Child Development
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CHILD DEVELOPMENT BASED ON THE INSIGHTS OF RUDOLF STEINER AND AS USED IN WALDORF / STEINER SCHOOLS WRITTEN FOR THE EAST AFRICAN WALDORF TEACHER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM BY PETER VAN ALPHEN & CATHERINE VAN ALPHEN 2 Open Source This series of manuals has been commissioned by Zukunfsstiftung Entwicklungshilfe, to support teacher development in East Africa. The manuals can be used in other training programs, individual or group study, anywhere in the world, provided every page shows the source and the open source registration, as it appears on the bottom of each page. The open source licence under Creative Commons (see www.creativecommons.org ) allows the manuals to be downloaded and redistributed only for non-commercial purposes [that means these manuals may never be sold]. In addition, the licence permits the remixing, tweaking, translating or producing new work based on the manuals, provided that all new work based on these manuals will acknowledge the authors and source and carry the same license. This ensures that any derivatives will also be non-commercial in nature. The manuals can be downloaded from www.entwicklungshilfe3.de Zukunftsstiftung Entwicklungshilfe Christstrasse 9 D-44789 Bochum Germany Tel. +49-234-5797-224/ -124 Fax +49-234-5797-188 Source: www.entwicklungshilfe3.de Open Source: Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 International Licence; see www.creativecommons.org 3 Authors Chapters 1, 2, 3, 6 Peter van Alphen Chapter 4 Ann Sharfman / Peter van Alphen Chapter 5 Catherine van Alphen Acknowledgements Illustrations Catherine van Alphen Beulah Tertiens-Reeler Photos of children’s work (Grades 1 – 5, Michael Oak School) Claire van Alphen: Photos from her Main Lesson books of Grades 6 – 10 Claartje Wijnbergh Photo of the African chair in Chapter 1. I wish to acknowledge the invaluable use of the well-written book on the Waldorf Curriculum in South Africa: Peter van Alphen / Sally von Holdt (2000). Curriculum: Waldorf Schools in South Africa . Cape Town: Federation of Waldorf Schools in South Africa. I have drawn from it extensively, especially in mathematics and the sciences. To save space I have only acknowledged some entries. Catherine van Alphen I wish to acknowledge the following: The expertise and work of Ann Sharfman in Early Childhood Development, on which the greatest part of Chapter 4 is based. Ann has edited this chapter extensively Dr Anne Steinmueller, pediatrician, for information on physical growth and its effects on the development of consciousness in early childhood (Chapter 4) The following excellent source on Waldorf principles and curriculum, from which extensive information on adolescence and the curriculum for Grades 8 - 12 has been drawn: Martyn Rawson & Tobias Richter (Editors), 2000. The Educational Tasks and Content of the Steiner Waldorf Curriculum . Forest Row, Sussex, UK: Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship Peter van Alphen Source: www.entwicklungshilfe3.de Open Source: Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 International Licence; see www.creativecommons.org 4 The East African Waldorf/Steiner Teacher Development Programme The East African teacher development programme was started by the late Adeline Mlai, a Tanzanian, in Dar-es-Salaam in 1997. Adeline recognised the developmental value of Waldorf education and invited Peter van Alphen and Ann Sharfman, teacher educators with experience working in African settings in Cape Town, South Africa, to start a teacher development programme in Dar-es-Salaam. This programme was set up for teachers from Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. After the first year, difficulties securing the funds for continuing the programme were experienced, and in 1999 the programme was relocated to Nairobi, Kenya, as a more central venue for the three countries. The Rudolf Steiner School in Mbagathi was able to secure funding for its continuation, and in the eleven years that followed an ever-increasing number of teachers from East African countries joined the programme. Our grateful thanks go to Zukunfsstiftung Entwicklungshilfe (Bochum, Germany) and Freunde der Erziehungskunst Rudolf Steiners (Berlin, Germany) for their continued support of the programme from 1999. We also wish to thank Sanduko a Ndege (Vejle, Denmark), Internationaal Hulpfonds (Amsterdam, Netherlands), Acacia (Basel, Switserland) and Stichting Helias (Netherlands) for their additional support. About this Manual This series of manuals answers the need for teachers (or student-teachers) to have notes on the modules they attend. This manual is written for Module 2, which follows on the first module of the program, in which a detailed study of Rudolf Steiner’s concept of the three-fold nature of the human being is presented. This manual is an introduction to Steiner’s view on child development from birth to adulthood, forming a basis for understanding the child-centred curriculum of the Waldorf Schools. Further insights into Steiner’s view on child development, especially the activity of the life forces (etheric or formative forces), the astral (sentience) and the human ‘I’ (‘Ego’) will be dealt with in the next module, when a study of these aspects of the human constitution can be undertaken. This introduction is intended to form the basis for understanding children in cultures different from the Middle-European culture, where Rudolf Steiner started the first Waldorf School. Although the child developmental stages are broadly speaking the same in all cultures, every culture and every individual child, has its own unique characteristics of development, and the parent, teacher or child carer needs to observe these differences carefully, rather than taking Steiner’s global description rigidly. The principle that teachers need to understand the whole of childhood, and not only the section they happen to be teaching, has been followed. Therefore the entire range from early childhood to middle childhood and adolescence is described, though greater detail is provided for early and middle childhood as the program is designed for kindergarten and primary teachers. The manual is intended to be handed out at the end of the module for revision and further study. The suggestion is that participants study together in groups in their respective schools, and questions and activities are given in the text for this purpose. It is hoped that these manuals are also of use in other countries around the world. Comments and suggestions are welcomed, and can be sent to Peter van Alphen on [email protected]. Source: www.entwicklungshilfe3.de Open Source: Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 International Licence; see www.creativecommons.org 5 INDEX Authors ________________________________________________________________________________ 3 Acknowledgements _____________________________________________________________________ 3 About this Manual ______________________________________________________________________ 4 CHAPTER 1 - THE THREEFOLD HUMAN BEING AS BASIS FOR CHILD DEVELOPMENT _________________ 7 THINKING ____________________________________________________________________________ 9 FEELING _____________________________________________________________________________ 10 WILL _________________________________________________________________________________ 11 THE WORKING TOGETHER OF THINKING, FEELING AND WILL _____________________ 13 CHAPTER 2 - HEREDITY AND INDIVIDUALITY ___ 16 Where does the child come from? __________________________________________________________________ 16 The Stream of Inheritance ________________________________________________________________________ 17 The Stream of Individuality _______________________________________________________________________ 17 The Environmental Stream _______________________________________________________________________ 17 Human Destiny ________________________________________________________________________________ 18 CHAPTER 3 - THE THREE PHASES OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT __________________________________ 19 The Forces of Growth _________________________________________________________________ 19 The Development of Consciousness _____________________________________________________ 21 The first 7 years of childhood (Early Childhood) _______________________________________ 22 The second 7 years of childhood (Middle Childhood) ____________________________________ 25 The third 7 years - Adolescence ____________________________________________________ 26 Looking at the 7-year phases as a whole ______________________________________________ 26 CHAPTER 4 - EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT (Birth to 7 years) ________________________________ 29 Will – Consciousness ___________________________________________________________________ 29 Physical Development __________________________________________________________________ 34 The Three Sub-Phases of Early Childhood _____________________________________________ 36 Birth to 3 years ______________________________________________________________________ 37 The Need for Mother’s Love ______________________________________________________________________ 37 The Will-forces Working into the Body _____________________________________________________________ 38 Uprightness ___________________________________________________________________________________ 41 Source: www.entwicklungshilfe3.de Open Source: Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 International Licence; see www.creativecommons.org 6 Language development __________________________________________________________________________