The Harmonious Growth of the Whole Human Being
Dear Members of The Waldorf School of Santa Barbara Community,
Here is an update from Ms. Nelson of The Fifth Grade:
“Last week the Fifth Grade finished a block on ancient Egypt. Fifth Grade marks the time when Waldorf students experience a sweeping view of humanity through the cultures and histories of the people of ancient India, Persia, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Greece. The pedagogical goal is to generate a respect and understanding for people of other races and religions through the study of these great epochs in history. The students encounter an imaginative picture of mythology, geography, art, architecture, language, and customs.
As the Fifth Grade students move from fairy tales and fables to history, they wonder: "How do we know what we know?" As an answer to that question the Waldorf Fifth Grade recently learned about historic archaeological discoveries such as the Rosetta Stone, which enabled scholars to translate the hieroglyphics, and Howard Carter's 1922 discovery of the intact tomb of Tutankhamun.
This week the students shifted to the world of ancient Greece, which is a defining block of this grade. In the spring this study will culminate in their participation, alongside other Waldorf schools, in the Pentathlon.”
In conversation with Ms. Nelson about the Egypt block she spoke of that culture's extraordinarily long stretch of stable continuity. When King Tut ruled, she told us, the pyramids had already been around for 1000 years. Meanwhile our younger culture, she reminded us, privileges innovation and change. This struck Ms. Nelson as worth contemplating.
The Westside Waldorf School posted a message online about their situation. In this message were these moving words:
“The entire campus for grades one through eight, including the woodshop where the heights of every student have been lovingly marked on the wall, has been lost.”
Westside Waldorf, like Pasadena Waldorf, has another campus to use for the time being. Still the setback is enormous.
The loss of these two schools reminds us of the unusual value of Waldorf education. Waldorf schools provide what Friedrich Froebel, the founder of the kindergarten, called “the harmonious growth of the whole being.” They provide a full-orbed education, a curriculum that re-integrates—the head, heart, and hands—what has been dis-integrated because of certain aspects of our time.
This week parents displaced by the fires toured WSSB. Upon completion of the tour one parent said, “I’m so happy this Waldorf school exists.”
As communicated earlier this week, one way for you to support victims of the fires is to complete this Google form:
Southern California Fire Response Needs and Offers Form
Additionally, below are links to donation pages for the two schools:
Support Pasadena Waldorf School
In the last many months there have been a number of remarkable articles in the news.
Here are some of the titles of those articles: “California Will Make Its Schools Ban Phones” (The New York Times); “Australia Bans Social Media for Those Under 16” (The New York Times); “States Are Cracking Down on Cellphones in Schools” (Education Week); “Cellphone Bans in Schools Grows” (Forbes); “School Cell Phone Bans Have Hit Most States” (Youth Today); “Cellphone Bans Spread in Schools Amid Growing Mental Health Worries” (Washington Post); “The Ban is Spreading—Good!” (The Epoch Times).
Meanwhile, governors have been making striking public statements. Governor Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire recently declared:
Today, I am announcing that we will be taking action to ban cell phones in our schools. Screens are negatively impacting our learning environments, drawing students' attention away from their classes, and becoming a barrier for teachers to do their jobs — no more.
Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey also said:
It's time to ban cell phones from our state's K-12 classrooms. Today, I am officially announcing my support for a proposal that will direct New Jersey’s school districts to adopt policies that do just that.
These articles and decrees (and the policy changes they invoke) portend positive change for children and our world. Many saw the permanency of such technology in schools as a foregone conclusion. Meanwhile, 2024 has been called “the year the phone-based childhood began to reverse.”
Important Dates:
January 20: No School in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day
January 22: Board Meeting at 3:30 p.m.
In gratitude,
The WSSB Admin Team
PS The Thought of the Day: Social thinker, suffragist, and first female head of a large United States city school system, Ella Flagg Young sought to educate each student “so well that her life would benefit not only her family but her community as well.”
PPS To support this Waldorf school which strives to educate children so well that they benefit not only themselves and their families but their communities, too, please donate below.