Waldorf Without Walls

Happy Holidays

Holiday greetings to all, old friends, clients, and those of you I have met at conferences and workshops this past year, in both hemispheres! May we all work towards peace in the New Year, and let it begin with each of us, in our own relationships.

As many of you know, I recommend that you take most of the month of December off from the “school time schedule” to honor the solstice and holidays, making gifts, decorations, baking goodies, reading seasonal stories, enjoying visiting relatives and attending timely celebrations in your area. It is amazing how much learning takes place in the process of doing these things: math, science, reading, writing, art, music, social studies, history, geography, etc. You just need to take advantage of the seredipitous moments as they come up!

You will find a few holiday ideas on the website at http://waldorfwithoutwalls.com/articles/advent

And don’t forget about those beautiful kite-paper stars you can fold. If you don’t have directions please call or e-mail me: barbara@waldorfwithoutwalls.com or 888-269-3038 and I will send them to you.

Prayer before Birth

Here is a thought-provoking poem I found in the Journal from Australia/New Zealand Waldorf Teachers

Louis MacNeice - Prayer Before Birth

I am not yet born; O hear me.
Let not the bloodsucking bat or the rat or the stoat or the
    club-footed ghoul come near me.

I am not yet born, console me.
I fear that the human race may with tall walls wall me,
    with strong drugs dope me, with wise lies lure me,
        on black racks rack me, in blood-baths roll me.

I am not yet born; provide me
With water to dandle me, grass to grow for me, trees to talk
    to me, sky to sing to me, birds and a white light
        in the back of my mind to guide me.

I am not yet born; forgive me
For the sins that in me the world shall commit, my words
    when they speak me, my thoughts when they think me,
        my treason engendered by traitors beyond me,
            my life when they murder by means of my
                hands, my death when they live me.

I am not yet born; rehearse me
In the parts I must play and the cues I must take when
    old men lecture me, bureaucrats hector me, mountains
        frown at me, lovers laugh at me, the white
            waves call me to folly and the desert calls
                me to doom and the beggar refuses
                    my gift and my children curse me.

I am not yet born; O hear me,
Let not the man who is beast or who thinks he is God
    come near me.
I am not yet born; O fill me
With strength against those who would freeze my
    humanity, would dragoon me into a lethal automaton,
        would make me a cog in a machine, a thing with
            one face, a thing, and against all those
                who would dissipate my entirety, would
                    blow me like thistledown hither and
                        thither or hither and thither
                            like water held in the
                                hands would spill me.

Let them not make me a stone and let them not spill me.
Otherwise kill me.

School Violence Worldwide Linked to Competitive Test Scores

A Penn State study by two researchers, Dr. David P. Baker, professor of education and sociology, and Dr. Gerald K. LeTendre, associate professor of education shows a significant link between school violence on a global scale and educational inequality.

Contrary to popular perceptions, the United States is not the front-runner in school violence but places roughly in the middle of the international pack. Despite keen media attention, outbreaks of mass violence such as the Columbine High School massacre of 1999 are still comparatively rare. A far more pervasive problem is violence in the form of physical assaults, bullying, and threats of violence, say the researchers.

National patterns of school violence have little or no correlation with the amount of violence among adults in a country or social trends such as the rate of divorce. Instead, these patterns are strongly influenced by inequities in the educational systems that, in turn, create inequities in academic attainment. Regarding root causes, school violence must be considered a separate issue from juvenile delinquency:

“Our data indicate that an increase in the variation of achievement in math was associated with an increase in the percentage of students victimized by school violence,” Baker notes. “The more school systems produce a set of academic winners and losers, the more likely they are to create an atmosphere leading to in-school violence. This does not mean that nations should stop trying to raise scores, but they should be careful to raise the performance among all students. Persistent inequality in national resources produces both long-term and immediate problems for nations, the most pressing of which may be school violence.”

For the complete article, see: http://www.ed.psu.edu/news/violencetest.asp

Some Interesting Facts on Organic Food

The Organic Consumers Association website features weekly updates on food safety, sustainable agriculture and fair trade, information you may not find in media news. To access their site: http://www.organicconsumers.org

A sample:

TV: SHRINKING KIDS’ BRAINS

Three new studies reviewed in this month’s issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine show that the more time children spend watching television, the poorer they perform academically. One study was conducted at John Hopkins University, another in New Zealand, and a third at the University of Washington, wherein, over the course of a decade, 1,800 children participated in the study. Researchers found television leading to poor cognitive development, while access to a computer at home resulted in increased academic performance. http://www.organicconsumers.org/school/tvstudies070405.cfm

Some Other Sites of Interest

Good articles on Waldorf education:: Rudolf Steiner Schools of Australia - an Association; http://www.steineroz.com
Waldorf Birth to Four chat group:: To join, contact Kimberly.lewis@gmail.com
WECAN website - for information on early childhood programs, publications and articles:: http://www.waldorfearlychildhood.org

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