Enthusiasm for learning
Catherine Flynn, back left, works with a group of children during their annual fall festival in Kalispell. Flynn says she uses games and songs to teach lessons something that is done in a typical Waldorf school. Flynn is a founding board member for the Glacier Lifelong Learning Center. She and other organizers are planning to start up a Waldorf school in the valley. Craig Moore/Daily Inter Lake
Parents work to set up private Waldorf school
Organizers hope to have Montanas first private Waldorf school up and running in the Kalispell area by fall 2006.
The unconventional and sometimes controversial Waldorf system stresses creating an enthusiasm for learning.
There is also a spiritual growth component to the curriculum, while not emphasizing any particular religion.
The organizers wanted a place that cared for the whole child. … Its not a one-size-fits-all style of education, said Catherine Flynn of Kalispell, one of the founding board members of the Glacier Lifelong Learning Center, the fledgling local Waldorf school effort.
To illustrate the Waldorf philosophy, Flynn, mother of a 5-year-old son Ian, quoted the English poet William Butler Yeats: Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
The organizers have roughly a dozen core families and an e-mail list of about 60 families. Next fall, they hope to start a Waldorf kindergarten with possibly 15 children who are currently 2 to 5 1/2 years old. And the same time, they want to start a first grade really a mix of grades one through three with about 12 children. The parent group has hired one teacher and is hunting for a second one.
Waldorf schools traditionally start with a kindergarten and then add one grade each year up through the eighth grade.
The Flathead County effort has not pinned down a school site yet, although organizers are looking at Kalispell because of its central location. The nearest existing Waldorf schools are in Sandpoint, Idaho, and Nelson, British Columbia. While tuition will be charged, the organizers have not yet calculated admission costs.
The Waldorf system is the brainchild of Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner, who lived from 1861 to 1925. In 1919, the owner of the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart, Germany, asked Steiner to establish a school for the plants employees. Steiner insisted that the school be coeducational, open to all children, and set up so that teachers, not the state or the factory, had primary control over the students.
Today, there are roughly 800 Waldorf schools in the world, with about 150 in North America. Waldorf alumni are in all walks of life, ranging from artists to engineers to Kenneth Chenault, president of the American Express Co.
Steiner was a controversial figure.
He has a mixed record on racism, with whites-are-superior writings on his resume. And he has been frequently accused of being anti-Semitic. On the other hand, the Nazis attacked his schools, and Steiners writings defended Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish French army officer who was unjustly imprisoned in the late 19th century. There are five Waldorf schools in Israel, including one that serves Arab students.
Waldorf schools are open to all races and ethnicities.
Our goal is to transcend our differences and find common grounds in our society, Flynn said.
Steiner also was deeply into several types of mysticism.
However, those beliefs of Steiners are not part of what is taught to the students, Flynn said.
Steiner would say: Dont believe me. Find out for yourself what your inner belief system is, Flynn said.
Waldorf teachers will bring the Bible, the Quran, the Bhagavad Gita and other spiritual and religious works into the classroom.
Bringing in a spiritual element may seem heavy to some people. But its not heavy. It brings some things into balance. Its not about teaching specific religions. … Its more looking at archetypes, at universal themes. Its helping children in developing to discover their inner wisdom, Flynn said.
Other features of a Waldorf education include:
-Tailoring lessons to individual students.
-Holding off teaching reading until a child is at least 7 years old, unless the child shows an interest at an earlier age. This fits in with a Waldorf philosophy of not pushing children into an activity until they feel ready. There is an overall theme of a child learning at his or her own pace throughout Waldorf educational writings.
-Limiting exposure to computers and television at early ages, contending they inhibit creativity.
-Early emphasis on movement, arts, music, finger knittings, crafts, cooking, helping with chores and storytelling.
-Grades are not given at the elementary school ages. Instead, teachers provide parents with written narratives of their childrens progress.
To contact the Glacier Lifelong Learning Center, people can go to its Web site at www.glaciercenter.org, write to P.O. Box 628, Kalispell, 59903 or call Flynn at 406-756-0405.
Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com