Copyright Alan Whitehead & Earthschooling: No Part of this book, post, URL, or book excerpt may be shared with anyone who has not paid for these materials.
Alan speaks in a very symbolic and esoteric manner in some parts of his books. Although they can be read anthroposophically, passages speaking of Atlantis, archangels, gods, etc. do not need to be taken literarily to be meaningful. The more you read, the more you will realize he uses many different religions to express ideas in a symbolic manner and not in a religious manner. His writings are not religious. In some places his writings are meant to refer to religious events in a historical way. In some places he is using religious figures (from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Paganism, Ancient Roman and Greek Religions, etc.) in a symbolic manner. However, at no point is he promoting a specific religion or speaking from a religious point of view.
I have kept the writing as close to one-hundred percent original so you will also find that he speaks of Australia often and some spelling or manners of speaking may be cultural. Any words I have changed are presented like this: <word>.
Also keep in mind that these books are written by a Waldorf teacher with decades of experience who also studied with a Steiner student himself, so he speaks to an audience that is dedicating their lives to the Waldorf method without exception.
Because of this, all of his views are not reflected in the Earthschooling curriculum and not all of them may be ones you want to embrace or are able to use. In all of Alan Whitehead’s writings the opinions are his own and may not align with Earthschooling or Waldorf Books. In some cases, we will be updating some of these chapters in the future with additional and/or updated information.
Ultimately, however, as I read through these passages I find I can distill wisdom from even those paragraphs that do not resonate with me.
We invite you to read with an open mind and heart and with eagerness to learn and discuss…
MEASURE ME – MEASURE MY WORLD
Linear Measure – Class 3 – Main Lesson
“Bye!” waved the twins as the car pulled out of the school parking lot. Young Tan popped his blond head over his mother, Gemma Sensible’s, shoulder and stared at the dashboard before retreating again into the privacy of the back seat.
“What did it say?” asked his sister Lily conspiratorially.
‘Um… 97,840 kilometers.” Replied Tan as he wrote the data in his schoolbook. He hardly looked up as his mother spoke.
“Did you have a nice day children?” her voice was cheery as the small – sensible – car sped through the rural landscape, which glowed golden in the afternoon sun.
“Yeah.” – “Okay.”
“And what did you learn at school today?”
“Nothing’.” – “Just stuff.”
“Sometimes I wonder why I bother sending you there.” Muttered mother shaking her head as the car turned into the Sensible driveway. Tan checked the car’s odometer again before jumping out to the tongue-and-tail welcome of their little black dog, Silence. He had been thus named because, from a puppy, he had been trained not to bark uselessly and irritate the neighbors!
Lily stood at the gate and purposefully began marching along the fence line, counting softly to herself. Silence trotted silently behind. Gemma was curious, but too busy preparing dinner to enquire. The children were suspiciously quiet in their room for the next hour. The Sensible family were sensible in more ways than one – they didn’t own a television set! The children were therefore happy to spend their leisure hours in ‘sensible’ creative and constructive activities. At the moment they were inventing a new lineal measuring system; this, as well as her brother’s odometer readings and her own perimeter walking, was (voluntary) homework emerging from the linear (‘long’) measurement Class 3 Main Lesson – a unit of about 30 hours conducted in the first 2 hours of the morning form about 3 weeks. It was called by Nyyl the teacher, Measure Me – Measure My world.
“Why don’t we make it a 9-year-old secret measuring system?” whispered Lily “you know how Nyyl found the average height of children in Class 3 today – it was .98 meters. We could make that the standard measure, and divide it by, say, 10…”
“Great!” enthused her brother “And call it a Nyyl. But why 10? Why not keep it as our class’s very own measurement and have it divided by – ah – 25, the number of children in the class…”
The intense debate went on until dinner, by which time the world’s newest mensuration system (if not the most convenient!) was complete. The two ran to the table just as Silence, as quiet as he considered reasonable in his excitement, signaled Dad’s triumphant homecoming.
“Hi children, what did you learn in school today?’
“Nothing’.” – “Just stuff.”
“I don’t know why we bother to send them there.” He lamented as he buttered a slice of bread.
“But you were just dong homework weren’t you? Surely you learnt something. And what was all that odometer reading and fence pacing – some new gam?” Mother handed the bowl of peas to her cornered offspring.
“Aw…we’re just learning about measuring that’s all – linear measurement.” Dad looked up in interest; measurement was his profession – after all, he was a surveyor.
“Are you learning Imperial, Metric – or both?”
“Sort of everything,” answered Tan, realizing that he was going to have to make a clean breast of it “first Nyyl tells us a story about the adventures of a boy and girl who travel through time, and visit other places. They have all sorts of adventures with measuring things and stuff. Today they went to Ancient Egypt and learnt how the Egyptians measured the river levels of the Nile…”. The twins were now sharing their confession of how they actually learnt something at school; enter Lily “Yes, and how the pyramids were calculated…the children got kidnapped by a bad tomb priest, who locked them in a secret chamber. But as they were led in, the boy counted the number of paces they walked down all the twisting corridors. That way they found their way out of the labyrinth – measurement saved their lives!”
“Hmmm,” hummed Dad “but how about real learning – for instance, do you know how long a mile is? And by the way, that’s labyrinth – I mean Labyrinth!”
“8 furlongs.” Chirped Tan “And 3 miles is a (land) league.” Chimed in his sister. “Yes, and the navy uses cables and nautical miles, and fathoms!” – “And a fathom is 6 feet – and 6 feet is 2 yards.” – “And a yard is 3 feet – and 3 feet is…”
“Okay, okay! So you’re learning about all kinds of linear measuring systems. Did Nyyl tell you about chains and rods?”
“No?!”
“Ah, so I do have some input after all! Well all the old land survey maps have that system. There are 80 chains in a mile, and 10 chains in a furlong, and…” Dad proceeded to reveal to his children a slice of the arcane world of surveying – their endless questions kept him revving. “But of course most of our measuring now is in metric – I suppose you learnt metric?”
“Oh yes, we were each given a new wooden 40-centimeter rule; we know all about millimeters, decameters and so on – right up to kilometers.” – “And we have lots of measuring things in the classroom, like a 100-meter tape – and all the children made their own meter measuring sticks.”
“Do you have a dressmaker’s tape? Better for measuring inside leg than a meter stick.” Said Gemma smoothly; Dad smiled, but was ignored by the children as they urged their mother to continue “There’s a special meter stick I’ve heard about, it’s made from a rate and expensive alloy of platinum, and kept in a temperature-controlled vacuum case – in France. This is the one standard from which all other linear measurement devices are taken – it’s accurate to within 1 millionth of a centimeter, or so they say.”
“Trust the French; it took a nation of Rational Soul people to come up with so coldly efficient, but lifeless a system as metric. Most others, including imperial, were derived from the human body, or evolved through a natural, organic process – they contain Spirit, and therefore do not desiccate the soul. Even though I calculate in metric at work, I more often than not think in the old system.” Dad looked down at Silence, who seemed eager to contribute “Me too,” he thought (he wasn’t allowed to back inside) “when those big police dogs tell me to keep an eye out for a 6 foot desperado, I know what to look for – grrr! But someone 186 centimeters tall could be as small as me for all I know!”
Gemma nodded her agreement (she always knew what Silence was thinking!) “Or a giant! The French did use the planet as a measuring rod though – I suppose that’s real.”
Dad drew himself up importantly and addressed the adoring table “The meter is 1 then millionth the distance of a meridian of longitude from the equator to the pole. Tan, Lily – do you know the difference between a decimeter and a decameter?”
“Er, no.” – “Search me.”
“And what about a myriameter?”
“We never heard of that.” Said Tan, obviously impressed by this omniscient sire “Gosh Dad, you sure know a lot about measurement – that reminds me; Nyyl was wondering if you could come into the class and tell us about your work – from a real expert he said. Can you Dad?”
“Well I suppose so.” He said a little too soon “Next week?”
“That sounds sensible dear; give you time to brush up.” Said his wife sweetly “By the way, what is a myriameter?”
“10 kilometers, or 10,000 meters – brush up indeed! I might bring in some of my measuring gear to show the class; like my measuring wheel – and a builder’s chalk line. To get a straight cut line, say on a verandah, you just flick the chalk-covered, tensioned sting. And I’ll tell them about long and short measurements, like light years and microns respectively…”
“Nyyl told us about them already.” Said Lily apologetically.
“Oh? Er, nice dinner dear.” Silence also felt sorry for his squelched master, but soon forgot as he noticed that the animal world hadn’t been considered in their mensuration ruminations.
“What about the inch worm?” he wanted to whine, but he was too well trained for that “Or the vast distances traveled by migrating Moon Birds; from Bass Strait to the Aleutian Islands?! Gosh, I’d love to go to school with Tan and Lily every day; I get so bored lying around here – I have so much to give!” Little Silence then curled up and dozed off.
“We learnt a lot about world measurements too.” mumbled Lily through her mashed potato “And – mmppff – I know how high the lighthouse is.”
“Yeah, rejoined Tan “we have ‘estimation’ games, where we all guess how long, deep or high some well-known feature is. Rodney got the closest to the highest building in the town; he’s usually hopeless at number work; you know, he’s got 0so-called!) learning problems. But he’s great at guessing – Rodney loves estimation.”
“And by extension, maths in general.” Said Dad thoughtfully “Children like that were relegated to the scrapheap once.”
“We had a measuring wheel at school; every rotation, as you push it along, clicks one meter onto a little odometer. We did ‘guessing’ again – ‘How far is it to the dam and back?’” Lily went on happily “I was the closest – 1,025 meters, just over a kilometer. Of course we had to go for a wok for this, but we didn’t mind, everyone got a go at pushing. It was had to guess through, the track was really windy.”
Tan jumped in to fill the pause “But it was me who figured out how to find the …what was it?…peri – perimeter of a large circle garden. I just ran a rope around the outside, then stretched it out in a straight line and measured it with my meter stick. Nyyl said something about sewing the seeds of a pie – I didn’t get it.”
“He meant Pi – as in Pi R. P-i, not P-i-e!” smiled Dad.
“Oh? Anyway, I got pretty good with my measuring rope; I figured out how to find the depth of the dam in different places – ‘sounding’ Nyyl called it. I tied knots (a nautical word derived from linear measurement) in my rope every half meter, tied a big nut on the end, and threw it in. I even found the perimeter of the dam with my trusty rope, which was 10 meters long. I laid it around the shore 3 times, with 12 knots extra – 36 meters!”
Silence returned after a short visit outside, his coal-black fur was damp, as it has been sprinkling. “That reminds me,” said Lily “we also measured rainfall; that’s in millimeters, so it’s a linear measure. So are tide heights. And Nyyl showed us how to measure with dividers. Sometimes you can’t get a ruler to a spot, but can fit in the points of dividers. This is very accurate when transferring measurements, he said. He also told us about microns and light years; but I didn’t get it – ‘You will when you’re older.’ He said, ‘IF you become space physicists or transistor builders.’ Sometimes Nyyl says weird stuff. Do you know the difference between a decameter and a decimeter Dad?”
“Er, I’ve heard of both of course…but I’m not sure – “
“The first means 10, so a decameter is 10 meters. These aren’t used much, but Nyyl said we should know them. Deci means tenth, or one tenth – again of a meter; about as long as Silence’s nose.
To ‘decimate’ comes from deci; as a punishment, the Romans – we heard this in the story – not knowing who the guilty person was, would stab the 10th in the line, no matter who…”
“More dessert Dear?” said Mother truncating her daughter’s sentence. Who knows what she might come out with next!?
“I got the answer right from the coastline of Australia.” Piped Lily on the edge of excitement “It’s 3000 miles about.”
“Well that’s if, like Matthew Flinders, you just sail around the coast.” Mother picked up crumbs with a wet finger “But what if you sailed into every bay and inlet – how far would it be then?”
“A hundred thousand miles?” – “A million!?”
“Actually as long as you like.”
“Hey, don’t mention that in class,” said Dad “I might bring it up when I go in. I’d better brush up on my Chaos theory though.” The twins looked at their mother with new respect – maybe she knew even more than their dad!
She continued “Are you doing any human measurements?” Silence woke up and lay his head on crossed paws “Always humans.” He though “What about the animals!?”
“Oh yes, we did long and high jumps and measured them.” Tan took advantage of Lily’s interest in her rice pudding to get a word in “We thought we were good, but Nyyl showed us how far the largest jumps on record were – wow! The long jump was further than this room!”
“Nothing compared with animals; a flea could leap the equivalent of a 16-story building.” Mused the family pet “And what about the kangaroo? Gosh I wish I could talk!
“This is a maths lesson isn’t it?” said Dad “It sounds more like fun to me. Do you actually calculate with measurement – do sums and the like?”
“Oh yes, every day we have exercises and problem-solving; that comes towards the end of the lesson.” Proffered Lily ‘Yesterday we learnt how to measure an irregular line or peri…perimeter.”
“With cotton!” interjected Tan “You just wet the cotton and curve it around the outside edge – then stretch it out straight and measure it. That’s how they measure rivers on a map.”
“Nyyl said we carry rulers around with us all the time – like our hands. That’s how horses are measured; and feet used to be real feet – the ones with toes ha, ha. You can still measure things like rooms with your feet. Later you can measure your foot, and multiply it by the paces to work out the room-length.”
“Then there’s our fingers – you can measure little things with fingers, like the length of the fish we caught (and threw back thank goodness) on our holiday – 8 fish fingers it was – giggle – even a hairsbreadth is a common measuring unit.”
“Pacing can be really accurate too; Nyyl says that he has an almost perfect meter pace – even over long distances, like 2 or 3 hundred meters.” Lily paused, just long enough for Silence to interject; but all the Sensible family heard was a low growl.
“They still haven’t dealt with animals; how come they don’t know that it’s impossible for a dog to walk over the earth in a straight line? Due to the curvature of the planet of course. On earth, the shortest distance between A and B is not a straight line. Even when I trot across the lawn there is a light earth-curvature factor – the Great Circle the navigators call it. Humans think we dogs just lie around doing nothing, we think about these things we do – the straight line belongs, not to the earth, but to the wonderful sun…”
“…with its angles of inclination.” Concluded Dad in surprise “Where did that come from?!” he thought, and then out loud.
“The sun is the home of the straight or ‘etheric line’. Sun rays are lines – the Hands of the Sun impartially bless the virtuous and the venal every day. Linear measurement is an etheric or ‘life body’ activity, just as the Point (or circle) represents the physical body. The Area Measurement you’ll learn next year is of the astral body, and after that, Volume – the ego.”
“Attaboy!” growled Silence, pleased that he was getting through.
“What’s all that mean Dad?” said an unimpressed Tan.
“Er, you’ll find out one day – now there are 3 main strands of mathematics; mensuration, numeration, and calculation – each has a main lesson in any given year. Mensuration, or measurement, is connected to the Will, numeration (the philosophy of number, etc.) to the Feeling, and calculation is the Thinking strand.”
“We have number work in the middle lessons too.” said Lily as she looked meaningfully at Tan and headed for their room.
“Oh? And what do you learn in those?” called Dad.
“Nuttin’.” – “Just stuff.”
More “Do’in nuthin’”. Measuring the height of a railway bridge using a long stick. Water depth can be determined in the same way.
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