the learning process should proceed from the and so forth), but rather that, like those arts, the studentsÕ soul activities of willing, through perceptually manifest reveals something invisible feeling to thinking . In the high school the through utilizing perceptible media . Thus a math problem or science project can be just as artistic as context of the experience is provided at the storytelling or painting . 3 outset . 3 This mirrors the development of human cognition, Holistic process: proceeding from the whole which is at first active in the limbs and only later in to the parts and back again, and addressing the the head . whole human being . 4 There are four basic rhythms with which the Waldorf Use of rhythm and repetition.4 teacher works . The most basic of those is the day- night (or two-day) rhythm . Material that is presented on a given day is allowed to Ògo to sleepÓ before it Relationships: Enduring human is reviewed and brought to conceptual clarity on relationships between students and their the following day . A second rhythm is that of the teachers are essential and irreplaceable . week . It is Òthe interest rhythm,Ó and teachers strive The task of all teachers is to work with the to complete an engagement with a topic within a developing individuality of each student and week of working on it . A paper that is returned to the student after more than a week will no longer be with each class as a whole . Truly human interesting to the student . The only interesting thing pedagogical relationships gain in depth and will be the teacherÕs comments, but the topic itself is stability when they are cultivated over many already past the Òinterest window .Ó A third rhythm years . They cannot be replaced by instructions is that of four weeks . Blocks, or units of instruction, utilizing computers or other electronic means. are usually best covered in four-week periods . This Healthy working relationships with parents and life-rhythm can be understood in contemplation of feminine reproductive cycles, for example, and can be

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said to bring a topic to a temporary level of maturity . capacity . Thus a mathematical concept introduced The last of the pedagogical rhythms is that of a early in third grade should be mastered sufficiently to year . This is the time it can take for a new concept be assumed as a capacity for work at the beginning to be mastered to the degree that it can be used as a of fourth grade .

A Contribution to the Study of the First Core Principle Elan Leibner

Image of the Human Being: The human lawfulness that would remain even when the being in its essence is a being of Spirit, soul, physical specimen is no longer before us; our and body . Childhood and adolescence, from soul forms a relationship between our subject birth to age 21, are the periods during which and the flower in question . the Spirit/soul gradually takes hold of the The following exercise can help make physical instrument that is our body . The Self the threefold human being more readily is the irreducible spiritual individuality within comprehensible: each one of us which continues its human Place a manufactured object such a journey through successive incarnations . pencil or a paper clip before you . Describe its appearance in detail (size, color, shape, smell, There are four thoughts woven together in and any other pertinent sensory attribute) . This the first Core Principle: description originates with what Steiner calls 1 . The human being is a being of Spirit, soul, the bodily aspect of the human being . and body . Next, describe your personal response 2 . The process of incarnating the Spirit and to this object: like or dislike, attraction soul into the body takes approximately 21 or repulsion, and so forth . This response years . originates in what Steiner calls the soul . 3 . The essential Self is an irreducible spiritual Finally, try to articulate the concept of the principle . object . In manufactured objects the concept is 4 . The Self incarnates repeatedly and in nearly identical with the function . A paper clip human form . is meant to clip papers together, for example, Let us review these thoughts in order . and the clipping is more or less the thought or intention that brought it into being . You can try 1 . Rudolf SteinerÕs basic introduction to to follow as best you can the series of steps that the nature of the human being is found in led from the functional intention through the the first chapter of his foundational book manufacturing process to the presence of the Theosophy. The threefold (body, soul, spirit) object before you . This thought process, which principle is presented and then elaborated is not observable through the senses, originates upon considerably . Briefly, and using SteinerÕs in what Steiner calls the spirit . Only the spirit own example, when we look at a flower in the can perceive the spiritual, hidden aspects of the meadow, there are three aspects to consider: world around us . Our bodily senses give us the stimuli necessary for the flower to enter our consciousness; our 2 . The process of incarnating (literally spirit allows us to recognize the flower as, for “entering the flesh”) takes 21 years on average . example, a daisy, which means recognizing a In her discussion of the second Core Principle,

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Holly Koteen-SoulŽ presents the phases of this and plans . Just as it would not make sense process in detail . A good source for this idea is to wake up as a sparrow tomorrow morning, SteinerÕs book The Education of the Child in the so it would not be true to consider a human Light of Spiritual Science. being as having been either a blade of grass or From a pedagogical perspective, one of the a grasshopper during a previous life on earth . most succinct articulations of the relationship Precisely because we are beings capable of new between spirit and soul, on the one hand, beginnings, new creations, we must live with and the body, on the other, can be found in the consequences of our actions and inactions the first lecture of Study of Man . This lecture (and even, according to Steiner, our thoughts cannot be recommended highly enough for and feelings) over time, both from day to day anyone who wants the quintessence of Waldorf and from one life to the next . education brought in an astonishingly concise formulation . Steiner presents in few words a Now that the four basic thoughts of the whole cosmic drama in which the individuality first Core Principle have been introduced, let of the child comes into the world and needs the us consider them in more detail . For Rudolf teacherÕs help in order to learn how to function Steiner, the human being stands uniquely properly in the flesh, so to speak . positioned between the spiritual world and the physical world . Human beings are the only 3 . An essential idea in SteinerÕs presentation earthly beings with the capacity to originate, to of human nature is that the spiritual core of the create new beginnings out of spiritual insights, human being is not a reducible epiphenomenon and the only spiritual beings with the physical of matter, but rather that it predates and tools to work right into earthly substance . also survives physical existence . This notion To put it succinctly: Chimps canÕt write is presented in detail in the second chapter of poetry; angels canÕt plant corn . There is no Theosophy and throughout many of SteinerÕs way to account for human spiritual activity writings . (We elected to capitalize Spirit in the from a purely material-causality perspective: first Core Principle in order to emphasize its It makes no sense to say, for instance, of the eternal aspect .) In the first lecture of Study of work of William Shakespeare that on Sunday Man Steiner emphasizes that the existence of night the weather was bad, but the stew his the spirit before birth is just as crucial an aspect wife made for dinner was very good and his of the human condition as the much more daughter slept well, and so therefore The Bard commonly held idea of immortality as referring woke up the next day and wrote HamletÕs only to life after death . famous soliloquy . One can investigate the material and emotional events preceding the 4 . Further regarding the human beingÕs creation of a great work of art, but one cannot journey through successive incarnations: In say that those circumstances caused the art to anthroposophy a human being was, is, and be created . Something surprising and uniquely will be a human being . In other traditions, the individual transpires in every new creation, various kingdoms of nature are considered something that points to a level of existence interchangeable for purposes of reincarnation . at which every human being is a complete Steiner considered this view erroneous, and species unto him or her self . We can predict in the chapter on reincarnation mentioned with relative certainty what a weather pattern earlier (in the book Theosophy), he explains or a particular diet will do to my dog, but we that repeated earth lives can be thought of in cannot predict what painting my wife will a similar manner to waking up one morning create because of the weather outside and the with the results of the previous dayÕs actions meal she just ate . To the extent that we eat,

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 56 • Core Principles of Waldorf Education breathe, walk, and so on, we are a species like reach earth maturity to the point of being fully other mammal species; to the extent that we capable of leading its own life . In many states create new beginnings, we are each a species this age used to be the voting age, and in many unto ourselves . Even persons who are not it is still a marker for various aspects of adult particularly creative create something new in consent . In my state, New Jersey, we recognize the form of their biography, and this makes the momentous completion of the twenty-one- them unique in a way that no animal ever is . year maturation process by allowing the young At the opposite end of the body-spirit person to get drunk legally . Welcome to the polarity, human beings are uniquely able world of responsible decision making, as it were . among spiritual beings to work directly into Waldorf education is not the only material existence . We can conceive an idea, pedagogical approach that begins with a view e .g ., building a new school somewhere, and of the human being . It is, in fact, important to then go about realizing that idea in the physical realize that every educational system begins world . In the example of HamletÕs soliloquy, with such a view, whether explicitly or not . Shakespeare could take pen to paper and bring This view would cover such questions as the the words he conceived into a form accessible essential nature of being human (e .g ., the result to other people . Other spiritual beings require of a series of cellular and molecular accidents; the assistance of human beings if their a being created by God on the sixth of seven intentions are to be made manifest on earth . days, and so forth) . The pedagogy would then The soul in SteinerÕs tripartite image of consider the development from childhood to the human being occupies a middle ground adulthood and what a successful human being, between spirit and body . I can see the daisy and therefore a successful educational process, with my physical senses (by means of my Òlooks like .Ó If you believe that a human being body) and learn to recognize more and more is a complicated animal, that the animal is what makes it a daisy (by what we have finally only compounded of material particles, termed spirit), but the soul forms a personal that childhood is merely a stage of being a relationship of liking or disliking, caring about small adult, that success is measurable through or choosing to ignore that which I encounter . some yardstick extrinsic to the individual (e .g ., If the sensory aspect constitutes the fleeting economic or academic achievement), then materialization of the daisy, and the concept you will also design an educational system ÒdaisyÓ is the eternal, universal thought, the that aims to achieve goals that are measured relationship my soul forms with the daisy outside of the individual that is being educated . makes for a uniquely personal relationship In similar fashion, if you believe that all human between the daisy and me . It tells something beings are born in sin, that the goal of life is about me, rather than about the daisy . to avoid hell and join God and the saints in For Steiner, every human being is a spirit Heaven, and that the Church is the only door living temporarily in a physical body, and the to the rightful path, then you will design a soul is the mediator between the two . The schooling that will bring the young person into soul gathers impressions of the physical world the folds of the Mother Church, and this will through the bodily senses and brings those then guide the choice of content and methods . impressions for the spirit to gain knowledge I mention this since looking back on oneÕs and wisdom, and then it brings the impulses of education and discerning its philosophical the spirit into manifestation on earth through underpinnings can be an enlightening exercise . the activation of the will . The twenty-one-year If, in contrast, you hold the view that the period at the beginning of life is, according essential nature of every student is an eternal, to Steiner, the time it takes for the spirit to spiritual individuality that has to fashion its

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 Second Core Principle: Holly Koteen-Soulé • 57 own journey in freedom, then your pedagogy themselves to impart purpose and meaning to will endeavor to support that spiritual element their lives .Ó1 in developing and achieving its own aims . The skills and capacities that you will strive to nurture within the student will not be ends in References themselves, nor will they be preparations for Rudolf Steiner . The Education of the Child in the Light of predetermined later stages, but rather vehicles Spiritual Science (London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1965) . ______. Theosophy (Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic for the studentÕs ÒIÓ to find its way in the Press, 1994) . world . The idea that education is an attempt ______. Study of Man (Forest Row, UK: Rudolf Steiner to reconnect a human being with his or her Press, 2007) . own goals, and that these goals are uniquely individual, finding their place in a context of relationships and activityÑthis idea would Endnote then rightfully become a crucial principle of 1 From the foreword by Marie Steiner to Rudolf SteinerÕs your pedagogy . It is neatly summed in the oft- Ilkley lecture cycle, published in English as A Modern Art of Education (London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1972), quoted edict: ÒOur highest endeavor must be p 23. . to develop free human beings who are able of

A Contribution to the Study of the Second Core Principle Holly Koteen-Soule Phases of Child Development: This process body, the astral body, and the I-organization . of embodiment has an archetypal sequence of Although Steiner uses the word body in relation approximately seven-year phases, and each to the etheric and astral, he notes that these childÕs development is an individual expression are actually ÒbodiesÓ of forces, rather than of the archetype . Each phase has unique material substances 1. and characteristic physical, emotional, and Each of the first three bodies is connected cognitive dimensions . with one of the seven-year periods of development and lends to that period and What makes the four-year-old different the developing child certain characteristic from the ten-year-old, and what makes them attributes . both different from the seventeen-year- old? The Second Core Principle of Waldorf Birth to Age 7 Education recognizes the critical importance of The physical body is born at the emergence understanding the universal patterns of child of the baby from the womb and is preeminent development from birth to age 21, as well as during the childÕs first seven years of growth the distinct characteristics of the first, second, and development . Just as the childÕs physical and third seven-year cycles in the life of the body is emancipated from the womb of the child and adolescent . mother, according to Steiner, the other bodies To understand the differences we need to also have a birth or emancipation from their refer to the fourfold human being as described protective sheaths 2. The subsequent births of by Rudolf Steiner . The fourfold human being the finer bodies are as important for Waldorf is comprised of the physical body, the etheric education as the childÕs physical birth .

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From birth to around the age of seven, knowledge and skills . During the first seven young children are working on and out of years, rhythm is brought to the life of the their physical natures . Sensory experiences young child out of regular and repetitive and movement are the means by which they rituals in its surrounding, as well as out of the develop their physical capacities and explore etheric forces of the parent and early childhood the world . Endowed with immense will teacher . In the second period, rhythm and forces, they take in the world by active doing . repetition help grade school children begin to Whatever they sense in their surrounding, they strengthen their own etheric bodies and habit become and act out or imitate . They master life . the essential human capacities of walking, Experiences connected to lively pictures speaking, and thinking through imitating the and a rich palette of feelings are the ones most adults in their environment . They think through readily received and recalled . During the first doing and learn by imitation . seven years, the feeling life was still under the The etheric body works in conjunction sway of the bodily instincts, impulses, and with the physical body during these first desires . Now the yet ÒunbornÓ astral body seven years, bringing forming forces to the is connecting with the newly-freed etheric physical body and maintaining its organic forces and the feeling life is slowly awakening . life processes . Edmond Schoorel suggests Feelings can be strong, even extreme, and that the etheric body has its Òinner birthÓ often come over the child like uncontrollable at the time the physical body goes through weather . The inner life of the teacher, along its Òouter birth,Ó in that the baby is able to with her stories and artistic activities, nourish maintain its own life processes separate and bring order, sense, and consequence to the from its mother 3. Approximately seven years imagination and developing inner life of the later, when the childÕs physical growth and child between 7 and 14 . development has reached a certain conclusion Whereas the young child thinks by doing, and fewer etheric forces are needed to form the grade school child thinks through images and maintain the physical body, the etheric and pictures . This is not yet the abstract body is born or emancipated from the physical thinking capacity that will develop later, but body . A portion of the etheric forces is freed rather a sense for wholeness, for relationships, for new adventures . The eruption of the childÕs and for the deeper meaning of things that can permanent teeth can be seen as a sign of the arise from a well-developed feeling life and conclusion of this phase of development . artistic practice .

Between 7 and 14 Between 14 and 21 With the birth of the etheric body, some The outer birth of the astral body is of the childÕs formative life forces are now heralded physically by the onset of puberty available for psychological rather than and the beginning of adolescence . The physical physiological activitiesÑfor instance, for changes that signify the beginning of this the forming of concepts, memories, habits, period are readily recognizable . Was there also and temperament . The physical body is still an Òinner birthÓ of the astral body, as there active in gathering sensory experiences, but was with the etheric body, and if so when did now the child of this age can form and recall that occur? The moment when the young child, inner pictures of his or her own experiences . around the age of two or three years of age, This allows the child to be ready for direct begins to say ÒIÓ signals, according to Schoorel, instruction and to receive guidance from the Òinner birthÓ of the astral body .4 the teacher as a beloved source of worldly

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As an early childhood teacher, this These three periods of child development awareness helped me greatly to understand are sometimes referred to as the era of will, the the changes that I perceived in young children era of feeling, and the era of thinking . However, as they began to refer to themselves as an the beginning of each seven-year period is more ÒI .Ó This event in the life of a young child strongly influenced by the will element, the signals the end of a unitary consciousness or middle by the feeling element, and the final oneness with everything and a beginning of third of each period by the thinking element . the separation that is required for the human It is as if there is an echoing of the past being to be reflective and to think . The interval development and foreshadowing of the future between the inner and outer birth of the astral development in each period . Pars pro toto: In body is around ten or eleven years . The seed of each part the whole is reflected . self-consciousness and abstract thinking that Whereas the early years of adolescence is planted at three takes many yearsÑindeed are often marked by rebellion and dissolution, the whole of the development between 7 and as young teenagers seek to find their own 14Ñbefore it is ready to flower . way and to develop their ability to think and Rudolf Steiner speaks about this in his make well founded judgments, idealism and seminal talk on education, The Education of excitement about possibilities that lie ahead the Child in the Light of Spiritual Science . In this characterize the latter years of the period from lecture he says, 14 to 21 .

Thought must take hold in a living way Archetypes and Not Norms in the childrenÕs minds so that they first These developmental archetypes help learn and then judge . What the intellect us understand what we are observing in has to say about any matter should only our students and inform the shaping and be said when all the other faculties have presenting of our lessons . The timing of spoken . Before then the intellect has only developmental changes can vary widely an intermediary part to play; its task is among normally developing children, as can to comprehend what occurs and what is the individual means by which they express experienced in feeling, to receive it exactly the changes that are taking place during a as it is, not letting unripened judgment particular period of growth and maturation . immediately come in and take over 5. Our knowledge of the archetypes should not blind us to seeing our individual students . During the final period of child develop- ment, the intellect and abstract thinking The Birth of the “I” capacities come at last into the foreground . Around the age of 21, the fourth birthÑthe With the astral body emancipated from its birth of the ego or ÒIÓÑtakes place, crowning protective sheath, the search for truth and the journey of child development and giving the a sense of self begin . The young person who young adult the means by which to direct his or is searching for his or her own truth cannot her own life path and further development . For help but question the authority of adults and Schoorel, the inner birth of ÒIÓ occurs at what teachers . Reverence for the experience of oneÕs is sometimes called the nine-year change 6. This elders is quickly replaced with criticalness . This represents a distinct shift during the second is the expression of strengthening intellectual period of child development whenÑlike the capacities, which is already present to some milestone of early childhood at threeÑthe child degree between 12 and 14 . experiences both the pain of separation and the enthusiasm for a newly-found independence .

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The Higher Bodies as Teachers Endnotes Waldorf teachers are familiar with the 1 Rudolf Steiner, The Education of the Child in the Light of advice given by Steiner that is often called Spiritual Science (London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1965), pp .9Ð16 . Steiner uses the German word Leib rather ÒThe Pedagogical Law .Ó7 Schoorel indicates than Körper, both of which mean ÒbodyÓ in English . that the sequential births of the four bodies Körper is a cognate of a more physical organization are the physiological basis for this principle .8 (akin to the English ÒcorpusÓ or even ÒcorpseÓ), In the process of development from birth whereas Leib, as its sound suggests, is more akin to a to 21, the unborn members of the human living body . constitution influence the development of the 2 Ibid ., pp .21Ð22 . lower members, the next higher member having 3 Edmond Schoorel, The First Seven Years (Fair Oaks, CA: Rudolf Steiner College Press), p .25 . the strongest influence . The higher body, as 4 Ibid ., p .26 . yet unborn, works on the lower body that has 5 Op . cit ., Steiner, p .26 . been born already . Specifically, the unborn 6 Op . cit ., Schoorel, The First Seven Years (Fair Oaks, CA: ether body, with the help of the environment, Rudolf Steiner College Press), p .27 . educates the physical body; the unborn astral 7 Rudolf Steiner, Curative Education, leture 2 (London: body educates the ether body, and the unborn Rudolf Steiner Press, 1972) . 8 Ibid ., p .24 . ÒIÓ educates the astral body . In each case, this 9 Ibid ., p .22 . occurs with the help of the environment, which includes parents and teachers . This education is not, however, a one-way process . Schoorel speaks about the relation between the etheric and physical bodies during the period between birth and age 7 in this way:

The stronger the imprint that the ether body makes on the physical body, the more the ether body itself will change and the more easily it will liberate itself from the physical body .9

It makes sense that this principle would also hold true for the relation between the astral and the ether during the second seven-year cycle and the astral and the ÒIÓ during the third period . For me, the recognition of the origin of ÒThe Pedagogical LawÓ and its physiological basis is tremendously helpful in understanding more deeply the process of development during the first 21 years and the distinct characteristics of the three seven-year cycles . It also gives me a new picture of my role as a helper of the childÕs own unborn members . Lastly, it underscores for me that the goal of our work is to support young human beings in their process of achieving self-determining independence .

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 A Call for Reports on Responsible Innovation

for theElan Research Leibner Bulletin

aldorf education must continually renew Study itself . As Rudolf Steiner told the teachers at the There are six facets to the study: Wfirst Waldorf school in Stuttgart: 1 . What are the signature aspects of child development for the age of the class you In the practice of teaching there will will be working with? awaken in us, out of this knowledge of 2 . What are the experiences you want the human nature, the art of education in children, individually and collectively, to a quite individual form . In reality, the have at this age? teacher must invent this art at every 3 . What are the skills and capacities you are moment *. trying to develop in a child of this age? 4 . What is the local flavor of your area? What Two things are woven together in is the terroir, as vintners call it, that can this statement: the need to penetrate the make this school and its practices different knowledge of human nature and the need from other schools? to then develop out of it original and Òquite 5 . What are your individual talents and individualÓ teaching . Without grounding the art skills? What do you love to do? Make what of education in anthroposophical knowledge you love and what you do as synonymous of human nature, innovation can become a as possible . Teachers who engage in personal affair; without innovation, Waldorf activities they love are filled with infectious education becomes a ÒthingÓ instead of a enthusiasm! creative art . 6 . What are the specific needs of this class or ÒResponsible InnovationÓ is a term coined individuals within it? for a process that attempts to encourage exactly what the name denotes . In a series The first three aspects are more or less of workshops in Waldorf schools and at the universal, the third will vary school by school, AWSNA annual teachers conference in June and the last two are unique to each situation . 2014, the process, as briefly outlined below, was introduced and discussed . We would Planning and Peer Preview like to invite practicing teachers to send in Plan a whole block, a part of a block, or reports of experimentation and innovation, even just a project within a block that is new both successful and not so successful, for what and unique . Map it back to the six facets of we hope will become a regular section in the study; in other words, prepare to justify what Research Bulletin. you are planning in terms of child development, The process follows (with a nod to the locale, and so forth . Eternal City) the acronym S .P .Q .R, which in Now present your plan to your peers and this case stands for Study, Planning and Peer ask them specifically for honest reflection on Preview, Quest, and Review . appropriateness, scope, and missing and/or ______extraneous aspects . This step will not only * Rudolf Steiner, Balance in Teaching, GA 302a, Sept . 21, 1920 (Great Barrington, MA: Anthroposophic help you improve the plan, but it will also build Press, 2007) . colleagueship and support among your peers .

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It is entirely possible that, after consulting with your peers, you will decide to abandon this particular idea . That can be a good thing . Part of being responsible is the ability to recognize the shortcomings of an idea, even your idea .

Quest If you decide to go ahead and try your idea, then do it with gusto . Dare to err! Like a medieval knight, get on your proverbial horse and go after it . Bring conviction and enthusiasm to your work, and leave doubts behind for the duration of the experiment . There will be time for reflections, corrections, and refinements afterwards .

Review It is crucially important to review any innovation after the fact . However, this phase of the process can be fraught with the danger that one can fall in love with oneÕs idea, precisely because it came out of a more individual source . But try to ask whether your innovative idea accomplished what you were hoping to achieve . Solicit peer, parent, and student impressions, as appropriate . A new idea rarely emerges Òfully incarnateÓÑthat is, fully fleshed outÑthe first time . It is likely that some aspects went well, others less so . Be as honest as you can, and if possible draft a report for your peers outlining what you did, why you did it, how you did it, and how you would recommend or not recommend doing something similar in the future .

Finally, send us a copy of your report . It would be wonderful to create a clearinghouse for examples of Responsible Innovation, both through periodic publication of articles and through postings on our website .

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 Report on the Online Waldorf Library

Marianne Alsop

nce again it has been a busy and productive Our site visitor data indicates a continuing year for the Online Waldorf Library, which increase in the use of the OWL by visitors from Obegan in 2001 and is now in its thirteenth year . all over the world . Over the past six months we The OWL continues to offer site visitors recent have had nearly 62,000 site visits with 60% editions of national and international journals being returning visitors and 40% being new published about Waldorf education: Research visitors . At this time 44% of those are from the Bulletin; Gateways; Waldorf Journal Projects; US, 7% are Australian, 6 .5% are from the UK, Waldorf Clearinghouse Newsletter Archive; 6% from Canada, 4% from India, 2 .5% from Journal for Waldorf-Rudolf Steiner Education New Zealand, 2% from the Philippines, and the (New Zealand); Pacifica Journal Archive remainder are from Malaysia, Taiwan, Brazil (Oceana & the Far East); Waldorf Science and the rest of the world! Newsletter Archive; Pedagogical Journal/ Rundbrief; RoSE Research on Rudolf Steiner; Site visitors who contact me directly Association for a Healing Education . And continue to have a huge variety of questions . direct links to In Context, Lilipoh, Net Future, I help students with research and frequently and Living Education Archive (Steiner Schools suggest articles and books for those new to Fellowship, UK) . Waldorf education . Waldorf teachers contact me all year long looking for main lesson Our article database is nearing 1400 freely resources . Our eBooks have been a huge help to available articles from a number of resources students, teachers and parents alike! including the North American journals, Research Bulletins and Gateways, as well as out of print journals from the UK and the USA . Visit the Online Waldorf Library Our book database tops 700 books at currently available in English with 11 in www.waldorflibrary.org Spanish, of which 9 are eBooks . Books and eBooks in Spanish are now easily found via a direct link on the Home page . Recently added is the eBook, Una Segunda Casa: LifeWays Cuidado de Niños y Familias by Cynthia Aldinger and Mary OÕConnell .

The number of eBooks in English stands at 185 as of fall 2014 . This year alone 54 new eBooks were added, with new titles being added each month . Our eBooks have become one of the most popular aspects of the OWL, our articles being second .

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 Report on Waldorf Publications

Patrice Maynard

aldorf Publications has accomplished In addition to closing our warehouse, its transition to the Research Institute over establishing smaller storage and shipping Wthe past year like a replanted tree in a new facilities, beginning new, nimbler publishing garden with potentized soil . As with all such practices, helping to organize existing research undertakings, this could be accomplished only in accessible ways on the website of the with help from many hands: Research Institute, and assisting in stimulating an international research colloquium, Waldorf •• Generous donors poured gifts into our Publications has established a new online store, efforts to safeguard the whole process and featuring a store persona, our new ÒLibrary to guarantee rejuvenation . Lady,Ó as a helper in the store . She will offer •• Full member schools will continue recommendations for good books and pointers, to support publications with a new for example, around storytelling at bed and agreement, establishing Òbook banksÓ for meal times, and on other topics to help make each school, and thus helping to ensure parenting a little less stressful . ongoing growth with new books from new authors . Seven new books from Waldorf •• The Research Institute board and staff Publications, on topics ranging from recorder provide warmth, willingness, and patience music to chemistry, filled the Waldorf world in planning to make adequate space for this this past year . Already nearing completion new venture . at this writing are two unusually important •• A newly established publications committee books that will herald a new year of publishing: from the board of RIWE gives ongoing light Douglas GerwinÕs book on teaching young to draw the enterprise up and out . people about the power and pitfalls of human •• The Publications staff has shown continual sexuality, Trailing Clouds of Glory; and a new stamina for daily tasks, while at the same reader for grades one through three, The time negotiating change and learning Sun With Loving Light, an American version new systems within the volatile world of of Caroline von HeydebrandtÕs first Waldorf publishing . reader . The plan is to help these fruits fall from •• Myriad invisible and visible handsÑ the tree in increasingly widening circles, so the AWSNAÕs staff and board, David Mitchell nourishment can be generously shared with the from his high view, customers, friends, wider world, so ready to receive these offerings . volunteersÑhave worked to build a successful new environment for this established organism developed over decades by the Waldorf school community .

Gratitude runs high around Waldorf Publications because of all this nurturing from so many .

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 Indices of Past ResearchArticle Bulletins Title

Volume I, Number 1 The Third Space Waldorf Education in an Inner City Public School System Ð Henry Barnes Ð Research Report What Conditions Are There for Taking Responsibility in an Encounters in Waldorf Education: A Tribute to Ernst Boyer Independent Culture? Ð Eugene Schwartz Ð Heinz Zimmerman Waldorf Education Research Institute in North America Volume III, Number 2 Ð Susan Howard and Douglas Sloan Educating the Whole Person for the Whole Life Ð Gerald Karnow, M .D . Volume I, Number 2 Racism and Waldorf Education Understanding the Etheric Organization in the Human Being: Ð Ray McDermott and Ida Oberman New Insights through Anthroposophical Research Ð Michaela Glšckler, M .D . Reflections on the Education of Consciousness Ð Douglas Sloan Endangered Childhood Ð Joan Almon Standardized Testing in a Non-Standardized World Ð Eugene Schwartz Volume IV, Number 1 Africa ADHD Ð the Challenge of Our Time Ð Betty Staley Ð Eugene Schwartz Research in the Life Sciences Helping Children: Where Research and Social Action Meet Ð Craig Holdrege Ð Joan Almon Computers, Brains, and Children Volume II, Number 1 Ð Stephen Talbott Technology Issue including: Movement and Sensory Disorders in TodayÕs Children Violence and the Electronic Media: Their Impact on Children Ð Peter Stuck, M .D . Ð Joan Almon Can Waldorf Education Be Practiced in Public Schools? Building on Shifting Sands: The Impact of Computer Use on Ð Patti Smith Neural and Cognitive Development Ð Donna M . Chirico Volume IV, Number 2 Meetings with a Snake Human Biography and Its Genetic Instrument Ð Stephen Talbott Ð Michaela Glšckler, M .D . Challenges and Opportunities in Evolution Education Volume II, Number 2 Ð James Henderson A New Educational Paradigm Ð Michaela Glšckler, M .D . The High Stakes of Standardized Testing Ð Edward Miller Changes in Brain Formation Ð Michael Kneissle Ecology: Coming into Being versus Eco-Data Ð Will Brinton Organology and Physiology of Learning Ð Wolfgang Schad Genes and Life: The Need for Quantitative Understanding Ð Craig Holdrege New Health Problems of Children and Youth Ð University of Bielefeld (Germany) Volume V, Number 1 Rudolf SteinerÕs Efforts to Encourage Cultural Diversity The Real Meaning of Hands-On Education Ð Detlef Hardorp Ð Frank Wilson, M .D . The Middle PassageÑOut of Diversity We Become Whole AmericaÕs Gold Rush: Can It Be Redeemed? Ð Cindy Weinberg Ð Dorit Winter Atopy in Children of Families with an Anthroposophic Volume III, Number 1 Lifestyle Schooling and the Post Modern Child Ð Johan S . Alm, M .D ,. et al . Ð David Elkind Developing a Culture of Leadership, Learning, and Service in Waldorf Schools Ð Christopher Schaefer

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Volume V, Number 2 Volume VII, Number 2 Balance in Teaching, Balance in Working, Balance in Living On Forgetting to Wear Boots Ð Roberto Trostli Ð Stephen Talbott Adult Education in the Light of Anthroposophy Organizations as Living Organisms: Developing a Seven-fold Ð Michael Howard View Setting Priorities for Research; Attention-Related Disorders Ð Magda Lissau (ARD) Study Educating the WillÑPart II: Developing Feeling Will in Ð Kim Payne and Bonnie River-Bento Contrast to Sense/Nerve Will Learning Expectations and Assessment Project (LEAP) Ð Michael Howard Ð Leap Project Group (Staley, Trostli, K . & B . Anderson, Recapitulation and the Waldorf Curriculum Eaton) Ð Alduino Mazzone Sexual Abuse in Children: Understanding, Prevention, and Treatment Volume VIII, Number 1 Ð Michaela Glšckler, M .D . No Such Thing: Recovering the Quality of Rudolf SteinerÕs Educational Work Volume VI, Number 1 Ð Stephen Keith Sagarin Confronting the Culture of Disrespect Beyond Innovation: Education and Ethos in an Era of Ð Langdon Winner Ceaseless Change Where Is the Waldorf School Movement Going? Ð Langdon Winner Ð Johannes Kiersch How Poems Teach Us to Think Computers in Education: Why, When, How Ð Gertrude Reif Hughes Ð Lowell Monk and Valdemar Setzer Educating the WillÑPart III: Common Will and Low SES Minority Fourth-GradersÕ Achievement Comprehensive Will Ð Jennifer Schieffer and R .T . Busse Ð Michael Howard Whom Are We Teaching? Volume VI, Number 2 Ð Susan Kotansky Trained to Kill Ð Dave Grossman Volume VIII, Number 2 Education of the Will as the Wellspring of Morality The Vital Role of Play in Childhood Ð Michaela Glšckler, M .D . Ð Joan Almon Hand Movements Sculpt Intelligence In What Respect Are Star Children Different? Ð Arthur Auer Ð Georg KŸhlewind The Online Waldorf Library Project The Hague Circle Report Ð Dave Alsop Ð James Pewtherer and Monique Grund Special Section: The Push for Early Childhood Literacy: Volume VII, Number 1 Taking a Careful Look Creating a Sense of Wonder in Chemistry Ð EditorÕs Introduction Ð David Mitchell Moving in Slow Motion Science as Process or Dogma? The Case of the Peppered Ð Barry Sanders Moth A Risk Factor in Child Psychopathology Ð Craig Holdrege Ð Sharna Olfman Spirit Will and Ethical Individuality Critical Issues and Concerns Ð Michael Howard Ð Nancy Carlsson-Paige Did Rudolf Steiner Want a Seven-Grade Elementary School The Loss of Nature Configuration? Ð William Crain Ð Mark Riccio The Push for Early Childhood Literacy: A View from Europe Phases and Transitions in Waldorf Education Ð Christopher Clouder Ð Harlan Gilbert Waldorf High School Research Project: Who Is the Teenager Volume IX, Number 1 Today? Ruldolf Steiner and the New Educational Paradigm Ð Douglas Gerwin Ð Christof Wiechert Initial Report of the Waldorf ADHD Research Project Teaching as Learning in a Steiner/Waldorf Setting Ð Kim Payne, Bonnie River-Bento, Anne Skillings Ð Christopher Clouder International Survey of the Status of Waldorf Schools Education Towards Health Is Education Towards Freedom Ð Earl Ogletree Ð Johannes Denger Case Study Research: The Waldorf Teacher The Stranger in the Mirror: Reflections on Adolescence in the Ð Nina Ashur Light of Movement Education Ð Jaimen McMillan

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Pulling the Grass DoesnÕt Make It Grown Any Faster Reports from the Research Fellows: Ð Gerald Huether Beyond Cognition: Children and Television Viewing The New Generation of Children Ð Eugene Schwartz Ð Renate Long-Breipohl PISA Study Ð Jon McAlice Volume IX, Number 2 State Funds for Waldorf Schools in England Wellsprings of the Art of Education: Three Reversals in the Ð Douglas Gerwin Work of the Waldorf Teacher Ð Christof Wiechert On Looping Ð David Mitchell Discovering the True Nature of Educational Assessment Ð Paul Zachos The ChildrenÕs Food Bill Ð Christopher Clouder The Kindergarten Child Ð Peter Lang Waldorf Senior Survey Ð Waldorf HIgh School Research Project (Gerwin, et al .) The Teaching of Science Ð David Mitchell Volume XI, Number 2 Evolution of Consciousness, Rites of Passage, and the Reading in Waldorf Schools Begins in Kindergarten and Waldorf Curriculum Avoids Clouding the MindÕs Eye Ð Alduino Mazzone Ð Arthur Auer Universal Human Nature: The Challenge of the Transition Volume X, Number 1 from Kindergarten to Elementary School Science and the Child Ð Martyn Rawson Ð Stephen Talbott Art: Awakener of Consciousness, Humanizer of Society Can Meditation Take the Place of Exercise? Ð Van James Ð Michaela Glšckler, M .D . The Seven Cosmic Artists: An Artistic View of Child Non-Verbal Education: A Necessity in the Developmental Development Stages Ð Magda Lissau Ð Michaela Glšckler, M .D . Education and Healing Organic Functionalism: An Important Principle of the Visual Ð Rudolf Steiner Arts in Waldorf School Crafts and Architecture Ð David Adams Nurturing Human Growth: A Research Strategy for Waldorf Schools The Lowering of School Age and the Changes in Childhood: Ð Aksel Hugo An Interim Report Work of the Research Fellows Volume X, Number 2 Nature Deficit Disorder The Current Debate about Temperament Ð David Mitchell Ð Walter RietmŸller On Creativity Waldorf Education: Transformation Toward Wholeness Ð Stephen Keith Sagarin Ð Vladislav Rozentuller and Stephen Talbott Allergic Disease and Sensitization in Waldorf/Steiner The Art and Science of Classroom Management School Children Ð Philip Incao, M .D . Ð Trevor Mepham Left-Handedness: A Call for Research Spiritual Research: Casting Knowledge into Love Ð Douglas Gerwin Ð David Mitchell and Douglas Gerwin Assuming Nothing: Judith Rich Harris on Nature vs . Research on Graduates in North America, Phase I Nurture Ð Faith Baldwin, Douglas Gerwin, and David Mitchell Ð Eugene Schwartz Volume XI, Number 1 Against Anticulturalism: A Review of Books by Kay Puberty as the Gateway to Freedom Hymowitz Ð Richard Landl Ð Jon McAlice Soul Hygiene and Longevity for Teachers Volume XII, Number 1 Ð David Mitchell Reading in Waldorf Schools, Part II: Beginning in Flow and The Emergence of the Idea of Evolution in the Time of Goethe Warmth Ð Frank Teichmann Ð Arthur Auer The Seer and the Scientist Rudolf Steiner on Teaching Left-Handed Children Ð Stephen Keith Sagarin Ð Daniel Hindes The Four Phases of Research The Tricky Triangle: Children, Parents, Teachers Ð adapted from Dennis Klocek Ð Dorit Winter

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Healing Children Who Have Attentional, Emotional, and Reports from the Research Fellows Learning Challenges Profits and Paradigms, Morality and Medicine Ð Susan Johnson, M .D . Ð Philip Incao, M .D . What Will TodayÕs Children Need for Financial Success in Visions of Peace TomorrowÕs Economy? Ð Michael Mancini Ð Judy Lubin ÒA Still Small VoiceÓ: Three Tools for Teaching Morality The Development of the Hand in the Young Child Ð Patrice Maynard Ð Jane Swain Blinking, Feeling, and Willing On Spiritual Research Ð Eugene Schwartz Ð Rudolf Steiner From Virtue to Love Work of the Research Fellows Ð Arthur Zajonc Do Festivals Have a Future? Ð Eugene Schwartz Volume XIII, Number 2 Spirituality in Higher Education Rhythm and Learning Ð Arthur Zajonc Ð Dirk Cysarz Quicksand and Quagmires of the Soul: Thinking and the Consciousness of the Young Child The Sub-conscious Stimulation of Youth through Media Ð Renate Long-Breipohl Ð David Mitchell Assesssment without High-Stakes Testing Ð David Mitchell, Douglas Gerwin, Ernst Schuberth, Volume XII, Number 2 Michael Mancini, and Hansjšrg Hofrichter Standing Out without Standing Alone: Profile of Waldorf The Art of Education as Emergency Aid High School Graduates Ð Barbara Schiller Ð Douglas Gerwin and David Mitchell What Have We Learned? Comparing Studies of German, Reading in Waldorf Schools, Part III: Beginning in Sound and Swiss, and North American Waldorf School Graduates Form Ð Jon McAlice Ð Arthur Auer Cultivating Humanity against a ÒMonoculture of the MindÓ Living Language in Waldorf Education Ð Stephen Keith Sagarin Ð Helen Lubin Reports from the Research Fellows Anthroposophy and the Riddle of the Soul ÒLearning, Arts, and the BrainÓ Ð The Dana Consortium Ð Rudolf Steiner Report Playing ÒSteiner SaysÓ: Twenty Myths about Waldorf Ð Patrice Maynard Education Waldorf Around the World Ð Stephen Keith Sagarin Ð James Pewtherer Reports from the Research Fellows The Intercultural Waldorf School of Mannheim, New Research on the Power of Play Germany Ð Susan Howard Ð David Mitchell High-Stakes Testing The Health and Heartiness of Waldorf Graduates Ð Eugene Schwartz Ð Douglas Gerwin Rethinking the Waldorf High School: Two European Examples Volume XIV, Number 1 Ð David Mitchell Sleeping on It: The Most Important Activity of a School Day Ð Arthur Auer Volume XIII, Number 1 Advantages and Disadvantages of Brain Research for Moral Force: An Anthropology of Moral Education Education Ð Ernst-Michael Kranich Ð Christian Rittelmeyer The Moral Reasoning of High School Seniors from Diverse What Makes Waldorf, Waldorf? Educational Settings Ð Stephen Keith Sagarin Ð Christine Hether Love and Knowledge Recovering the Heart of Learning Can Moral Principles Be Taught? through Contemplation Ð Magda Lissau Ð Arthur Zajonc Transformative Education and the Right to an Inviolate TeachersÕ Self-Development as a Mirror of ChildrenÕs Childhood Incarnation: Part I Ð Christopher Clouder Ð Renate Long-Breipohl The Riddle of Teacher Authority: Its Role and Significance in Of Seeds and Continents: Reliability, Predictability, and Waldorf Education Scientific Knowing Ð Trevor Mepham Ð Michael DÕAleo Religious and Moral Education in the Light of Spiritual Science Ð Rudolf Steiner

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Reports from the Research Fellows How Do Teachers Learn with Teachers? Understanding Child Honest, Complete Assessment and Social Renewal: Study as a Case for Professional Learning Communities A Revolution Ð Marisha Plotnik Ð Patrice Maynard Does Our Educational System Contribute to Attentional and Crisis in the Kindergarten Learning Difficulties in Our Children? Ð Joan Almon and Edward Miller Ð Susan R . Johnson, MD, FAAP Henry Barnes and Waldorf Education: A Personal Survey on Waldorf School Trustee Education Tribute Ð Martin Novom and Jean Jeager Ð Douglas Sloan Volume XV, Number 2 Volume XIV, Number 2 The Inner Life and Work of the Teacher The Social Mission of Waldorf School Communities Ð Margaret Duberley Ð Christopher Schaefer The Human Body as a Resonance Organ: A Sketch of an Identity and Governance Anthropology of the Senses Ð Jon McAlice Ð Christian Rittelmeyer Changing Old Habits: Exploring New Models for Professional Aesthetic Knowledge as a Source for the Main Lesson Development Ð Peter Guttenhšfer Ð Thomas Patteson and Laura Birdsall Knitting It All Together Developing Coherence: Meditative Practice in Waldorf School Ð Fonda Black College of Teachers The Work of Emmi Pikler Ð Kevin Avison Ð Susan Weber TeachersÕ Self-Development as a Mirror of ChildrenÕs Seven Myths of Social Participation of Waldorf Graduates Incarnation: Part II Ð Wanda Ribeiro and Juan Pablo de Jesus Pereira Ð Renate Long-Breipohl Volunteerism, Communication, Social Interaction: A Survey Social-Emotional Education and Waldorf Education of Waldorf School Parents Ð David S . Mitchell Ð Martin Novom Television in, and the Worlds of, TodayÕs Children A Timeline for the Association of Waldorf Schools of North Ð Richard House America RussiaÕs History, Culture, and the Thrust Toward High-Stakes Ð David S . Mitchell Testing: Reflections on a Recent Visit Reports from the Research Fellows Ð David S . Mitchell More Online! Da Valdorvuskii! Finding an Educational Approach for Ð David Blair Children with Disabilities in a Siberian Village Is Technology Producing a Decline in Critical Thinking Ð Cassandra S . Hartblay and Analysis? Reports from the Research Fellows Ð David BlairÕs Review of Patricia Greenfield Study One Hundred Meters Squared Review of ChazanÕs ChildrenÕs Play Study Ð Michael DÕAleo Ð Renate Long-Breipohl Basic Schools and the Future of Waldorf Education Ð Peter Guttenhšfer Volume XVI, Number 1 When One Plus One Equals Three: Evidence, Logic, and Tending the Flame: The Link Between Education and Professional Discourse Medicine in Childhood Ð Douglas Gerwin Ð Philip Incao, M .D . Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a BabyÕs Brain Volume XV, Number 1 Ð Sue Gerhardt What Can Rudolf SteinerÕs Words to the First Waldorf Research into Resilience Teachers Tell Us Today? Reading Research Supports the Waldorf Approach Ð Christof Wiechert Ð Sebastian Suggate Social Emotional Intelligence: The Basis for a New Vision of Thinking and the Sense of Thinking: How We Perceive Education in the United States Thoughts Ð Linda Lantieri Ð Detlef Hardrop Rudolf SteinerÕs Research Methods for Teachers Outline of a Study Methodology Ð Martyn Rawson Ð Elan Leibner Combined Grades in Waldorf Schools: Creating Classrooms The Founding Intentions: Spiritual Leadership, Current Work, Teachers Can Feel Good About and the Goals of the Medical Section Ð Lori L . Freer Ð Michaela Glšckler Educating Gifted Students in Waldorf Schools Attending to Interconnection: Living the Lesson Ð Ellen Fjeld KØttker and Balazs Tarnai Ð Arthur Zajonc

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Volume XVI, Number 2 Volume XVIII, Number 1 Science and the Humanities Neurology and Education Ð Douglas Sloan Ð Dennis Klocek What Lies Behind a Waldorf School? The Philosophical Roots of Waldorf Education Ð David S . Mitchell Part Two: FichteÕs Primordial Intuition The Task of the College of Teachers: Part 1 Ð Frederick Amrine Ð Roberto Trostli From the Un-bornness to “I”-Consciousness: The Three Great The Plight of Early Childhood Education in the U .S . Steps of Incarnation Ð Joan Almon Ð Michaela Glšckler The Art of Knowing Teacher Education for Educational Wisdom Ð Jonathan Code Ð Gert Biesta Painting from a Palette Entirely Different Independent or Charter? Study of Teacher Choice, Part One Ð Johannes Kiersch Ð Liz Beaven Authenticity in Education Language, Art, and Deep Study Ð Elan Leibner Ð Elan Leibner Soul Breathing Exercises Volume XVIII, Number 2 Ð Dennis Klocek The Philosophical Roots of Waldorf Education Part Three: From Schiller to Steiner Volume XVII, Number 1 Ð Frederick Amrine The Task of the College of Teachers: Part 2 Ð Roberto Trostli Atunement and Teaching Ð Peter Lutzker ÒSpirit is Never without Matter, Matter Never without SpiritÓ Ð Liz Beaven Therapeutic Eurythmy for the Teeth Ð Polly Saltet and Susanne Zipperlen The Artistic Meeting: Creating Space for Spirit Ð Holly Koteen-Soule In Matter, the Spirit: Science Education in the Waldorf School Ð Roberto Trostli Contemplative Practice and Intuition in a Collegial Context Ð Martyn Rawson Every Child Is an Artist: The Beginnings of Drawings Ð Van James Contemplative Work in the College Meeting Ð Elan Leibner Rooted in the World Ð Craig Holdrege Work of the Research Fellows Review of The Social Animal by David Brooks Independent or Charter? Study of Teacher Choice, Part Two Ð Dorit Winter Ð Liz Beaven Taking the Pulse of Waldorf Early Childhood Education Volume XVII, Number 2 Ð Holly Koteen-SoulŽ In Memoriam: David S . Mitchell Book Review: Under the Stars by Renate Long-Breipohl ÐDouglas Gerwin & Patrice Maynard Ð Jill Taplin The Three Castles and the Esoteric Life of the Teacher Book Review: Drawing with Hand, Head, and Heart by Van Ð Betty Staley James Learning for LifeÐLearning from Life Ð Eugene Schwartz Ð Florian Osswald The Philosophical Roots of Waldorf Education, Volume XIX, Number 1 Part One: The Revolution The Philosophical Roots of Waldorf Education Ð Frederick Amrine Part Four: Rudolf Steiner as a Philosopher Ð Frederick Amrine The Concept of Learning in Waldorf Education Ð Jost Schieren The Spiritual Dimension of Waldorf Education Ð Jost Schieren Modeling ClayÐfor all Ages? Ð Arthur Auer Science Teaching Ð Part II: Method and Approaches Ð Roberto Trostli Anything but Children's Play: What Play in School Means for Learning When Animals Speak Ð Irene Jung Ð Melissa Borden Higgs Field and a View of the Material World that Being Fully Human Makes Sense Ð Douglas Gerwin Ð Michael D'Aleo The New Impulse of the Second TeachersÕ Meditation Ð Elan Leibner Book Review: Thinking Like a Plant by Craig Holdrege Ð Elan Leibner

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 About the Research Institute for Waldorf Education

he Research Institute for Waldorf Education tax-exempt organization and accepts (RIWE), founded in 1996 in order to deepen contributions through its annual giving Tand enhance the quality of Waldorf education, campaign and special appeals . engages in sustained dialogue with the wider educational-cultural community and supports Summary of Activities Supported by research to serve a wide range of educators in the Research Institute their work with children and adolescents . PROJECTS The Research Institute supports projects The following projects are in process or have been dealing with essential contemporary undertaken by the Research Institute: educational issues such as attention-related Teaching Sensible Science Seminars disorders, trends in adolescent development Human Sexuality KÐ12 Survey of Waldorf Seniors and innovations in the high school curriculum, Waldorf High School Research Projects learning expectations and assessment, computers in education, the role of art in BOOKS and PAPERS education, and new ways to identify and The following books and papers were printed by the Research Institute and are available from address different learning styles . Waldorf Publications: As a sponsor of colloquia and conferences, • Topics in Mathematics for the 11th Grade the Research Institute brings together • Tapping the Wellsprings of Health in Adolescence educators, , doctors, and social • New Approaches to Teaching Grammar scientists for discussions on current issues • Developmental Signatures: Core Values and Practices related to education . We publish the Research in Waldorf Education for Children Ages 3–9 • Education, Teaching, and Practical Life by Rudolf Steiner Bulletin twice a year and prepare and distribute • Survey of Waldorf Graduates, Phase I, Phase II, Phase III educational resources, including a growing • Effects of High-Stakes Testing on Children collection of eBooks and articles to help Subject-Specific Colloquia, 2000Ð2010: teachers in all aspects of their work . These Chemistry are all available without charge at the Online Mathematics Waldorf Library (OWL), which is overseen by Computer and Information Technology English the Research Institute . United States History As an initiative working on behalf of the Life Science and Environmental Studies Waldorf movement, the Research Institute World History Ð Symptomatology receives support and guidance from the Physics Pedagogical Section of the School for Spiritual Proceedings for all of the above are available from Science and financial support through the Waldorf Publications at: www whywaldorfworks. .org . Waldorf Schools Fund, the Waldorf Curriculum RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT Fund, the Waldorf Educational Foundation, Online Waldorf Library, a website of resources for the Rudolf Steiner Charitable Trust, the Waldorf education Foundation for Rudolf Steiner Books, the Themes in Waldorf Education, compilation of Rudolf SteinerÕs indications on teaching language arts and Sprout Foundation, and the Association of mathematics Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA), Education, Teaching, and Practical Life by Rudolf Steiner of which the Research Institute is a daughter Over 1400 articles and 185+ eBooks placed Online for organization . The Research Institute is a teacher reference

Research Bulletin • Autumn/Winter 2014 • Volume 19 • #2 72 • About the Research Institute

Board of Directors San Francisco Waldorf School Arthur Zajonc, President Santa Cruz Waldorf School Virginia Flynn, Treasurer Santa Fe Waldorf School Susan Howard, Secretary Seattle Waldorf School Douglas Gerwin, Executive Director Shining Mountain Waldorf School Natalie Adams Sound Circle Center for Arts and Anthroposophy Frederick Amrine Spring Garden Waldorf School Alice Groh Summerfield Waldorf School & Farm Hansjoerg Hofrichter Susquehanna Waldorf School Elan Leibner Toronto Waldorf School Jost Schieren Vancouver Waldorf School Douglas Sloan Waldorf Academy Waldorf High School of Massachusetts Bay Administrator Waldorf School of Garden City Milan Daler Waldorf School of Lexington Waldorf School of Orange County Director of Publications and Development Waldorf School of Pittsburgh Patrice Maynard Waldorf School of Princeton Waldorf School of San Diego Supporting Members Waldorf School of the Peninsula Academe of the Oaks Washington Waldorf School Anchorage Waldorf School Waldorf Teacher Education Eugene AWSNA Camphill Special School - Beaver Run Please visit our website at Cape Ann Waldorf School www.waldorfresearchinstitute.org Center for Anthroposophy Chicago Waldorf School Research Bulletin Cincinnati Waldorf School Editor: Elan Leibner City of Lakes Waldorf School email: waldorfresearchbulletin@gmail .com Denver Waldorf School Cover design: David Mitchell East Bay Waldorf School Copy editing: Douglas Gerwin Emerson Waldorf School Proofreading: Ann Erwin, Tertia Gale Eugene Waldorf School Production/layout: Ann Erwin Franz E . Winkler Center for Adult Learning Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School The Research Institute for Waldorf Education Green Meadow Waldorf School Douglas Gerwin, Executive Director Haleakala Waldorf School P .O . Box 307 • Wilton, NH 03086 Hartsbrook School Phone: (603) 654-2566 • Fax: (603) 654-5258 Hawthorne Valley School email: researchinstitute@earthlink .net High Mowing School Highland Hall Waldorf School Patrice Maynard, Director of Publications Honolulu Waldorf School and Development Kimberton Waldorf School 38 Main Street • Chatham, NY 12037 Les Enfants de la Terre Phone: (518) 392-0613 • Fax: (518) 684-1588 Marin Waldorf School email: patrice@waldorf-research .org Merriconeag Waldorf School Monadnock Waldorf School Marianne Alsop, Librarian of the Online Waldorf Library Pasadena Waldorf School email: owlibrary@sbcglobal .net Pine Hill Waldorf School www .waldorflibrary .org Portland Waldorf School Prairie Hill Waldorf School Tom Stier, Webmaster of the RIWE website Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto www .waldorfresearchinstitute .org Rudolf Steiner College Rudolf Steiner School of Ann Arbor DONATIONS Rudolf Steiner School, NY for the continuation of the work of the Sacramento Waldorf School Research Institute are tax deductible.

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