Have you ever heard the term “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander?” (It means, basically, that what a man can do, a woman can do too, or what is good for the man is also suitable for the woman.) I want to coin a new phrase and dedicate it to Waldorf schooling: What is ideal for the gosling is good for the goose.
Over the years, I have heard so many parents reflect that sentiment – even myself. When I attended the parent-child class with my children in the Chicago suburbs, I used to joke that I was going for me and they were just along for the ride. At my Waldorf enrichment school overseas, many mothers told me they were surprised by how much THEY looked forward to coming to my program, and just the other day someone commented that they didn’t know who was getting more out of Waldorf – their kids or them!
This is one aspect of Waldorf education that makes it so appealing and healing at the same time – it encompasses each person as a holistic being. In striving to be the best teachers we learn the skills of inner work and meditation, in creating paintings with our children we can sometimes heal ourselves from our own rushed childhood years. In teaching a main lesson on mythology, our own fire for learning is re-lit, and in taking nature walks, we re-learn appreciation of nature from our own children. By noticing the ways Waldorf can suit our children and us, we can gain a deeper appreciation for the teaching methods and the effort we put into our teaching hours. We can also discover new and wonderful things about ourselves and enrich our own lives.
As parents, we are also learning, and a main lesson book can be a way to record that learning, express ourselves, honor what we are learning, and create a sacred space for it. As babies, we are cheered by each new skill we learn. Our first laugh is rewarded with praise and photos. Our first steps are rewarded with hugs and squeals of excitement from the adults around us. However, when we learn something new as an adult, how often do we get praised for it? Keeping your own main lesson book can be a way for you to honor that.
The reason I call it a “main lesson” book rather than a journal is that I want to emphasize that the book is meant to record lessons and processes, not a mix of lessons, photos, and experiences. A memory album is a record of the past. A journal is a record of our inner thoughts and experiences. A main lesson book is a record of lessons we are working on now – academic, artistic & spiritual. In my main lesson book this week, I have written out two of my favorite quotes and decorated them with a flowery border. The next page is a mandala meditation I did when I needed to work through some frustrations. Mixed in with those kinds of entries is a page I did with the kids on herbal form drawing and another page on a story we created together.
Another area of Waldorf we can learn from is the skill of rhythm in our lives. Modern society teaches us to schedule things by the hour and accomplish as much as we can in one day. We are told that we must be on time to work, to school, and to everything we do. We are given cereal so we can rush through breakfast, frozen meals so we can rush through cooking, and cars so we can drive quickly to wherever we are going. In this rush, we often lose our sense of rhythm and can become quite overwhelmed and confused.
In Waldorf education, rhythm is a central part of the day. In Steiner’s writing, it is hard to find a lecture in which he does not refer to rhythm and cycles – of the day, of the month, of the year, of the life, and even of the life of earth & mankind itself.
In his lecture, The Christmas Festival (at: http://tinyurl.com/2baklv), Steiner says, “Man seems to become more and more akin to the great rhythms of Nature. If we think of all that encompasses the life of the soul, of the course of the Sun, and everything that is connected with it, we are struck by something that closely concerns us, namely, the rhythm and the marvelous harmony in contrast to the chaos and lack of harmony in the human soul. We all know how rhythmically and with what regularity the Sun appears and disappears. And we can picture what a stupendous upheaval there would be in the universe if, for a fraction of a second, only the Sun were to be diverted from its course. It is only because of this inviolable harmony in the course of the Sun that our universe can exist at all, and it is upon this harmony that the rhythmic life-process of all beings depends. Think of the annual course of the Sun. — Picture to yourselves that it is the Sun which charms forth the plants in springtime, and then think how difficult it is to make the violet or some other plant flower out of due season. Seed-time and harvest, everything, even the very life of animals, is dependent upon the rhythmic course of the Sun. And in the being of man himself, everything that is not connected with his feelings, his desires, and his passions, or with his ordinary thinking, is rhythmic and harmonious.
By realizing this within our children and ourselves, we learn how important “little things” like morning circle time, regular meals, regular bedtimes, and regular routines are to our holistic well-being. There are many theories today that most psychological issues we deal with as a society are significantly attributable to our lack of rhythm. Depression can often stem from days, months, or even years of sleep deprivation (example: http://tinyurl.com/3x6atf). ADHD can manifest when a child or adult is exposed to an environment lacking rhythm (e.g., http://tinyurl.com/3c47pc), and many illnesses, especially digestive system illnesses, can be directly related to our habits of eating out of rhythm with the seasons and with our own physical needs. However, although we may spend hours planning the rhythms of our child’s day, we sometimes forget our own. While we definitely reap the benefits of morning circle time and other rhythmic routines, we sometimes forget that our own routines need a rhythm too. In the same way we schedule a different activity for each day (bread making on Monday, painting on Tuesdays, etc.), we can also schedule our own chores.
In my personal situation, I schedule both my household and my business duties in this way. On Mondays, I clean the pet areas of the home and change the sheets on the beds. On Tuesdays, I scrub the kitchen floor and clean the bathrooms. The list rotates every week. In my business, I have a similar list. On Mondays, I list items on eBay, do home- and business-related shopping, and ship any weekend orders. On Tuesdays, I handle finances for the home and the business, and on Wednesdays, I write BLOGS and articles and do my main work on the Waldorf lists. On Thursdays I see consulting clients and on Fridays I have office hours for students from my natural healing classes. In the same way, I also have a rhythm to my day that reflects the breathing-in and breathing-out rhythm the children follow. After spending some time on breathing in (E-mail, gardening, doing dishes) I make sure that I spend some time on breathing out activity (ie: running errands, lessons with the kids, healing work). I also make sure my day contains the three elements of head (writing articles or mental work), heart (chatting with friends, being with my kids, partner, and pets, meditating), and hands (knitting, baking, creating something).
The morning is a natural time of awakening when a person can best function in creating projects & writing. The afternoon is naturally the peak of the day, when more physical activity is required, such as a walk. Many people who ignore this natural rhythm can experience a “low” or feeling of fatigue daily, sometimes in the afternoon. The evening (and the early morning before the sun comes up) is a natural time for inner work and peaceful family activities. On days when I do not follow these rhythms, I can feel the difference in my mood, productivity, outlook on life, ability to work, and levels of inner peace and balance. If you reflect for a while, you will find that there are many ways in which you can incorporate Waldorf into your own life as well as your child’s life. If you have any inspirations that work for you, please share them with the group at:waldorfschoolonline@yahoogroups.com
Soul of man!
You live in the heart-lung-beat
That guides you through the rhythm of times
To the sensing of your own soul’s being:
Practice spirit contemplation in equanimity of soul,
Where the surging Cosmic creative deeds
Unite Your own I
To the cosmic I;
And you will truly feel
In deeds of the human soul. – Rudolph Steiner
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