A Healing Education
Dear Members of The Waldorf School of Santa Barbara Community,
Here is an update from Ms. Lowenberg on math and reading in the First Grade:
We are in our Four Processes block and have learned a lot about the phlegmatic Addicus Plus, the green gnome who loves to harvest from the garden, bake cookies, and add more and more and more.
In the Waldorf curriculum we introduce all four math processes together and discover the relationship between them. Next week we will learn more about Max Minus, the blue, melancholic brother gnome who likes to give things away. Their oldest brother, David Divide, the red and fiery choleric, makes sure that all the cookies that Addicus Plus bakes are divided equally among the brothers, because he is very concerned, like his father, King Equals, about fairness! And then the youngest brother, the yellow gnome, the sanguine, cartwheels into the scene and wants to do everything faster! Instead of adding by ones, like his brother Addicus Plus, he wants to skip-count by 2s and 3s and 5s, and he loves to multiply (his name is Tommy Times).
Each of the children has found a favorite gnome in one of these figures, and some even like their mother, Queen Question, the best, as she gives the first graders math questions that seem to be getting more challenging every day.
In addition to the number gnomes, we are also counting and identifying numbers up to 100. Next week the children will practice writing their numbers on a 100s chart. They will see the patterns in the numbers as the columns show 2s, 5s, and 10s.
We are also weaving reading and writing into our math block. The children say the verses for each gnome every day. They memorize these verses. Then they write the verses in their Main Lesson book and from their writing, they read the sentence. The first type of reading is "Memory Reading." So even those who are not sounding out words yet are still reading with the class chorally.
Since returning from Winter break, we have begun the routine of 10 minutes of reading after recess. The children are looking at picture books, they are reading decodable books, and the more advanced readers are reading from the leveled books I have available. The children really look forward to this time! By having a children's library in your own home, you can create a literacy-rich environment.
Some of you asked me about books I recommend for your children. In addition to decodable books like the BOB book series, I like the author Shelley Davidow, who has an Early Phonics Reader and other leveled books that you can purchase online. I also love the author Arnold Lobel for children who need a bit more of a challenge. A former colleague recommends Adventures of the Wood Elves by Pamela Myers.
Each child is reading at their own pace. We should never force them to read when they are not ready or wanting to. I think that the most important thing is to have a nightly story time. This could be before bed and you could be reading to them or they can read to you. It is a beautiful time for connection.
Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has written a book — Anxious Generation — which has shaken our country.
In this bracing cri de couer (which we’ve recommended in newsletters past), Haidt links the epidemic of teen mental illness to the arrival of the “phone-based childhood.” Haidt argues that children “need play and independent exploration,” not a screen-oriented life which conduces to “sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism.”
In May of 2024 Mr. Haidt did an interview with El Pais. Here’s a striking excerpt from that interview:
Q. Zuckerberg has children. Do you think he will be able to protect them from what he himself is allowing?
A. Most of the tech people don’t give their kids the technology. The people who created this stuff know what it does, and therefore they don’t give it to their kids, most of them. And many of them send their kids to Waldorf schools, which use no technology at all, no computers at all.
These are extraordinary words. That the creators and disseminators of today’s technology often withhold that technology from the humans they love the most, their children, and often send those beloved children to Waldorf schools are among the most revealing facts of our time. These two facts also serve as potent advertisements for Waldorf education.
Jonathan Haidt will lecture at UCSB on February 20th.
Also: please see the flyer below regarding an upcoming event to support the Westside and Pasadena Waldorf schools and their families.
In gratitude,
The WSSB Admin Team
