The Pace of Schooling Today

We have become accustomed to having our lives whir by at an astonishing pace and we are barely able to make sense of them. We take life at a pace that works against assigning meaning to our daily activities. Life seems to be just happening to us.

We place massive expectations on ourselves. We expect each day to deliver accomplishments. We need to feel we are being productive even in our leisure and family lives. Children have become “projects.” Parents have taken on childrearing as they manage projects at work, cautiously assessing the level of input needed to get a certain output. Children find themselves signed up for lessons from an early age to get the most benefit from an early start in sports, music, or academics.

We are used to having what we want when we want it. We gather experiences the same way we accumulate things, seldom holding off and waiting. We are inundated by “Why Pay a Cent" Events that delay payment so we can have it all now. We are anxious to give our children the experiences we cherished. We have lost our sense of timing and our ability to discern what experiences are age-appropriate for our children. In our over-eagerness, we read them our favourite books when they turn three and take two-year-olds to Disney movies scripted for adults.

The most harmful effect of this approach is the imposition of a hurried adult pace onto the life of the child. Childhood, by its very nature, proceeds at a much slower pace. Children are naturally not concerned about the constraints of time. They linger at play. At their very best, they are oblivious to time and live in the moment. Children, when given freedom to immerse themselves in whatever fantasy they wish, are able to make time disappear. One moment it is night-time and the next moment it is time for lunch. They are masters of time. Time does not master them.

In education today, there is concern that academic learning must start sooner, since children have so much to learn. More must be taught in less time. This trend, the "accelerated curriculum," is commonplace today in independent and in public schools. Providing an accelerated curriculum is felt to put children at an academic advantage. Academic content and computers are now found in nursery and kindergarten classes. The former Grade 1 curriculum is now taught in kindergarten. Nursery and kindergarten are no longer for learning through play and for building social skills. Kindergarten children are given homework and expected to read and to tell time when they enter Grade 1.

All of this has led to a loss of childhood -- to children losing their sense of wonder and their ability to play. Learning has become a chore. This quickened pace influences how and how much children learn.

Waldorf education follows the principle that learning and child development resemble our breathing rhythm. They move between intense experiences of absorbing information and sensory impressions, and time to digest those experiences. It is important for children to take in the world around them, and equally important to “breathe out” and assimilate those experiences. This rhythmic pacing is essential for learning to resonate within the child. The child reflects, “I am told this is true. Does it fit with what I know and what I observe? Can I relate it to other things I have learned?”

Waldorf education supports this breathing process within learning in several ways. Each day children move between the two rhythms of learning - taking things in, then digesting and making sense of them. Waldorf schools also view strong extended rhythms as essential to the child’s ability to learn and retain subject matter. Children immerse themselves in one content area for three weeks during each Main Lesson block; every morning for three weeks a student will study one subject, such as history. The subject taken up in Main Lesson is approached in a variety of creative ways, not solely through didactic lecture and rote memory. The teacher has latitude to work with the subject, finding creative ways to present it to students so as to engage them fully. The content is presented to stimulate children’s imaginative forces and assist them in bringing questions and enthusiasm to the subject. When the three-week block is over, the student moves to another subject matter. History is studied again for another three-week block later in the yearly cycle.

A critical elemnt in Waldorf education is that the pace of learning is not hurried. This ensures that children learn how to learn as well as taking in knowledge. Attention is paid to the depth of learning, and care is taken to ensure each child has digested as much of the learning as possible. In so doing, each child is able to retain far more of what he or she learns.

Waldorf curriculum is based on three developmental periods from infancy to age 21. From birth to age seven, the focus is on educating the child’s will by learning through physical activity and imitation. Teachers are dedicated to nurturing the child’s development through movement. The next period, from seven to 14, develops the child’s social and emotional life and imaginative forces. From age 14, the emphasis is on critical thinking and analysis. In high school "the thrust is toward developing independent judgment in the students, rather than feeding them finished statements. By working with diverse points of view in their studies, the students become skilled in looking at questions from a number of sides and appreciating the differences that are uncovered.” (Joan Almon, “Educating for Creative Thinking: The Waldorf Approach,” ReVision Magazine, Volume 15, Number 2, 2002.)

It is challenging in today’s accelerated world for Waldorf schools to declare the need to slow down the pace of schooling so children get the maximum benefit of a profound education. This is especially true in a culture that has begun to believe that, if you are not speeding ahead, you are falling behind. Waldorf schools worldwide have begun to show evidence to the contrary, that by pacing education so strong foundations are laid at every level, graduates are at a distinct advantage in college and university. Toronto Waldorf School alumni study a wide range of disciplines and typically attend their university of choice. Graduates have an entrepreneurial spirit, a clear sense of purpose and a solid desire to make a difference in the world. They are known by their peers to have a deeply embodied learning style that serves them in all aspects of their lives, over the entire span of their lives.

Waldorf education is the single fastest-growing education movement worldwide and has distinguished itself as a system that is working to prepare children for life-long learning at a humane pace. Come and find out more.

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