So...I'm only getting around to posting here now, despite having suggested the article!
I really enjoyed it particularly for the helpful chart (p. 24) which explains how environmental ed fits into the waldorf curriculum. My kindergarten-age son has always been out in nature and we take long forest walks almost daily. As we consider his future education we always come back to how the environment will fit in to it all...
Also, for fostering a sense of "home"...since we are a binational, trilingual family (i live in switzerland) and my son has elements of both...and we move a lot on top of this. As the article suggests, I have always previously thought of "home" as a house and now I just don't have that perspective anymore, since it's always changing. I've had to look towards the larger picture.
Also, the article made me think even more about something that has been on my mind a lot lately...the idea of connectedness. Especially in the context of potentially homeschooling. This is from an article by a waldorf teacher who moderates a forum I'm in and it touches on this:
"Being at HOME with your children is the HOME SCHOOL of the Waldorf world! Just being at home, following your daily routines, including the children, is the HOME SCHOOL of the child who has not yet experienced seven springs (or Easters).
However, it is not being at HOME in the way we do in this modern century or modern times with all of our entertainment gadgets and inventions. The task of the parent with children under seven springs is to create and sustain a home rhythm that would have been very strongly present before the 1960s. I say the 1960s because that is when almost every household had acquired a TV, a dishwasher, and dryers….not to mention all the other boxes and machines that have come along since. In addition, at that time, almost all households had only 1 car, not two, and Daddy usually took it to work, or on the farm, shared a car with all the relatives living around the farm
Home rhythm is what is missing in our culture: it went away with the electric light, and now has nearly vanished with instant gratification and instant entertainment and 24 hour stores and literally the loss of a strong connection with nature! Hardly anyone observes sunset or sunrises any more……our homes are curtained and shut off from the seasons, and our eyes are glued to the SCREEN in front of us."
So almost by default...from living abroad (away from my childhood home), from living away from family, from moving frequently I have spent years almost mourning for what sense of "home" I couldn't offer my son, but now I see so clearly what I *can* offer him and it feels so freeing! It's about so much more than the house we're currently in. I can offer him the entire Earth and its rhythms and processes, the four seasons and all the songs, stories and festivals that come along with them. And perhaps more importantly, connectedness....on the largest scale, perhaps, but connectedness all the same.
It's an old article, but it's still relevant in its questioning of "what is home?" . I also enjoyed the very beginning, where it reminds us of people that still live in close connection with the environment and it seemed rather optimistic in tone to me, that we can redefine how we think of home and that the earth is strong and is capable of a great deal of self-healing.
This is long, and slightly scattered...
anyone else read it?
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