Observing the Class Observing the Children - Research Institute for ...

the introductory lectures by Steiner to see how he prepared the first teachers,
particularly with methods.
The Waldorf school movement has grown and prospered for close to a
century, yet it feels like we have only just begun in terms of using the original
methods taught by Rudolf Steiner. And we have only just begun to develop our
own methods based on the educational principles and our knowledge of the
human being . The real questions I face every day is: How do I teach my pupils
and how do they need to learn? When we look into their eyes and read their
faces, they show us more than words can describe. My job is to respond to those
perceptions.
Let us deepen our understanding of the methods Steiner introduced for
children before the age of nine within the following categories:
• The first day of school
• The next lessons
• Painting
• Drawing
• Music
• Eurythmy
• The role of feeling and the will
• Writing and reading
• Arithmetic
• Vowels and consonants
• Grammar
• Spelling
• Penmanship
• Storytelling
• Nature
The First Day of School
Certainly one of the biggest experiences in any Waldorf teacher’s career
is the first lesson on the first day of school. You present something that will
continue to enliven all of the following lessons. And all of the following lessons
will be used to make that which takes in the first lesson more and more valuable
for the child’s entire education.
Steiner spoke to his teachers as if he were holding the first lesson. All of the
children are in the classroom for the first time and he tells them: “You have now
come to school. Now I will tell you why you have come to school. You have
come to school to learn something. As yet, you have no idea of all the things you
will be learning in school, but there will be all sorts of things that you will have
to learn. Why will you have to learn all sorts of things in school? Well, you have
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