When Healing Becomes Educating, Vol. 6 - Waldorf Research Institute

Task-orientated skills can also be observed when children draw or paint,
by noting how they use the space on a sheet of paper. The essential point is
that children should have an idea of how to proceed.
3) Correction of mistakes knowing the “right” way
Children therefore correct their mistakes. If they are ready for school
they will try and do things the “right” way and in accord with the given
situation. They begin to note their errors and correct them, e.g., throwing
the ball better and more accurately each time. When copying forms, they’ll
go over a line again to improve it.
Children now have an idea of what the previous throw or the original
drawing was like and what they should be like. Children who correct their
mistakes have an inner image of the process. They are able to get to the
essence of things.
This can also be seen when children make their first attempts at clapping
their hands to a given rhythm or sing a tune they have heard. They
begin to be able to enter into a form in their minds.
4) New experiences
Much can be learned from anything that is new to children. If you let
the ball bounce on the floor, children who are not ready for school will be
surprised. They do not expect it to bounce, not even if you have told them
what you are going to do. Children who are ready for school will have an
inner image of the likely flight path. It is only after the changing of the teeth
that children begin to grasp the reality of things they perceive and the ideas
that are connected with them. 10
Before the changing of the teeth children can be seen to perceive things
without being able to think them. They will follow the flight of a ball
without being able to “calculate it in advance” and reach for the ball itself
and not the point where it may be expected to be. If they manage to catch
the ball this is due to habit and training but not to being able to follow the
flight in their mind.
5) Simultaneous events
Children are now able to do several things at once; when skipping
rope they are able to swing the rope and jump. The same holds true for
things that go in the opposite direction, e.g., the combination of curves
and straight lines crossing in opposite directions in a figure 8. Five-year-old
preschool children can do simple crosses, but it demands a great deal more
to draw the figure 8. We can also ask children to walk the figure. This will
show if they have an inner idea of the form, but in many cases this is asking
too much. Meanders also involve movements going in opposite directions.
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