Teaching Language arTs in The WaLdorf schooL

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Language Arts Compendium
talks with the children ahead of time, so they can enjoy the reading
when it comes. After the reading no more explanations of any kind
should be given. You will agree it would not make sense if I were
now to begin giving you a lecture in Chinese. You would say, “That
is senseless, because we never learned Chinese.” But if you all knew
Chinese when I gave my lecture, you would find it extremely dull
if afterwards I wanted to explain it all to you. You should have the
same feeling about a piece of reading and do everything you can to
make it enjoyable.
Talks such as these about modesty and conceit in people— and
affectation, as well—can be developed in greater detail than we have
done today, and you must let the children take a lively share. Then
you can read them the following poem:
What’s gleaming in the sunshine though fast asleep?
Oh, those are tiny violets that bloom in valley deep.
Bloom quite hidden in moss-covered ground,
So that we children no violets have found.
And what’s this little head that stretches silent there?
What whispers in the moss so still and quiet here?
Search and you will find me, search for me still!
Wait, violet, wait, and find you we will!
– Hofmann von Fallersleben
When you teach children a poem in this way, they can enter its
every nuance, and it will be unnecessary to spoil the impression with
commentary and pedantry afterward. This is the method I want to
recommend to you with regard to your treatment of selections for
reading, because it will give you the opportunity to talk over many
things that belong in your teaching, and further, the children will
have a real feeling of satisfaction when such passages are read. This
then is what I wish to lay upon your hearts about reading.
[Discussions with Teachers, pp. 69-78.]