Okay. A breath first. And this will be relatively short, just to let all of you who've expressed curiosity about my experience, and kindly care, at least a little, whether I've made it this far, that YES I have, and this is what I've been doing...
Well, the first point of triumph for me today is that I am still awake to be writing this! I really was taken aback by the extent to which I felt engulfed, entirely, by exhaustion yesterday and by a need to process, but also to let go of the day and all of its surprises and obstacles. I slept so deeply, but awoke refreshed and optimistic about the day ahead. I had only two classes today, still back-to-back, but a dreamy situation compared to that which I have tomorrow-- Recess Duty, and then FOUR in a row. Met Grade 3 first-- and they were adorable, bursting with energy but able to be a bit more controlled and directed on their own [at least today!] than Grade 2. Tried a new Name Game with them that involved clapping syllables and moving in concentric circles... Sort of worked-- at least I learned their names mainly and they were mildly entertained! Did some balancing/trust exercises that were fun-- with the whole group and then in pairs [social dynamics; wow, a whole other story!], and then played a quick game of Laughing Statues [group of students are stony-faced statues and the rest of the students are responsible for making the statues laugh without touching them-- when they do, they sit; last person standing wins-- I turned out to be the ultimate "laugh-maker";)]. Had a race back to the classroom, both to get them running just a bit more and also because I was going to be late for Grade 6...which I was anyway-- but what was great about being with Grade 6 today was that it already felt a little familiar, even after just spending one class with them yesterday-- and this definitely helped me to feel more grounded and sure of myself, which is something that's been distinctly lacking in these last days. We had a FULL to bursting lesson-- a Ms. Greta led Follow-The-Leader warm-up ending with running, disguised yoga, trust/balance/core building exercise, and then a game of Steal the Bacon [the chosen theme was CANDY]-- stupidly boys vs. girls. I won't make THAT mistake again---oooooh the drama at this age, in this class. There were some tears over a little rivalry between unaware crushees ;) but really, it all went smoothly as far as I'm concerned and they seemed to have a good time. MAN can some of those kids RUN! I'm disappointed not to have had a chance to re-time the relay but there is certainly more time in the year ahead... This is going to be a fun group...
I am going to wait until I am in a more reflective space to actually offer some reflection on anecdotes. For now, thanks for your patience with these unprocessed pieces, but I hope it gives you a little glimpse into this beautiful chaos! And wish me luck tomorrow!
Thursday, September 10, 2009
the FIRST DAY! [written, as you can see, on Day 2]
Goodness gracious! I dont even know where to begin with this reflection! 09.09.09.-- a day so bursting and buzzing with energy and anxiety and challenge of all shapes and sizes. I arrived at school for the Back to School Assembly at which I was introduced with all of the new teachers-- I don't think I've ever had so many widely-curious eyes on me at one time without me even opening my mouth! The class teachers all tempted their students with a tiny sneak-peek of the year to come, and the 23 or so high school students led everyone in what was surprisingly my absolute favorite part of the whole ceremony-- a rhythm symphony of sorts in which each grade was responsible for a different beat composed of various stamps and claps and slaps. The final performance was rockin, really! Then, I again had to wait for a period-- the waiting has been the worst; absolute worst. Finally, though, at 11:50 I had my first class-- Grade 6. Met them in the classroom and after being introduced by the class teacher, I led them on to the large grassy field next to the school in a [relatively]silent single file line and we circled up. I started by getting them running in the circle a little and then without introducing much of anything, I led them through a Star stretching series and a simple Sun Salutation that is paired with a verse. I'm hoping to do this at the beginning of every class. Surprisingly, they all did-- probably because they are just a smidge scared of me, the new teacher, but also certainly because I didn't tell them that it was yoga-- they are, in theory, not too enthused by the idea of yoga they told me late- ha!--and they actually seemed to enjoy the challenge of some of the poses. After this, I told them a little about myself and then, because of my selfish need to hear their names quickly, we played a name game. Unfortunately, it seemed a lot better in my head, I but I guess I'd forgotten how at age 12 and 13, being asked to stand and perform a gesture or movement that reflects one's personality, which is what they were to do; repeating the names and gestures of those before them-- in some way it incredibly difficult-- even as an adult it's sort of nerve-wracking depending on the context! So this lost a lot of energy in the process and the gestures were pretty dull, expect for a couple of clapping push-ups and a cartwheel, and my somersault to a standing positing ;). But I did learn their names well enough to get myself around the circle so it served its purpose. And at least we ended the class with a bang by doing a timed relay challenge... Picture this:
All 25 kids lie on their stomachs on the grass in a line-- there is at least an arm's length of space between each kid. Then, the person at the designated end of the line gets up and must step over each of his classmates as quickly as he can and when he reaches the other end, lie down as quickly as possible because the people behind him have already started their way across...The race ends when the last person in the line has crossed over everyone else and lay down on the grass. They were able to do this in 40 seconds, and today, since I see them again, we'll redo it to see if they can beat the time
After lunch, it was Grade 7, followed-- without a pause, by Grade 2. All I can say is WOW. The distance between these two classes, literally [I have to sprint at 2 pm across the entire campus just to get there- not quite on time! The school's lack of passing time is still a bit of a frustrating mystery to me] but so much more significantly EMOTIONALLY and MENTALLY and PHYSICALLY in the bodily sense-- is so so vast. On top of this necessary adjustment for me as the teacher, I personally haven't had to ever teach in any solo and organized way, a group of elementary school kids at all... Let's just say it was a shock to the system, and the lesson plans when out the window in favor of total improvisation. My biggest ZING of an epiphany was that verbal instructions aren't, with this age group, incredibly-- okay, really AT ALL-- effective. I was repeating and repeating myself-- getting giddily interrupted with total nonsequiturs that I'm sure made total sense to these kids in their heads [and I thought those Eighth Graders in English class were bad ;)] and I was finally beginning to get pretty fed-up, just at a loss really at how to handle the situation which seemed totally unstructured and unfocused, when I simply started doing the exercise-- a verse with attached gestures-- on my own and OH MAN! I cannot tell you how quickly I had each and every one of them hanging on each movement-- totally in the moment and enjoying the challenges of processing new words and getting new postures and stretches and balances in their bodies. It was remarkable. That kind of intense, genuine focus, "in-it-ness," but most notably the JOY and FUN that they seemed to get out of the simplest thing was actually inspiring and exhilarating for ME! So I rode that wave of a little while, coming up with simple and not so simple imitative stretching sequences and then finally by some animal forms...This carried me through the rest of the class-- it just unfolded from here, with the kids choosing their favorite animals and figuring out how that animal would move, etc. Then, I set the "creatures" free in a designated area and told them that now only now did they have to move as their selected animal but they also needed to think about how their chosen animals would react to and relate to the others around them...This was a blast! We had some great chases erupt and great alliances arise; and whenever they got out of control, I froze them, and had them choose a new animal. Good times-- and hours of entertainment! But I wanted to at least get one game in so I made up a variation on DUCK DUCK GOOSE in which the animals used, if they happened to be "It," their own animal names, followed with a "Goose" that was an action that they, as their animal, perform [for instance, my cheetah said, "Cheetah, Cheetah,...etc POUNCE!" They got a kick out of this... It was possibly one of the longest, and yet simultaneously one of the quickest, 50 minutes of my life. I began, I think, to realize then that, yes, the newness of this job would be a challenge as I'd anticipated but really, a FAR greater all-around SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM than I could have dreamed.
I was home at 7:30, after yoga and some errands, and in bed by 8:10 pm, barely up long enough to wonder over my utter and total exhaustion. Zzzzz...
All 25 kids lie on their stomachs on the grass in a line-- there is at least an arm's length of space between each kid. Then, the person at the designated end of the line gets up and must step over each of his classmates as quickly as he can and when he reaches the other end, lie down as quickly as possible because the people behind him have already started their way across...The race ends when the last person in the line has crossed over everyone else and lay down on the grass. They were able to do this in 40 seconds, and today, since I see them again, we'll redo it to see if they can beat the time
After lunch, it was Grade 7, followed-- without a pause, by Grade 2. All I can say is WOW. The distance between these two classes, literally [I have to sprint at 2 pm across the entire campus just to get there- not quite on time! The school's lack of passing time is still a bit of a frustrating mystery to me] but so much more significantly EMOTIONALLY and MENTALLY and PHYSICALLY in the bodily sense-- is so so vast. On top of this necessary adjustment for me as the teacher, I personally haven't had to ever teach in any solo and organized way, a group of elementary school kids at all... Let's just say it was a shock to the system, and the lesson plans when out the window in favor of total improvisation. My biggest ZING of an epiphany was that verbal instructions aren't, with this age group, incredibly-- okay, really AT ALL-- effective. I was repeating and repeating myself-- getting giddily interrupted with total nonsequiturs that I'm sure made total sense to these kids in their heads [and I thought those Eighth Graders in English class were bad ;)] and I was finally beginning to get pretty fed-up, just at a loss really at how to handle the situation which seemed totally unstructured and unfocused, when I simply started doing the exercise-- a verse with attached gestures-- on my own and OH MAN! I cannot tell you how quickly I had each and every one of them hanging on each movement-- totally in the moment and enjoying the challenges of processing new words and getting new postures and stretches and balances in their bodies. It was remarkable. That kind of intense, genuine focus, "in-it-ness," but most notably the JOY and FUN that they seemed to get out of the simplest thing was actually inspiring and exhilarating for ME! So I rode that wave of a little while, coming up with simple and not so simple imitative stretching sequences and then finally by some animal forms...This carried me through the rest of the class-- it just unfolded from here, with the kids choosing their favorite animals and figuring out how that animal would move, etc. Then, I set the "creatures" free in a designated area and told them that now only now did they have to move as their selected animal but they also needed to think about how their chosen animals would react to and relate to the others around them...This was a blast! We had some great chases erupt and great alliances arise; and whenever they got out of control, I froze them, and had them choose a new animal. Good times-- and hours of entertainment! But I wanted to at least get one game in so I made up a variation on DUCK DUCK GOOSE in which the animals used, if they happened to be "It," their own animal names, followed with a "Goose" that was an action that they, as their animal, perform [for instance, my cheetah said, "Cheetah, Cheetah,...etc POUNCE!" They got a kick out of this... It was possibly one of the longest, and yet simultaneously one of the quickest, 50 minutes of my life. I began, I think, to realize then that, yes, the newness of this job would be a challenge as I'd anticipated but really, a FAR greater all-around SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM than I could have dreamed.
I was home at 7:30, after yoga and some errands, and in bed by 8:10 pm, barely up long enough to wonder over my utter and total exhaustion. Zzzzz...
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
jiTteRs...
So tomorrow, it begins FOR REAL. The nerves are outrageous. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I don't have real training in this at all-- I am worried about the newness of the structure, of the expectations, of the age ranges, everything. I know that tomorrow, when i actually have them all together, right there in front of me, things will pull together but right now, I'm a little bit of a wreck, as I always am on the brink of something new.
Monday, September 7, 2009
REfLecTioNs-- back one year in time...
I was going through my files and found this tucked away in my "Fiction" folders-- I now remember putting it there because my life at the time seemed so much like a work of fiction and I wanted to play with the irony-- fact as fiction [I had just finished creating a unit on Capote's IN COLD BLOOD that spring that was driven by the fuzzy line between the two genres so I think I was a little preoccupied...] Anyway, I thought it was interesting to see how I was feeling on the brink of my last move and my last great adventure-- my first real venture into teaching and thought perhaps some of you might be interested too. It's also a bit of a love letter to Santa Fe...
25 july 2008
friday
santa fe [via albuquerque & minneapolis] to a home now officially temporary
[can you go home again?]
The romance and coincidence and the falling togetherness is not just in pages of storybooks; it had to derive from a reality; I just never knew who’s that reality was until now. It’s all of ours; it’s only in an equal balance of our energy toward believing action and letting go that we can see it; and that it is clearer than clearest “could even begin to be.” The past days of my life have been a constellation too perfectly patterned to have been mere chance and it is only from a bit of suspended distance that I can begin to process their meaning and their beauty, and the significance of what my behavior in relation to the situation has taught me about the nature of that frustratingly terrifying and elusive R.O.L. that Amalia talks about. This is more real than the limits; the risks aren’t risks they are growth in the way I’ve dreamed about and talked about always but never seen, or felt. This is my time, I’ve decided, where’s there’s nothing to loose. I am prepared but not invulnerable; the earth has turned upside down and been shaken to its core into a whole new kaleidoscopic organization of adventure. And I’m scared but at the same time not; disbelieving but confident. This is a chance, to be compelled to expand and challenge and bloom and hurt and laugh and create; all dimensions of me; it is vibrant. I trust myself to know this is what I need right now; but find it storybookish that it’s here that I’m ending up (or being) right now; somewhere not even on my conscious radar, having crept into a flood of anxious despair/floundering/fear…But that’s its beauty: no expectations set up around it to be shattered, as Anam said. Just openness to whatever it will be. Openness to true experience, through and through.
I couldn’t write earlier this week. Perhaps it was too real, or too surreal. But while I will keep trying to process it, undoubtedly, my real object here I think should be to just live it out. No more questions; decisions that challenge are never wrong because they help you grow as long as you can have time to reflect upon and shift within those decisions. I am so excited for life’s very new chapter. It begins now…
New Mexico is a foreign country to someone who has grown bones and brains in the north east. Stretches of desolation that isn’t really when you look close greet you when you descend locust-like onto arid desert and widewidewide spaces—the breadth makes you catch your breath even before the altitude surprise. The colors are warm and dry, like the air; there is more water in the bodies that populate (sparsely) the spaces than in the spaces themselves; nothing seems to have the heart to grow in the thirsty throws besides the stubborn scrub. But this is not the whole story; not by any means; the contours of what seems one dimensional stun the skylines that panorama in a way I have only before imagined but not well. Mountains undulate, waves in a landscape where water is holy and marked by a green that is not taken for granted; they play parroting games with any clouds that decide to linger above in a sea of bluer than blue, challenging these drifters to match their fluid solidity, at sunset with fiery colors in the palette. Spectacular bruises set on phoenix-fire gloriously promise a beautiful new day to rise from ash. Santa Fe’s oasis is what I will run to though when the sky and these giants get too big with open questions that don’t hide in the abstractions and distractions of skyscrapers. Tucked inside the nest of cottonwood trees and creative spirit and cosmopolitan culture infused with perspective and integrity and peace, I think I can find simultaneous solace and inspiration and enough to grow in and on, roots and blossoming boughs. Communities carved out that are truly mine; living and making mistakes on my own.
25 july 2008
friday
santa fe [via albuquerque & minneapolis] to a home now officially temporary
[can you go home again?]
The romance and coincidence and the falling togetherness is not just in pages of storybooks; it had to derive from a reality; I just never knew who’s that reality was until now. It’s all of ours; it’s only in an equal balance of our energy toward believing action and letting go that we can see it; and that it is clearer than clearest “could even begin to be.” The past days of my life have been a constellation too perfectly patterned to have been mere chance and it is only from a bit of suspended distance that I can begin to process their meaning and their beauty, and the significance of what my behavior in relation to the situation has taught me about the nature of that frustratingly terrifying and elusive R.O.L. that Amalia talks about. This is more real than the limits; the risks aren’t risks they are growth in the way I’ve dreamed about and talked about always but never seen, or felt. This is my time, I’ve decided, where’s there’s nothing to loose. I am prepared but not invulnerable; the earth has turned upside down and been shaken to its core into a whole new kaleidoscopic organization of adventure. And I’m scared but at the same time not; disbelieving but confident. This is a chance, to be compelled to expand and challenge and bloom and hurt and laugh and create; all dimensions of me; it is vibrant. I trust myself to know this is what I need right now; but find it storybookish that it’s here that I’m ending up (or being) right now; somewhere not even on my conscious radar, having crept into a flood of anxious despair/floundering/fear…But that’s its beauty: no expectations set up around it to be shattered, as Anam said. Just openness to whatever it will be. Openness to true experience, through and through.
I couldn’t write earlier this week. Perhaps it was too real, or too surreal. But while I will keep trying to process it, undoubtedly, my real object here I think should be to just live it out. No more questions; decisions that challenge are never wrong because they help you grow as long as you can have time to reflect upon and shift within those decisions. I am so excited for life’s very new chapter. It begins now…
New Mexico is a foreign country to someone who has grown bones and brains in the north east. Stretches of desolation that isn’t really when you look close greet you when you descend locust-like onto arid desert and widewidewide spaces—the breadth makes you catch your breath even before the altitude surprise. The colors are warm and dry, like the air; there is more water in the bodies that populate (sparsely) the spaces than in the spaces themselves; nothing seems to have the heart to grow in the thirsty throws besides the stubborn scrub. But this is not the whole story; not by any means; the contours of what seems one dimensional stun the skylines that panorama in a way I have only before imagined but not well. Mountains undulate, waves in a landscape where water is holy and marked by a green that is not taken for granted; they play parroting games with any clouds that decide to linger above in a sea of bluer than blue, challenging these drifters to match their fluid solidity, at sunset with fiery colors in the palette. Spectacular bruises set on phoenix-fire gloriously promise a beautiful new day to rise from ash. Santa Fe’s oasis is what I will run to though when the sky and these giants get too big with open questions that don’t hide in the abstractions and distractions of skyscrapers. Tucked inside the nest of cottonwood trees and creative spirit and cosmopolitan culture infused with perspective and integrity and peace, I think I can find simultaneous solace and inspiration and enough to grow in and on, roots and blossoming boughs. Communities carved out that are truly mine; living and making mistakes on my own.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
soMe gOetHe wIsdoM...
Geothe always reminds me of Mr. Heyder-- back in the Waldorf School of Princeton, we used to mock the fact he used to quote the German poet and philosopher all the time, it seemed, and how he pronounced the name-- long and stretched and slow-- goooooooooooooooethe... but going back retrospectively to revisit some of these poems, I've found so much wisdom in them, even in translation. This particular poem is one that we wrote into our main lesson books during some block in 8th grade, I think. at the time, I definitely didn't "get it"; I'm still not convinced even now, with both a BA and an MA in English-related fields under my belt, that I ever "get" poetry, but all I know about this poem is that it's resonating with me now-- and I intend to take it into this year; we're reading it at the start of each of our faculty meetings this year! I think it applies to teachers and our craft particularly well, but really, it is equally apt for anyone and I hope that all of you find something in it to take with you into whatever new adventure on which you are embarking, into whatever change you are making...
I have come to the frightening conclusion
that I am the decisive element.
It is my personal approach
that creates the climate.
It is my daily mood
that makes the weather.
I possess tremendous power
to make life miserable or joyous.
I can be a tool of torture
or an instrument of inspiration;
I can humiliate or humor,
hurt or heal.
In all situations,
it is my response that decides
whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated,
and a person is humanized or de-humanized.
If we treat people as they are
we make them worse.
If we treat people as they ought to be,
we help them become
what they are capable of becoming.
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832
Each of us is powerful [our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond belief]. &
With great power comes great responsibility.
I have come to the frightening conclusion
that I am the decisive element.
It is my personal approach
that creates the climate.
It is my daily mood
that makes the weather.
I possess tremendous power
to make life miserable or joyous.
I can be a tool of torture
or an instrument of inspiration;
I can humiliate or humor,
hurt or heal.
In all situations,
it is my response that decides
whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated,
and a person is humanized or de-humanized.
If we treat people as they are
we make them worse.
If we treat people as they ought to be,
we help them become
what they are capable of becoming.
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832
Each of us is powerful [our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond belief]. &
With great power comes great responsibility.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
qUicK upDatE...
hello to all and any who may be checking in on me here~
i am currently prepping for school, which begins next wednesday-- reading up on curriculum material, etc. but also figuring the last logistics of my move, including vehicle registration! wooohoo-- what a joy! in any event, there has been little about which to update you all on in relation to my teaching as i obviously haven't started yet BUT i will begin posting again once it all begins! looking forward to sharing it all with you!
i am currently prepping for school, which begins next wednesday-- reading up on curriculum material, etc. but also figuring the last logistics of my move, including vehicle registration! wooohoo-- what a joy! in any event, there has been little about which to update you all on in relation to my teaching as i obviously haven't started yet BUT i will begin posting again once it all begins! looking forward to sharing it all with you!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
the LiFe sense-- and eleven others...
For the past three days, I've been attending lectures by Christof Wiechert, a pretty big name in the Anthroposophical world of Waldorf Education. He's from Hollandm not Germany, but that doesn't stop me from drawing comparisons and seeing parallels between him and my own grade school Waldorf class teacher, Mr. Ekkehard Heyder. The echoes, literally in the sense of his vocal and verbal qualities and quirks, but also in his mannerisms, even in his age and physical appearance are sometimes a bit uncanny and I've often found myself in these past days thrown back into the classrooms of my childhood, the universe of which this monumental man was the center. For those of you who didn't know Mr. Heyder, I'm posting a link here to a multi-part tribute article in my old school's newsletter-- he passed away this past year and the piece contains some snapshots, photographic and otherwise, that paint a portrait of this educator who so embodied many of the greatest principles of Waldorf and who had such an influence on me and upon an enormous constellation of others. Definitely take a look!
http://www.princetonwaldorf.org/wh/wh_2008-2009small.pdf
Mr. Heyder certainly wasn't flawless,. In fact there was a dark moment in my 7th grade year during which he was brought to court for a questionable "crime"and nearly lost his job; those of you in my Teaching of Writing class with Erick Gordon might remember my multi-genre project in which I took a look back at this experience and the inconsistencies I'd identified between the WALK and TALK of my own Waldorf community. However, I think he still stands as an example, at least he is to me, of Waldorf's potential certainly, but more generally speaking, of education set free of conventions and standards and over-intellectualization and coddling and *; of an education that challenges kids, but always through an understanding and appreciation of their development, both as humans of a particular age but also as individuals. Most importantly, he brought joy and wonder and ferocity and the deepest commitment to his own work as an example for us-- he was true to himself, for better or worse and in spite of whatever anyone else might wish him to be.
I know that this is rambling, and those of your in particular who have no idea who this man is, beyond the above article, probably are yawning by now if you're still reading. But I have a point. TODAY in Wiechert's lecture, this man who so very much reminds me of Mr. Heyder spoke at length about "The 12 Senses" and their relationship to education. Okay. I too was a bit taken aback by this number-- when did FIVE familiar senses, and perhaps that SIXTH, more mysterious, Hayley Joel Osment one, turn into TWELVE? He made a good case though, putting twelve senses into three categories:
Lower Senses: Touch, Balance, Movement, Life
Feeling Senses: Sight, Smell, Taste, Warmth
Cognitive Senses: Hearing, Speech, Thought, Ego (Empathy, really)
You can look into Rudolf Steiner's 8th Faculty Lecture if you want a better, more in depth explanation than what I'm going to partially offer here but essentially, th emain points that I took away from my lecture today were the following:
1. That our "lower" senses are absolutely ESSENTIAL to healthy development. They are the foundation upon which we build everything else; and when they are NOT developed, all kinds of developmental and social and adacemic issues arise. According to Wiechert, and I think I generally agree with this, today there is a true deprivation in the lives of kids of the development of the lower senses-- blame whomever you want-- the media (;)), hyper-attentive and over-involved parents, whatever. The point is that kids don't PLAY FREELY enough as kids; they're really not free to be kids at all. They don't explore the world without always being under the watchful eye of some authority figure or as part of some organized activity. Everything is scheduled and structured in the middle and upper-middle class world, and on the other end of the spectrum, often children are left to be babysat by tools that don't require any real engagement with the world and therefore don't stimulate their sense of AWAKENESS to it. Kids, everyone, needs to cultivate a sense of LIFE in particular, a true sensory understanding of what LIVING is! This happens in moments of risk, of adventure, of discovery, of EXHILARATION. Here also, the essential quality of a DESIRE FOR LEARNING lives. Naturally, kids WANT to learn; it's simply that they need the freedom, the TRUE freedom, to do so, early on and continuously. Hell, we find ourselves as adults needing it! How many of us really FEEL life every day? Not many people I know, but I know at least that I had the experience when I was growing up of getting to explore and spend time in spaces (the woods, forts in my basement, etc.) outside of the grown-up world, outside of time (think about any example from classic or contemporary children's lit-- there is ALWAYS a removed world for kids only i.e. Neverland, The Egypt Game, The Secret Garden, Harriet the Spy)-- in which I took all kids of risks that I'm sure would make my mother, or any parent scream in terror for my life but which were indispensible in my growing into an understanding of the world around me and my place in it--AS WELL AS excitement and curiosity! What more is there that is more important?
A lot of parents, educators, and certainly the educational systems and poilicy makers seem to believe that these "lower" faculties don't need to be developed, that they just sort of unfold or something naturally and that it is the task of education, as early as possible now, to start developing the COGNITIVE senses alone; however, Mr. Wiechert presented some research today that proved otherwise; most concrete, and most interesting to me, was that the underdevelopment of the sense of touch actually leads to issues in language aquisition and usage later on down the road. The two are linked, and the second DEPENDS on the initial development of the first. We have to honor that in educational contexts. Period.
2. That particular temperaments have tendencies toward specific "lower" senses and these need to be developed specially in order to cultivate their corresponding "cognitive" senses. Here are the groupings-- see if you can see yourself, or those close to you:
Phlegmatics: TOUCH --> (if cultivated/developed in a healthy way)--> EGO/empathy for others
Melancholics: LIFE SENSE-->THOUGHT
Sanguines: MOVEMENT-->SPEECH
Choleric: BALANCE-->HEARING
So these in some ways seem a little counterintuitive; I think I know which two temperaments I dominantly embody, though, and their characterizations do after some thought make sense. CAN YOU GUESS WHAT I'VE BEEN DUBBED? :)
Just sharing the food for thought on which I've been chewing today...Weichert would argue, as I'm sure Mr. Heyder would-- through action rather than verbal articulation-- that attention to these dynamics should be an integral part of education in practice. Logical, I'd say, as we're HUMAN, not robots. BUT THEN THERE'S THIS PROBLEM which leads me into my first dip into one of my greatest issues with Waldorf:
What upsets me most is that there are schools like Banana Kelly in the South Bronx (where I did some of my student teaching) and the high school in Helena, AK where my boyfriend's brilliant sister is teaching 9th Grade English-- and then there's this removed sphere, separate and pseudo-ethereal. I value the theories, the methods, the conviction with which Waldorf's practitioners work toward its goals and know that the schools mentioned above could certainly benefit from the integration of some of these elements, as well as an actively practiced understanding of the temperaments/developmental qualities discussed in the earlier section. BUT the whole thing's still too ELITIST, too disconnected from the educational and general social reality of the wider world. How can children know themselves in the world if they aren't really a part of that world? Further, I worry that the well-meaning Waldorf teachers have not had, for the most part, much exposure to or training in mainstream education either... The gap, socio-economic as well as ideological, is only widening.
I'm excited to learn and to practice the skills that are being upheld here-- it's a gorgeous and brave thing, really. After my first "Spatial Dynamics" class today (as a student!) I'm so curious to investigate the intersection between academic learning and movement too! I am lucky...And then maybe, I can teach some of the exercises to Jen G. and Annie C. so the students of both the Bronx and the Mississippi River Delta can develop ALL TWELVE OF THEIR SENSES!
Until tomorrow.
http://www.princetonwaldorf.org/wh/wh_2008-2009small.pdf
Mr. Heyder certainly wasn't flawless,. In fact there was a dark moment in my 7th grade year during which he was brought to court for a questionable "crime"and nearly lost his job; those of you in my Teaching of Writing class with Erick Gordon might remember my multi-genre project in which I took a look back at this experience and the inconsistencies I'd identified between the WALK and TALK of my own Waldorf community. However, I think he still stands as an example, at least he is to me, of Waldorf's potential certainly, but more generally speaking, of education set free of conventions and standards and over-intellectualization and coddling and *; of an education that challenges kids, but always through an understanding and appreciation of their development, both as humans of a particular age but also as individuals. Most importantly, he brought joy and wonder and ferocity and the deepest commitment to his own work as an example for us-- he was true to himself, for better or worse and in spite of whatever anyone else might wish him to be.
I know that this is rambling, and those of your in particular who have no idea who this man is, beyond the above article, probably are yawning by now if you're still reading. But I have a point. TODAY in Wiechert's lecture, this man who so very much reminds me of Mr. Heyder spoke at length about "The 12 Senses" and their relationship to education. Okay. I too was a bit taken aback by this number-- when did FIVE familiar senses, and perhaps that SIXTH, more mysterious, Hayley Joel Osment one, turn into TWELVE? He made a good case though, putting twelve senses into three categories:
Lower Senses: Touch, Balance, Movement, Life
Feeling Senses: Sight, Smell, Taste, Warmth
Cognitive Senses: Hearing, Speech, Thought, Ego (Empathy, really)
You can look into Rudolf Steiner's 8th Faculty Lecture if you want a better, more in depth explanation than what I'm going to partially offer here but essentially, th emain points that I took away from my lecture today were the following:
1. That our "lower" senses are absolutely ESSENTIAL to healthy development. They are the foundation upon which we build everything else; and when they are NOT developed, all kinds of developmental and social and adacemic issues arise. According to Wiechert, and I think I generally agree with this, today there is a true deprivation in the lives of kids of the development of the lower senses-- blame whomever you want-- the media (;)), hyper-attentive and over-involved parents, whatever. The point is that kids don't PLAY FREELY enough as kids; they're really not free to be kids at all. They don't explore the world without always being under the watchful eye of some authority figure or as part of some organized activity. Everything is scheduled and structured in the middle and upper-middle class world, and on the other end of the spectrum, often children are left to be babysat by tools that don't require any real engagement with the world and therefore don't stimulate their sense of AWAKENESS to it. Kids, everyone, needs to cultivate a sense of LIFE in particular, a true sensory understanding of what LIVING is! This happens in moments of risk, of adventure, of discovery, of EXHILARATION. Here also, the essential quality of a DESIRE FOR LEARNING lives. Naturally, kids WANT to learn; it's simply that they need the freedom, the TRUE freedom, to do so, early on and continuously. Hell, we find ourselves as adults needing it! How many of us really FEEL life every day? Not many people I know, but I know at least that I had the experience when I was growing up of getting to explore and spend time in spaces (the woods, forts in my basement, etc.) outside of the grown-up world, outside of time (think about any example from classic or contemporary children's lit-- there is ALWAYS a removed world for kids only i.e. Neverland, The Egypt Game, The Secret Garden, Harriet the Spy)-- in which I took all kids of risks that I'm sure would make my mother, or any parent scream in terror for my life but which were indispensible in my growing into an understanding of the world around me and my place in it--AS WELL AS excitement and curiosity! What more is there that is more important?
A lot of parents, educators, and certainly the educational systems and poilicy makers seem to believe that these "lower" faculties don't need to be developed, that they just sort of unfold or something naturally and that it is the task of education, as early as possible now, to start developing the COGNITIVE senses alone; however, Mr. Wiechert presented some research today that proved otherwise; most concrete, and most interesting to me, was that the underdevelopment of the sense of touch actually leads to issues in language aquisition and usage later on down the road. The two are linked, and the second DEPENDS on the initial development of the first. We have to honor that in educational contexts. Period.
2. That particular temperaments have tendencies toward specific "lower" senses and these need to be developed specially in order to cultivate their corresponding "cognitive" senses. Here are the groupings-- see if you can see yourself, or those close to you:
Phlegmatics: TOUCH --> (if cultivated/developed in a healthy way)--> EGO/empathy for others
Melancholics: LIFE SENSE-->THOUGHT
Sanguines: MOVEMENT-->SPEECH
Choleric: BALANCE-->HEARING
Quick Temperament Guide--> From Wikipedia
Sanguine
A person who is sanguine is generally light-hearted, funloving, a people person, loves to entertain, spontaneous, leader abilities, and confident. However they can be arrogant, cocky, and indulgent. He/She can be day-dreamy and off-task to the point of not accomplishing anything and can be impulsive, possibly acting on whims in an unpredictable fashion. The humour of Sanguine was once commonly treated with leeches. The reason it is treated with leeches is based on the process of the blood being sucked out and being able to understand the effect of the process.
Choleric
A person who is choleric is a doer. They have a lot of ambition, energy, and passion, and try to instill it in others. They can dominate people of other temperaments, especially phlegmatic types. Many great charismatic military and political figures were cholerics. On the negative side, they are easily angered or bad-tempered.
Melancholic
A person who is a thoughtful ponderer has a melancholic disposition. Often very kind and considerate, melancholics can be highly creative – as in poetry and art - but also can become overly pre-occupied with the tragedy and cruelty in the world, thus becoming depressed. A melancholic is also often a perfectionist, being very particular about what they want and how they want it in some cases. This often results in being unsatisfied with one's own artistic or creative works and always pointing out to themselves what could and should be improved. They are often loners and most times choose to stay alone and reflect.
Phlegmatic
While phlegmatics are generally self-content and kind, their shy personality can often inhibit enthusiasm in others and make themselves lazy and resistant to change. They are very consistent, relaxed, rational, curious, and observant, making them good administrators and diplomats. Like the sanguine personality, the phlegmatic has many friends. However the phlegmatic is more reliable and compassionate; these characteristics typically make the phlegmatic a more dependable friend.
Phlegmatics along with the other 3 temperaments should be looked at not just his psychological statements but in view of physiology and how they would relate to attention deficit disorders, dyslexia
A person who is sanguine is generally light-hearted, funloving, a people person, loves to entertain, spontaneous, leader abilities, and confident. However they can be arrogant, cocky, and indulgent. He/She can be day-dreamy and off-task to the point of not accomplishing anything and can be impulsive, possibly acting on whims in an unpredictable fashion. The humour of Sanguine was once commonly treated with leeches. The reason it is treated with leeches is based on the process of the blood being sucked out and being able to understand the effect of the process.
Choleric
A person who is choleric is a doer. They have a lot of ambition, energy, and passion, and try to instill it in others. They can dominate people of other temperaments, especially phlegmatic types. Many great charismatic military and political figures were cholerics. On the negative side, they are easily angered or bad-tempered.
Melancholic
A person who is a thoughtful ponderer has a melancholic disposition. Often very kind and considerate, melancholics can be highly creative – as in poetry and art - but also can become overly pre-occupied with the tragedy and cruelty in the world, thus becoming depressed. A melancholic is also often a perfectionist, being very particular about what they want and how they want it in some cases. This often results in being unsatisfied with one's own artistic or creative works and always pointing out to themselves what could and should be improved. They are often loners and most times choose to stay alone and reflect.
Phlegmatic
While phlegmatics are generally self-content and kind, their shy personality can often inhibit enthusiasm in others and make themselves lazy and resistant to change. They are very consistent, relaxed, rational, curious, and observant, making them good administrators and diplomats. Like the sanguine personality, the phlegmatic has many friends. However the phlegmatic is more reliable and compassionate; these characteristics typically make the phlegmatic a more dependable friend.
Phlegmatics along with the other 3 temperaments should be looked at not just his psychological statements but in view of physiology and how they would relate to attention deficit disorders, dyslexia
So these in some ways seem a little counterintuitive; I think I know which two temperaments I dominantly embody, though, and their characterizations do after some thought make sense. CAN YOU GUESS WHAT I'VE BEEN DUBBED? :)
Just sharing the food for thought on which I've been chewing today...Weichert would argue, as I'm sure Mr. Heyder would-- through action rather than verbal articulation-- that attention to these dynamics should be an integral part of education in practice. Logical, I'd say, as we're HUMAN, not robots. BUT THEN THERE'S THIS PROBLEM which leads me into my first dip into one of my greatest issues with Waldorf:
What upsets me most is that there are schools like Banana Kelly in the South Bronx (where I did some of my student teaching) and the high school in Helena, AK where my boyfriend's brilliant sister is teaching 9th Grade English-- and then there's this removed sphere, separate and pseudo-ethereal. I value the theories, the methods, the conviction with which Waldorf's practitioners work toward its goals and know that the schools mentioned above could certainly benefit from the integration of some of these elements, as well as an actively practiced understanding of the temperaments/developmental qualities discussed in the earlier section. BUT the whole thing's still too ELITIST, too disconnected from the educational and general social reality of the wider world. How can children know themselves in the world if they aren't really a part of that world? Further, I worry that the well-meaning Waldorf teachers have not had, for the most part, much exposure to or training in mainstream education either... The gap, socio-economic as well as ideological, is only widening.
I'm excited to learn and to practice the skills that are being upheld here-- it's a gorgeous and brave thing, really. After my first "Spatial Dynamics" class today (as a student!) I'm so curious to investigate the intersection between academic learning and movement too! I am lucky...And then maybe, I can teach some of the exercises to Jen G. and Annie C. so the students of both the Bronx and the Mississippi River Delta can develop ALL TWELVE OF THEIR SENSES!
Until tomorrow.
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