The Importance of Childhood
Hearthstone honors and protects the wonder of childhood. Every effort is expended to make Hearthstone a safe, secure, and nurturing environment for the children.
Waldorf
Waldorf EducationFrom An Introduction to Waldorf Education by Rudolf Steiner College, Fair Oaks, California
The first Waldorf school was founded in 1919 in Stuttgart, Germany when Emil Mott, a wealthy industrialist and owner of the Waldorf-Astoria Cigarette Factory, asked Dr. Rudolf Steiner to help him create a school for the families of his workers. Dr. Steiner was well-known at this time for his ideas in education and for his spiritual-scientific research leading to an understanding of the nature of man and the world. This path of knowledge he called anthroposophy, from the Greek anthropos (man) and sophia (wisdom).
Waldorf education is designed to develop the full spectrum of human wholeness—hand and heart as well as mind. It aims to support a harmonious development of the three soul faculties—willing, feeling and thinking—taking full account of the physical and emotional growth phases of the child. There is a particular emphasis on the development of the will during the first seven years of home and kindergarten education. The children learn most by what is worthy of imitation, through activities. During the lower school years (grades 1-5), the feeling life of the child is nurtured through the guiding authority of the teacher who integrates artistic, imaginative elements into the learning process. During the middle school years (Grades 6-8), the thinking capacity is just starting to develop. Math and sciences meet the budding intellect which later develops in the high school. During the upper school years (Grades 9-12), the faculty of thinking is more directly emphasized, by challenging the adolescents to individual judgment and to more conscious participation in their education.
Through Waldorf education, Rudolf Steiner hoped to cultivate in young people capacities of heart and mind and the strength of will that will enable them to meet the challenges of their own time and the future. He laid the foundation for an art of education in which the teacher, ever aware of the inherent dignity and individuality of each child, would strive to awaken and draw out the child’s individual gifts. This is in keeping with the true meaning of “to educate” from educere, “to draw out,” rather than to put in.
Children are taught in chronological age groups of mixed ability. The school is coeducational and nondenominational, and by welcoming students of diverse social, ethnic and religious backgrounds, it attempts to reflect and serve the whole of society.
The first Waldorf school was founded in 1919 in Stuttgart, Germany when Emil Mott, a wealthy industrialist and owner of the Waldorf-Astoria Cigarette Factory, asked Dr. Rudolf Steiner to help him create a school for the families of his workers. Dr. Steiner was well-known at this time for his ideas in education and for his spiritual-scientific research leading to an understanding of the nature of man and the world. This path of knowledge he called anthroposophy, from the Greek anthropos (man) and sophia (wisdom).
Waldorf education is designed to develop the full spectrum of human wholeness—hand and heart as well as mind. It aims to support a harmonious development of the three soul faculties—willing, feeling and thinking—taking full account of the physical and emotional growth phases of the child. There is a particular emphasis on the development of the will during the first seven years of home and kindergarten education. The children learn most by what is worthy of imitation, through activities. During the lower school years (grades 1-5), the feeling life of the child is nurtured through the guiding authority of the teacher who integrates artistic, imaginative elements into the learning process. During the middle school years (Grades 6-8), the thinking capacity is just starting to develop. Math and sciences meet the budding intellect which later develops in the high school. During the upper school years (Grades 9-12), the faculty of thinking is more directly emphasized, by challenging the adolescents to individual judgment and to more conscious participation in their education.
Through Waldorf education, Rudolf Steiner hoped to cultivate in young people capacities of heart and mind and the strength of will that will enable them to meet the challenges of their own time and the future. He laid the foundation for an art of education in which the teacher, ever aware of the inherent dignity and individuality of each child, would strive to awaken and draw out the child’s individual gifts. This is in keeping with the true meaning of “to educate” from educere, “to draw out,” rather than to put in.
Children are taught in chronological age groups of mixed ability. The school is coeducational and nondenominational, and by welcoming students of diverse social, ethnic and religious backgrounds, it attempts to reflect and serve the whole of society.
Play
In November of 1959 the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights recognized play as a right of every child.
http://www.communityplaythings.com/resources/articles/2009/play-priceless
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-serious-need-for-play/
free play
delayed learning
http://www.communityplaythings.com/resources/articles/2009/play-priceless
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-serious-need-for-play/
free play
delayed learning
Nature
Studies show that anxiety, depression, and possibly ADD are reduced when children spend more time in nature. Time spent in nature provides children with opportunities for problem solving and risk-taking.
last child in the woods
last child in the woods
Storytelling
Waldorf education is deeply bound up with the oral tradition, beginning with fairy tales. healing stories resource
Handwork
By Patricia Lynch and Lesley Cox
Handwork is one of the unique subjects in the curriculum of Waldorf schools. Rudolf Steiner saw handwork as a remedy for the fast-paced and highly technical modern world. He thought that because handwork would help children develop an appreciation and respect for things that are man-made, they would have a greater opportunity to support that which is practical and beautiful. In addition, handwork more obviously requires concentration, dexterity, attention to detail, willingness to “fail”—to undo mistakes and start again, and a commitment to see something through for days, and eventually for weeks, until finally there can come the pride of accomplishment.
Throughout all of the grades, an effort is made to use materials from nature. Doing so encourages the children to be aware of all that the world has to offer. Understanding the origins of the materials that are used helps to develop a love, a respect, a wonder, and an appreciation for the trees, plants, and animals whose wood, fibers and fleece have provided them with the tools for their work.
Children who learn while they are young to make practical things by hand in an artistic way, and for the benefit of others as well as themselves, will not be strangers to life or to other people when they are older. They will be able to form their lives and their relationships in a social and artistic way, so that their lives are thereby enriched.
~Hedwig Hauck, Handwork and Handicrafts: Part I
Handwork is one of the unique subjects in the curriculum of Waldorf schools. Rudolf Steiner saw handwork as a remedy for the fast-paced and highly technical modern world. He thought that because handwork would help children develop an appreciation and respect for things that are man-made, they would have a greater opportunity to support that which is practical and beautiful. In addition, handwork more obviously requires concentration, dexterity, attention to detail, willingness to “fail”—to undo mistakes and start again, and a commitment to see something through for days, and eventually for weeks, until finally there can come the pride of accomplishment.
Throughout all of the grades, an effort is made to use materials from nature. Doing so encourages the children to be aware of all that the world has to offer. Understanding the origins of the materials that are used helps to develop a love, a respect, a wonder, and an appreciation for the trees, plants, and animals whose wood, fibers and fleece have provided them with the tools for their work.
Children who learn while they are young to make practical things by hand in an artistic way, and for the benefit of others as well as themselves, will not be strangers to life or to other people when they are older. They will be able to form their lives and their relationships in a social and artistic way, so that their lives are thereby enriched.
~Hedwig Hauck, Handwork and Handicrafts: Part I
