This page launches on February 2,2019. You are welcome to join now. click here: https://www.facebook.com/waldorfwisdom/
As a participant in a number of very worthwhile Waldorf-related Facebook pages, I saw a gap that asked to be filled, hence Seeking Waldorf Wisdom. The goal is to work together in the manner of a Waldorf faculty meeting to explore topics that support our work as teachers and parents. We will choose a theme for each week and will explore that theme together for seven days.
Possible topics include: Recall, temperaments, the nine-year-change, the first grade year, storytelling, math games, circle work, the rhythm of the main lesson, nature study, form drawing, spontaneity, wonder, the pedagogical story, engagement, how to meet the needs of children today, learning to write and read, novels, bookwork and many more. I invite you to help list more topics of interest.
My hope is that these conversations will bring together Waldorf teachers, Waldorf homeschoolers and Waldorf parents. Parents and teachers who are not involved in Waldorf education, and are interested in the Waldorf approach, are also welcome as are those with a general interest in education. My own experience is primarily in the grades, so initial topics will tend to relate to children aged six to fifteen. If teachers with Waldorf early childhood and high school experience join the group, we can also discuss topics relevant to younger children and older adolescents.
A number of very helpful Facebook groups use a format in which people post questions or problems and others respond with answers and ideas. The thematic approach we will use on this page is based on a different goal. Instead of solving problems, we are building wisdom that will help us prevent problems or face them as they arise. My memories of Waldorf faculty meetings include gems of wisdom that illuminated my teaching.
I remember a faculty meeting when we discussed making mistakes. A colleague showed how he might transform what looked like a mistake in a drawing into a functional element of the picture. I used this insight frequently in my teaching. And, I’ve found it to be instructive in living. I find value in the notion that ideas, pictures and statements that strike us as misguided can be seen as a first step toward something more complete, more accurate, more beautiful and more satisfying.
It is this process of an open-minded evolution of ideas and perspectives that I hope will be the ethic behind our conversations.
Growing Children 