Hi there! Welcome to another Sunday with Sarah. I'm Sarah Baldwin: waldorf teacher,
author and owner of Bella Luna Toys. Today I'm here to dispel maybe one of
the biggest myths you may have heard about Waldorf education: that waldorf
kids can't read. I'm here to tell you that is not true and to tell you a
little bit more about how reading is approached in Waldorf education. Now, it's
true that Waldorf kindergartens and nurseries don't teach academic skills,
they don't formally teach reading and writing.
That's not introduced until 1st grade. That's also when numbers and math
lessons are introduced. But in the early years they are developing so many pre-
reading skills and language skills. Children in a Waldorf preschool
environment—nursery or kindergarten—they're hearing verses, they're learning
songs, they're hearing stories and fairy tales in their original language, not
watered down or simplified. They're hearing rich language and they're hearing it
repeated over and over. They might hear the same story every day for a week or
two weeks and repeating a circle play with the same songs and verses until
they really memorize them and learn those by heart and they are building
their vocabularies. So if you meet a Waldorf kindergarten student and a
public school counterpart you might notice that the child from the Waldorf
school, who may not be reading any words yet, has a very advanced vocabulary and
and spoken language skills. I was a former Waldorf kindergarten teacher.
One of the ways we approached math everyday: we were counting, we were
cooking, we were preparing snacks and lunches every day so we're practicing
counting by measuring or how many times we stir the batter, counting how many
places we're going to set out when we're setting the table. So they're building
these skills in a way that's very natural, very experiential for real-world
purposes and not just abstract numbers. A young child, trying to introduce the
abstract symbols of letters and numbers, often their minds aren't really ready
for that and they really don't understand in the same way if they're
counting for a real purpose or finding joy in stories and song. So when they
do get to first grade, letters are introduced in a very imaginative way, a
very living way through stories. When they're learning to write a letter.
The letter, for example, "M" for "mountain" would become a picture of a mountain.
So it's introduced more slowly and allowed to unfold at a natural pace.
One thing to keep in mind is that children's minds—brains are all wired differently
and some children are wired to learn to read early and others might be building
their physical skills and the decoding ability
of the brain might come later. The other
children are building their fine motor skills and most children under the age
of seven will be more advanced in one area and less in others. Around the age
of seven all those different areas should be more or less caught up.
Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Waldorf education, believed around seven, or the
year the child is turning seven, between six and seven, is the ideal time to start
first-grade and start introducing that kind of academic learning.
It's also a time—under the age of seven, children need to be moving. They're
developing their brains through movement, through large motor movement, which means
climbing trees or climbing rocks running and jumping and swinging, that's all
building their brains which is all going to help them learn later when they get
to first grade. So a lot of children whose brains are not yet ready to do
that decoding work that's required when you learn to read, they can get
really frustrated when reading is introduced too early before they're
ready. It can turn them off to reading, it can turn them off for a lifetime where
they think reading is a chore and not fun. When you just allow it to unfold
naturally when the child is ready—we don't give them walking lessons and yet
somehow children learn to walk, although at very different ages. Some might
walk at 8 months and others maybe not till 18 months and it has no bearing
on their intellectual ability or how bright they are. But by third grade, most
children in a Waldorf schools should be reading pretty well. I always give the
example of my two children. I had my older son Harper who really didn't
start to read fluently until the middle of 3rd grade.
my younger son William taught himself. Nobody taught him, he was just started
reading one day. And both were okay with their Waldorf teachers. It's a myth to
think that teachers would discourage a child from reading. When it happens, it
happens. All that said, there are some children with learning disabilities
and could have dyslexia or other things interfering with reading so when they do
get to grade school, it's important to keep an eye on it and to be in touch
with a child's teacher or if you're homeschooling
to pay attention yourself, and if by third grade they're still struggling you would
want to consult with a learning specialist or a reading specialist for
analysis because the earlier a problem like dyslexia is diagnosed the more that
can be done to help the child learn. But I can assure you that Waldorf
schools are not anti-reading and we're not anti-books. Both the children of mine
I told you about, even though they learned to read at very different ages,
both grew up to be very voracious readers and did very well in high school
and scored very high on their SATs. I, like a lot of parents, was really worried
when their cousins were their age and reading way ahead of them but
I'm here to tell you to relax and let it happen when it happens. Don't forget
to subscribe if you're enjoying these videos! If you want to learn more about
Waldorf education or parenting, about the importance of imaginative play. I'm
here to answer your questions. If you have any questions about this video or
any other topics please email them to sundaywithsarah@bellalunatoys.com
and I'll do my best to answer them in a future video.
Thanks for tuning in and I'll see you next time!