hand tools.
How We Inspire Students to Appreciate Diversity
“We went to Cape Abilities farm for a field trip with the sixth grade. Ronald inspires me because he taught me that anything is possible if you try.”
- K.T. Fifth grade student at WSCC
In Waldorf schools, every child is gifted and talented and the curriculum is designed to bring his or her talent to light. Waldorf curriculum exposes children to a wide variety of subjects and encourages them to develop in a well-balanced way.
Girls and boys take woodwork and learn to knit, and everyone plays a musical instrument. These diverse experiences help children to discover and develop their own talents while noticing that each person’s gifts are different. This approach encourages the appreciation of many types of skills in addition to academic skills.
Our sixth grade class is reading Sharon Draper’s book, Out of My Mind, which is the story of an intelligent 11-year old girl who cannot speak, talk, or write and her journey through these challenges. The class teachers brought both the fifth and sixth grade classes to Cape Abilities farm to broaden their real world experience while reading this story.
The students visited Cape Abilities Farm just before the holidays to be immersed into the daily happenings at the farm. The children helped unwrap trees, decorate kissing balls, and pick tomatoes alongside the farm staff. One student reflected:
“My field trip to Cape Abilities farm was great. I found the trip very inspiring… Two workers really touched my heart, their names were Ronald and Henry, both of them were so nice and they both loved their jobs.”
- J.D. WSCC Fifth grade student.
Waldorf educators believe that the curriculum brings to light each child’s unique talents while developing appreciation for other’s gifts and talents that may be different from their own. The goal is to send forth into the world children who appreciate the diversity and myriad of talents that human beings share.
The Most Important Subject Our First Graders Learn
On the very first day of school, our first grade children were presented with the polarity of two kinds of lines - straight lines and curves. Throughout the year they will see the infinite variety of forms that can be created out of these simple elements.
In some respects, Form Drawing is the most important subject that the children will study in first grade, for it provides a good foundation for the letter recognition that is so central to reading, as well as numerical and spatial relationships that are so essential in arithmetic. The drawings themselves could not be any simpler. All year we work with only two elements of drawing - straight lines and curves.
