Child’s play has been receiving serious attention in the mainstream media lately. While time for children to engage in real, self-directed play has increasingly diminished in recent decades, researchers and reporters are rediscovering how crucial play is to childhood development, learning and well-being. Far from being a form of “wasting time,” as it has sometimes been viewed, play is once again being understood as the primary way in which children absorb, integrate and make sense of what they see, do and learn every day.
The benefits of play have long been recognized and appreciated within Waldorf schools. That’s why creative, open-ended play times, both indoors and out, are part of an early childhood curriculum also rich in storytelling, song, rhythm and real-life work. Similarly, games, movement activities and recess are all valued “breathers” in a lively grade-school day, providing much- needed balance to highly focused time spent engaging in academics and the arts.

The January 6, 2011 issue of New York Times, for example, featured an article by Hilary Stout, “The Movement to Restore Children’s Play Gains Momentum.” She comments that “[t]oo little playtime may seem to rank far down on the list of society’s worries, but the scientists, psychologists, educators and others who are part of the play movement say that most of the social and intellectual skills one needs to succeed in life and work are first developed through childhood play.” Last fall, the Harvard Education Letter questioned the trend toward too- early academics with an article by Laura Pappano called, “Kids Haven’t Changed; Kindergarten Has,” a subject addressed again by Betsy Yagla, New Haven Advocate, who asked, “Does Teaching Kids Earlier and Earlier Really Work?” And in late December, CNN correspondents Erika Christakis and Nicholas Christakis appealed to parents, saying, “Want to Get Your Kids into College? Let them Play.”

This kind of media coverage is a promising trend according to the Alliance for Childhood, a nonprofit advocacy group that, for more than a decade, has been compiling extensive research about the importance of play and other subjects relevant to a healthy childhood. The Alliance article below succinctly and compellingly outlines just why active, imaginative play for all children needs to be honored and supported in our culture today.

Published in the Spring/Summer 2011 Mosaic Newsletter of the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School (PDF).

by Trice Atchison

“Less is more” is the core of Kim Payne’s timely message to parents. Payne—who spoke in Sheffield, MA, in February on behalf of GBRSS and who also gave a day- long workshop for parents in March—is an internationally acclaimed psychologist, speaker, teacher and, with Lisa M.Ross, co-author of the book Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier and More Secure Kids. “Many of today’s behavioral issues and family challenges come from children having too much stuff and living a life that is too fast,” he says. “I’ve seen that when parents simplify their routines and lives, their child’s behavior often improves within days.” Over time substantial gains can be achieved in terms of the child’s and family’s overall sense of well-being—all by doing less.

Payne arrived at his insights through decades of working with families and children in diverse settings all over the world. In war-torn and impoverished areas of Asia and Africa, he was not surprised to see children struggling with the effects of extreme stress and negative sensory overwhelm—too little of what’s essential to health and well- being. What puzzled him, though, was why comparatively privileged children he worked with in London and the
US were also gripped by stress-related behaviors. He began to recognize that these children, too, were trying to cope with unprecedented levels of stress in their lives, but for the opposite reason— what he calls the undeclared war on childhood. Its seductive battle cry is “the more, the sooner, the better”—from toys, activities, choices and achievements, to adult information and media influence. The pace and weight of it all can lead
to cumulative stress issues in children, challenging coping behaviors, and frenzied families.

All children are quirky, Payne says—that’s what makes them loveable. In overwhelming circumstances, however, quirks can develop into disorders or challenges. In a calmer environment, those same quirks not only tend to remain harmless and loveable, they point to a child’s unique gifts or genius. And with a slower pace, children are less anxious and cranky, tend to sleep better, and generally become happier participants in their family’s life together.

Payne suggests that instead of viewing childhood as an enrichment opportunity, we see it as an unfolding experience. “If it’s all about ‘enrichment,’ then we
can find ourselves in an arms race, trying to get the most for, and out of, our child. This is fundamentally a con, and not healthy,” he says. It’s not that Payne is opposed to children engaging in some carefully chosen activities, but that too many defeat any potential gain, contribute to families feeling harried, lead to burn-out, and deny children the gift
of boredom. The same goes for too many toys and other distractions. “Remember, they’re not being neurologically damaged by being bored a little bit,” he says. To the contrary, that ‘down time’ gives children a chance to digest all that they learn and experience, and to find portals into their own creativity, resourcefulness and ingenuity. And without some down time to balance the busier times, the child struggles to find a sense of inner equilibrium. Families also benefit from time every day to reconnect with each other, something an over-packed schedule can diminish.

Rather than dictating a list of shoulds and should-nots to parents, Payne provides thought-provoking scenarios, inspiration, and a blueprint for anyone seeking positive change. He offers a series of practical, doable steps that can lead a family toward increased warmth, connection and peace (see below for a few ideas). “You choose whatever fits naturally into your family life,” he says. “When a family simplifies, the kids love it. It’s not a battle. We think they’ll put up resistance, but they don’t; kids like it.” Parents, too, similarly find relief and rich rewards in simplifying.

Kim Payne’s Four Pathways to Simplicity

1.Simplifying the child’s environment. This includes cycling out noisy, annoying toys, toys with many little parts that break and merchandizing impulse buys. Keep open-ended toys that can transform and adapt with the child’s imagination, setting the stage for them to be creative, resourceful, innovative and able to adapt to change when they’re older. Try reducing the number of books in the child’s bedroom, and quieting everything down—bedding, colors, lighting, stuff. The clearing process has a positive effect on children, due more to the centered decision of the parent to declutter than anything else. Parents can declare inwardly, “I’m not going to be pushed around by marketers anymore.”

2. Creating balance and rhythm. Balance what’s spontaneous and fun with a sense of what to expect from day to day, and within segments of the day. Children like to know, “We do this, then we do this,” because a child doesn’t have self-governance until the age of about 12. When they are given endless choices or there is no sense of what might be happening when, it makes the child feel unsafe because nobody appears to be in charge. They conclude that they have to be in charge—and that produces anxiety and other challenges. Be child- centered (creating life rhythms and expectations that support the child), rather than child-led.

3. Simplifying the schedule. Resist the societal push to allow numerous adult-led activities to overtake your family’s life. Give your child the gift of boredom. “You have to become more boring than the boredom,” Kim Payne says. Then in that down time they’ll have the chance to, though their own, self-initiated, deep and creative play—or just by stopping to rest— digest what they learn and do.

4. Filtering out the adult world. Before speaking in front of a child, ask, “Is what I’m about to say true, necessary and kind?” Resist blurting things out, turn off NPR in the car. Avoid burdening children with the woes of the world, or by the time they’re teenagers they’ll be blasé. Let your home be a place where children are not prey to marketers adept at generating “pester-power.” Counter common media messages—“You are not good enough without this product, solve your problems through aggression, and don’t listen to your parents”—by shutting down the screens. Enjoy the peace.

Many families from the school and greater community attended Kim Payne’s Feb 17 lecture at Dewey Hall in Sheffield and March 12 hands-on workshop in Great Barrington. Both events were presented by GBRSS and sponsored by Community Health Programs (CHP). The book, Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier and More Secure Kids, can be found locally at Matrushka Toys and Gifts and The Bookloft. Kim Payne’s CD collection on Simplicity Parenting is available to GBRSS parents through the lending libraries in the elementary school and in early childhood. To find out about additional Simplicity Parenting offerings, visit the website, www.simplicityparenting.com.

Published in the Spring/Summer 2011 Mosaic Newsletter of the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School (PDF).

Shawn Green, Math and Science Teacher, began the seventh- grade students’ first block in chemistry with a study of fire. The students learned that approximately 125,000 years ago humans learned to control fire, a milestone for humanity that some consider the beginning of chemistry. They also learned that the ancient Greeks considered fire to be one of the four elements. Integrating science with the arts, Mr. Green asked each student to compose a poem based on his or her observations and knowledge of fire. Here is an example of the students’ poetry:

Fire

by Evan Seitz, Seventh-grade Student

Fire, you create and rend
Your light tamed wolf,
made him friend.

Your dancing sparks kept foes at bay
With your great heat,
humans hardened clay.

Through you we make weapons,
tools of strife,
But your flames give us shelter,
needed for life.

Published in the Spring/Summer 2011 Mosaic Newsletter of the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School (PDF).

Students wowed the crowd at “Circus, Coast to Coast,” a biannual circus arts event held in March during which GBRSS middle-schoolers perform feats of daring and skill. The performers stretched their limits to perfect their juggling, tumbling, dancing, clowning, hula hooping, stilt-walking and unicycling. Some students reached well beyond their comfort zones to tackle skills they had once thought impossible. A fifth-grade recorder ensemble serenaded the audience, and GBRSS alumnus Ariel Shrum added to the fun with his mesmerizing magic tricks. Congratulations to all for a superb show!

A heartfelt thanks goes to Krista Palmer, Games Teacher and Director of Physical Education, and Laura Geilen, master clown and movement teacher, for organizing the circus and bringing out the very best in our children. Special thanks, too, to the teachers, parents and staff whose invaluable contributions made the whole event possible— from helping to teach circus skills, designing costumes and sets, providing musical accompaniment, directing traffic, selling tickets, baking and selling concessions, and photographing the performers.

Published in the Spring/Summer 2011 Mosaic Newsletter of the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School (PDF).

by Krista Palmer, Games Teacher and Director of Athletics, with Trice Atchison

Too often we hear of students who, despite having been high achievers and ribbon winners in high school and grade school, end up feeling lost and overwhelmed as they struggle to adjust to college life. That’s why, in Waldorf education, we strive to help our children develop their ability to find direction from within.

An important aspect of childhood—one that is increasingly disappearing from many children’s lives—is having enough unstructured time and space to allow for activities that are not planned, scheduled and directed by adults—that allow, instead, for creativity, inner guidance and a lifelong love of learning to take root.

The Value of Self-Directed Play

Here are two scenarios that show the difference between an adult-led activity and self-directed play:

Picture a flat, evenly manicured soccer field complete with clearly painted lines and accurately measured goals. Six- and seven- year-olds run around in crisp, matching uniforms while an adult referees with a whistle. More adults line the edges of the field, watching and cheering.

Next, picture a backyard with a slanting hill, trees at one end, and a rock wall at the other. A group of six- and seven-year-olds wants to play soccer. They use a sweatshirt and stump for one goal, a bush and corner of the picnic table for the other. They figure out where the center of the field is, more or less, and begin to play. No adults have intervened.

The first scenario is not genuine children’s play; it is children carrying out adults’ wishes. It’s a controlled, adult-oriented experience, in which the performance is watched and evaluated. Even if the children receive only positive or neutral feedback, the fact of being closely watched creates a sense of being evaluated— of having performed well or not-so-well. This is leagues away from the kind of spontaneous, organic, self-initiated play that is natural and necessary for children in the early grades.

In the second scenario, you have a whole world created by children. They make up the rules, negotiate, argue and come to a conclusion about how to proceed. They might decide to segue into an entirely different game halfway through. They’ve exercised resourcefulness, creativity, intelligence, social skills and inner flexibility. In contrast, the repetitive focus on a few skills characteristic of early organized sports can have the effect of diminishing the childhood quality of play, creating a hard, inflexible outlook marked by black-and-white thinking. The advocacy group Alliance for Childhood is spreading the important message that play is not just fun and games; the group cites numerous studies that show that play boosts “healthy development across a broad spectrum of critical areas: intellectual, social, emotional, and physical.”

What’s the Rush?

Teachers’ observations over the years show clearly that children who have been in organized sports from a young age can experience a number of struggles. Some children, for example, become so outcome-oriented that a simple tag game can be just one more arena in which they harshly evaluate their own performance. As a result, they may vehemently deny they’ve been tagged, or they might cry. The premature focus on goals has weakened their capacity to play for the true joy of it.

These children also can have trouble holding onto the kinds of imaginative pictures that enliven a simple children’s game, such as a chasing game that involves a hungry wolf, small rabbits and rescuers. The rules and object of the game are basic; the fun is in the make-believe.

During unstructured play in the early grades, as in the homegrown soccer game described earlier, the social and emotional lives of children have room to blossom. This happens not when adults lead or too intently monitor the play, but instead when the children are allowed to remain un-self-conscious. Even having two teams creates self-consciousness, because there’s a line drawn in the sand—one against the other—begging for an outcome. However, organized team play is wonderful for sixth- grade and up. In a Waldorf school sixth grade, students study Roman civilization, law and sciences—subjects intentionally introduced at an age when a child’s emotional state is ready to meet and accept the outcomes of winning and losing, evaluating and discerning. These same developmental qualities coincide well with team play.

Healthy Competition

Competition is, of course, not bad. Even in a tag game, you need to have people running as hard as they can—because if I chase you, and you don’t even try to get away, it’s no fun. Without some sense of competition, there’s no tension—no point—but with younger children, the game is better left flexible and without a score keeper. In the sixth, seventh and eighth grades sports program, competition moves to the foreground, with both teams expected to play their best in order to bring out the best in each other. With this healthy sense of competition, even if you lose, you feel you’ve played a good game. But if you win too easily, there’s no real satisfaction in it.

By early adolescence, competitive sports can be the perfect homeopathic dose to that certain know-it-all quality that can sometimes begin to emerge. There’s a renewed sense of innocence in a child who experiences butterflies in his stomach before a game, or tries hard to remember all the rules and regulations. Except at this age, if children have had a chance in their earlier play to develop in their social and emotional interactions, they’re on much more solid ground. When they run out onto the field, they can draw on that emotional intelligence to overcome the butterflies and delve into the flow of the game. But if they’ve already “been there, done that,” they’re likely to view the game with a blasé attitude. This is an example of how giving children too much too soon can rob them of important opportunities for growth at pivotal times.

Stemming the Tide

Parents can guard their families from being swept away by the powerful trend toward earlier and earlier sports (as well as other societal trends toward too much, too soon). Here are some ways you can make a difference:

• Just because “everybody is doing it,” don’t feel neglectful or remiss in your parenting if your primary grades child is not involved in an organized sport. Remember, there’s no correspondence between early sports involvement and being a star athlete in the upper grades. Moreover, you run the risk of having a middle- or high-school-aged child who lacks spontaneity both on and off the field. Or your child may burn out altogether, just when sports could be most beneficial.
• Have the courage to let there be free time in your child’s life, and in your family’s weekends. Instead of allowing the weekend to be absorbed by children’s sports and other highly scheduled activities, with the adults looking on, engage in work around the house or yard, with the children imitating or participating as their ages allow. Go on weekend family outings together.
• The world of play is the child’s world. Genuine, spontaneous and self- initiated play is essential to healthy development. We can be aware and responsible without hovering. Let’s allow the children some breathing room, and to step into organized sports at a more appropriate age. In doing so, the children are freer to develop the creativity, flexibility, social confidence and self-knowledge they will need to one day venture forth on their own.

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For more on the phenomenon of “too much, too soon” and its effects on children, look into a series of books written by child development specialist David Elkind, entitled, Miseducation, The Power of Play, The Hurried Child, and All Grown Up and No Place to Go.

Published in the Fall/Winter 2010 Mosaic Newsletter of the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School (PDF).

GBRSS alumna Naomi Crespo-Pitman, now a freshman at the Great Barrington Waldorf High School, wrote this poem comparing water to the Four Temperaments as described by Rudolf Steiner— melancholic, sanguine, choleric and phlegmatic. Like people, water has its temperaments and moods, as Naomi deftly expresses.

Water’s Many Faces

by Naomi Crespo-Pitman

At times I am quite melancholic
A disconsolate veil of cold, soft rain
Descending from the clouds like fallen angels, cast out from the sky to feel anguish and pain.
But only to land on earth and rejuvenate the barren ground.

Sanguine as a bubbling stream
Being guided by the mountain, almost out of control
Flowing over edges, hardly contained but by a thread of surface tension
And then to be drained into an expanse of mystery
That is controlled by only the grace of moonbeam.

Also choleric, in a violent storm
Destroying those ambitious sailors who failed to recognize my superior strength over them,
My ability to make the incompetent fools my captives and imprison them beneath the surface
To stay for eternity in their watery graves.

Yet I am phlegmatic, as a lake or a pond
A tranquil pool teeming with hidden life, beneath my glassy expanse.
With tangled algae spiderwebbing across, like a fissure, cracking across the mirrored surface
Creating the plane that differentiates the tangible-dark abyss below from the ethereal light of the heavens.

Published in the Fall/Winter 2010 Mosaic Newsletter of the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School (PDF).

by Sally Michael Keyes

First-grade teacher Jamie Coulter brings to GBRSS wide-ranging life, work and educational experiences that have well- prepared him for his journey through the grades as a Waldorf class teacher. Mr. Coulter and his family—wife Tonya, sons Cyrus and Isaac, and his father— recently relocated to Sheffield from the Brattleboro, Vermont area.

Mr. Coulter’s background includes 10 years at Kroka Expeditions teaching wilderness living skills, rock climbing and paddling to children of all ages. He has also taught hatha yoga and capoeira (an Afro-Brazilian art form that combines elements of martial arts, music and dance) at elementary and high schools, as well as to the public. He has worked on organic farms, was an inspector for the Northeast Organic Farming Association, and continues to grow a large garden for his family’s use. He managed a busy restaurant in NYC before moving to Vermont. As a teenager, he was immersed in theater. Mr. Coulter earned his B.A. at Johnson State College of Vermont and received his Waldorf Education Certification at Antioch University New England. Please join us in welcoming Jamie Coulter as he and his class embark on their exciting eight-year adventure.

Published in the Fall/Winter 2010 Mosaic Newsletter of the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School (PDF).

In eighth-grade history class, the students learn of pilgrims making a treacherous journey across the Atlantic to the New World in pursuit of religious freedom. These same principles of religious freedom and tolerance are equally important today.

At an interfaith dinner hosted by the Islamic Society of Western Massachusetts, I met Imam Wissam Baki. His hospitality, along with the warm openness of Zahra, a member of the congregation, inspired me to bring the eighth-grade students on a field trip to the mosque. This invitation seemed a timely opportunity in light of the “Islamophobia” prevalent today, fueled by media portrayals of Muslims that focus on an extremist minority. These portrayals, of course, do not represent the views of countless peaceful Muslims living in the U.S. and around the world.

I saw the field trip as one little step toward world peace. Here are some of the students’ reflections. —Ann Sagarin

“I was curious to know what the Islamic faith is like because I really don’t know much about this religion at all. For a field trip Mrs. Sagarin drove the class to the Islamic Society of Western Massachusetts in Springfield, Massachusetts…My surroundings amazed me, for here in the heart of West Springfield, was a thriving Muslim community.”

“It was different than I had expected because I thought it was just going to be a mosque, but when we arrived I realized that there was also a school… Everyone was joyful and friendly and I was immediately welcomed with warm, bright smiles…At lunch the boys and girls sat separately, but it was basically a regular cafeteria. The teachers passed out Capri Suns,…chips and sandwiches on white bread…When we sat down to eat the girls smiled and asked questions. They laughed about Facebook and chatted about school, telling me their ambitions to become doctors, like mine to become a vet…After lunch we all went outside and played basketball. The students were very good. One of them could even dunk!”

“The most interesting part for me was observing one of their five daily sessions of prayer…I thought they each had a prayer mat, but it was one big soft carpet instead…They repeated a sequence of folding their arms, bowing and kneeling. While they did this, the Imam (spiritual leader) chanted prayers for them to hear in Arabic…When listening to the Imam speak, even though he didn’t have very good English, I respected him greatly, and admired him. His certainty in his ways and religion inspired me…”

“I’m glad I went because it gave me a new light on Muslim culture. Participating in their prayers and learning new things was a great experience…I think that the Muslim faith is a kind and merciful one. It is portrayed differently thn it really is. This trip helped me gain perspective on religion…”

“We learned that not all Muslims are the way the press makes them out to be. And their god, Allah, is, in fact, peaceful, righteous and forgiving. I am very glad we went to this Islamic center because I can understand Americans who have not been educated feeling hostile toward Muslims, but if you learn a little about them, you would realize that there is little reason to be afraid.”

Published in the Fall/Winter 2010 Mosaic Newsletter of the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School (PDF).

This coming January marks the 40th anniversary of the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School! It was on January 13, 1971, that GBRSS—then known as The Pumpkin Hollow School—opened its doors to twelve kindergarten children. In four decades the school has grown to include multiple early childhood programs and an elementary school that spans first through eighth grade. One of more than 1,000 Waldorf schools worldwide, GBRSS draws students from Berkshire County, northwest Connecticut and Columbia County, educating children according to principles set forth by Rudolf Steiner.

A series of anniversary events taking place this school year began with a celebration in October at the Route 7 Grille honoring founding member Jean Zay, our librarian and a GBRSS faculty member. She and husband Thorne Zay were both teaching at the Rudolf Steiner School in New York City when they began coming to the Berkshires regularly to build a new home. Soon they joined with founding kindergarten teacher Betty Szold Krainis to shepherd a new Waldorf school into existence. In 1976 Ms. Zay took her first of three GBRSS classes through the eight-year cycle through the grades. Mr. Zay was also a class teacher. Both were instrumental in bringing highly respected Waldorf pedagogues—Frances Edmunds from England and Renee Querido from California—to the fledgling school to guide its beginnings. The standards for deep learning and excellence in teaching that were established then still hold true today.

Thank you, Jean Zay, for your continued dedication to the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School!

Published in the Fall/Winter 2010 Mosaic Newsletter of the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School (PDF).

Christopher Sblendorio, sixth-grade teacher, has written The Falconer, a book about the life of Frederick II Hohenstauffen, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Southern Italy (1194- 1250). Hohenstauffen was a fascinating personality—“a renaissance man just before the Renaissance, and a scientist and artist, as well as a political leader,” says Mr. Sblendorio.

The project originally began as a play written for Mr. Sblendorio’s previous sixth-grade class, which he turned into a book during his 2005 sabbatical. The book’s illustrator is GBRSS alumna Amy Inglis—who played the part of Frederick in her sixth-grade play when Mr. Sblendorio was her class teacher. Editing the story were Penelope Nauman Lord,
who has worked at GBRSS as a German teacher, secretary and country dance teacher, and Billie Chernicoff, former director of admissions and development and an alumni parent. Published by AWSNA Books (for the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America), the book is now available to schools and the general public.

“Although creating a book turned out to be far more work than I expected, I felt I had to write and publish it,” says Mr. Sblendorio. “I think it is important for sixth-graders studying the Middle Ages, as well as for older students and adults, to know about Frederick, because he is an amazing character and the quintessential medieval king.”

Published in the Fall/Winter 2010 Mosaic Newsletter of the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School (PDF).