Hopes, & Steiner-Waldorf Education

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Even though the baby isn't born yet, David and I have spent a lot of time discussing it's education. While we both consider ourselves to be a little "out there" when it comes to "modern life" and our opinion of it, childhood education is one of the places where we differ the most in that regard. David waivers between homeschooling and no formal type of education at all. He, like me, sees human beings as just highly intelligent animals and is skeptical of anything that goes against our nature. His ideal would be to educate the child in an environment similar to a commune where "school" would be a meetinghouse for the children of only the three of four other families who lived in the area, taught at different points by different adults from the group. He rejects completely the idea of structured education, or curriculum in general. If it were up to him we would teach our child with personal wisdom and life experience only, which is a beautiful idea, you know? It truly is. We have an almost identical world view, and I see his points and understand completely where he's coming from.

"My* struggle is that I want to do everything in my power to encourage this child to be a completely fulfilled individual, in every way, and I realize "individual" could very well mean not like me. Farmhouses without electricity, wood stoves and goat milking sounds like heaven to me, but what if the Lima Bean grows up and WANTS to be a cloned beef-eating personal injury lawyer living in the very heart of NYC? I would feel terrible and like a failure if the lifestyle choices I forced upon him or her at a young age kept him/her in ANY way from fulfilling his/her dreams, regardless of whether or not I personally agree with their choices. There's also the issue of socialization- I want this child exposed to lots of different kinds of children, people and families. As a child who attended an Air Force Base school until 7th grade, I was fortunate to make friends with all sorts of people from different parts of the US and other countries, an experience I'd never trade.

At the same time, the idea of exposing my child to the current environment of the underfunded, overcrowded public school system (particularly in Massachusetts, where the UTTER BULLSHIT of the MCAS test is still required and raging) strikes fear into my heart. I also cringe at the idea of my child growing to hate learning because of dispassionate teachers and rigid curricular requirements, which is what eventually happened to me. I could read on my own by the age of 2, I was a published poet by age 11, but by the time I graduated from high school I was completely apathetic and almost didn't graduate with my class. I couldn't imagine not doing everything in my power to prevent that from happening to my own child.

(Disclaimer:) I just want to point out that I see the necessity for a public school system that is free to every child. My mother has been a public school teacher my entire life, and I would never in a million years suggest that the public education system should be abolished or privatized in any way. Public education (and the state it's in) is a class issue, and something I won't get into right now. Desperate and drastic changes sorely need to be made that I don't see happening in the near future. My less than positive view of modern, anti-love, anti-spiritual society (particularly among "intellectuals") is one of the reasons I don't see these changes being made. Some may see this opinion as hypocritical, but I'm willing and prepared to do whatever needs to be done to provide my child with the richest, most magical life I can possibly provide. Call me whatever names you want.

So the other day I was poking around the internet, like you do, and I stumbled across a Wikipedia article on Steiner-Waldorf education, an approach to education that focuses primarily on seeing learning as an art form, holistic and spiritual. It was a revelation to me knowing that there were so many people out in the world whose ideas about education and child development were so similar to mine. This was also the first time I'd heard about the anthroposophical view of the human being, an idea I had no idea existed anywhere aside from my own head. I admit that I initially was so excited that I didn't take cost and location into mind. It would be just my luck that something as closely aligned with my belief system would only be available in Europe or California, right? Or cost a million dollars to attend, bringing us back to the class issue I mentioned earlier.

To my surprise, though, Steiner-Waldorf is actually the fastest growing form of alternative education in this country, and there were 6 different schools listed as being in Massachusetts. One in particular caught my eye, The Hartsbrook School in Hadley, MA. 19 acres of green land with an agricultural curriculum ("sheep, goats, chickens, rabbits, vegetable and flower gardens" !!) on TOP of the educational values I prize so much. This quote from the Hartsbrook School's website sums it all up for me:

"Academic subjects are presented imaginatively to engage the whole-hearted participation of the students: physically, cognitively and emotionally, incorporating movement, music, modeling, painting and drawing along with traditional skills."

Anyone who knows David and I knows that this baby will inevitably need to be engaged emotionally and creatively to learn. David and I are both highly emotional people and it scares me a little bit to imagine what sort of person our combined energies have created, haha. I'm officially in love, but is it too good to be true?

The cost, well... 10k a year. Yeeugh! I know, I know- it seems outrageous and totally beyond the scope of anything I've ever paid for in my entire life. I've never even had a car that cost that much! It seems bleak, but they offer tuition assistance to qualified families and there's a good chance we'd qualify with one income. I also feel so strongly about educating my child in this kind of environment that I'd be willing to make all sorts of sacrifices, including only having one child. I'd much rather raise one with all the resources it needs regardless of cost then cut corners with two or three and wish I hadn't.

I can tell that David is sort of ambivalent, confused about how it will fit into our lives and also the pretentious ramifications of being private school parents. But the more I read about Steiner-Waldorf education, and the Hartsbrook School in particular, the more certain I feel. How could I not?

Waldorf Answers
American's for Waldorf Education
Toward Wholeness: Rudolf Steiner Education in America by M.C. Richards
Rudolf Steiner Web