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Our Qualms About Waldorf
As much as I loved the atmosphere in Spring Mountain and the Washington Waldorf School, my husband and I felt we couldn’t stick with the Waldorf system for years.
For one thing, we wanted James to be thinking in analytical terms, in scientific terms, long before high school. For another, we weren’t keen on the Waldorf approach to reading and writing.
Although many schools push children to read too soon, we thought the Waldorf schools had gone to the other extreme. At the rate James was progressing at Spring Mountain, we estimated he would be 9 before he was seriously reading. Yet he already hungers to read. Unfortunately, when we tried to give James supplementary reading help at home, it conflicted with Spring Mountain’s approach and left him confused.
So at the beginning of this semester we moved James from Spring Mountain’s first grade — where he was working on the upper- case alphabet — to the kindergarten class at Rappahannock Elementary, where he promptly began to read words.
Learning More or Less?
But while he’s learning more words and numbers — and enjoying it — he’s learning less about his place in the natural world.
James no longer brings home the delightful blessings said before each activity at Spring Mountain, such as this one composed by his teacher, Bethany Craig:
Blessings on this meal of ours,
Blessings on the moon and stars,
Blessings on the sun above,
And on the earth that gives us love.
Blessings on the children dear,
And on grownups far and near.
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