Waldorf Education

I have to say, again, how much I appreciate Waldorf education.

This year my son got his first "grades" teacher. In Waldorf training, kindergarten teachers go through a completely different specialization process than grades teachers, and the Waldorf method treats these ages very differently. Going into the "grades" is a big deal. Ideally, his first grade teacher will be his teacher through 8th grade.

Last year my son's teachers made his second year of kindergarten amazing. If you read my previous Waldorf posts, you know how much I loved his teachers last year.

This year... not so much. Since this school is a public charter, their first priority when hiring a new teacher is a California credential, then any Waldorf training as a bonus. If the teacher does not have both (which is likely), the school contributes to the cost of sending the teacher to Waldorf teacher training. Most of the credentialed teachers at this school are still going through some phase of their Waldorf training.

The teacher that had been originally hired to fill this spot came from another Waldorf charter school in the bay area, had both her state credential and had completed her Waldorf training. She had been a teacher at that school for several years, and was well qualified. However, she changed her mind about leaving her old school about a month before school started, and the school was left scrambling (I believe) to find another teacher.

Anyway I hope that was why they chose this teacher. She has no Waldorf experience besides the two weeks of training they could squeeze in before school started, and has no classroom experience either! She was a substitute teacher in the public schools before landing this job.

From what I can see, she loves her job. I can't imagine a more fun environment to teach, but perhaps I'm biased.

However, I've had several negative experiences with her already. I don't know if it is merely because she's new to teaching and isn't yet comfortable with dealing with parents, but so far her "method" is to ignore me and hope I go away, from what I can tell.

Frankly, I'm just about there. My son can be difficult to deal with. He's active, smart, and confident (a lethal combination), which means he's paying attention when you think he's not, bored and distracting anyone around him when he's not engaged, and answering all the questions whether you want him to or not. Basically a lot of work. Knowing this, I've tried to be as involved as possible in order to make her job as easy as possible.

However, if she's not interested, I'm sure I can find other things to do. I'm just concerned that her methods, if not what he needs, could alienate him from the learning process I've tried so hard to teach him to enjoy.

All that said, whatever he thinks of her (and I don't really know) is not affecting his learning. He loves his school, and LOVES main lesson. This is where they get the bulk of their academic training. This large chunk of the morning is when they cover math, science, writing, learning the alphabet, and whatever else they are supposed to learn in first grade. However, they learn all this through storytelling and drawing, and so every lesson is weaved into a tale that the kids then illustrate and copy into their lesson books, which are the Waldorf equivalent of textbooks all through the grades.

Last year, I would ask him at the dinner table to tell me the story he'd heard that day. In kindergarten, the teachers tell the same story every day for two weeks. By the third telling he was so bored with it, I couldn't get him to even tell me what the story was called. I stopped trying to get him to tell me the story once I saw how much it bothered him.

This year the story is shorter, and a new one is told each day. I've gotten out of the habit of asking him at the dinner table, but last night he volunteered the information. He told us he's learning 12 stories about 12 knights that are on a quest to find the perfect number, and that although he didn't have time to tell me ALL the stories, he'd be happy to tell me two per night until I'd heard all twelve. I have to say, that makes me super happy!