One parent's view...

"Second Grade Burn-Out." So read a bold headline in the New York Times. A school psychologist was noting that young elementary schoolers in a well-to-do suburban school district were showing classic signs of academic burn-out. The article continued, discussing the currently popular thrust of pushing academics ever earlier into school curriculums. The children studied had started in an "Academic Pre-K", pushed by both parents & a system that believe earlier is better, and by the time they reached third grade they were burning out. So at a point when they should be just starting to bloom with interest about the world and facts around them, they were numb to it all. How incredibly sad.

In the first few years of raising my daughter, I remember a few times when I tried to teach something and she just didn't get it. I'd try a few times, in a few ways, and it just didn't seem to be getting through. So I backed off, figuring that were I a better teacher, I'd be able to get it across. But then perhaps some months later I tried teaching the same thing in the same way, and I saw it just click in her and she picked it up easily. Obviously the time was right the second time around.

So now I wonder, what if I had continued pushing the first time, trying to force a lesson before she was ready? What if we both had tried and struggled and I had managed to force in a lesson before it's time? We would have a lesson learned, but at what cost? Does a painfully learned lesson instill a love of learning? What I took away from it all was this: when the timing is right, learning is easy and fun and self-rewarding.

As I read more about the background and philosophy of Waldorf education, I am always impressed by a focus on timing, by the coordination of subjects and teaching styles to the timeline of a child's physical and emotional and cognitive development. And also there is explicit attention to the individual development pace of each child – a child is not necessarily grade-ready just because they have lived so-many months on this earth – the Waldorf way is pay attention to more subtle cognitive and emotional signs that a child is ready before proceeding.

Attention to Timing – that's one of my favorite things. And I was only asked to write about one, but now I'm going to cheat a bit and give another favorite: Head, Hands, and Heart.

That's a prominent Waldorf theme. Modern "Academics" focuses largely on the verbal and logical pieces of learning, the "Head" part. But there's so much more: social interpersonal knowledge, visual spatial understanding, physical body sensibility, musical sensibility, ... Waldorf lessons work the hands in crafts and physical skills and musical instruments. And other lessons address how we each are a part of larger social circles: our class, our family, our community, our world – educating the Heart, in the understanding of others. Some researchers note that students who know Mozart do better in Math. It's all tied together!

And to me, that, perhaps is most important: