The Lower School - the Class Teacher Years
Children in a Rudolf Steiner School enter upon the next stage of their journey when they leave the kindergarten and commence school. They meet their class teacher who will accompany them from the age of six or seven through to the beginning of adolescence.
All children are carefully assessed as to whether they are ready to embark on this journey. Are they ready to learn to write and later read and do arithmetic without thwarting some other part of their development? Are the growth forces all still needed for growing and playing or are some growth forces free to be used for their next task? Children about seven years of age should have the concentration to build their own vivid inner pictures when being told a story, and through such imagery will continue learning in the following years.
Learning is guided according to the stage of child development, just as it is throughout the education. In this way the children maintain their thirst for learning. The pattern of the day consists of the main lesson in the first two hours, followed by a specialist lesson until lunch time. The daily timetable takes account of the ebb and flow of the children’s energy, and is varied accordingly. Therefore the afternoon lessons are more relaxed with an emphasis on games and practical activities.
Key subjects are taught in ‘main lessons’, which occupy the first two hours of each school morning for periods of about four weeks each, followed by morning tea time and specialist lessons. The specialist lessons include handwork (knitting, crochet, sewing), a second language (German and, if possible, also Maori), eurythmy and music, which starts with the introduction of pentatonic wooden flutes in class 1 (see leaflet on specialist lessons).
These lower school years are an exciting voyage of discovery for the child, the teacher and the parents, who form a bond which enables learning to take place on all three sides. Regular parent-teacher meetings, home visits, and social and cultural events are offered to all parents.
Class One
Main lessons in Class One include form drawing (the drawing of exact forms and mirror images); writing the letters of the alphabet, which are introduced via story telling (fairy tales), movement, painting and drawing; and arithmetic with an emphasis on mental arithmetic and rhythmic work in learning the times tables. The sciences and geography find their roots here in a main lesson block called ‘home surroundings’, focused on the child’s environment.
Specialist lessons include handwork, where the children learn to knit. German language is introduced by way of simple greetings, introductions, verses, and simple questions and answers.
Class Two
Eight year olds relate strongly to the imagery in fables and in stories of saints. They learn cursive writing, reading and simple sentence structure, and in mathematics the times tables, adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing the simple numbers.
Meanwhile, all the specialist lessons continue. With the second language teacher the children learn poems, songs and build vocabulary through simple, everyday phrases. In handcraft they progress to crocheting.
Class Three
Around the age of nine comes a very important psychological change. The child has a stronger experience of his or her own individuality or identity (ego) and begins to question adult authority. They may feel isolated from family and friends, and therefore need more sympathy and firmness from teachers and parents.
Again, the subjects given to Class Three are carefully chosen and timed to relate to this inner psychological change. The Hebrew Old Testament stories give the nine year old an inner picture of the security of a God who looks after His chosen people. The Old Testament story of the Fall from Paradise is a vivid image of what the nine year old is experiencing in their soul development.
In handwork the children crochet a hat, a visible form of something protecting them. In the main lesson they learn about occupations such as house building, farming and traditional crafts. How do farmers provide our food? Unforgettable is an early morning visit to a cow shed with its characteristic sounds and smells, seeing the cows milked, feeling their warm breath, tasting the fresh milk! School gardens are used to sow wheat - and with luck the grain can be harvested, threshed, winnowed, ground and made into a small loaf, enabling them to experience just how much work is done for us by other human beings. The children begin to feel protected after all.
We expect children by the end of Class Three to have attained the same average reading levels of the equivalent age children in state schools. We wish them to know their times tables forwards, backwards and ‘inside out’ and to use the four processes of arithmetic using four digit numbers. In handwork, children crochet and make a patterned woollen hat.
Class Four
From Class Four children have developed to a point where they can be led into the history and geography of their locality. Their English work demands simple composition and knowledge of the parts of speech. In the main lesson “Human and Animal”, the main animal types are described, contrasted and compared with human beings. In mathematics, fractions and decimals are introduced. Cultural studies through story telling are taken from the Norse sagas and legends, Celtic and Maori myths, and similar epics from other ancient civilisations. In handwork, the children design cross-stitch patterns and use these to make needle cases, pin cushions or small bags.
Class Five
In main lessons, the history and culture of the ancient civilisations of India, Persia, Egypt and Greece are now studied. New Zealand geography, zoology and botany are introduced in a way which appeals to the soul of the 11-year old. English and maths are further developed.
A new specialist subject introduced at this age is woodwork. The children are taught to use wood in an imaginative way, through whittling and shaping simple objects. In handwork, the focus is on embroidery and fine sewing.
Class Six
At the age of 12, the child experiences another change. At this age the thinking begins to change from the picture-building of the child to the intellectual (logical or cause-and- effect thinking) of the adult. However, it is only beginning, and science makes a memorable gateway to the awakening intellect for the child in pre-puberty. The first science lesson, physics, is taught in a way that bridges the gap between the artistic and the intellectual; for example, the children’s music studies now lead to acoustics, and colour studies and painting lead to optics. Similarly, in geography, map drawing is treated in an artistic as well as in a scientific manner, as is the drawing of plants in botany. The children’s earlier knowledge of free-hand form drawing is now put to use in geometrical studies, combining beauty and accuracy in construction. Drawing, too, becomes more technical, with recognition of shadows. In history the Roman era and the Middle Ages up to the fifteenth century are studied. Latin will be introduced (ideally Ancient Greek also). In handwork, children work out a pattern and sew a stuffed animal.
Class Seven
In our school, Class Seven is the final year of the lower (or primary) school. The journey with the class teacher is nearing completion insofar as the studies of the previous years are rounded off. The year is highlighted by a major drama production.
History is continued up to the seventeenth century, studying the Age of the Renaissance of Europe, including the voyages of discovery, the artists and the scientists. A special study of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael is usually undertaken. Studies in chemistry, physics, geography, mathematics and drawing are related to the inventions and discoveries of those who led the Renaissance. Health and nutrition form another main lesson block, anticipating the young teenager’s growing awareness of their body and physical needs. The specialist subjects are continued and expanded: handwork (doll making), gardening, music, woodwork, gymnastics, eurythmy, English, and German.
Eurythmy
Eurythmy is an art, in which the human body recreates in space the sounds of speech and the tones and intervals of music.
Through doing eurythmy children develop powers of imagination, concentration and presence of mind. The children learn to recognise what part they as individuals have to play in a social group. Interaction between the outer world and their own inner life is brought into harmony through doing rhythmical exercises.
For the young child in Class One the fairy tale can be brought into their life of movement. The darting fish in the tale is the same image as the eurythmy sound ‘f’, so is the sound and movement ‘B’ for the big brown bear. Music is also a part of the lesson, the children walk and run forms in space, and step different qualities of rhythms i.e. the light Anapaest for the prince’s horse galloping through the forest, or the Spondee for the giant walking heavily home from his hard day’s work.
As the children grow older more complicated movements are introduced and this culminates in items of music and poetry being performed in the higher classes.
Form Drawing
Form drawing is an activity which has been specially developed in Waldorf schools. Beginning in Class One, the children are shown how all things in the world are made up of straight or curved lines or some combination of the two. The children experience symmetry and balance through doing simple line drawings which they practise first through some form of movement before using chalk, crayon or pencil. A simple form drawn by the teacher on one side of a ‘mirror’ is reflected on the other side by the children. Such an exercise helps the children’s spatial orientation and eye-hand co-ordination. These forms develop in complexity as the children grow older. Form drawing often accompanies a main lesson in arithmetic in Classes One and Two.
Other forms include mathematical elements and these, drawn freehand, are a precursor to the geometry of later years when instruments and accurate measurement are required.
