Notes from Nathaniel Williams, the place of Waldorf education in the context of society

The Waldorf Schools and the Living Organism of Society: a talk on the origin of the Waldorf movement and its place within the context of society, by Nathaniel Williams, Waldorf art teacher, from New York, Nov. 19, 2011

Azalea Mountain School received a profound gift Saturday evening, the talk by Nathaniel Williams about the origin of the Waldorf movement and its place in the context of society.

Nathaniel created a graphic picture for us about the conditions in Germany after World War I, when the country’s males were maimed from combat and all suffered from poverty and inflation.  Socialism was the articulate social movement then. 

In these conditions, workers from the German Waldorf cigarette factory came to Rudolph Steiner and asked him for the solution to these terrible conditions.  He told them that distributions of profits to workers and democracy of management would not work.  Instead he told them that the fundamental problem was that culture was administered by the state and the economy.  He said that the cultural sphere of human endeavors (education, health and religion) must be available to all without control by state or by economy.  When culture is free from state and economy, then initiations will jump from the human heart, and morality and human caring will flourish, creating the solutions to economic and government woes.

The workers of the Waldorf cigarette factory asked Steiner how to create such a school of freedom, and the first Waldorf school was born.  Steiner said that the social movement based on the separation of culture (education) from government and economics (called the three fold social order) would only be successful when there were 1,000 such schools.  However in 1933 the National Socialist Party in Germany shut down the first Waldorf school.  It reopened in 1945 after World War II.

Nathaniel spoke of the goals of the civil rights movement to abolish poverty and war.  These goals were not met by the civil rights movement, even with all the positive change to laws created by Dr. ML King.  Dr. King was trying to foster moral elevation as was Dr. Steiner. These larger goals can only be met when schools are no longer administered by the state. 

Nathaniel also spoke of the Occupy Wall Street movement, now working for changes to economy and law.  This time we live in is ripe for the solution, the freedom of the cultural sphere, as there are now 1,000 Waldorf schools worldwide.  Even the CEOs of Silicon Valley are sending their children to Waldorf schools which do not have computers, according to the recent article in the NY Times.

However, Nathaniel warned us that the challenges to Waldorf schools and to the social movement they are supporting, are to keep Waldorf schools free from government and industrial control and to keep them accessible to all, regardless of income.

This is the goal of Azalea Mountain School, to provide accessibility for all who choose Waldorf education.  This deeper understanding of moral goodness fostered by Waldorf schools free from state control, sets the stage for the first annual fundraising campaign by Azalea Mountain.  We are not simply sending children to school, we are creating the possibility for moral vitality, for creativity coming from intuition and inspiration to solve our social problems.

Nathaniel recommended reading Toward Social Renewal by Rudolph Steiner to learn more about the three fold social order, the proper relationship between culture, government and economy.

Nathaniel Williams was born and raised in the south eastern United States.  He studied art and anthroposophy at the neueKUNSTschule in Basel, Switzerland from January 2000 until December 2002 completing a fulltime course in Painting.  After graduating from art school he worked with Thomas G Meier on the first mystery drama by Rudolf Steiner through the art of marionette theater.  He returned to the USA in 2004 and he has since taught art in waldorf schools and the Free Columbia Art Course.  He lives in Philmont, NY.  Nathaniel taught the Foundation Study program class in Asheville on Saturday, Nov. 19.

Jody Spanglet's Talk on Waldorf Curriculum, April 15, 2011

(Jody Spanglet has taken classes through grades one through eight and grades five through eight at Charlottesville Waldorf School.  She has been administrator of the Ashwood Waldorf School in Rockport Maine for the last five years.  She came to Asheville to teach the Foundation study program and gave a public talk on Friday, April 15, 2011 at Azalea Mountain)

From my notes, paraphrase only!

The questions to be asked about any type of education are how it addresses the following:

What a human being is going through at each age of development.

What are the tools to respond to what they are going through?

How do we educate children for a future that we don’t know right now?

How do we help them develop capacities they will need.

Anthroposophy is the study of human wisdom. Rudolph Steiner developed not only Waldorf education, but biodynamic agriculture, anthroposophical medicine and other practical approaches to human life on earth.

The two key words about Waldorf education:

1.       Holistic

2.      Developmental

Waldorf education views the whole child: physical, soul and spirit.  All subjects are integrated with other subjects.

As children grow they go through different stages of development, each year and in seven year cycles.  Children have different needs at each stage of development.  Would we give a child a pair of shoes and expect them to fit for the whole life of the child?  Yet that is what often happens in public education.

In the first seven years, children take in life with their whole selves.  Babies drink milk with their whole bodies.  We must be careful what influences are around young children as they take it all in and remember it.  What we do is give children what they can digest for themselves, not pre-digested concepts.  In the first seven years, children are very acutely sensitive. They soak in every gesture.  They imitate.

When is a child first grade ready, meaning ready to read?  When they are School Ripe (translation of German word).  Ripe physically, emotionally, mentally, socially.  There are other qualitative signs, their receptivity, openness, and desire to take in new concepts.

Their limbs are elongated when a child is around seven years of age.  They have a definition to their faces; they get their second set of teeth.  They can create symmetry in drawn forms.  Emotionally, they have a lot of feeling quickly.  They play tricks, have secrets and can tell about their dreams.  They have interactive play, friendships and can think of a person they are not with.  They have memory, a library that was not there for them before.  Their fantasy turns to imagination.  They play with words.  The kindergarten teacher gives verses for this.  They are interested in their bodies and have their first sexual awareness and are aware of gender differences.  Appropriate limits and behavior must be set.

They have boredom, “I’m bored.”  They are saying, “I need you to help me fill myself.” The child then is looking to the adult to find right activity.  They become philosophers with questions about the cosmos.  Ask them “What do you think?”

Jody passed out sunflower seeds to each of the 30 people present and asked us to describe what we could see.  Then to tell about what is inside, which is just as real as what you can see.  This was a demonstration of the power of the imagination.

Ages 7-14 in Waldorf schools

Transform what is learned to pictures that can live and grow in the child.  Observe carefully harder and harder to do these days with so much stimulation coming at us.  We are too hurried.  You can’t know who you are unless you can observe.  All is in a state of becoming.

After age 14, children can work with abstractions.  Not before, so we teach writing before reading because writing involves the whole body. We teach the letters to connect letters to literacy that is more than abstraction.  We tell stories of each letters, using fairy tales and pictures that the teacher draws and the children draw.

Jody told us the abbreviated story of the fisherman and his wife and her drawing of the fish which introduced the letter “F” to her first grade class.  In first grade, we draw the letters big with the limbs, or on each other’s backs or in the sand.  So the bodies and the imagination are filled with experience.

With numbers, one is the biggest number.  The numbers are in reference to me.  Me and my two parents makes three, etc.  We go from whole to parts.

Second grade is a continuation of first also learning multiplication, adding, subtracting, carrying, borrowing, etc with math characters.  We tell about saints, legends, fables; people who were connected to the spiritual world and to the earth.

Third grade is the time of the nine year change (8-10 years).  The child differentiates self from the environment more.   The outer life becomes part of the child’s consciousness; this can be frightening and frustrating, to feel separated, soul loneliness.  Earlier there was a glow, now a sharp edge.  Sometimes they like what they see, sometimes they don’t.  They want adults to be loving authorities to guide them.  So we use the Old Testament stories, about being thrown out of the Garden of Eden.  Then freedom becomes possible.  We teach time, clock time and musical time, as now children have a sense of time, of immortality, of death.  We teach practical activities on earth.

4^th-5^th grade is the “heart of childhood.”  They are now capable children. We teach science, zoology, and the specialized capacities of animals. Beavers’ teeth can build their house, eagle eye, cow’s digestion.  We tell Norse mythology of idiosyncratic personalities and human foibles.  We teach fractions now that they can take things apart.

In fifth grade, we teach roots, stems, leaves, blossoms, fruit and seeds, the relation to the earth and sun.  We teach ancient civilizations up to Greek mythology, the history of cultures up to the balance of the Greeks with their sculptures.

6^th grade children need to break away.  They argue, don’t feel comfortable in their own skin.  We teach Roman history, of the seven kings when rules changed with the personalities of the kings.  With the Roman Republic, the law became stronger than individual relationships.  We march, work with black and white drawing, physics, acoustics, relationships  with mathematical tones, optics, heat, magnetism. Sixth grade is the earth year, geography, and geometry, geology, who they are in and on the earth.  Come to the end of the Dark Ages.

7^th grade is the Renaissance, about great artists, Gutenberg, Martin Luther, chemistry, combustion, and physiology.

8^th grade is about revolutions!  If we have done a good job they will want to leave our school.  American, French, industrial, cultural, technology revolutions.  Take apart a computer.  Binary systems, algebra and Platonic solids.  They learn to write a research paper and write poetry.

Jody closed saying there used to be initiates, like the Dali Lama, who have a knowledge based on a source we don’t have.  Now the key word is “initiative,” which starts the opposite of how a human starts.  It starts with an idea, then an image is created, what it will be in 3, 5, 10 years.  What are the needs of children now in 2011?  Observe.  Use indications of what you observe.  With the imagination comes the energy for the will, to create the physical body.  Jody was saying this in reference to our Waldorf initiative in Asheville, calling forth our observation, our imagination, our will, to provide this education for the future.

April Dates to Learn More about Azalea Mountain and Waldorf Education

Dear Waldorf Friends,

Please join us in the joy of co-creating Azalea Mountain Cooperative, K-4, with experienced Waldorf teachers, a convenient West Asheville location at Trinity United Methodist Church and a Nature Immersion Day each week at Sacred Mountain Sanctuary in Candler.

All are welcome to these important gatherings at Azalea Mountain Coop, Trinity Church, 587 Haywood Rd (park at far end of parking lot):

April 5, 3:30, Azalea Mountain Board meeting, open to the community. Planning playground, yard sale, May Faire, Lazure painting two classrooms, making and gathering classroom furniture and materials, and getting the word out!  All welcome. Sorry, child care is not available this time.

April 5-11  Meet the Kindergarten Teacher.  If you are interested in your child being in the Azalea Mountain Kindergarten, please schedule a time to meet the lead teacher, Kate Donnelly, when she is in town.  Kate will be moving to Asheville from Tucson Waldorf in July, coming to us with 15 years Waldorf early childhood experience! 

To schedule your time for you and your child to meet Miss Kate, contact Amy Arrendell, (828)329-2649.  (2, 3, and 5 day options)

April 10, 2-4 PM Handwork Group  Join Emily Ankeney, handwork coordinator, to make needle felted bunnies and chicks for the Azalea Mountain Kindergarten and for your own children.  Please bring wool roving and needles and foam.   Trinity Church has invited us to their brunch at 12 noon in the fellowship hall.

April 11, 10-11:30 AM   Kindergarten Story Time with Miss Kate.  Join our master in spontaneous storytelling, lead Kindergarten teacher, Kate Donnelly, to experience a slice of the Kindergarten day.  Bring your kindergarten age children.

April 15, 6:30 PM  Free Talk on the Waldorf Curriculum, by Jody Spanglet, Director of Ashwood Waldorf School in Rockport, Maine.  ALL considering Waldorf education, please come to this talk.  Learn the approach to academic and artistic excellence of this 90-year-old proven pedagogy.  Learn the developmental appropriateness of Waldorf methods to meet your child’s brain, body and emotional development in the healthiest way.  CHILD CARE WILL BE PROVIDED FOR A LOVE OFFERING.

April 17 2-4 PM Meet the Grades Teachers  If you are interested in your child participating in the grades programs at Azalea Mountain, please come get to know our trained and experienced, creative and inspired,  Waldorf teachers, Todd Crowe (1-2 grade) and Laura Coleman (3-4 grade).  Hear about the developmentally appropriate approach to academic and artistic excellence for bright, active children.  Hear about our Nature Immersion Day each Friday for the grades program.  For parents and 1-4^th grade children.

April 19, 3:30 PM Azalea Mountain Community Meeting  Join the joy of co-creating Azalea Mountain.  Be part of planning playground, yard sale, May Faire, Lazure painting two classrooms, making and gathering classroom furniture and materials, and getting the word out!  All welcome.  Child care available for a love offering.

For more information about application/enrollment to Azalea Mountain Cooperative for the 2011-2012 year, please go to www.azaleamountain.org, or contact Ashley Masters, amdambrosi@gmail.com, or Amy Arrendell, (828)329-2649.

Announcing Azalea Mountain's Grades Teachers for 2011-2012!

Dear Waldorf Friends,

Thanks to all who came to the Azalea Mountain Open House yesterday!  We had a full house of families and children with wonderful circle activities led by our teachers.

After an extensive search for trained and experienced teachers, we are pleased to share that we have chosen our grades teachers for 2011-2012!

Todd Crowe will teach first-second grade.  Todd is well known and loved as the home school enrichment teacher at Grow with Me.  Todd comes to Asheville from the Waldorf School of Pittsburg where he taught combined grades.  He earned his Waldorf certification from the Eugene Waldorf training program, and has attended numerous Waldorf conferences and intensives.   Todd is especially valued for his playful, joyful energy and commitment to excellence in teaching. 

Laura Coleman will teach third-fourth grade.  Laura has been a popular and productive teacher for combined grades in the Asheville area since 2005.  She is currently teaching third grade at Art Space Charter School.  Laura earned her Masters in Waldorf education over 10 years ago at Sunbridge College and has taught at Shining Mountain Waldorf School in Boulder, CO.  Laura is loved for her warmth, clarity and …..

Please come meet the grades teachers Sunday, April 17, 2-4 pm at Trinity United Methodist Church, 587 Haywood Rd., in West Asheville.

Kate Donnelly will be the Kindergarten lead teacher at Azalea Mountain.  Kate has been teaching Waldorf early childhood programs for 15 years and will move here from Tucson Waldorf School.

Maria Perry Allen will be the music teacher and the Morning Garden teacher for Azalea Mountain.  Maria finished her Waldorf teacher training in New Zealand and has taught at the Anchorage Alaska Waldorf School.

Please come meet the early childhood teachers Monday, April 11, 10-11:30 am at Trinity United Methodist Church, 587 Haywood Rd., in West Asheville.

For more information about applying to Azalea Mountain Cooperative, go to www.azaleamountain.org, or email amdambrosi@gmail.com, or call (828)329-2649. 

Introducing Our Lead Kindergarten Teacher!

Introducing Azalea Mountain’s Lead Kindergarten Teacher!

For months now the Azalea Mountain Board has been praying for the most experienced Waldorf kindergarten teacher for our children.  We envisioned a teacher who would also be a source of ideas and understanding for families as they bring Waldorf practices into their homes.  We also wanted a teacher who would be a resource to the larger community as well as someone who had experience with Waldorf start up schools who could be a wise advisor to our Cooperative.

We have had our prayers answered with Kate Donnelly!

Kate is coming to Azalea Mountain from Tucson Waldorf with 15 years experience in early childhood education as a skilled lead teacher and curriculum leader of innovative programs.  Kate earned her Masters in Waldorf Early Childhood Education at Sunbridge College.  Her thesis is “A Reason for Rhyme, Practical Uses for Original Verse in the Years of Early Childhood.”  Kate also holds a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard University Divinity School in Cambridge, MA, and is currently enrolled in North American Clown Facilitators Training!

Kate has exceptional skills in spontaneous storytelling, puppetry, beeswax candle making, clowning, music, and has a great sense of humor and a positive manner in working with others.  She deeply understands and knows how to nurture the imagination in children’s play.

One of Kate’s references was well-known author and teacher, Robert Sardello, who shared, “Kate lives the gestural quality of the child with her own soul being.  I don’t think you can do any better than Kate and her dedication to kindergarten children.” 

Another reference, Dr. Harvey Maksyzitiz, had his twins in Kate’s classes at Tucson Waldorf for three years.  He shared, “Kate is magical.  She was the key to their (the twins’) early childhood.  What they can do now (in middle school) with creative writing, reading, listening, music and using their hands was fostered from the world she created.”

Another reference from a 2 ½ year old, “Kate, fun!" 

Please come meet Miss Kate at the Azalea Mountain Open House, Sunday, March 27, from 2-4 pm at Trinity United Methodist Church, 587 Haywood Rd. in West Asheville.

Azalea Mountain Announces Program Fees for 2011-12

Philosophy of Cooperative Community

Community building is essential to Azalea Mountain Cooperative’s approach to enrollment.  We have spent the last three years collaborating on festivals and gatherings as we build a community in Asheville that shares a love of Waldorf education.  Now we are ready to enroll children in our learning cooperative!  The approach of Azalea Mountain Cooperative is based on that of the first Waldorf school: open to all who are interested.

How will we accomplish this?  Each family will contribute “the most they are able to contribute.”  Our contributions are in programs fees, donations and volunteer support to enjoy being in community and to keep costs down.  This is a different approach from paying tuition as the purchase of a commodity for “my child.”  Rather, each family’s contribution assures a stable learning environment for all the children. 

Cost of Providing a Stable Environment for Learning

The Azalea Mountain Board has spent the winter researching the costs of providing quality Waldorf programs for our community.  We have received the input from other Waldorf schools, local business people and our CPA.  The summary of our $196,500 budget for the first year:

Personnel Costs: $115,000  Provides teachers for Kindergarten, First-Second Grade, and Third-Fourth Grade, Eurythmy, Handwork, Music, Foreign language, Nature Immersion Day, and a part time office manager.

Facilities: $18,000 Provides our rent and utilities for three classrooms, an office, use of church play yard and fellowship hall at Trinity United Methodist Church in West Asheville, our Cooperative home for the 2011-2012 year.

Classroom and Playground Preparation: $15,500 Provides furniture and classroom materials to outfit the classrooms for the children; provides outside play equipment and garden. Labor will be provided by parents and community for classroom preparation and play equipment.  Many classroom materials can be provided by donations from the community.  This amount will be a primary target for fundraising.

General and administration: $28,000 Provides insurance necessary for operation, office expenses, advertising our new program, fundraising expenses and contingencies recommended by our experts

Financial Aid: $20,000 Provides tuition aid, and will be a primary target for fundraising.

Azalea Mountain Fees and Fundraising

Azalea Mountain announces its program fees for the 2011-2012 year.  These fees are lower than other private schools in our area yet they provide quality programming thanks to strong volunteer support.

Any family who chooses to do so can apply for financial aid through our on line admissions and enrollment service: TADS.

TADS has a thorough and proven system of evaluating family income, expenses, assets and liabilities to determine each family’s contribution to private education.  TADS is used by 21 other Waldorf schools in North America, including Emerson Waldorf in Chapel Hill.  We have chosen this assessment service for its proven track record for fairness in evaluating family ability to contribute to education.  Each family will pay “the most they are able to contribute,” which will be confidentially calculated by TADS and discussed with the family by a confidential representative of Azalea Mountain Cooperative.  Our contributions are in fees paid, our contributions to fundraising, and our volunteer support to co-create the school.

“It is only healing when In the mirror of the human soul

The whole community forms itself,    And in the community lives

       The strength of the single soul.”                    Rudolph Steiner

2011-2012 Program Fees: 

Kindergarten: $6,500          First-Second Grade: $7,250                 Third-fourth Grade: $7,500

For all new students, the application fee is $75 and once accepted, the supply fee is $225 per year.  A deposit of $500 toward program fees is required 15 days after acceptance.

 Azalea Mountain Application and Enrollment Process:

Step 1: Complete Admissions Application on line with TADS

Step 3: Family and Students Visits with Teacher

Step 4: Student Acceptance

Step 5: Complete Enrollment Agreement and Pay Deposit through TADS

Families who choose to apply for financial aid will fill out the Financial Aid forms on line with TADS.

 For questions about the enrollment process please contact Ashley Masters, amdambrosi@gmail.com or Azalea Mountain Cooperative at (828)329-2649.

Another GREAT Speaker!

February 18th, 2011 6:30 p.m.

An evening with Torin M. Finser, Ph.D., Director of the Waldorf Teacher Education Program at Antioch University.  He will be promoting his newest book, "Silence is Complicity: A Call to Let Teachers Improve our Schools through Action Research-- Not 'No Child Left Behind'".   Dr. Finser is also the author of Organizational Integrity: How to Apply the Wisdom of the Body to Develop Healthy Organizations; In Search of Ethical Leadership: If Not Now, When?; School Renewal: A Spiritual Journey for Change.  The talk will be held at the Vesica Institute in East Asheville.  Cost is $10.  For more information see www.azaleamountain.org.