• About WordPress
    • WordPress.org
    • Documentation
    • Support
    • Feedback
  • Notifications
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The BEarth Institute

Home of the First Online Waldorf Curriculum – Since 1994

Header Right

  • Members
    • Login
    • Quick Curriculum Access
    • Quick Lifetime Member Access
    • My Account
    • My Orders
    • My Wishlist
  • FAQ
    • FAQs
    • Earthschooling Facts
  • Wishlists
  • Cart0
  • Home
    • Earthschooling
    • The Avicenna Institute
    • Photography
    • Waldorf Books
    • Newsletters
  • Waldorf Books
        • Waldorf Books By General Subject
          • Anthroposophy
          • Art Books
          • Bio-Dynamic Farming
          • Books for Learning Challenges
          • Books in German
          • Books in Spanish
          • By Rudolf Steiner
          • Circle Time & Music Books
          • Craft & Handwork Books
          • Curriculum Guides
          • Early Childhood Books
          • Early Readers
          • European Stories
          • Eurythmy
          • Form Drawing
          • Gentle Board Books
          • Gift Books
          • Inner Work
          • Movement Books
          • Native American Books
          • Natural Therapies
          • Nourishing Foods
          • Parenting
          • Passages
          • Picture Books
          • Seasonal & Festival Books
          • Teaching
          • Waldorf in the City
          • Waldorf Schools
          • Journey of Analise
        • Waldorf Books By Grade
          • Early Childhood
          • First Grade
          • Second Grade
          • Third Grade
          • Fourth Grade
          • Fifth Grade
          • Sixth Grade
          • Seventh Grade
          • Eighth Grade
          • High School
        • Waldorf Books By School Subject
          • Creative Arts
          • Form Drawing
          • Eurythmy
          • Geography
          • History
          • Language
          • Math
          • Physical Education
          • Science
        • More Book Categories
          • Celebrating Diversity
          • Golden Beetle Books
          • Reading Lists by Grade
          • Create Your Own Curriculum!
          • Favorite Authors
          • Digital Editions
          • Imperfect Books
          • Student Text Books
  • Shop
        • All Shop Categories
        • Schools Click Here
        • Waldorf Books
        • Photography
        • Curriculum By Grade
          • Preschool
          • Kindergarten
          • First Grade
          • Second Grade
          • Third Grade
          • Fourth Grade
          • Fifth Grade
          • Sixth Grade
          • Seventh Grade
          • Eighth Grade
          • Ninth Grade
          • Tenth Grade
          • Eleventh Grade
          • Twelfth Grade
          • High School
        • Curriculum by Category
          • All Categories
          • Curriculum Packages
            • Core Curriculum Bundles
            • Curriculum Packages
            • Living Lessons Curriculum
            • Family - Lifetime Package
            • School Purchases
            • Photography Class
            • Kids Can Heal
            • Wildlife Education
          • Monthly Curriculum
            • Preschool
            • Kindergarten
            • First Grade
            • Second Grade
            • Third Grade
            • Fourth Grade
            • Fifth Grade
            • Sixth Grade
            • Seventh Grade
            • Eighth Grade
          • Lesson Blocks
            • Blocks By Subject
            • First Grade
            • Second Grade
            • Third Grade
            • Fourth Grade
            • Fifth Grade
            • Sixth Grade
            • Seventh Grade
            • Eighth Grade
        • Waldorf Parent/Teacher Tutorials
          • Complete Teacher Support Package
          • Eurythmy
          • Watercolor Tutorials
          • Chalk Tutorials
          • Block Crayon Instruction
          • Handwork & Art
          • Music Tutorials
          • Teaching the Main Lesson
          • Pedagogy
          • The Temperaments
          • Consulting
        • Naturopathic Courses
          • Naturopathic Series
          • Unani Tibb
          • Audit Classes
          • Naturopathic Co-ops
          • Naturopathic Payment Plans
          • Well-Being Consults
  • Members
        • Login
        • Quick Curriculum Access
        • Quick Lifetime Member Access
        • Earthschooling Members
        • Naturopathic Students
          • Student Connections
            • Student Forum
            • NEW Student Blog
            • Student Newsletters
            • Student Yahoogroup
        • Packages & Blocks
          • Individual Living Lessons
            • Second Grade Math Living Lessons
            • Fourth Grade Human & Animal
            • Fourth Grade Norse Mythology
            • Fourth Grade Math Block
            • Fifth Grade Living Lessons Math Block
            • Fifth Grade LL: Ancient India
            • Sixth Grade LL: Geometry
            • Seventh Grade LL: Math
          • French Classes
            • Autumn French Classes
          • Music Classes
            • Circle Time Pre-KG
            • Circle Time First Grade
            • Ukulele Classes
          • Eurythmy Classes
            • Eurythmy by Grade
          • Handwork & Art Classes
          • Math, Language & Form
          • Waldorf Foundations
  • About
    • Newsletters
    • About
    • Contact Us
    • Testimonials
    • Giving Back
    • Our Team
    • Earthschooling Facts
    • FAQs
    • Purchase & Privacy
  • Blog
    • Public Blog
    • WaldorfBooks.com Blog
    • Avicenna Institute Student Blog
  • Free
    • Newsletters
    • Free Curriculum Samples
    • Overview
    • #Earthschooling365
    • Temperaments
    • Articles
    • Waldorf 101
    • Reading Lists
  • Join
    • Newsletters
    • Schools
    • Affiliate Area
    • Members
    • Partners
    • Scholarships
    • Staff
  • Legal Resources & Services
  • Curriculum Member
  • Earthschooling Member Forum
  • Member Yahoogroup
  • Accreditation Page
You are here: Home / Guest Blogger / Alan Whitehead / Of Pine and Palm: Mathematics Class 9 and 10: A Rudolf Steiner Approach: Prologue

Of Pine and Palm: Mathematics Class 9 and 10: A Rudolf Steiner Approach: Prologue

March 22, 2020 by Kristie Leave a Comment

Would you like access to all 54 of Alan Whitehead’s Golden Beetle Books (including this one) as we re-publish each one (daily, one or more chapters at a time)? Join the Golden Beetle Book Club HERE.

Want to know more about Golden Beetle Books? Link HERE.

Of Pine and Palm: Mathematics Class 9 and 10: A Rudolf Steiner Approach: Prologue

By Alan Whitehead

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. You may share a direct link to any public posts (like this one) on this website.

 “Mysticism is also known as mathesis, for in mathematics none can differ from someone else in his opinions – can never disagree over a mathematical axiom.” – Rudolf Steiner

As an educator, Rudolf Steiner was an ‘integrationist’, an advocate of interweaving and complementing of school subjects. He taught that, through the vehicle of creativity, teachers could bring harmonizing and mutual benefits to subjects as (apparently) disparate math and music, physics and painting, and grammar and games, by a process of synthesis rather than fragmentation. Nowhere is this more vital that in the teaching of math; the study of number in isolation is as currently futile as trying to know the individuality of some long-dead soul by studying their skull. In this spirit, Of Pine and Palm follows a long path of math awakening through many life areas where numeracy is both integrated and applied, like astronomy, commerce, and surveying. There are four dedicated math units in a Steiner high school syllabus, comprising three main lessons and one middle. Naturally, math enters many other of the 180 or so 3-week units taught through the five <or four if starting at 9th grade> years of high school. These four math units total about 113 hours of teaching per year.

As Steiner is a universal non-exam -curriculum, a student may not acquire the depth of math knowledge and/or skills as their peers who select math as one of their electives in high school – but they will certainly learn a lot more than students who don’t take math at all <or decide to stop at the ‘required’ algebra> – and there are legions of these, math being one of the least popular subjects in schools. In the cultural sense, the question is, “If I don’t need it, I shouldn’t have to learn it!” becomes irrelevant.

The principle goal of education – a preparation for life, in all its prismatic variety, is to stimulate love, or at least respect, for the subject. In Steiner, it is always a case of the heart taking primacy over the head. I would consider it a failure if, as a result of my math teaching, I had clever students, but ones who hated the subject. Preferable in contributing to whole-person development would be someone who, although perhaps knowing less, was stimulated to take into life the desire to learn more about the wonderful world of numbers.

May Of Pine and Palm enthuse its readers to realize this worthy goal in the teaching of the young people in their care.

<Note from Kristie: This being said I can say that looking through the chapters of this book has me in awe. I’m not sure what programs he is comparing to when using the words “more” and “less” – perhaps honor’s math or advanced math? All I know is that this book contains more advanced math than I’ve seen introduced in mainstream high schools I’m familiar with and it presents it in the most beautiful way! I would be confident sending my child off to college even after going through half of this book and this book is only the first of two,he has written on the subject. The next book covers 11th and 12th grade math!>
What we will be covering in this book…

Ninth Grade

Main Lessons – Mathematics (Head)

Body Soul Spirit
Geometry Finance Numeracy
Trigonometry Math in Small Business Probability Function

Middle Lessons – Numeracy (Chest)

Body
Time & Motion

 

Tenth Grade

Main Lessons

Body Soul Spirit
Geometry Finance Numeracy
Math in Astronomy & Navigation Math in Economics Math in Surveying

Middle Lessons

Body Soul Spirit
Computer Math “Pi in the Sky” “Pi in the Sky”

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Filed Under: Alan Whitehead, Waldorf Books

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Earthschooling

An Award Winning Curriculum...

Join Mailing List

The Waldorf Store

Golden Beetle Books Club

Waldorf Teacher Tutorials

Earthschooling Curriculum

Footer

Customer Service

  • My Wishlist
  • Shipping
  • FAQs
  • Earthschooling Facts
  • Contact Us
  • Member Help
    • Ask for Help
    • Tech Support
  • Privacy & Purchase Policy

Earthschooling Forum

Earthschooling Facebook Forum
Yahoo Groups Forum
Earthschooling Members Blog

Avicenna Institute Students

Facebook Forum
Yahoo Groups Student Forum
Student Blog

Newsletters

Check your inbox or spam folder now to confirm your subscription.


Check your inbox or spam folder now to confirm your subscription.


Check your inbox now to confirm your subscription.

Copyright © 2023 · The BEarth Institute Inc, Since 1994· Privacy Policy

Create a new list