Does the Waldorf curriculum you teach, which you
have seen taught, ‘grow out of ’ the land your feet are on or
is it more imposed on it from somewhere else? Think about
the original school and the curriculum that was given. Did
it ‘grow out of ’ the land and situation or was there any sense
of it being imposed on it? Is there a tension between the
hidden curriculum of ‘traditional Waldorf ’ content and the
child’s lived experience in her environment under tropical
skies in the middle of the Pacific? Especially in the early
years and lower part of the school before the curriculum
outlook has begun to broaden out into the world. If there is,
how do you see that being addressed? How can we make it,
that the birds a child hears when she wakes up, what she sees
out the window, on her way to school, walking down the
street is then reflected and supported by what goes on in the
classroom?
For me, considering those questions will help you gain
some kind of appreciation of how Waldorf education can
respond to a sense of place.
©Neil