Maintaining their altitude up there in the blue, Class Five children are exploring the heavenly realms of historical myths this fall with Mr. Stopeck. Their study of a handful of ancient civilizations took flight a mere three weeks ago, with an introduction to early India, and Mr. Stopeck tells me that hell be piloting them through a gentle, year-long descent to earth. Having made the acquaintance of Vishnu, Brahma, and Shiva, up there in the Hindu pantheon, the class is now greeting the Buddha. From the heady realms of those Lords of heaven, the class finds its feet on the ground for a moment just long enough to learn the story of Siddhartha Gautama, the young prince who abandoned his youth of disengaged luxury to search out the source of human suffering.

With the Buddhas jewel of compassion in their hands, they are airborne again, on their guided tour of the human spirit, as seen through the eyes of those who came so long before us. Great mountain landscapes graced with elephants, and colour-filled, tight-focus portraits of lotus flowers, document the students work with these new experiences on the classroom walls. Mr. Stopeck tells me that there will be plenty of stop-overs before the grade five flight is over: ancient Persia, Babylon, Egypt, and Greece will be visited through this school year.

And speaking of new experiences of the heavenly, this teacher was obviously excited to report that his group has begun to master, in only three weeks of school, the playing of a five-page score of J.S. Bachs Jesu, Joy of Mans Desiring on their flutes. That should lift some tired spirits transiting the school corridors.

In complement to Gautama Buddhas story, and as a Michaelmas lesson, the class is reading together a book called Naya Nuki: Girl Who Ran, by Kenneth Thomasma. In it, an eleven-year-old Shoshoni girl is taken as a slave by enemies. Naya Nuki literally runs alone through the wilderness, for over a month, to find her people, and the home of her heart. Thus courage is added to compassion.

Up To New Tricks in Grade Six

Adolescent queens and kings? Pre-pubescent wild horses??? A dozen or so twelve-year-olds, many of them first-borns, who like to have their say, have their results immediately, and want attention now. Think about it. Where would you start with them? Heres Gus El-Moussas tale of engagement and learning with Sunrises current class of pre-teens.
In grade six, students get to live the 12 year change. One could say that the 9 year change amounts to: We now interrupt your regular childhood programming to bring you a brief message from adolescence, and that at about 14, children fully pass through the gate to adolescence and puberty.

In the middle, at 12, the newly pubescent child is in an interesting situation: she starts walking the path, but is not yet fully on it. Its a sensitive time in ones life. Just by being born into our culture with its frenetic speed and ubiquitous, self-referential noise, screens, and information, children tend to be pulled into the intellectual fast lane and towers of abstraction, and out of their bodies and innocent feeling lives. The Waldorf schools insistence that story, music, visual art, drama, and movement through Eurythmy, games, and outdoor adventure play an integrated role in education and are a remedy to this pull. Balance is sought in the childs growth and fluency in mind, heart/spirit, and body. As life becomes more complicated when children make their first real acquaintance with the challenges of adolescence, this balance is truly needed.

In the middle of all this is the adolescents authentic awakening into new awareness, and her/his genuine need to experiment with language and attitudes and engage others (i.e. get a reaction!). Class Six students repertoire in this area includes general naughtiness in word choice, cheekiness in manner, and pervasive arguing. Mr. El-Moussa says this last is one of his favourite things to do with his class at the moment: argue. His reasoning familiar to anyone connected to Waldorf ways is the following: as they develop, they need to argue, they need to explore arguing. How does the teacher best make use of this need to encourage the childrens growth, positive world-concept, and eventual freedom and responsibility? In this case, the answer is: they will get a dose of focused guidance in social skills and courtesy, and they will channel their obstreperousness into the form of disciplined team and individual debate.

– This article was written by a Sunrise Waldorf School parent for the Daybreak Monthly Newsletter which can be viewed online.