Collaborative Work Between Doctors and Teachers

Adam Blanning MD

Here is some sharing about the work I do with both area and distant Waldorf schools in the role “school doctor,” but which could also be appropriately described as a developmental consultant, or even a child observation collaborator.

This work has a rich history. The co-working of doctors and teachers dates back to the founding of the first Waldorf school in Stuttgart, Germany, when Dr. Eugen Kolisko was already present for many of the meetings between the founding teachers and Rudolf Steiner. Steiner felt Dr. Kolisko’s participation was an important role. While that collaboration continues to prove to be very fruitful, it is not always so easily realized in the U.S. and Canada at this time. A goal of this article is to provide some practical suggestions to help continue this now 100-year-old tradition of the bridging of medicine and pedagogy.

The process of child observation, anthroposophic assessment, and the collaborative planning of therapeutic support has always been a keen interest for me. I began work with Waldorf school faculties even before the start of my dedicated anthroposophic medical practice. Since “school doctoring” collaboration was so new for most of the schools I partnered with there was really tremendous freedom (no one actually knew what to expect and was simply excited to try things out), paired with a pioneering effort. The work has since found some regular, sustainable rhythm.

Here are some important learning experiences and suggestions:

• The constitutional polarities, as described by Steiner (which are found primarily in the pedagogical and curative education lectures, not the medical work) provide a very helpful foundation for learning to observe children and then work in an interdisciplinary way to understand a child’s process of growth and development. At times, various teachers have voiced concern to me about using the polarities, mostly out of the fear of “labeling” a child, but my experience is that such fear comes from not have been able to really learn and study the polarities and having only heard the names (which with titles like maniacal, feeble-minded, small-headed and klepto-maniacal could clearly spark misunderstanding, especially if they were shared as judgements with parents). But I can emphatically recommend the study of constitution as a way to enliven our thinking and to better understand the struggles of children. After working with the constitutions, I wanted to begin teaching about them, and out of the teaching came writings, and from the writings came a book, Understanding Deeper Developmental Needs. The constitutions are also very helpful for doctors to begin reading about pedagogical principles, especially if they do not have much experience with Waldorf education.

• A second important point about this collaborative work is that it is very helpful, if not essential, to know as a consulting physician what the teacher’s specific questions or concerns are right at the beginning. This is helpful for two reasons:

  • First, if there is not some clear communication before the observation, then it is very possible that the doctor spends most of the time observing a different child, or focusing on something quite different than the teacher’s concern.

  • Second, the preparatory task of identifying and prioritizing questions from the side of the teacher helps with the discussion. Conversation after a classroom observation or office visit always flows better when the teacher has spent time thinking about a child and doing their own observation—attached is a sample of the kind of form that I have found helpful as a pre-observation communication.

  • Third, for myself, it is really only possible to observe and discuss 2-3 children per classroom visit. Part of this is due to the time needed to really watch a child, though more often the limitation comes from the time needed to appropriately talk through the observations and then together develop a collaborative plan that everyone understands.
    
    Read more
    
     

    Adam Blanning MD is a member of the Advisory Board for The Association for a Healing Education.
    Please see his biography and a photo of Adam later in this newsletter.

     

Addressing Sensory Development in the School-Age Child: 
A Conference Presentation by Adam Blanning, M.D.
 Connie Helms

In November 2019 Sunbridge Institute sponsored their fifth annual Teachers Conference. This wonderful gathering was well attended by many educational support teachers, class teachers, AHE graduates, and even some O.T.s from the northeast who work with Waldorf students.

One of the gifts of Dr. Blanning’s talk was the urgent practicality of Anthroposophy as we work with Rudolf Steiner's indications in conjunction with utilizing today's sensory practices to calm and reorient children. A lecture on the twelve senses (Part III of Spiritual Science as a Foundation for Social Forms by R. Steiner) was a reference point for the conference. In the lecture given in Dornach on August 8, 1920, Steiner spoke about the inwardly directed senses as compared to the outwardly directed senses, with the inwardly directed senses being the four foundation senses we work with in Waldorf education along with the sense of smell. In these latter five senses, we experience how the external world works upon us and as Steiner says, through the perception of what is within, transmit to us our relationship to the cosmos.

Dr. Blanning delved into just one outwardly directed sense by including the sense of taste (neighboring the sense of smell) and led us through six senses as a pathway to the maturation of our ability to self soothe. Beginning with the sense of taste, he described that for a nursing child, the first taste of colostrum anchors a newborn in the world with a substance outside of themself. The act of nursing with the taste of milk is a primary soother; the sense of touch is secondarily a soother as well. By a couple months of age however, the smells of a baby’s caretakers have become familiar enough that smell also becomes soothing in itself.

Read more

Connie; Those of us who do the Extra Lesson work in Waldorf schools also hold a vision of healing forces and recognize how other programs and therapies also support the children we work with. How do you get referrals for the children you work with?

Martha; For the sake of consistency and clarity, when referring to painting therapy, it is Art Therapy based on the Universal Laws of Light, Darkness and Color as we see it in Nature. This method of art therapy is a medical (rather than hygienic) therapy developed by Master Painter Liane Collot d'Herbois (1907-1999), as she worked along side of Ita Wegman (1876-1943), the first Anthroposophical Doctor (and Rudolf Steiner's right arm) for 13 years before Dr. Wegman’s death in 1943.

There are many ways that children are referred for painting therapy. When the work is supported by a Waldorf school, and there is a Therapeutic Care Group, or Educational Support Committee, children are brought to these groups by parents or teachers and the referral comes with the support of more than one professional. Frequently Waldorf teachers recommend students in the schools, and parents, healthcare professionals, and doctors also make referrals. The collaborative working of the group helps the children in overcoming hindrances and imbalances, as well as promoting, and enhancing the healing process. It takes a village. While I strive to work collaboratively and in community, my work is based on the Science of the Spirit and is actually of the future.

What are some common reasons for referrals?

Due to the unique value of this medical therapy, it addresses the three-fold human being of thinking (nerve-sense system) feeling (cardio-vascular) and the will (metabolic/digestive system). Even though children are usually referred due to emotional or social imbalances, such as depression, anger, low-self-esteem, asthma, trauma, PTSD and/or behavior/discipline problems, this method of painting therapy also addresses issues related to thinking: fear and anxiety, Aspergers/autism, ADD and ADHD, dreaminess or unclear thinking, fixed thinking (OCD) and suicidal thinking/self-harm. In the realm of metabolic/digestive issues, it also includes eating disorders.

Read more

Martha Loving Orgain can be contacted at http://www.lovingcolor.org

THERAPEUTIC ASPECTS OF EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT

AHE offers a three year training program and also welcomes people to attend most individual modules.

Please email Connie Helms for more info: registrar@healingeducation.org 

Upcoming sessions include:
March 26-29, 2020 focusing on the Extra Lesson assessment and developmental screenings
 
August 2-6, 2020 with guest presenters Joep and Erica Eikenboom on the Foundations of Extra Lesson, The Human Archetype, Color theory and Painting
 
October 15-18, 2020 with Paul Gierlach, focusing on the Adolescent and challenges in higher grades

Since the inception of Waldorf education in 1919, there has been a close dialogue between and unique working together of the medical and the pedagogical perspectives. Inherent in Waldorf education’s anthroposophical background is a physiological and medical understanding of human development inseparable from the psycho-spiritual aspects elaborated upon by Rudolf Steiner in his education lectures. The goal of my thesis project is to further explore and elucidate this relationship; to understand the role of the physician as a key factor in supporting teachers in deepening their understanding of and work with the anthroposophic view of human development; and to investigate how the unique collaboration between the medical and the pedagogical professions can further develop Waldorf education’s methodologies at a significant point in its development.

I had apparently been on the healing education path since I began my life as a teacher, though I don’t think I realized that’s what I was doing from the outset. Joining a transdisciplinary Masters in Education program at Antioch University New England in 2018 seemed like the logical next step in my evolution as a teacher. It was in Wilton where the dream-opportunity to collaborate with anthroposophic doctors and nurses; art therapists (music, painting, eurythmy); and a brilliant batch of fellow teachers was realized for me. At the root of all our work was the drive to realize how pedagogical relationships are healing endeavors.

Read more

Andrew May is a high school humanities teacher at the Sacramento Waldorf School. He is currently a Master of Education candidate at Antioch University New England focusing on the healing aspects of Waldorf pedagogy.

DEEPER ASPECTS OF EXTRA LESSON AND GRADUATE SEMINAR
with  Joep Eikenboom

Module 8 of AHE's Cycle 12 Educational Support Training
August 2-6, 2020  
Evening Lecture Aug. 2

• Foundations of the Extra Lesson
• Structural and Constitutional Differences
• Mirroring, Dyslexia and Exploring the “Cube"
• Aspects of the Assessment Drawings
• Color Theory in Painting and PHT (person, house, tree assessment drawing)
• Painting with Erica Eikenboom

Joep Eikenboom has been a Waldorf class teacher in the Netherlands since 1980 and has worked with the Extra Lesson exercises since 1984. He has researched the root of these exercises in the work of Rudolf Steiner consulting extensively with Audrey McAllen, Liane Collot d'Herbois, and other educational support teachers. He has published his findings in Foundations of the Extra Lesson. Joep serves on the Advisory Board for AHE. 
Erica Eikenboom will be leading painting sessions in the Collot method, working with the Laws of Light and Darkness.

The Association for a Healing Education

Working to strengthen Waldorf Schools and to help serve the foundational needs of children today!

Please visit our website at http://www.healingeducation.org