A Case for Including
Educational Support Programs in Waldorf
Schools
by Mary Jo Oresti, President, Association
for a Healing Education
We have reached a crossroads in
education. Each day in the classroom we experience that all
children, including those raised in nourishing environments,
have individual needs. This has been true for decades, and we
have been free to pursue the best practices to ensure that each
child is being met. However, let's consider that in our present
times the matter is more urgent as childhood is being eroded.
Nutrition, movement, disruptions in life's rhythms, and sensory
impacts for instance have all changed. Not all of this is
counterproductive; yet, the question remains, “ What is
our response to these changes?” If a child needs more
than mere moments of attention, are we equipped to intervene?
Have we expanded our definition of normal? Do we deepen our
understanding of the pedagogy with the fervor that was
exhibited in the first Waldorf schools?
Obviously the life of a professional
educator is a never-ending journey of research and self
understanding. Not only does the curriculum hold many secrets
but each child is also a mystery. For new teachers, the goal of
reaching the level of master teacher can look formidable in
light of the complexities. However, there are so many jewels
available for us.
In the Waldorf movement, we have
methods that break ineffective ways of thinking and create new
approaches to old problems. For instance, if a child has poor
handwriting we can work with the feet as Dr. Steiner
recommended. A child with poor or lethargic thinking can be
helped with body geography exercises or walking geometric forms
with different movements. These activities can be standard
practices in our schools. We have the methods and only need the
courage to create the form.
One very successful form is an
Educational Support program, which can be designed to fit a
school’s needs. A support team could include a trained
remedial teacher, outside resources, master in-house teachers,
therapists, Eurythmist, etc.
By weaving a program into the life of
the school, parents and teachers experience an enrichment of
the educational journey of all the children in many settings:
classroom, faculty study, child study and in individualized
sessions.
The Educational Support Program
emphasizes pedagogical methods and interventions. And, like
other pedagogical streams, it has two pillars. The first pillar
is our understanding of the curriculum and our understanding of
the universal progression of child development. The second
pillar is our ability to perceive and respond to the individual
whom we wish to engage in the process of healing and education.
These two fields, knowledge and an individualized response,
obviously improve when the teacher also has support.
An Educational Support Program can:
1. Build bridges in the community
through better communication and services
2. Strengthen right practices in the
classroom
3. Create better learning
environments for children with learning style differences
4. Assist teachers in a team based
approach for observation and intervention
5. Develop a repertoire of
screenings, interview procedures and assessments
6. Guide faculty studies of the
curriculum
Funding for a program can be
approached in different ways. The school can directly supply
all the in-house services or the parents can support a program
as co-payers. Other schools have pursued local grants. Because
Federal law has moved to more inclusion and mandates services
in schools, it is on our best interest to provide services and
meet these cultural demands. One view to consider is that if a
school can maintain 3 or 4 children who might otherwise have to
leave, these tuition funds could support a program.
At the Pan American conference in
July, Dr. Glockler spoke about the task for our times. The
mysteries for the future are about the engagement of the will.
It is not about knowledge, it is about not wasting ourselves.
How grateful we can be that Waldorf schools have this directive
to educate children for the future, help them escape from body
bound thinking and be free to act toward the good.
On Compassion Through
Understanding
"... When the knowledge of man
has been so transformed in the teacher that he is able to
experience the condition of the child in this intense way, he
will then have also transformed himself, so that a beneficial
influence is conferred by his soul-attitude on the life forces
of the child."
Dr. Walter Holtzapfel, from Children with a Difference
support.htm
© copyright 2010 AHE
rev. 1/10/2010
