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A Taste of His Own Poison?

2011-12-13T03:37:00.000-08:00

When an Adult Took Standardized Tests Forced on Kids

By Marion Brady

A longtime friend on the school board of one of the largest school systems in America did something that few public servants are willing to do. He took versions of his state’s high-stakes standardized math and reading tests for 10th graders, and said he’d make his scores public.

By any reasonable measure, my friend is a success. His now-grown kids are well-educated. He has a big house in a good part of town. Paid-for condo in the Caribbean. Influential friends. Lots of frequent flyer miles. Enough time of his own to give serious attention to his school board responsibilities. The margins of his electoral wins and his good relationships with administrators and teachers testify to his openness to dialogue and willingness to listen.

He called me the morning he took the test to say he was sure he hadn’t done well, but had to wait for the results. A couple of days ago, realizing that local school board members don’t seem to be playing much of a role in the current “reform” brouhaha, I asked him what he now thought about the tests he’d taken.

“I won’t beat around the bush,” he wrote in an email. “The math section had 60 questions. I knew the answers to none of them, but managed to guess ten out of the 60 correctly. On the reading test, I got 62% . In our system, that’s a “D”, and would get me a mandatory assignment to a double block of reading instruction.

He continued, “It seems to me something is seriously wrong. I have a bachelor of science degree, two masters degrees, and 15 credit hours toward a doctorate.

“I help oversee an organization with 22,000 employees and a $3 billion operations and capital budget, and am able to make sense of complex data related to those responsibilities.

“I have a wide circle of friends in various professions. Since taking the test, I’ve detailed its contents as best I can to many of them, particularly the math section, which does more than its share of shoving students in our system out of school and on to the street. Not a single one of them said that the math I described was necessary in their profession.

“It might be argued that I’ve been out of school too long, that if I’d actually been in the 10th grade prior to taking the test, the material would have been fresh. But doesn’t that miss the point? A test that can determine a student’s future life chances should surely relate in some practical way to the requirements of life. I can’t see how that could possibly be true of the test I took.”

Here’s the clincher in what he wrote:

“If I’d been required to take those two tests when I was a 10th grader, my life would almost certainly have been very different. I’d have been told I wasn’t ‘college material,’ would probably have believed it, and looked for work appropriate for the level of ability that the test said I had.

“It makes no sense to me that a test with the potential for shaping a student’s entire future has so little apparent relevance to adult, real-world functioning. Who decided the kind of questions and their level of difficulty? Using what criteria? To whom did they have to defend their decisions? As subject-matter specialists, how qualified were they to make general judgments about the needs of this state’s children in a future they can’t possibly predict? Who set the pass-fail “cut score”? How?”

“I can’t escape the conclusion that decisions about the [state test] in particular and standardized tests in general are being made by individuals who lack perspective and aren’t really accountable.”

There you have it. A concise summary of what’s wrong with present corporately driven education change: Decisions are being made by individuals who lack perspective and aren’t really accountable.

Those decisions are shaped not by knowledge or understanding of educating, but by ideology, politics, hubris, greed, ignorance, the conventional wisdom, and various combinations thereof. And then they’re sold to the public by the rich and powerful.

All that without so much as a pilot program to see if their simplistic, worn-out ideas work, and without a single procedure in place that imposes on them what they demand of teachers: accountability.

But maybe there’s hope. As I write, a New York Times story by Michael Winerip makes my day. The stupidity of the current test-based thrust of reform has triggered the first revolt of school principals.

Winerip writes: “As of last night, 658 principals around the state (New York) had signed a letter — 488 of them from Long Island, where the insurrection began — protesting the use of students’ test scores to evaluate teachers’ and principals’ performance.”

One of those school principals, Winerip says, is Bernard Kaplan. Kaplan runs one of the highest-achieving schools in the state, but is required to attend 10 training sessions.

“It’s education by humiliation,” Kaplan said. “I’ve never seen teachers and principals so degraded.”

Carol Burris, named the 2010 Educator of the Year by the School Administrators Association of New York State, has to attend those 10 training sessions.

Katie Zahedi, another principal, said the session she attended was “two days of total nonsense. I have a Ph.D., I’m in a school every day, and some consultant is supposed to be teaching me to do evaluations.”

A fourth principal, Mario Fernandez, called the evaluation process a product of “ludicrous, shallow thinking. They’re expecting a tornado to go through a junkyard and have a brand new Mercedes pop up.”

My school board member-friend concluded his email with this: “I can’t escape the conclusion that those of us who are expected to follow through on decisions that have been made for us are doing something ethically questionable.”

He’s wrong. What they’re being made to do isn’t ethically questionable. It’s ethically unacceptable. Ethically reprehensible. Ethically indefensible.

How many of the approximately 100,000 school principals in the U.S. would join the revolt if their ethical principles trumped their fears of retribution? Why haven’t they been asked?

The article above was written by veteran educator Marion Brady, who said he did not name the board member to save him from mean personal attacks by critics. The board member, however, agreed to talk to Valerie Strauss about the experience on the record because he has come to feel very strongly about the issue.

The man in question is Rick Roach, who is in his fourth four-year term representing District 3 on the Board of Education in Orange County, FL, a public school system with 180,000 students. Roach took a version of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, commonly known as the FCAT, earlier this year.

The FCAT, begun in 1998, has been given annually to students in grades 3 to 11 in mathematics, reading, science and writing. It is the bedrock of what is regarded as one of the nation’s most extensive and widely studied school accountability systems. In the last school year, the state began rolling out a next-generation FCAT.

Roach, the father of five children and grandfather of two, was a teacher, counselor and coach in Orange County for 14 years. He was first elected to the board in 1998 and has been reelected three times. A resident of Orange County for three decades, he has a bachelor of science degree in education and two masters degrees: in education and educational psychology. He has trained over 18,000 educators in classroom management and course delivery skills in six eastern states over the last 25 years.

Monday’s post explained how Roach took a version of the FCAT and reached this conclusion in an email to Brady:

“I won’t beat around the bush. The math section had 60 questions. I knew the answers to none of them, but managed to guess ten out of the 60 correctly. On the reading test, I got 62% . In our system, that’s a ‘D,’ and would get me a mandatory assignment to a double block of reading instruction.

“It seems to me something is seriously wrong. I have a bachelor of science degree, two masters degrees, and 15 credit hours toward a doctorate. I help oversee an organization with 22,000 employees and a $3 billion operations and capital budget, and am able to make sense of complex data related to those responsibilities….

“It might be argued that I’ve been out of school too long, that if I’d actuall y been in the 10th grade prior to taking the test, the material would have been fresh. But doesn’t that miss the point? A test that can determine a student’s future life chances should surely relate in some practical way to the requirements of life. I can’t see how that could possibly be true of the test I took.”

Here are some of the highlights of an interview I did with Roach today further exploring his reasons for taking the test and reaching the conclusions that he did.

*Now in his 13th year on the board, he had considered taking the test for a while as he began to increasingly question whether the results really reflected a student’s ability. He was finally pushed to do it earlier this year, he said, after a board meeting at which the chairman listed five goals, and one of them caught his attention for being so unremarkable.

Roach said: ‘He [the chairman] said that by 2013 or 2014, he wanted 50 percent of the 10th graders reading at grade level….I’m thinking, ‘That’s horrible.’ Right now it’s 39 percent of our kids reading at grade level in 10th grade. I have to tell you that I’ve never believed that that many kids can’t read at that level. Never ever believed it. I have five kids of my own. None of them were superstars at school but they could read well, and these kids today can read too.

“So I was thinking, ‘What are they taking that tells them they can’t read? What is this test? Our kids do okay on the eighth grade test and on the fifth grade test and then they get stupid in the 10th grade?”

He asked someone who works at the board to help him take the FCAT but state law only allows it to be taken by students, so it was arranged for him to take a version of it.

He took 60 math questions and a four-part reading test.

How did he score?

On the reading section, he scored 62 percent, a ‘D’ in Orange County. On the math, he said he knew none of the answers but guessed correctly on 10 of the 60.

*Thousands of Florida students with 3.0 or higher grade point averages are denied high school diplomas, Roach said, because they fail at least one portion of the FCAT. Last year, he said, 41,000 kids were denied diplomas across the state — about 70 in his district — and some of them have a 3.0 GPA or better.

*He said he understands why so many students who can actually read well do poorly on the FCAT.

“Many of the kids we label as poor readers are probably pretty good readers. Here’s why.

“On the FCAT, they are reading material they didn’t choose. They are given four possible answers and three out of the four are pretty good. One is the best answer but kids don’t get points for only a pretty good answer. They get zero points, the same for the absolute wrong answer. And then they are given an arbitrary time limit. Those are a number of reasons that I think the test has to be suspect.”

He said he visits schools frequently in his district, including the three high schools (there are 19 high school in the entire county), and talks to principals about this issue. He said they are frustrated that students who they know can read and do math can’t graduate because they can’t pass the test.

Could that mean that all of the teachers in all of the schools are grading too easy?

Roach said “absolutely not.” He knows a lot of the teachers and they aren’t a “soft touch.”

*He said he never brought it up at a board meeting in part because the meetings are publicized and he wasn’t ready until now to publicly discuss it.

*The math section, he said, tests information that most people don’t need when they get out of school.

“There’s a concept called reverse design that is critical,” he said. “We are violating that with our test. Instead of connecting what we learn in school with being successful in the real world, we are doing it in reverse. We are testing first and then kids go into the real world. Whether the information they have learned is important or not becomes secondary. If you really did a study on what math most kids need, I guarantee you could probably dump about 80 percent of math scores and leave high-level math for the kids who want it and will need it.

*His final conclusion on the FCAT:

“They are defending a test that has no accountability.”

In Need of Education, a Review Essay: Reinventing Schools, Reforming Teaching – From political visions to classroom reality – John Bangs, John MacBeath & Maurice Galton (Routledge 2011)

2011-11-11T13:27:00.001-08:00

Internationalcomparison of school systems cover multiple hidden assumptions, differencesthat should caution against the drawing of hasty conclusions. The English system,which is the subject of ReinventingSchools, however, gives rise to questions about politics & the qualityof “education debate” here: why is that the governance of the English schoolsystem jumps to so readily to structural reform & why does that reform showso little positive improvement for society as a whole & for the majority ofpupils? What is it about the education debate in England that encourages educationministers to rush in, where their equivalents in Scotland (& much of therest of Europe) tread more warily? How did, “Education, education, education”, become“School, school, school”, without anyone appearing to notice the substitution?

Culture,using the word in its widest sense, is the second skin of civilisation. Thefirst, fundamental, is the web of relationships that sustain the bases forsurvival: adequate hydration, food, sex & nurture. Hand-in-hand withlanguage, culture grows with these: matters of fact become matters ofsignificance. It is culture that educates the human animal to grow towards afuller humanity. Only when a group is under the severest stress do rules,rites, rituals & myths begin to degenerate, though waxing & waning of socialnorms in normal to the rebalancing of vibrant cultures. Much as organicstructures elaborate over time, so too do cultural forms, though the latter’scycles tend to be more rapid & variety more speculative[1].Education has a particular role in the process by which the skin of cultureextends itself, adapts & is adapted by each new generation. Schoolinginstitutes education, but frequently fails to educate unless it can embody asymbiotic elaboration of what families & familial relationships begin &can support, engaging young people in a socialising dialogue with the culturalframeworks that surround & uphold their development.

Reinventing Schools illustrates with much force the wayin which the nature of contemporary political argument has tended to distort& disrupt the dialogue between citizens which is the soul of culture. Thespectacle of a generation that has, notionally, been subject to more“education”, including in civic institutions, “social, moral, cultural &spiritual education”, than any before, rioting for the joy of destructiveacquisition on the streets of our major cities gives this a keenly ironicsignificance. Political reform of education tends to lack context, producing awailing feedback loop within the institutions needed to sustain cultural life.As Enoch Powell, had he been less self-obsessed, might have said, “All politicsends in failure”! The politicising of education has clearly failed the test ofsocial quality, even while claiming to have improved “results”.

Reinventing Schools is certainly a good read, acombination of detailed research & genuine insight into the way politics isdone: a book of seriously evidenced “gossip”. There are reports of thirty-seveninterviews with some of the key figures in the educational debate of the lastthree decades or so. These varied accounts make compelling reading. Away of thepolitical war-front & given the opportunity to reflect on the results ofpolicy, contributors speak candidly, sometimes with regret, occasionally inself-justification, rarely to boast of success. Intercutting sections ofinterview with statements made at the time, with keenly chosen research &international & historical comparisons gives the book the momentum of athriller, but not so much a “whodunit” as “howd’eydundit”. What the book doesnot quite manage is to focus its evidence on the deeper questions. If there isa criticism to be levelled at this book, it would be that its tone tends to beacquiescent to the prevailing orthodoxies of the political debate.

Anyonedisposed to accept reassuring claims that education policy is based on evidence,should find him/herself bewildered by the picture that appears here. With a fewhonourable exceptions, education ministers & many of their advisers are seenpuffed about under the influence (acknowledged or unacknowledged) of parliamentaryexpediency, “headline” issues, vocal constituency members, school memories (achievements& failures) & popular assumptions. Gillian Shepherd, who with EstelleMorris, is one of the ministers to emerge most sympathetically from thesepages, has one of the most tellingly humorous lines, ruefully describingKenneth Clarke’s negative view of local government & adding, “I used to saythat he had perhaps been bitten by an Alderman when he was in his pram”. Shepherd& Morris are distinguished from the rest in their care for the realities ofteaching & deep engagement with the actualities of education. The policiesof the last two score years & more seem mainly determined by a fear ofbeing seen to do nothing, by endless agenda that lacked any serious rationale.

Whatbecomes clear through these pages is that the structure of political life - theparliamentary term, the ability of governments with secure majorities to pushthrough their “reform programme”, the failure or avoidance of proper evaluationof those reforms, the continual temptation to restructure the way education isprovided rather than address the more difficult question of teacher education& professional development – tended to incoherent, piece-meal, initiatives,good ideas not followed through & bad ones forced into life likeFrankenstein’s creation. Below the party political surface were many adviserswith genuine knowledge & commitment, but their contributions seem all toooften to have been pushed to the margins (as in the sad the story of Prof TimBrighouse & the Education “Task Force” at the beginning of the “New Labour”administration). Meanwhile, the Department itself seems to have become increasinglya reserve in which the “brightest & best” beaver in policy teams, withlittle idea of life in the average classroom, & unhindered by institutionalmemory. Given politicians’ traditional distrust of educational research the Molotovcocktails of continuous revolution were well primed.

LikeMao’s “cultural revolution”, the period in question seems characterised by a hackingdown or undermining of institutions that had provided for educational thinkinganchored in the practical world, replaced by a cadre of young & brilliantapparatchiks heading up an array of “Units”: plenty of “know how” but little“know why”. While the General Teaching Council in England was created tosupport & regulate teachers as professionals, in spite of the best effortsof Lord Putman, who became its first Chair & brought to it a strong commitmentto the cause of teaching & ability to work with the Media, it could notrescue it from an over-blown remit, vague funding arrangements &morale-sapping press statements such as Alistair Campbell’s: “Today marks theend of the bog-standard comprehensive”. Not surprising then to find the currentgovernment intent on winding up the GTCE. Yet, as Estelle Morris, recognised,the professional development of teachers, supported by education specialists,is understood (& international research confirms the point) to be the mosteffective route to improving educational standards. The Best Practice ResearchScholarships & Early Professional Development Morris was able to champion weresoon discarded in favour of more top down approaches &, greater emphasis(e.g. through the introduction of the National College for School Leadership)on headship as a catch-all answer to quality assurance. During the same period,of course, the Office for Standards in Education, Ofsted, emerged from thebowels of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate, as a means to enforce governmentinitiatives.

Thefull story of Ofsted is still to be told, but its genesis, & consequently theway in which schools are evaluated, is clearly laid out within the pages ofthis book. Ofsted quickly took on a political direction that the olderInspectorate might not have permitted. Although subsequent Chief Inspectorshave done much to ameliorate Ofsted’s role as “enforcer”, success has been atbest partial. The die was cast by Ofsted’s first incumbent, who, while doingall he could to claim independence for his personal position, seems to haveseen schools & teachers as recalcitrant beasts to be driven by a virtuous& unimpeachable inspectorate. A school inspectorate worth the name should surelybe composed of people who have the experience & discernment to characterisethe quality of schools visited, but the ability to tell difficult truthsdepends on trust & an element of collegiality. During a period wheninspections became increasingly a matter of assessment by numbers, schoolsresponded, naturally enough by playing a numbers game & teachers by“teaching to the test”, or according to required formula. The crude categoriesof judgement: “Failing”, “Satisfactory”, “Good” & “Outstanding” may havethe appearance of clarity & objectivity, but that is far from the case. Theassumptions, the official, if hidden, theories of education that inform these stampsof official approval or disapproval, make them far from apolitical, but they justifiedthe laying down of more managerial layers, a quasi-audit mentality, demanding“data”, in place of discernment. Ofsted, joined politicians in an endlessthird-rate courtroom drama intent on weeding out “failing teachers” (thewrong‘uns) who prevent children from learning, followed by a lengthy list ofvillains: ineffective heads, incompetent administrators, feckless parents &feral children. But for these the school system would be working perfectly.

Ultimatelyeducation depends on the cultures it serves. Learning of essential skills &capability is concentrated during the school years, but meaning &significance, in fact, all that makes learning these things worthwhile, comesfrom nurture & the context of culture. Thus, education is co-creative &an imperative for the survival & renewal of society. Learning to write,read & reckon stand alongside a host of interpersonal & intra-personalskills in a continuum of lifelong learning (another temporary government initiative,you might recall). While politicians tend to follow the media scrum over basicskills, business leaders no less than educationalists recognise such things as motivation,ability to work with others, creativity, ability to empathise, & other“soft-skills” (often dismissed as incidental) as fundamental for moderneconomies & are critical in the context of contemporary citizenship. Schools’role in passing on & challenging values & assumptions is not in factdivisible from “the basics”. But this also makes it obvious that communities,schools, teachers & students are totally inter-dependent. Of course, therewere those who understood these things, but their actions, or the decisionsthey could not alter, in a highly fragmented, multi-agency, set of procedures,set a course of unintended & often damaging consequences.

Governments,of every sort, prefer to avoid the thought that social policy, differencesbetween rich & poor, access to influence & opportunity, things overwhich they have greater direct influence than schools could ever have,predicate children’s entry intoeducation. For decades politicians have tended to turn upon schools for failingsin social equity or social wholeness even when they dress their criticism inless utopian terms. Introducing “market forces” & the skills & expertiseof the “dynamic private sector” (remember that before the banks crashed?) wasalways going to be a diversion, & has often proved to be a dangerous one. Onthe other hand, attempts, such as Extended Schools & Children’s Centres,well-intentioned though they were, can bury schools in superfluous “agendas”, justas Ofsted has suffered from a loss of educational focus by adding Children’sServices to an already wide remit. For Primary schools in particular, extra demandshave been made at the same time as insistence on increasing standards narrowlyfocussed on a few core subjects & skills, hammered into place by Departmentinitiatives & the tests: all this while under-valuing teachers & givinglittle practical encouragement or recognition to schools as learningenvironments that depend upon fostering the development & study oflearning.

Thisis not an argument to reprieve schools of their public responsibility, nor doesit lessen their duty to ensure that children get the best possible start forlifelong learning. It does not remove the need for (appropriate) accountability,but a tangled knot has wound itself around assessment & high status hasbeen given to relatively crude procedures resulting in a narrowing view of whatthe education & with it “teaching to the test” (which is what “delivery”)actually implies. Tangles in the assessment knot were there from the beginningof SATs. Ken Boston, when Head of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority,is reported to said that the assessment regime had 22 aims, &, it seems,each of these could be further subdivided. So, we have assessment for: checkingadditional needs (“no child slipping through the net”), guiding future learning(but that is a daily necessity) , checking effectiveness of teachers, checkingschool effectiveness (league tables), checking school leadership (results beingtaken for inspection purposes as a measure of “management & leadership”), “ensuringvalue for money” & the effectiveness of local authority educationdepartments...Meanwhile, international comparisons suggest that formativeassessment (mentoring for learning, advice or further challenge within theclassroom environment) is the surest method to improve children’s learning. Thewaste of opportunity represented by the Tomlinson proposals for reform of the14-19 curriculum, the manner in which these were undermined through fear beforean election that the accusation that these would lead to an undermining of the“gold standard,” A-Level, is a salutary lesson. State-decreed curricular &assessments will always tend to fall victim to the vapid intentions of partypoliticians worried about votes.

Theheart of the dilemma for education lies in the question: what qualifies anyoneto teach? The simple formulaic answer: a certificate conferring QualifiedTeacher Status; will not do here. What must lie behind QTS is complex, butessentially comes down to the fact that a teacher has been judged adequate torepresent the best values & cultures of their communities. Educationalongside a commitment to light fires of enthusiasm for learning is the only properbasis for teaching. Those most embedded in the process of education becomeeducators. “Embedded in the process of education” helps to explain why it isthat teachers have tended to remain stubbornly collegial & why, unsurprisingly,efforts to introduce “performance measurement” & “payment by results” havehad limited success.

Nonetheless,political distrust of teachers & teaching has been a major theme forseveral decades. The result has been teaching “strategies” that aresafety-first, sometimes patronisingly unchallenging to students & oftenformulaic. (In one classroom a teacher who had failed to give the class thelesson objective before starting to teach was interrupted by a “good student”pointing out, “Please, you haven’t written the aim of the lesson on boardyet”). We should ask, what picture of the profession (& thus of the valueof education) do children receive implicitly, if teachers are publicallydistrusted to the extent that their role becomes, in effect, delivering aState-designed educational prescription?

Muchhas been said, & many extravagant claims have been made on the back of PISA(Programme for International Student Assessment) results that place Finland atthe top of the world table. But it is not a simple matter that the countries atthe top of the table provide better education for their children than others.Nordic institutions are very different from our own. What does seemparticularly relevant about the Finnish example, however, is that teachingthere is a highly prized & sought-after profession; that those working incomprehensive schools, for children aged 7-16, are required to hold Mastersdegrees may not of such relevance as what that betokens. Finnish teachers aregiven much greater autonomy (or “self-efficacy”) than those in England enjoy &their approach to planning & record-keeping is far less pressurised, withgreater national emphasis on an integrated curriculum & social-cohesion.

MichaelGove had much to say about Scandinavian models of education when in opposition.It remains to be seen whether this amounts to more than the usualwindow-dressing. So far the emphasis seems to be on how schools are described &constituted rather than on what happens within them. One hopes that he reads Reinventing Schools & that herequires his junior ministers, officials & advisers to do the same. Anyonewith an interest in education & the future of our children should do thesame. Ultimately, if education policy (or any policy for that matter) is as irrationalas appears here, if evidence is disregarded (in spite of the industrialcollection of “data” that goes on), if ministers listen only to highlyinterpreted proofs of policy success, isn’t this a failure of “education”? Ifso, we need a profound social reform, certainly a “bigger” society, one inwhich individual civic action is not neutralised either by bossy governance ormere complacency justified by half-truthful economic reasoning, otherwise“Physician heal thyself!"

[1]Iwould suggest Superfluous cultural forms & artefacts are essential forcultural health. Much as culture itself thrives where there is a degree of“surplus” at the level of basic needs, so variation within culture (horizontaldiversity) helps to maintain its quality (paradoxically, since “bad culture” isalso part of the variations) & diversity between cultures tends toreciprocal invigoration in depth (vertical diversity)

DRAWN TO MEANING

2011-09-23T03:59:00.000-07:00

A Buddhist nun once asked a teacher about the meaning of a sutra she had been studying for many years. The patriarch responded by asking her to read out the passage because, he explained, he was illiterate. “If you cannot recognise the characters, how can you understand the meaning?” she asked, astonished at his ignorance.

“Truth is not the words. Truth is like the bright moon in the sky. A finger can point to the moon’s location, but the finger is not the moon. To find the moon you must gaze beyond the finger. Is that not so?”

Drawnto Meaning: Peter Pointer, Digby Digit & a Handful of Indications

Children make marks: some accidental, some very, verydeliberate & not always in the right places - according to adults. In thedays before mass schooling an illiterate man, unable to sign his name, butfaced with some form of contract or legal document (for such things were then amale prerogatives) would be asked to “make his mark”. A millennium or more BCE,people of the Upper Palaeolithic period also left marks: handprints, patterns, highlyfocussed portraits of bison or stags with fleeting little stick men hunting them.Closer to our own time, a mere 151 years before I sat down to write this articleEdward Fitzgerald translated the Farsi of the Omar Khayyám (around 1100CE) asfollows:

The Moving Finger writes, & having writ

Moves on: not all thy Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,

Nor all they Tears wash a word of it

The fore-finger of the spirit writes indelibly, itseems; it is not only our footprint we need to think about!

Pointing is an action we take for granted. It seems sosimple & obvious, but like trying to find a definition for the word,“That”, it is surprisingly complex. (Try it). While domestic dogs appear to“understand” the pointing gesture of their human companions to some extent,studies of chimpanzees are at best inconclusive. But in spite of headlines like“Dogs Understand Pointing as Well as Toddlers” (based on a report of researchpublished in Animal Cognition, July2009) the situation is less clear. In fact dogs follow the movement of the arm,or as the researchers put it, "Our results show that dogs can understandthe pointing gesture if a body part protrudes from the body silhouette". In otherwords, even trained dogs (sheep dogs for example) fail to understand gesturessuch as an inclination of the head, a mere lift of a finger, a foot or elbowpoint, or when an arm motions one way but the finger points to one side[1].What dogs “understand” from the action of pointing might be the subject for adifferent discussion: what this means for children is one of those universalkeys for education & human culture.

The research suggests is that after centuries of closecontact with people, dogs seem to be able to follow the crudest of pointinggestures of their human owners. In that respect, the researchers propose, dogsdo as well as children under the age of three. Readers of Kindling will probably know that the third year is a significantmilestone in development. It is a period when the child’s linguistic capabilitytypically takes an enormous leap, & as kindergarten practitioners, whorecognise the importance of gesture, the connection between these things shouldbe very much to the point.

Pointing is a co-operative gesture, &, among people,to see the point is to follow an intention, to read signs that take us beyondsingle-minded selfhood, which also implies the achievement of degree of selfhoodin the first place. Lifting a finger, making your mark is a first indicator ofour capacity to imbue those marks with personality & thus meaning &purpose. Little wonder then that Michelangelo, who knew more than most aboutimages & meaning, depicted God instilling the vital human spirit into Adamwith a dynamic index finger. Little wonder the illiterate sage in our storycompares words to a finger pointing at the moon. For a gesture is an indicationof something not immediately “to hand” & while Wittgenstein proposed thatultimately the only things that can be spoken about are those we can point to,he seems to have presumed too much about the gesture involved. If I raise myhands & place them gently over my heart it is probably not to demonstrateanatomy. A complex gesture can mean many things. Even with simple pointingthere are worlds of difference between pointing with index, or Jupiter, finger(which might be an impertinence), pointing the whole hand (an invitation tospeak, or a strong emphasis, depending on the inclination of the palm), orpointing index & middle (Saturn) fingers together (bang!). Significantly,gestures are quite specific to certain cultures of societies. Curling yourindex finger towards someone may seem reminiscent of a seductive temptress in aHolywood film, but try it in the Philippines, where it is considered a gesturefor dogs, & you might be arrested.

Making pictures follows from pointing. The toddler’sfirst marks & scribbles, those big loops & twirling circles of concentratedeffort, are part imitation & part pure organic vivacity. Once complete the“picture” can be discarded because these are the ash of a firry activity: thechild is drawing herself into the doing-ness of the world. As in kindergarten,so in the home, the “Steinerised” mother does her child no particular serviceby providing only colouring blocks.The crayon is an extension of the index finger & in the absence of paper, orif not, mud, condensation on a window or the breakfast yoghurt will do as well.

Drawing starts as exercise of the bodily self, butgradually, at around the age of three it begins to gain an extra dimension.Michaela Strauss’s book, UnderstandingChildren’s Drawing[2]remains a fascinating guide to all this. Strauss carefully catalogues theprimary gestures that appear in children’s drawing beginning as a literalimprint of children’s growth & development. Once the appearance houses& people emerge from random scribble, one starts to see composition &colour playing a part & gradually the young artist becomes a story-tellerin pictures. Long before a child can read, she becomes literate in images:“Here’s me, & mummy & daddy’s in the garden & it’s raining &I’ve got my hood on &...” You might say, this phase starts with the circle(house, person, universe...) & with that comes kindergarten.

Except where a child has fairly serious additionalneeds, or (which comes to the same thing) (s)he has been deprived in some wayof the essentials for healthy development, children who enter the kindergartenare already sophisticated image makers. As the organic phase ebbs, an iconicphase rises. Pictures take on a totemic quality. They include the child’s hope,fears, anxieties, longings, but most of all they depict how the childexperiences her world. Once a child enters this phase, colour becomes moreimportant to enhance & emphasise the qualities of that world. Theopportunity to splash around in potentials of colour, through painting, now hasits entry point & the adult has the privilege of being given snap-shots ofan emerging soul. If that is so, when it comes to crayons, do we do the rightthing for the children if we restrict the range of colours available? Audrey McAllen,& others, have made the case for not excluding the black crayon from thekindergarten, suggesting that children need access to black crayons so thatthey can to express their experience of the skeleton. We should be similarlycautious, I believe, about the idea that young children should only be givenblock crayons.

Like many things in the Waldorf cannon, block crayonswere not available to the first teachers. When they came on the scene it wasfor pedagogical reasons for a particular group of children – aged 11-12 – noteven for Class One. It sometimes seems as though these waxy bricks have becomea defining feature of Waldorf for the younger children. And they are extremelygood to work with; a powerful pedagogical tool. Essentially, they are a“solid-painting” medium, ideal for blending & teaching children to build avocabulary of illustrative gestures & forms, which is part of theaesthetics curriculum. Used in this way, however, they call for certain amountof conscious technique: that is the nub of the problem too. Aesthetics in thekindergarten is embedded in the environment: in rhythm & orderliness, inthe nature table & the way food is set at snack-time. In other words the“authority” with which the class teacher works is withheld in the kindergarten;working inwardly for the practitioner so that it informs the whole way the kindergartenis conducted. Because of this withheld authority, the kindergarten leader canwork with the capacity the young child can developmentally respond to &most needs: imitation.

In consciously creating a child-appropriate environmentin the kindergarten drawing materials will certainly feature. Just as RudolfSteiner did not suggest that all the paper used in early years should betrimmed to have rounded corners (& might well have objected to the idea),he did not propose the use of block crayons. In fact the stick is nearest tothe finger. If you look again at Michelangelo’s God giving Adam vital spirit inthe Sistine Chapel, you might notice how the fingers of Adam’s limply extendedleft hand are shaped as if he were holding a large pencil. One of the thingsthat young children might learn byimitation in in the kindergarten - & something that Class Teachersshould always teach - is the correctway to hold a writing implement. If children only use block crayons inkindergarten, I believe an opportunity (& a reality) is missed. Although Ihave been unable to locate any reference to substantiate the claim, I haveheard it said that Rudolf Steiner suggested that pre-school children could beled via imitation to simple form drawing including the forms of lettersalthough without overt teaching of phonics. That is an idea that certainlydeserves consideration, especially as part of any sessions held for the sixyear old group. The indication may be anecdotal; the best things often are!

The young child is modelling him or herself through theenvironment & out of that modelling comes the powerful impulse to create inall sorts of unsophisticated ways. Once in school, the unity of growth &development begins to find there are distinct currents & flows: singing, playingmusic, movement, poetry, story-telling, painting, form drawing &modelling... At the same time the icon maker becomes progressively a maker& user of symbols. Each art, & each stage of life, possesses distinctproperties & language. A richly enlivened culture depends upon an abilityto bring the colours of one to bear on the formalities of others. It has beenreported that at the end of his life Steiner spoke to the effect that if hewere starting the Waldorf School again, he would “turn everything 180̊ in thedirection of the artistic”. Perhaps in some sense, though not fully, orcomprehensively, that has been happening during the century since an educationfounded on Anthroposophy was first proposed.

In The Riddle ofHumanity[3],Steiner pointed towards a reawakening of cultural/artistic life:

Thereal aesthetic conduct of man consists of the fact that the sense organs becomeenlivened & the life processes become ensouled

That may seem a long wayfrom the day-to-day life of a kindergarten, where life processes are so verymuch in evidence & senses are at their most acute. It may also seem not tohave much connection with the development of literacy. In fact, it could beseen as a cornerstone for what Waldorf education strives to do. Reaching this inour present time involves preparing our material, having icons, or pictures towhisper to us, symbols we can read, until we discover them all transformed& transcended in the reality of “the moon”, sun, & stars. Indicationsare needed for the journey; but they are not the destination.

Meanwhile, if you’ve beenworrying about how Digby Digit got to be in the title of this article: sorry,but that’s only for the Upper School!

[1]Gun dogs, such as the aptly-named, Pointer, of course, do not truly “point”.They are trained to hold a pose preparatory to hunting which enables the humanhuntsman to locate the position of the target

[2]Strauss, M, Understanding Children’sDrawings, Rudolf Steiner Press, 1978

[3]Steiner, R, Riddle of Man (first published under this title 1916), MercuryPress, 1990

Arts & Education PCAH Summary

2011-07-19T05:54:00.000-07:00

WE POST THIS SUMMARY IN THE BELIEF THAT IT IS A HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT PIECE OF WORK THAT SHOULD BE WIDELY ACKNOWLEDGED BY ALL INVOLVED IN EDUCATION - SPREAD THE WORD, EVENTUALLY EVEN THE POLITICIANS MIGHT HEAR IT...& DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

President’s Committeeon the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) Reinvestingin Arts Education. Winning America’s Future through Creative Schools

(May2011)

Read the full report at: http://www.pcah.gov/sites/default/files/photos/PCAH_Reinvesting_4web.pdf

A decline in artseducation

‘Atthis moment in our nation’s history, there is a great urgency around majortransformation in America’s schools. Persistently high dropout rates (reaching 50% or more in some areas) areevidence that many schools are no longer able to engage and motivate theirstudents. Students who do graduate fromhigh school are increasingly the products of narrowed curricula, lacking thecreative and critical thinking skills needed for success in post-secondaryeducation and the workforce’ (p vi)

‘artsinstruction in schools is on a downward trend …………… sadly this is especiallytrue for students from lower-income schools, where analyses show that access tothe arts in schools is disproportionately absent’ (p vi)

‘Inthe global economy, creativity is essential ……………This report shows us the linkbetween arts education and achievement in other subjects. It documents that the process of making art –whether it is written, performed, sculpted, photographed, filmed, danced orpainted – prepares children for success in the workforce not simply as artists,but all professions. Most importantly,it makes compelling argument for creating arts-rich schools and engagingartists in ways that complement the study of other subjects such as literature,history, science and mathematics’ (p2)

This‘is the optimal moment for the federal government to make a major statementabout the value of bringing high quality arts teaching to more schools’ (p10)

‘Almostevery community – indeed, almost every school that tries to address the vexingchallenge of how to get more arts into schools does so differently …….. thereis no one model that works best for every community’ (p10)

‘Recentanalyses revealed that the schools with students who could most benefit fromthe documented advantages of arts strategies are often those that either do notrecognize the benefits of arts education or do not have the resources toprovide it to their students. Currentbudgetary crises as well as the narrowing of curricula have forced some schoolsto curtail arts programs when they are most needed’ (p11)

Research evidenceabout the relationship between involvement in the arts and academic performance

‘Champions of Change (Fiske, 1999)reported seven correlative studies that show the pattern of linkage betweenhigh levels of arts participation and higher grades and test scores in math andreading. Included was the well regardedCatterall study that first examined data from the National EducationalLongitudinal Survey (NELS) about the relationships between involvement in thearts and academic performance. Thequantitative results (e.g standardized test scores, academic grades, anddropout rates) showed that the probability of having more arts experiences inschool was greater for economically advantaged students than for low-socioeconomic status students. However,students with high involvement in the arts, including minority and low-incomestudents, performed better in school and stayed in school longer than studentswith low involvement, the relative advantage increasing over the schoolyears. Low-income students involved indrama showed greater reading proficiency and more positive self conceptcompared to those with little or no involvement’ (p17)

‘AnthropologistShirley Brice Heath studied no-school youth organisations in low-incomeneighbourhoods. Her research showed thatthose students who were involved in arts education for at least nine hours aweek were four times more likely to have high academic achievement and threetimes more likely to have high attendance (Heath, 1998)

‘In2009, James Catterall was able to follow the original cohort of NELS studentsinto their mid twenties and found the persistence of strong connections betweenarts learning in earlier years and overall academic success…………. Moststrikingly, arts-engaged low-income students are more likely than theirnon-arts engaged peers to have attended and done well in college, obtainedemployment with a future, volunteered in their communities and participated inthe political process by voting. In the many types of comparisons thatCatterall tracks, arts engaged low-income students tend to perform more likeaverage higher-income students.’ (p18)

‘Ina study released last year, Dallas’ BigThought program found that sustained engagement in a fine arts disciplinegave high school students substantial advantage in reading achievement whencompared to students who took fewer arts courses, and that all students whoparticipated in clubs or groups that focused on creative activities had anadvantage in reading and math achievement (Bransom et al., 2010) (p19)

‘Studieshave documented significant links between arts integration models and academicand social outcomes for students, efficacy for teachers, and school-wideimprovements in culture and climate…….. Most important, the greatest gains inschools with arts integration are often seen school-wide and also with the mosthard-to-reach and economically disadvantaged students…….. (Fiske, 1999)reported that arts integration approaches were successful in producing betterattendance and fewer discipline problems, increased graduation rates, andimproved test scores; motivating students who were difficult to reachotherwise; and providing challenges to more academically successfulstudents. Studies from Minnesota (Ingram& Reidel, 2003; DeMoss and Morris, 2006) demonstrated particular benefits fromarts integration for economically disadvantaged students and English learnersin the form of reading achievement gains – not surprising given thesimilarities between effective language instruction techniques and visual artsand theatre skills’ (p19)

CAPE (Chicago ArtsPartnership in Education) and A+ Schools

‘School-wideachievement gains have been observed when arts integration has been applied asa school reform and improvement strategy’ (p20)

‘The19 Chicago elementary schools operating the CAPE arts integration model showedconsistently higher average scores on the district’s reading and mathematicsassessments over a six year period when compared to all district elementaryschools (Catterall and Waldorf, 1999). Moreover, in the CAPE schools there were associated positive changes inschool climate, e.g leadership, focus on instruction, teacher colleagueship andparticipation in decision making’ (p20)

‘A+Schools are a comprehensive education reform model that is based on usingarts-integrated instruction, incorporating Gardner’s theory of multipleintelligences, recent brain research findings, and dance, drama, music, visualart and creative writing. More thantwelve years of research about the A+ Schools in North Carolina trackedconsistent gains in student achievement, the schools’ engagement of parents andcommunity, and other measures of learning and success. Most notably, the A+ Schools with higherproportions of disadvantaged and minority students performed as well onstatewide reading and mathematics assessments as students from more advantagedschools. This is doubly impressiveconsidering that while other schools have focused on basic skills in responseto high stakes testing, the A+ Schools have been able to achieve reading andmathematics gains on statewide accountability tests without narrowing thecurriculum (Corbitt, McKenny, Noblit and Wilson, 2001)’ (p21)

Brain research

‘Increasingly,researchers are finding evidence that early arts education is a building blockof developing brain function. Examplesof findings, some of which corroborate earlier findings include:

· Musictraining is closely correlated with development of phonological awareness – oneof the most important predictors of early reading skills

· Childrenwho were motivated to practice a specific art form developed improved attentionand also improved general intelligence. Training of attention and focus leads to improvement in other cognitivedomains.

· Linkshave been found between high levels of music training and the ability tomanipulate information in both working memory and long-term memory’ (p22)

‘Studiesthat not specifically about arts education have identified types of learningexperiences that have implications for arts education. For example, reading researchers have foundthat visualisation can produce significant gains in reading comprehension(Shanahan, et al, 2010). Visualisationmeans that children can create mental images as they read – clearly a skillthat could be supported by helping students draw or paint pictures ordemonstrate with movement or acting what they imagine from a story.’ (p23)

Education system incrisis

‘Bysome estimates, approximately 50% of male students from disadvantaged minoritygroups leave school before graduation ……An estimated 2 million students attenda high school in which fewer than 50% of students graduate’ (p28)

‘Studiesabout the reasons for these trends provide a remarkably consistent picture:students report being bored, almost half saying that classes are notinteresting (this is true even of those with high grades who drop out) and overtwo-thirds say they are not inspired to work hard and that too little wasexpected of them (Bridgeland et al, 2006) (p28)

‘Thenarrow focus on only teaching the basics clearly has not been the answer. Many high school graduates lack the skills tomake them successful in post-secondary education and later in theworkforce. These are sometimes referredto as 21^st Century skills, or habits of mind, and include problemsolving, critical and creative thinking, dealing with ambiguity and complexity,integration of multiple skills sets, and the ability to performcross-disciplinary work. Leaders worrythat the United States is losing its competitive edge in creativity andinnovation, and that the call for ever more rigorous academic standards isinsufficient without a concomitant focus on developing creativity andimagination’ (p29)

‘Theimplications for educators are daunting. They must find ways to reach andmotivate more students and, at the same time, teach more challenging contentand 21^st Century skills. Theexpectation is that they must create an exciting climate of relevant learningtasks for students who are increasingly turning to digital devices and notteachers, texts, or each other for learning new information and expressingideas. For teachers and principals whocontinue to be constrained by rigid curricula, the pressures of standardizedtesting and ever-increasing budget cuts, the demands seem overwhelming.’ (p29)

‘Reformersare calling now for transformation of learning that is, fundamental change inwhat and how students learn’ (p30)

‘Tightschool budgets are a major problem but some also blame the narrowing of thecurriculum as a result of emphasis on accountability for basic skills’ (p30)

Inequity in ArtsOpportunities

‘Thereis increasing evidence that the students in schools that most challenged andserving the highest need student populations often have the fewest artsopportunities’ (p32)

‘Inschools identified as needing improvement and /or with higher percentages ofminority students, teachers were much more likely to report a reduction in timespent in arts instruction’ (p32)

‘Themost frequently cited reason for the lack of arts education opportunity wasinadequate funding followed by a focus on improving test scores (Center forEducation Policy, SRI International, n.d.) (p33)

Allies in Creativity

‘Lastyear’s IBM 2010 Global CEO Survey found that CEOs in 60 countries believecreativity is the most important leadership quality and that creativity helpsemployees capitalize on complexity (IBM 2010)’ (p38)

‘employersrate creativity and innovation among the top five important skills for workersand believe that the most essential skills for demonstrating creativity are theability to identify new patterns of behaviour or new combinations of actionsand integrate knowledge across different disciplines’ (p38)

Arts Integration – asolution?

‘Artsintegration is the practice of using arts strategies to build skills and teachclassroom subjects across different disciplines………When implemented effectivelyand with rigor; students receive both high quality arts instruction and subjectmatter instruction in reading, math, science and other subjects within anintegrated lesson plan……….The possibilities for learning other subjects throughthe arts are limitless: young English learners practice English adverbs byfollowing the directions of a dance instructor; algebra teachers help studentscreate digital designs that demonstrate their understanding of mathematicalrelationships; and middle school students create and play musical instrumentsin the process of learning about sound and wave forms’ (p39)

‘Professionaldevelopment for classroom teachers, arts specialists and teaching artists iscrucial to an effective arts integration program’ (p40)

‘Teachingartists are clearly a critical part of the solution for meeting the goal ofexpanding high quality arts experiences in underserved schools through extendedplacements’ (p42)

‘Thelessons from successful endeavours like Teach for America’ [show] ‘there istruly an opportunity to take advantage of the arts to achieve significant andlast benefits for students, teachers and schools.’ (p43)

‘Thearts are a vital part of the culture and life of this country and all students deserveaccess to the arts in school as part of a complete education. Just as science and social studies are deemedessential subjects independent of their value to other learning outcomes, thearts merit a similar unambiguous place in the curriculum’ (p48)

‘Weurge the leaders of professional associations to work with federal and stateagencies to support connections among the different approaches to arts education’ (p49)

‘Toooften advocates focus on the method ofdelivery of arts instruction, rather than the quality of that instruction and the flexibility to adapt to the needs of the community. …… We recommend efforts that demonstrate howteams of classroom teachers, arts specialists and teaching artists can worktogether on building curricula, delivering instruction, and learning from eachother…………… We agree that the arts will have a more secure place in thecurriculum when teachers experience firsthand the deepening of learning intheir subjects that comes from incorporating arts teaching strategies andworking in collaboration with arts specialists and teaching artists’ (p50)

Summary

‘The PCAH envisionsschools in cities and towns across our nation that are alive with the energy ofcreative thinking and fresh ideas, full of art, music and movement. All of the research points to the success ofschools that are ‘arts rich’ – in which students who may have fallen by thewayside find themselves re-engaged in learning when their enthusiasm for film,design, theatre or even hip-hop is tapped into by their teachers………. We wouldlike to see classrooms where teachers develop new ways of working with studentsand collaborating with their colleagues to motivate the best performance fromtheir classes. We want to create schoolswhere every student feels he or she is good at something and where all teachersfeel they have the tools they need to reach their students’ (p55)

References

Ashby,C.,&Rich,B. (Eds.). (2008) Learning, arts andthe brain: The Dana Consortium report on arts and cognition. New York: Dana press

Bransom,J.,Brown,A. Denson,K. Hoitsma,L. Pinto,Y. Wolf,D.P. & Wolf,T. (2010) Creative Learning: People and Pathways. Dallas:Big Thought

Bridgeland,J.M.,Dilulio,J.J., & Morison,K.B. (2006) . Thesilent epidemic: Perspectives of high school dropouts. Washington,DC: CivicEnterprises

Catterall,J.S.(2009). Doing well and doing good by art:The effects of education in the visual and performing arts on the achievementsand values of young adults. http://tiny.cc/Oprbg

Corbett,D.,McKenney,M., Noblit,G., & Wilson,B. (2001). The A+ schools program: school, community, teacher and student effects.(Report #6 in a series of seven policy reports summarizing the four-yearpilot of A+ schools in North Carolina). Winston-salem, NC: Kenan Institute forthe Arts

DeMoss,K. & Morris,T. (2002). How artsintegration supports student learning: Students shed light on the connections. Chicago,IL: Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE)

Fiske,E.B. (Ed.). 1999 Champions of change: theimpact of the arts on learning. Washington DC: The Arts EducationPartnership and the President’s Committee on Arts and Humanities. Retrieved from http://www.aep-arts.org/files/publications/ChampsReport.pdf

Heath,S.B, Soep,E.,& Roach,A. (1998) Living the arts through language-learning: Areport on community-based organisations. Americans for the Arts 2 (7), 1-20

Ingram,D.& Reidell,E. (2003). Arts foracademic achievement: What does arts integration do for students? Minneapolis,MN: Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement

Shanahan,t.,Callison,K., Carriere,C., Duke,N.K., Pearson,P.D., Schatscheinder,C. &Torgeson,J. (2010). Improving readingcomprehension in kindergarten through 3^rd grade: A practice guide (NCEE2010-4038). Washington,DC: National Center for Education Evaluation andRegional Assistance, Institute for Education Sciences, U.S. Department ofEducation

Racist allegations - some real evidence

2011-01-26T13:46:00.000-08:00

One aspect of the current unpleasant & untruthful campaign against Steiner schools & Anthroposophy is the attempt to brand Waldorf schools & educators as racist. The line or argument goes that Steiner's own views were racist & anti-Semitic, therefore teachers who (according to the critics) follow Steiner blindly cannot help but follow him in that too. One commentator has even rolled out a quote in which a minor apparatchik of the Nazi Party, I imagine prior to the banning of Waldorf schools in Germany, attempts to claim Waldorf schools as close in spirit to National Socialism. It's sad, but not unfortunately not so strange, that people who make so much of the accusation that Waldorf educators are uncritical of Steiner demonstrate so little scrutiny towards their own claims.

The critics have extrapolated from a small selective sample of quotes from Steiner, & provide the crudest of possible account of Steiner's indications about human evolution to "prove" their case. They conveniently ignore so anything that contradicts their tendentious arguments.

In terms of the "racism" accusation, the following from a report of research conducted by Professor Christian Pfeiffer of Hanover University should put the critics claims into some sort of perspective, although I doubt any of them would be able to recognise the irony:

According to the study led by Christian Pfeiffer, Professor of Criminology, pupils at Waldorf schools exhibit the lowest levels of both xenophobia and right-wing extremism. At Hauptschulen (the lowest tier of the German three-tiered school system), 24.7% of pupils harbour xenophobic and 9.5% right-wing tendencies. This drops to 8.3% and 1.9% respectively at Gymnasiums (the highest tier school, the equivalent of grammar schools). But only 2.8% of Waldorf pupils can be considered to have xenophobic and 1.2% right-wing attitudes. This evaluation is based on information obtained from 9,001 youngsters attending the 9th year at schools in Germany.

According to these figures, Hauptschule pupils show three times more xenophobia than Gymnasium pupils, and Gymnasium pupils three times more than Waldorf pupils. This clearly very low figure is especially striking when seen in conjunction with the fact that in some other categories (e.g. graffiti-spraying, shop-lifting and truancy) the study shows Waldorf pupils to be level-pegging with Hauptschule pupils and way above Gymnasium pupils.

The results regarding ‘macho’ attitudes are even more striking, with Waldorf pupils scoring an extremely low rating: Only 0.3% of ninth-year pupils agreed with statements such as ‘A man who is not prepared to react to insults with violence is a weakling’, or ‘If a woman cheats on her husband it is o.k. for him to beat her’. For Gymnasium pupils the figure was almost seven time higher (2.0%), and for Hauptschule pupils compared with Gymnasium pupils ‘only’ a bit over four times more (8.7%).

Especially in categories where derogatory stereotyping is most frequent (i.e. against women and against foreigners), this shows the attitudes of Waldorf pupils to be a great deal more up to date than those of their fellow pupils elsewhere. This in turn corresponds with the attitude expressed by Steiner in his written works, especially his description of the human being in the final chapter ‘Individuality and Genus’ of his main work The Philosophy of Freedom:

So - here's the conundrum: an educational philosophy based on allegedly "racist ideas", with "racist" teachers somehow results in young people whom an independent academic researcher evaluates to be statistically far less racist than their peers. Curious....

SWAS - Guidelines for appraisal & assessment

2010-07-24T11:52:00.000-07:00

A number of colleagues have requested that this should be available here. I hope it proves useful...

The teacher seeks to establish good relationships to sustain the class
Indicators -

• How do the children greet the teacher? Is there eye contact (a handshake?)

• Has the teacher established presence in the classroom?

• What is the mood of the class like?

• Do the children seem secure (know routine, place &c.)?

• Are the relationships between children positive (do members of the class use put-downs, are there “Cinderella” children)? Are all children encouraged & respected?

• Are good manners encouraged?

• Do the children listen appropriately to one another?

• Is there enthusiasm & receptivity?

• Are there moments of spontaneity?

The teacher seeks to establish good work habits & rhythm in the teaching

Indicators –

• Is there a balance in the lesson between the initiative of the teacher & initiative of the children?

• Are members of the class encouraged to ask questions?

• Do the children raise their hands or are there other ways to indicate the need for help that the class uses?

• Do class members know what they should do if they need to visit the loo during lesson time, is this non-disruptive?

• Do children react to educational challenges readily?

• Is their flow & pace in the lesson?

• How is recall worked with?

• Are rhythmic, thinking & will activities present during the lesson & do these support the learning process?

• Does the teacher make time to observe & monitor the way the class is working?

• Are there laughter & levity, seriousness & reflection during the lesson?

• Do all children achieve something during the lesson?

• Are achievements celebrated?

• At the end of the lesson is there a moment when the breathing of the class seems to have deepened?

• Does the lesson have a beginning, middle & end & are class members aware of this?

• Is the room tidy & cared for?

• How are the children involved in caring for their surroundings?

The teacher seeks to help the class strive for the highest standards in their learning

Indicators –

• Is the learning appropriate to the age & ability of the children?

• Is the quality of work in the children’s books of appropriate?

• Is the quality of music, artistic work, speech & movement &c. appropriate?

• Does the teacher provide a good example & are techniques & skills actively taught to the class?

• Are the lessons well researched & is the teaching lively?

• Does the teacher follow-up homework, corrections &c?

• Is there individual expression in the children’s work & contributions?

• Does the teacher provide an example of “being a learner”?

• Are the class skills appropriate to their age & ability?

The teacher seeks to imbue the teaching with artistic qualities & sets an appropriate example for the class

Indicators -

• How is the quality of the temperaments worked with during the lesson?

• Is there sufficient movement in the lesson?

• Are blackboard illustrations, writing, classroom details & set-up (e.g. season table &c.) appropriate, attractive & functional

• Does the lesson have inner coherence?

• Does the teacher seek to frame instruction in the form of narrative & imagery?

• Is there idealism in the lesson?

The teacher seeks to handle difficulties with equanimity& is consequential

Indicators -

• Does the teacher draw attention to positive behaviour?

• How are breaches of good behaviour handled – do such breaches adversely affect the class as a whole?

• Do class members try to maintain norms of good behaviour among themselves?

• Does the teacher maintain a good stance & affective use of the voice?

The teacher seeks the achieve high standards of professionalism & collegiality

Indicators -

• Is there a year plan, block plan & lesson plan?

• Do the latter indicate learning objectives?

• Are appropriate records of the children’s learning kept?

• Do lessons start on time?

• Is the teacher’s self-presentation appropriate?

• Is the teacher open to advice?

• Does the teacher seek to learn new skills & increase competence?

• Willing to help others?

• Willing to take on essential non-teaching duties?

• And able to discriminate about non-essential ones? (!)

• Including ability to say, “No”, when necessary (priorities & balance)

• Does the teacher communicate with colleagues, Trustees & parents openly?

• Does the teacher promote good-will among colleagues?

• Is the teacher accessible to parents? (Class evenings &c.)

• Does the teacher communicate learning goals & other important information with parents?

• Is there evidence of a striving to develop spiritual insight through the tasks undertaken?

A Review Essay

2009-12-20T13:18:00.000-08:00

Is There a Waldorf Approach to Handwriting?

Soul Development through Handwriting – The Waldorf Approach to the Vimala Alphabet by Jennifer Crebbin

The general claim made by Soul Development through Handwriting is a lofty one that Waldorf teachers may feel drawn to. While the book does not directly state that it presents a “Waldorf approach” to teaching handwriting, its implicit claims are strong. The book appears under the imprint of Steiner Books, which is part of Anthroposophic Press, & there are references to Rudolf Steiner & Waldorf education in buckets-full. The book opens with six quotations from Steiner’s lectures on education & the author describes her experience as one of a Waldorf home-schooler, some-time school administrator & wife of a “speciality teacher” in a Waldorf school in North America. Her stated aim is to bring about a “marriage” between Steiner pedagogy & the Vimala handwriting system.

The book has a great deal to say about the benefits of the Vimala alphabet & there is no doubting Jennifer Crebbin’s enthusiasm. At one point she describes it as “sacred technology”; she says she has made the teaching of it her life career. But we must add that the author does not write as a practicing class teacher, presently or formerly. As she puts it, she is someone with “a passion for introducing this work to the Waldorf movement” & the book includes an appreciative note from a former teacher of the Brightwater School in Seattle.

I have observed this script in use in two classes & in both cases the teachers concerned had come to it because of its implied Waldorf credentials. We should thus examine what Vimala offers, to what extent it meets the needs of modern children, fulfilling its claim to help to “remove hindrances to the full expression of one’s unique Self by supporting soul development”.

The origins of Vimala script are recent, having been “first made public in 1995 by Dr Vimala Rodgers, an Alphabetician & educator”. Dr Rodgers’ own book, Change Your Handwriting, Change Your Life (Celestial Arts, Berkeley, CA, 1993) contains a more detailed account of the origin & aims of the alphabet, which are ones that would seem compatible with Waldorf education. Readers who have encountered Helen Drinklage’s Therapy through Handwriting (Mercury Press, Spring Valley, NY, 1978) will recognise some of the letter forms found in Vimala among those preferred by Helen Drinklage (the open “e” & ampersand “g” for example, though, notably, Drinklage recommends a “g” without lower loop):

[See full script below]

Readers will also notice the use of some forms, such as the rolled “r” that are characteristic of North American & some Continental handwriting styles, though less commonly used here:

[See full script below]

The full script looks like this:

As a class teacher &, more recently, adviser, I have taken a great deal of interest in the question of the introduction of cursive script & the necessary qualities for a foundation hand. The principles involved here include finding a method that can serve to provide young people with a satisfactory basis for the development of each child’s developing personal style. Waldorf class teachers have the task to establish such a foundation hand with their children. That foundation script is likely to be – should be, I believe - very different to the teacher’s own adult & personalised handwriting, scrawl or otherwise (!) As for every topic, the key question is, “How can I best teach the child using the medium of the discipline or topic?” I may, for example, love the music of Stravinsky, but will probably recognise the value of working with melodic, pentatonic modes in the youngest class. Like ancient prophets, the teachers task is to “make strait the way” between the child & the each one’s highest potential. For adults the question is different, although it is helpful to remember how often Rudolf Steiner indicated the beneficial effects of changing one’s own handwriting, especially in the direction of making it more artistic, something he consider important for children too. Where adults are concerned the single lecture printed under the title, Overcoming Nervousness is apposite. He alludes here to the way habits live within the formative-life body & the enlivening effect of making even a small change to habituated patterns. However, Steiner said little about particular forms of script or children’s hand-writing after the initial introductory stages.

Audrey McAllen’s book, Teaching Children Handwriting (Rudolf Steiner College Press, 2002) remains the only comprehensive guide to the subject from pictures or pictograms to cursive hand, but the indications as to styles of cursive script in that book are rather slight. The author of Soul Development... wishes to fill this gap. Having observed Class Two & Three children using Vimala, & having taken time to practice Vimala writing myself, I would feel concerned if it were to become orthodoxy in our schools. The book itself contains a potentially confusing, & in my view inaccurate, description of the link between shapes of letters (graphemes) & their sounds (phonemes). There are some useful hints as to other technical matters, margins, page orientation & writing position; & the guidelines on letter formation could be adapted to help diagnose characteristic handwriting problems, provided the teacher is wary of using Vimala as an ideal against which the children’s efforts are to be evaluated. The evaluation of handwriting is probably one of the most unrecognised (& untaught) skills in the education of teachers, Waldorf or otherwise, so it is valuable to be reminded of this.

The classes I have observed using Vimala have exhibited some similar problems with it. First, less dexterous children find the interior loops on some letters confusing. In some cases this leads to what appear to be extra letters being added to a word that is being copied:

On one occasion, I found a child writing the letter “b” as something like an “l” with a “∂” shape next to it as if they were separate letters. “Alphabet” also demonstrates an inconsistency in the script with regard to loops (“h” has a loop, “b” does not in spite of the common confusion between “b” & “d”, which a loop can help alleviate – an open “b” form is an alternative way to cue the distinction). Of course, not all children will make the sort of error I observed, but it is worth considering those (with dyslexia/dyspraxia-like challenges) for whom some of the fussier aspects of the script may add to likely difficulties. The other feature of Vimala which is evident from the word, “alphabet” is that it is discontinuous. The gaps between letters in a single word, characterised as, leaving “room for something new to enter”, means that writing with Vimala is semi, rather than fully, cursive. We are told that “a string of six or more letters [should not be] connected”, on the grounds that “the connections can be fixed & stagnant” without substantiation or recognition for the value of whole word cursive connectivity especially in the initial stages of writing. Unfortunately, some children “see” the space as the start of a new word & breaks within words undermine the kinaesthetic flow that helps to support a “feel” for spelling & generally promotes good rhythm. The passage from Rosicrucianism & Modern Initiation, quoted at the beginning of Soul Education, provides one of the key aims of the Waldorf approach to writing: “the human being becomes unfettered when he writes in the way he paints & draws”. I do not think this alphabet fits with that intention. I am also concerned that certain preferred letter forms in Vimala are associated by most graphologists with negative tendencies. That odd, high barred letter “t”, for example, is usually viewed as being linked to qualities such domination, vanity & a dreamy lack of realism . The claim that Steiner wrote with a similar high “t” as that which is given as an ideal in Vimala is quickly disproved by studying facsimiles of his of his hand-writing (e.g. in the most recent edition of Towards a Deepening of Waldorf Education); the exaggerated, quasi-upper case, form used in the script bears no resemblance to his hand-writing in which the letter retains its more usual modest proportions.

Muscle memory achieved through thorough practice, artistic satisfaction so that the eye “lovingly” follows the hand in forming the letters, a good style that encourages meaning to be readily transferred to paper, are the important qualities to build the foundations of literacy. But, in addition to writing, children need to get to grips with linking symbols to sounds. Rudolf Steiner was very specific about the different quality of vowel & consonant & drew attention to the soul-spiritual nature of sounds of speech, both in helping to develop the art of eurythmy &, in his seminars & speech exercises for teachers of the first Waldorf School. An excellent account of consonants can be found in Audrey McAllen’s The Listening Ear. Soul Development also provides a very brief account of the quality of the alphabet, but it does so from the point of view of the letter forms. Thus we have a very serious confusion from the outset where Crebbin writes, “When we write the letter “A”, it expresses the human being at the “highest perfection, expressing something that is felt in the depths of the human soul...”

The text goes on to link this letter shape to the sound eurythmy sound, “Ah”, ignoring that this is a relatively rare occurrence in Standard English where the open, “Ay” or medial “Ᾰ” predominate. This is no small problem, not least because it adds to an occasional if persistent problem arising from applying what Steiner had to say about the German vowels to English, something Audrey McAllen deals with in Teaching Children Handwriting (see above) where she recommends introducing the names of the vowels through pictures. While speech sounds embody elements of the creative “Word” which brought about & sustains life, writing is an earthly (even “earthing”) process that embodies human conventions & history. The former comes most fully to expression in Eurythmy; the latter corresponds to the essence of sounds much as the richly varied forms of chess pieces relate to the rules of the game. Understanding this helps greatly in planning the development of literacy in the first two or three classes.

According to Crebbin’s account, Vimala arose in part in reaction to the standard, Palmer script, used in many schools in North America. The question of whether & in what way national characteristics reveal themselves in the styles of foundation hand-writing taught in schools or used as a standard clerical hand during the nineteenth & early twentieth centuries would be an interesting study in its own right. However, Vimala claims to be far more than a foundation script - one that is of dubious value in my view – attempting to sell itself as a process for “soul development”. Hand-writing is a practical & utilitarian art: emphasise the practical & there you find the every-day scrawl most people utilise; emphasise art & there arises calligraphy, with its specialising aesthetic. In introducing writing to children, we need to find a way between these. We are tasked to help children experience handwriting as practical every-day craftsmanship. Where craftsmanship is concerned it is useful to remember that Steiner was concerned that objects made in these lessons should be designed according to purpose. For example, he pointed out that when embroidering a cushion cover, the embroidery should create a partial “frame” that invites the head to rest upon it; embroidering the centre of the cover would be antithetical to the object. Where handwriting is concerned, it seems to me that a good foundation should provide easily repeatable movement patterns, be clear, lucid & open to change as individual children realise their unique individualities. In other words, it needs to be a starting point for a process that will involve strong habits, yet leave open the way for flexibility & change.

Is Vimala the style of writing for Waldorf schools? Readers will almost certainly understand that I do not think so. Its unsuitability, as explained above, for children with some types of additional need, reduces its value in an education that aspires to have a therapeutic quality. However, Soul Development does have value in raising questions about the way we approach hand-writing, something that becomes more urgent as “real”, handwritten, messages become rarer, replaced by an array of computer fonts. Steiner presented teachers with high values & a powerful spiritual impulse. These are what make Waldorf education unique, but they also present us with a certain danger: that of assuming that the ideals can be reached via a formula. We need to be awake & our thinking keen in turning ideals into reality: “Not of the letter, but of the spirit; the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life” . In Soul Development the Vimala alphabet gives letters enough, but the practical spirit seems to me to be, unfortunately, absent.

Kevin Avison October 2009

SWSF Code of Practice - Applied to Classroom Practice

2009-09-27T13:35:00.000-07:00

The SWSF

"FIVE BY FIVE"

Code of Practice sets out five core organising principles:
1. Respect for the integrity (spiritual essence) of each individual & of the world in general
2. Interest in and Positive approach towards the potential for development in young people in particular & humanity in general
3. Recognition of the central importance of lifelong learning
4. Commitment to the core task of educating children in the light of the above & to encourage, enable &
5. value the Contribution of individuals, groups and communities to the improvement of our common heritage

In the classroom, these can be “translated” into the following five core competences of the teacher:

1. Using Descriptive Affirmation – say precisely what you see in the child’s behaviour, paying special attention to positive qualities. Avoid generalised phrase like, “Good”, or “Well done”, unless you have already said what it is that has been done well. Avoid defining children as “clever”; that’s no more respectful than saying someone is stupid! Putting into more adult words what a child has said is also a mark of respectful pedagogical communication. Encourage children to express themselves in full sentences (see Challenges, 3)
2. Welcoming Mistakes – if a child gets only right answers, you’re NOT doing your job. We learn by mistakes, perfection does not need to learn. It may sound odd to say, “Thank you for making that mistake”, but if you engage the reasons for the mistake having been made, gratitude is the appropriate response! This leads to –
3. Providing challenges – choosing a challenge just outside a child’s zone of comfort is a matter of pedagogical tact & skill. Some children will be able to reach further than others, but in all cases the key difference between “a challenge” – something each person raises themselves to from within - & “stretching” – the deed of an educational Procreates – is absolute & essential for learning
4. Providing time for practice – acquiring skills involves repetition. Hand-writing, spelling, basic number facts, grammar all need plenty of practice. Education also involves training. Practice can be enlivened, or reinvigorated if a small extra (meaningful) challenge is added
5. Encouraging independence – avoid over teaching, step back & observe. Not everything can, or should flow from the teacher. This is also a practical form of respect. Expect & encourage self-reliance; this breeds self-confidence

NOW LET'S BE POSITIVE

2009-07-23T02:43:00.000-07:00

The sleep of reason breeds monsters, so Goya's print reminds us. Is there a balance between reason & intuition when it comes to praise?

Readers of previous entries here, may remember our concern with how we use praise. The following article, form the TES has some interesting points to make. Could too much praise leave young people less able to meet the real challenges life will bring them? Could the intention to promote self-confidence sometimes become self-defeating? As Steiner educators, we should be well aware of the question of balance in all this, but when is there balance, & when has one side of the scales become over-weighted? Can we judge these things accurately at all? To what extent do we simply play out the influence of our own school experience, good or bad? Food for thought? - I hope so -

Good for you - Features Published in TES Magazine on 5 June, 2009 By: Hannah Frankel

Praise is a good thing, right? According to experts, it’s a question of how and why it’s done
Pupil does their homework for the first time in weeks. Not very well, but they do it. Do you a) punish them b) encourage them to do better next time, or c) praise them?
Before the 1980s, a teacher may well choose the first option. But over the past 30 years, punishment has given way to a rewards-based approach to motivation. It is now so prevalent, that praise and rewards have become almost indispensable to teaching. Some schools spend up to £30,000 a year on incentives.
But a growing number of dissenters are voicing reservations. In a book published last month called Motivating Every Learner, Alan McLean explores the “Mars bar culture”. External rewards - from chocolate to school trips - are distracting pupils from internal motivators, such as a sense of pride or satisfaction from a job well done, he argues. And “rewards inflation” means that schools must constantly up the ante to achieve the same hit.
“Just as fireworks or special effects have to be more and more spectacular to impress the crowd, so schools must offer ever greater rewards to gain attention,” he says. “When things such as mountain bikes and iPods are being dished out, it’s gone too far.”
One 10-year-old pupil told Mr McLean, who is an educational psychologist based in Glasgow, that he had had enough of getting stickers for doing well. Another recalled being praised for sitting in her seat in Primary 1 (Year 1). “What’s the point of doing anything if you’re praised for just sitting?” she asked.
However, even Mr McLean acknowledges that praise, when handled correctly, has a place in schools. At Redscope Primary School in Rotherham, new technology is being used to promote a culture of praise. The school rewards pupils by sending them to the “praise pod” - an appealing egg- shaped chair facing an integrated computer webcam reminiscent of the Big Brother diary room.
There, the pupils record and report their achievements to a parent, teacher or governor manning the webcam. The footage can then be recorded and distributed to family, pupils or other members of staff.
“It’s the opposite of the naughty corner,” says Paula Dobbin, headteacher. “Praise has become a whole-school priority, and we always try to employ emotionally literate staff.” Everyone from the dinner lady to the caretaker can recommend pupils for the praise pod for any good deed or work. It ensures the praise pod is available to all, including the quarter of Redscope pupils with special educational needs.
“We have one boy with an attachment disorder, who used to hit the first person he saw during breaktimes,” says Ms Dobbin. Through one-to-one support and plenty of praise the school has managed to re-integrate him back into mainstream play.
“When staff see that he’s playing well without thumping anyone, everyone reinforces that positive behaviour with a nice comment or a recommendation for the praise pod,” says Ms Dobbin. “Good work can be undone through an inconsistent staff approach.”
To change one behaviour takes about 200 reinforcements, says Richard Crook, who created the praise pod concept. By sharing the task across all the staff, schools can hit that target. “The more time we spend noticing and giving out attention to wanted behaviours, the more they happen,” he says. “If the definition of ‘good behaviour’ is too narrow some will feel excluded and opt out.”
Most of the major research in this area backs this sort of approach. The 1989 Elton Report recommended a rewards to sanctions ratio of at least 5:1 - something echoed by the Steer Report in 2005. And last year, an Ofsted report suggested rewards were a “powerful incentive” for pupils who struggle with school.
“A mass of evidence shows that rewards and praise are far more effective than punishment,” says Professor Susan Hallam, a leading authority on behaviour and attendance at the Institute of Education in London.
Praise and rewards underpin almost all we do, she argues. Even with computer games, players are usually congratulated with lights and music before moving up to the next level. The real test is whether it works.
“Look in detention, and it’ll be the same pupils in there every week,” says Professor Hallam. “Punishment rarely solves anything.” Instead, rewarding a hard-working class with 10 minutes of football at the end of the day is both motivating and attainable.
Professor Hallam strongly rebukes accusations that this amounts to bribery. “Truants will only receive praise when they are in school, not when they’re not,” she says. “You only praise behaviours that you want to reinforce and encourage.”
For attention-seeking pupils, even punishments will be rewarding. “A better solution is to ignore poor behaviour where possible and reward good behaviours, because this will lead to their repetition and bring about change.”
Vivo Miles, a system where pupils can earn (and lose) miles for good behaviour or work, is a reflection of how far the rewards culture has come. Currently used in more than 50 schools, the miles allow teachers to award points for anything from good behaviour to healthy eating, which pupils can then exchange for prizes. They can check their account online using a special Vivo credit card.
Describing this as bribery is entirely misleading, insists George Grima from Vivo Miles. Just as employers receive a salary and sometimes a performance-related bonus at the end of the year, so pupils should be recognised for meeting targets. “We should acknowledge the incredibly hard work the majority of students put in during their school life and make sure the link between effort and reward is clear,” he says.
But Dr Carol Craig, chief executive of the centre for confidence and well- being in Scotland, is not convinced. Although she is against going back to the “dark old days” when pupils were routinely put down or punished, she says too much praise is breeding a generation of narcissists and undermining learning.
“Praise is so much part of the zeitgeist; it’s the spirit of our times,” she says. “There is a collective viewpoint that schools must boost pupils’ self-esteem. A lot of teachers have private reservations about that, but they don’t say anything because they think it’s politically incorrect.”
Warning bells are already sounding across the Atlantic. Influential work by two American psychologists - Dr Jean Twenge, author of Generation Me, and Professor Carol Dweck, a leading researcher on motivation from Stanford University in California - have both highlighted how confidence and assertiveness, boosted through praise, can be counter-productive. Instead of happier pupils, it can actually make young people passive and dependent on the opinion of others.
Trying to cocoon pupils in an unrealistically positive environment does them no favours, agrees Dr Craig. “Challenge can be frustrating, but if pupils aren’t allowed to feel frustrated, they’ll never learn or progress.”
Parents have bought into the self-esteem agenda, she adds, and are now quick to complain to schools if their child is unhappy or treated severely by teachers. Universities and employers also report that young people are not as willing to take criticism or meet exacting standards. “We’re kidding ourselves if we think we can gain results only from working on the positives,” says Dr Craig. “A balance has to be struck if praise isn’t to backfire.”
Both Dr Craig and Mr McLean would like to see a shift away from praise and towards encouragement. Ironically, pupils will find this more rewarding in the long term, they argue.
“We’re in a transitional phase at the moment, but already in Scotland we’re moving beyond praise and towards an encouragement culture,” says Mr McLean.
Whereas praise is a benign form of control - implicitly judgmental and conditional - encouragement is more empowering and pushes pupils to take responsibility for their own learning, Mr McLean argues.
Rather than simply praising a piece of art, for example, an encouraging teacher will ask a pupil to think of ways they can improve on it or explain their approach. It takes more time, but is ultimately more meaningful. By putting pupils in charge of their own progress, their confidence and motivation will grow.
“Currently, teachers are told to praise everything, but look at nothing,” says Mr McLean. “Pupils see through that plastic praise. They know if a teacher is bullshitting them, and it can leave them feeling patronised and pitied. That’s not good for their self-belief, either. False praise breeds false confidence and, ultimately, resentment and mistrust.”
Instead, teachers should provide pupils with the information they need to boost their own self-belief. Differentiation will also play a key role. Pupils who can not access the intrinsic rewards of the classroom may still need artificial rewards. Others will find praise a distraction and prefer formal techniques that help them improve further.
“Some pupils are inevitably focusing on the reward rather than the learning at the moment,” says Mr McLean. “Children are sophisticated enough to know that there are different preferences and versions of fairness, especially if teachers discuss it with them.”
In Mr McLean’s ideal world, teachers will pursue a third way that transcends both the punishment and the praise era. For him, at least, “do better next time” is the preferred route every time.
How praise works
Queensbridge School in Moseley, Birmingham
The fiercest advocates of praise are often those who have been denied it. Take Andrea Mackenzie, 37, who received scant recognition when she was at school.
“I was more in fear of teachers and criticism,” says the head of Year 10. “I got praised so little it felt as if I was only getting attention for negative things. I became quite introverted.”
Now Ms Mackenzie tries to find something in every pupil that is praiseworthy. The pupils who get referred to her have often had a lot of negative feedback, but once they have been genuinely praised, they get a kick from it and start to push for more. She also likes to involve their parents, often dropping them a card or phone call so they can share that sense of pride. Slowly, the children’s behaviour becomes more malleable. “Not having praise is very detrimental to personal and emotional learning,” she says. “I know. I’ve been there.”
It was only through praise and constant encouragement that Lucretia Fields, 35, assistant headteacher, was able to aim high and apply for university. Now, she makes raising pupils’ aspirations a priority.
“Once they start to accept that the sky is the limit, motivation and progress improve and praise can be justifiably given,” she says.
But does it really work? Shanay Osborne, 16, a Year 11 pupil, is convinced that it does. “Being told you’ve done well is even better than a good mark,” she says.
Shanay is most proud of a trophy she won last year for organising a primary school’s sports day. “It made me feel really special and pushed me to work even harder.”

Associate Advisers!

2009-02-20T06:04:00.002-08:00

The Steiner Waldorf Advisory Service welcomes its first three Associate Advisers: Andy Phipps, Gabriel Kaye & Jonathan Wolf-Phillips. Associate Advisers offer non-pedagogical support in areas such as administration, regulation & governance. Arrangements for Associate Advisers would normally be negotiated individually between the school & the Associate, as for classsroom assessment, & schools would normally meet the costs involved from their own budgets. However, under certain circumstances, & with prior agreement of the SWAS co-ordinator & SWSF finance team, it may be possible to cover part or all of the costs.

There are many anthroposophically-orientated & other types of consultancy offering support to schools & settings. Staff & Trustees may make their choice as to those with whom they wish to work. Associate Advisers, however, have signed up to the SWAS Code* & by working closely with our pedagogical advisers & the Stourbridge office, will be able to offer services that are tailored & integrated to the needs of our complex organisations. More detailed information is available from the SWAS co-ordinator, but in broad terms Associate Advisers offer the following:

Andy Phipps - Ofsted advice & advice on matters of behaviour managment & safeguarding
Gabriel Kaye - All areas of school administration & marketing

Jonathan Wolf-Phillips - Governance, Associative Leadership (including student associations & individual time-management skills training

* See foot of main page for SWAS Code

Few Words: Much Work

2008-12-26T11:35:00.000-08:00

“The inner life of the teacher”, it’s a forbidding subject; but would anyone own up to having no inner life, teacher or not? After all, the moment you wake up in the morning, whether the reaction is “Urrgh!” or “Wow!” “Let’s get going!” or “Hmmmmm! – Just a few minutes longer” (subject to temperament & habit) one’s inner life wakes up too. So what’s all this about inner life & inner work & why do words entangle & confuse something that starts by being common or mundane?

Not just any set of thoughts & not just random & reactive mental scribblings, we’re talking here of something we chose to do as part of our “profession”, something that brings form & discipline into what is otherwise chaotic & undertaken in order to help children. Not just for my sake, but for them.

A short story: A man asked Rudolf Steiner how he might prepare himself to meditate. Steiner gave him a short sentence containing a mental picture to think about to the exclusion of everything else for five minutes each day. Meeting the man again Steiner asked how him how he had got on. “Useless!” the man replied, “Every time I try to do what you said, my thoughts begin to buzz. I have so many loose ends & nothing knits together. I had to give up because I was making no progress”. “But you have made wonderful progress,” was the reply, “You now know what your thoughts are really like!”

People talk a great deal about “non-verbal” signals & “body language” as though these things could be simply adapted to one’s will. The way the thoughts (& especially those that are also felt) we carry with us all day influence those around us is little considered or heeded, but shouldn’t we have more control of these than, for example, of the habit of touching your nose when feeling uneasy? In fact, if you want to do something about the habit, don’t you need to think about it first (“seeing” the problem being the starting point, & where does the “seeing” take place)? Perhaps it is useful to remember that the reality of what we think is one of the first principles Steiner sets out in “How to Attain Knowledge of Higher Worlds”.

To meditate, contemplate, ponder, reflect, cogitate, pray or truly think: there are plenty of words & they’re easily tangled, but the doing is what makes the difference. The doing in this case is unseen; & what is unseen is easiest forgotten. The first of what are often called (wrongly – because of one of the contexts in which they were given) “the six subsidiary exercises” is that concerned with gaining better control of thinking. Whisper it softly, but teachers of young children need to have clearer thoughts than those working with teenagers! A beautiful piece of sewing is an indication of precise thoughts!

Focussing on an everyday object for five minutes, one can attempt to exclude the extraneous drift of will-o’-wisp thoughts. Like the man in the story, the interesting discovery is how difficult it is to do when you set yourself to do it. A similar approach can be adapted to picturing the newborn child, the child taking her first steps, or making her first outwardly meaningful utterance, tying her own shoelaces for the first time. You might find a fascinating to-&-fro between the way in which a vital apprehension of these things brings life & meaning to what Steiner has to say about child development & this can be experienced as enriching the developmental pictures one builds. But don’t take my word for it, if you haven’t tried it, do it: then we shall each have something unique & valuable to speak about.

WORTH A READ?

2008-09-16T08:17:00.000-07:00

The following books may be of interest to colleagues:

The Crazy Makers by Carol Simontacchi
Deep Books Ltd (ISBN 9781585426263)

Carol Simontacchi is a clinical nutritionist & her book explores the way the food industry has gained increasing influence on the collective diet. Her analysis sets out the stages by which commercial interests pander to humanity’s tendency to prefer the sweet & high fat foods. She makes the case, based on a particular interpretation of evolutionary theory, that we have evolved in conditions where food supply was scarce to an affluent modernity where ancient appetites & tastes lead to excessive consumption & epidemic obesity. Although this argument has become a common one, she provides the sort of overview that may be useful when speaking to school communities about children’s diet. The author’s key concern is the effect poor nutrition can have upon mental health.

Letting the Outside In by Rebecca Austin
Trentham Books (ISBN 9781858563916)

In this book Rebecca Austin sets out her belief that while children’s lives are increasingly lived in enclosed environments, children learn better when they have “real stuff” work with. Many colleagues & parents of children in Steiner schools will readily acknowledge the force of Rebecca Austin’s conviction. The book provides case studies & research evidence to support the value of the classroom outdoors & she also gives practical applications & examples for her ideas.

One chapter, for example, sets out how teachers can make use of an inner-city environment to enhance learning. The author suggests bringing movement into the classroom & using buildings for musical composition. Not all these ideas will strike a chord with Waldorf educators. Nonetheless, the book is a useful resource, providing a rationale for venturing beyond the confines of the classroom. There is much here to suggest that Rebecca Austin would be a comfortable fellow traveller on the trail that organisations like the Hiram Trust, Pyrites & Ruskin Mill Educational Trust have been blazing. Her argument is one that should help to put the health & safety imp in its place. Risk management is of course essential, but the necessity to carry out risk assessments should never prevent valuable learning opportunities.

Review KA 8th September

SCHOOLS TO SET CURRICULUM

2008-03-19T14:28:00.000-07:00

Helping Schools Succeed: A Framework for English Education

According to a report from the Policy Exchange, the government should hand control of the curriculum back to teachers.

The report argues that the English education system is too centralised, inflexible and provides little choice for parents and pupils. The report includes a survey of 2,000 adults and parents in England and found widespread support for greater autonomy for schools. In the survey, 75 per cent of parents want to see schools set their own curriculum and 69 per cent of parents go as far as saying politicians manipulate the curriculum to suit their aims. League tables are also criticised by parents. Just two per cent of parents use them as a decisive factor in choosing a school and 42 per cent do not even look at them. A significant majority, 87 per cent, believe the government should use a range of factors to measure success, rather than primarily exam results.

The report backs parents' calls for schools to set their own curriculum, as long as they adhere to a core set of standards set by government. "The National Curriculum restricts the freedom of teachers and schools; it also holds back genuine diversity in the school system," says Sam Freedman, head of Policy Exchange's education unit.

The report also suggests that schools should be free to set their own pay scales in order to address recruitment and retention problems. Performance-related pay is also mooted, with just under two-thirds of parents wanting to see teachers paid in this way. To support schools with their new powers "school operating networks", made up of education experts should be set up locally. These would be encouraged to collaborate with each other and disseminate good practice, the report adds.

League tables should also be replaced with report cards covering a number of areas including attendance and work within the community, rather than just exam results.

Successful teachers know themselves?!

2008-01-01T13:23:00.000-08:00

Effective Teaching of Disaffected Afro-Caribbean Pupils – Are there lessons for Steiner Waldorf Teachers?

I recently came across a piece of work based on research conducted at a school in the London Borough of Ealing. As reports in national & educational press make clear, there is considerable concern about the academic progress of African-Caribbean pupils, especially boys. This study came about as a result of a recognition that a group of very different teachers across the range of subjects in an Ealing Comprehensive school seemed to have much better success in their teaching these students than other, sometimes equally experienced & qualified, teachers. The research comprised interviews with students & teachers & observation of lessons. The results seem to me to be significant for any teacher, no matter where they teach & irrespective of the origin of the young people.

From the interviews with pupils & the successful teachers, the researchers identified & were able to verify through their observation, a number of common factors:

>The teachers were seen as being “fair” & respectful of pupils as well as insisting on respect towards themselves & everyone else in the class. The teachers were seen as available to & approachable by all their students[1]
>These teachers would always apologise if they got upset or went over the top, but they also made sure that the students knew & kept to the rules of the class
>The rules themselves were seen as reasonable by the pupils, who, in some cases had contributed to establishing them in the first place
>The teachers encouraged & responded positively to pupil questions throughout the lessons observed
>The teachers were seen as having high expectations of their students, but also structured their lessons so that the material was experienced as understandable
>The teachers all had clear aims & objectives for their teaching – a strong sense of purpose which had the appearance of confidence in the classroom, even though some of the teachers reported themselves as not feeling confident as they looked
>All the teachers reported that they enjoyed teaching, even when it was challenging

During classroom observation, one of the most striking consistencies between the different teachers was the way they all directed attention to positive behaviour. Rarely did they draw attention to negative, e.g. –
“Listen while your classmate is talking”
not “Stop talking”
or
“What help do you need to get started?”
not “Why are you still talking?”
Similarly, the teachers gave praise by describing specific behaviour: “That was a well reasoned idea, John” rather than merely responding with, “Good”. Attempts to give answers were always received warmly & there was no jeering or impatience from classmates when mistakes were made. The teachers responded positively to these attempts, gently correcting any misinformation & usually not immediately.

In spite of the similarities, however, the teachers observed showed considerable differences of style. The researchers reported that the teaching ranged from formal & “strict” to informal & “laid back”. The teachers themselves gave very different, sometimes conflicting, explanations for their success: one explained that she had a quiet voice & this helped because, “these pupils expected to be shouted at”; another put their ability with these pupils down to having a loud, commanding voice…

This led researchers to ask themselves more about some of the inner qualities involved in the way the teachers were working. They began investigating the correlation between their state & the way they managed their classrooms. Those who needed silence to think & learn insisted on this from their students. Those who needed movement & bustle to be in a good learning state encouraged this in their students. Perhaps surprisingly, the same group of pupils sat in these very different classroom environments & were able to adapt to them & learn in each.

Implications? –
It seems to me that the context that this study focussed on a particular group of students seen as problematic is not of primary importance here. What the researchers describe is very good teaching brought to light because most teachers found this group of pupils difficult to teach. Most, or all, of the features suggested in the seven listed above (& there are others too) ought to be staples of any & every teacher training, not to mention school policies for promoting positive behaviour. But the major finding in all this might cause a rethinking of some of the ways initial training as a teacher is handled.

Though I am not intimately involved in any of the training courses, the picture I have from speaking to a wide cross-section of recent graduates at the regular Class 1 Teachers’ Preparation Workshops & in the classroom, is that questions of how to optimise one’s own learning state in the classroom & indeed, what a teacher’s individual learning style might be, receives at best peripheral attention. This may be a by-product of training, but is not investigated, nor is that investigation supported, in any systematic way. Becoming aware of oneself as a learner during training would contribute to developing an appreciation of different modes of learning in others. The pedagogical nature of Waldorf education would seem to underline the importance of such investigation & its potential benefit for classroom practice. For Class Teachers in particular, the extensive relationship class teaching involves would seem to call for a mature knowledge of the basis of interaction with the class, both inner integrity & explicit skills in how to apply this.

This study also raises a number of important ongoing questions, which teacher trainers, advisers & other colleagues might do well to explore:
§ What constitutes “confidence” in the way a teacher acts in the classroom?
§ In what ways might awareness of how a teacher can organise the classroom environment to support themselves to learn better help to improve the learning of classes?
§ What processes in initial & ongoing teacher education & development might serve to enhance such knowledge & confidence?

Drawn from a research paper by Kemp & Watson presented to September 2007 BERA conference. Also see http://www.trainingattention.co.uk/
[1] Though the word is not used in the research, it is not pushing the pupils comments too far to say that they bear out the first of Georg Locher’s three injunctions: the teacher should be lovable to children (the other two are: approachable by parents & helpable – or mentor-able – by colleagues)

Audrey McAllen & Teaching Handwriting

2007-07-20T13:40:00.000-07:00

REVIEW OF “TEACHING CHILDREN HANDWRITING” BY AUDREY MCALLEN

Back in the seventies, when I began my Waldorf teaching, materials were in short supply, unless one read German. Audrey McAllen’s “Teaching Children to Write” (published in 1977 by Rudolf Steiner Press), with its combination of sound, practical advice, widely informed research & Anthroposophical study, was among these sparse treasures &, for me the most valuable. Some new teachers, starting out with a Class One, have said that the book was their “career-saver”. So the republication of Miss McAllen’s work in new format, augmented & improved as “Teaching Children Handwriting” (Rudolf Steiner College Press) is doubly welcome, not only because of the continuing relevance of its subject-matter, but because the decline of handwriting has proceeded apace since the publication of the original.

Those who know the original book well will find many similarities between this & the new one. But Audrey McAllen is not content to rest on her laurels; the research work has developed, including, for example, a much-augmented description of the development of children’s drawing as a path to understanding how the process of incarnation expresses itself in these scribbles & scrawls. Through this a compelling case is made for beginning with the will-feeling activity of drawing in order to prepare for the activity of writing in a way that accords with child nature. The new book also includes reference to the work of Rhoda Kellog, Susan Greenfield, Rosemary Sassoon, Jane Field & others, indicating the striking convergence over recent years in the findings of some “conventional” research & the insights of spiritual science. This new edition is an even better example than the previous one of how to meet the challenge of ensuring that Waldorf education does not become concreted in a set of traditions but continues to be contemporary. There can be few better illustrations of managing the fourth golden rule for the teacher (“Discussion with Teachers”, closing words), “The teacher must never get stale or grow sour”.

The question of children’s handwriting is an important one. Many teachers, while recognising the importance of approaching reading via this route, yet lack the means to articulate the reasons for that method. In many classrooms one can observe a certain disjunction, once reading has started, between this activity & that of handwriting. “Teaching Children Handwriting” provides a coherent framework, not only for handwriting, but has much to say about its connection to reading & spelling. Specific handwriting indications in chapters 4 & 5 seem even more relevant now than when the original was published & it is significant that, in addition to giving the correct formation for Roman capitals, the movements for more of the digits & the rhythmic flow of the cursive forms has been added. All this is very welcome, although this reviewer would like to see a more detailed examination of different styles of foundation hand. The cursive “f” shown, for example, is correct, of course, but there is no reference to the principle that informs some of the recent “dyslexia-friendly” scripts that avoid upper loops (introducing the quality of concentration to the ascenders) & follow a consistent use of clock-wise loops for the descenders. The form suggested for “x” also leads away from the corresponding objective to give children a script that enables them to complete each word (including “exceptions”!) without lifting the pencil from the paper (“i” dots & “t” bars, of course, will always require to be added after the word has been written). While the earlier book gave relatively sketchy suggestions for continuing the handwriting curriculum after class 1 & 2, the new one expands the guidance for the earlier classes & continues the overview to class 5. In a number of schools, some introduction to calligraphy is now given as an artistic subject in its own write. The lack of coherence of approach to this might well benefit form some further study, since the aim of these lessons can sometimes be hazy. One would hope that in the course of time the handwriting curriculum can be completed to include classes 6 & upwards, especially because the possibility of raising the activity of handwriting to a conscious participation becomes all the harder during puberty. If good “use of self” in handwriting has not been established before this time, it can be nearly impossible to affect a change at this stage (the pressure exerted by the increasing emphasis on quantity writing also easily counteracts any good habits established earlier). The range of fonts & the principles of design that inform them would seem to be a topic that must come to fore in an age when an almost infinite number of permutations are available via a PC at the click of a mouse. “Teaching Children Handwriting” will have made a vital contribution to the art of education if it encourages more teachers to look to & explore their own hand.

The sections of the book concerned with reading & spelling are less expanded. One particular point is worth emphasising here, however. Audrey McAllen’s suggestion for the teaching of English vowels provides a sure guide for teachers working in this language. If this lesson were heeded it would do much to avoid the confusion that can so be sown by simply trying to apply Rudolf Steiner’s indications for these sounds to a phonic system to which they do not apply. That said, the good advice given to help teachers develop an informed & thorough approach to all the literacy skills, still awaits further research & expansion. This book, however, makes a valuable contribution to this, both through the practical indications & by raising the question of different learning styles, specifically visual, auditory & kinaesthetic. The warning that the love of collecting is shortlived in the child & that “banging-on” with rote learning can easily become counter-productive is well made, but the section that follows it “Other Approaches to Spelling” could have done with further elaboration. In addition to Els Gottgens “Rainbow Books”, & the useful “Spotlight” series (Robinswood Press) it would be helpful to mention “Alpha to Omega” (Heineman) & Robinswood more recent “Lifeboat” series. And, while many will understandably & for sound reasons, share the reservations about placing strugglers in front of a computer in order to by-pass the problem, the contribution of specific technology at the right time still awaits a coherent Waldorf rationale.

“Teaching Children Handwriting” will surely become a Waldorf classic. Better still, it is a book that could be placed before a mainstream educationalist without embarrassment (something that is still quite rare). The book is attractively designed & well edited, with clear sections for ease of reference, a generous bibliography that could be the basis for a self-initiated “in-service education” & (a real advance since 1977!) an index. It ought to be on the reading list of every teacher-training course & compulsory reading for new class one teachers. Experienced teachers too will surely be grateful to Audrey McAllen for going through with the painful process of revision & updating of this book. One hopes that issues raised by re-reading it will ignite a further spirit of research among Waldorf educators. That would be to pay this book the compliment it deserves, that of emulating the vitality of enquiry Audrey McAllen herself exemplifies.

Lessons from the Governors?

2007-06-20T14:26:00.000-07:00

School governors have a lot to learn
By Alexandra Frean Education Editor The Times June 5 2007

School governors often lack the necessary financial and managerial expertise and are not qualified to assess staff, research suggests. Reforms have handed greater independence to schools and reduced interference from local authorities, but too little attention has been paid to the extra burdens this has placed on governors, the Joseph Roundtree Foundation says. The result is an army of volunteer governors willing to commit hours of their spare time "for the good of the school", but often without knowing what they are doing. Alan Dyson, Professor of Education at the University of Manchester and lead author of the report, says that schools in the most disadvantaged areas in the country find it particularly difficult to recruit and retain governors with the necessary time and expertise to take responsibility for a typical multi-million pound school budget. "This leads to schools being most desperately in need of good governance yet being the least likely to benefit from it. "Governors are supposed to function as a "critical friend" to the head teacher, but too often head teachers feel that governors lack of expertise makes it difficult for them to be helpfully critical, the report says. Governors are reluctant to make performance appraisals of the head teacher, even though this is a key part of their responsibilities. Elizabeth Ball, a governor of her son’s school, Sherburn High in North Yorkshire, said that while she enjoyed her role, aspects of it were daunting. "I was part of a panel of seven governors who appointed a new head. We had to go through 40 CVs and conduct interviews over two full days. I have held key managerial roles in my own professional life but I still found this hard," she said. The report, based on a study of 14 schools, found that the increasingly complex nature of school governance deterred many people from non-professional and minority backgrounds from putting themselves forward. As a result, governing bodies tended to be dominated by middle-class people, quite often from outside the school’s immediate area. It also found that governing bodies lacking expertise made little difference to the running of schools. As one head said, losing a secretary or a teacher would have a big impact on the school, but "if [the governing body] didn’t exist, you might not notice." The report suggests the creation of a group of paid, professional governors in each locality to sit on the governing bodies of a number of schools alongside volunteer governors.

In Memory of Wim Moleman

2007-02-05T13:00:00.000-08:00

“Hiaigheey!”
To be greeted by Wim was an invitation to a world of full of humanity & humour. Many of his British friends referred to him affectionately as “Uncle Wim.” His wisdom, mischievous chuckle, equanimity & profound jollity could fill the space around him, much as a glowing fire takes the chill from a cold room.

Conversation with Wim could take unexpected turns & bring surprising discoveries; I rarely parted from him without feeling that I was carrying away a special gift given by his presence. Once greeted, he would ask about my work in the UK & listen attentively. After sharing my concerns or irritations with Wim, I always saw them differently & more positively, though often, he would reply simply with a contemplative sigh, “Yaahh!” look over the top of his heavy glasses, & speak about things that might at first seem unrelated. Then later, something about the conversation would return to my thoughts & cast them in a new light, or, it might be better to say, give them new warmth. It was easy to understand how Wim was drawn to Sandra Bloom’s work on “creating sanctuaries” within social organisations.

I first met Wim when I was setting up what became the Steiner Waldorf Advisory Service. Wim had for some years before that been travelling to UK schools to “see whether we can help.” These were his busman’s holidays from work in the Netherlands advisory institute. Many a school in crisis benefited from his visits & colleagues in them would report that people behaved better when Wim was present. He took great interest in the development of the UK advisory service & was a tireless mentor & wise counsellor. Even after his cancer was diagnosed & he knew that his remaining time on earth would be limited, he asked to be sent a copy of the research report for the Hereford Academy &, aided by a colleague from the institute, made notes about it in his usual idiosyncratic English. He had a deep sense of care towards what happened in UK Waldorf schools & offered some surprising, but always encouraging, insights about what might be done. When Jane & I met him at his home to hear his views on the Academy report, these were, as always, forward-looking & positive with a keen sense for potential implications & dangers.

On matters of Waldorf school organisation, Wim was a positive realist. He knew that consultants “usually get things wrong” & said so. His advice had a self-deprecating quality that left those he advised feeling free to develop processes for themselves. On the other hand he could be direct & incisive when that was what the situation called for. Even after his official retirement from the advisory institute, he was crisis managing a small school on the brink of closure. Not a physically skilful person - he had co-ordination problems & never learned to drive - he nonetheless recognised the need of those who needed a more practically-orientated form of education. He was involved in the Hiram Foundation in Holland & supported & inspired the development of the Hiram Trust in the UK.

Wim traced inspiration for his work to Max Stibbe & Bernard Lievegoed. I first heard about Lievegoed’s final book from him (published in English as The Battle for the Soul) & was struck by the way Wim spoke about what Lievegoed calls the “Manu stream” of humanity. On another occasion he told me of correspondence he had had with the Humanistic psychologist, Carl Rogers, shortly before Rogers’ death in 1987. Wim was not so much a person of ideas or initiatives as one through whom a wide variety of knowledge, skills & experience met. I do not know whether Lievegoed is correct in suggesting that there is a distinct group of individuals who have a helping quality within them that can lead to social healing. What I do know is that Wim Moleman had that quality & we are the richer for having known him.

The Independent School

2006-12-07T13:23:00.000-08:00

Education – a Steiner Waldorf Perspective

John Stuart Mill was clear about it: the State has a responsibility to ensure its citizens are educated, but the freedom of citizens is in jeopardy when governments determine what is taught. The protection of the rights of children is one thing; State definition of education quite another. Yet the drift towards increasing political control seems irresistible. Not surprising, then, that recent Civitas research (Inspection, Inspection, Inspection by Anastasia de Waal) concludes that Ofsted has moved from monitoring & advice to a role of State “enforcer” in a situation “in which the government has created a monopoly over what counts as quality in education”.

Waldorf schools in Germany, named after the first school, founded in 1919 for the children of workers of the Waldorf Astoria Cigarette Factory, are also referred to as “free” schools. In the UK that term tends to confusion with schools such as the late A.S. Neil’s Summerhill & the former Dartington Hall School. But on the continent, the phrase “free school” has a narrower meaning: institutions not administered by the State. Nonetheless, in a majority of countries in continental Europe including Germany, Steiner schools are publicly funded wholly or in part (as they are also in New Zealand, Australia, for example). UK Steiner schools have had to come to terms with being reluctant occupants of the independent sector, struggling for recognition that their’s is an independence resulting from educational philosophy & practice rather than exclusivity or business interests (all UK Steiner Waldorf schools are registered charities & take their charitable status seriously). The recent progress towards a Steiner Academy in Hereford, under the government’s “diversity agenda”, is an indication of the movement’s intent to become even more inclusive than is possible at present. This too involves uncomfortable compromise, of course.

Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), an influential Austrian philosopher of science & writer on mysticism conceived education as a process involving developing enactive, affective & intellectual capacities based on a view that each person is an individual expression of the human spirit. The features that make Waldorf schools different are founded on this recognition of the fundamental, distinctive integrity of each human being & of the universal processes of development that each encounters in their own way. Both need to be taken into account if education is to lead to a purposeful sense of freedom within meaningful communities. Schools certainly have a duty to enable children to gain the means to become effective citizens, but schooling becomes oppression when this done at the expense of developing their unique qualities & creativity; our current system does appear to be tipping the balance towards that humanly expensive option.

Waldorf schools set out to be learning communities. The continuing self-education of staff is the substance out of which the children are taught, Steiner’s philosophy informs the work of the teachers, but is not taught to the children. Steiner stressed that teaching is an art & staff work collegially (without a formal pyramid of power-based leadership) coaching & mentoring one another in developing of the craft & art of education. Lessons are handled in an extensive, thematic, multi-disciplinary, multi-facetted way with emphasis upon the need for co-operation in learning. Competition has its place, but competing to avoid the humiliation of being judged a “failure” is no basis for future societies. The qualities & expressive potential of the arts also play an important part, both in the way subjects are taught & in the way children are encouraged to make use of colour & line, musical form, movement, speech & drama. This approach enhances personal investment in learning. It is bound together by an evolving curriculum, based on Steiner’s original indications, that matches the needs & qualities of each stage of childhood with appropriate activities & content. Distinctive features such as the later start (usually age six) for formal, or academic, teaching, & the play-based curriculum of the early years are aspects in the context of “all-through” schooling designed to address the needs of young people from early childhood to university entrance. In the UK a relatively small number of institutions are able to provide the full range of classes, with a larger number of schools finishing with Class 10 (age 16) & some operating as Primary schools or Early Childhood Centres. A more complete description of the curriculum, lists of members & other details can be found at http://www.swsf.org.uk/

FOR THOSE AWAITING INSPECTIONS!

2006-11-13T13:34:00.000-08:00

The Coming of the Inspectors

Where are the teachers at work in the classrooms,
the chalkboards stand empty;
& listlessly drifting around flapping doors
assessments lace traps?
Didn’t you know the inspectors are coming:
Yea, OfSTED is nigh!

But why have staff meetings been called in a hurry,
agenda groups scratch out
their lives on procedure, while ink rushes fingerwards
staining us all?
The inspectors are coming, surely I told you,
It’s OfSTED you know!

Then why are there documents scattered about,
old files left open
& admin sit coughing in dust-clouded corners
while children all sleep?
OfSTED are coming, O, why don’t you listen?
The INSPECTORS will call!

Why are the children now swinging from treetops,
recorders are shrilling,
it’s hubbub again; no-one is writing, recording or planning,
& papers in cabinets clapped shut & locked?
Didn’t you notice that OfSTED was here!…
- Or maybe we only imagined they’d call?

Based on Cavaffi’s poem, The Barbarians are Coming

Leadership in Waldorf Education

2006-10-01T09:07:00.000-07:00

REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRATIC

There is a general view that Waldorf school are purely "republican" organisations. The following review of Philip Woods book challenges that idea. I think the schools need democracy in order to be republican. In my view Ernst Lehr's little essay has resulted in misunderstandings that sometimes cost our schools dear...

Review Article: Democratic Leadership in Education – Philip A Woods (PCP 2005) – A Steiner Waldorf Perspective

Books about leadership have the propensity of super-fertile rabbits, & educational leadership is a fecund sub-species. That’s not to say that the subject lacks the importance it has acquired, merely that much that is published tends to a rabbit-ual sameness, adding more holes to the warren while further depleting the bio-diversity of the subject. Philip Woods’ book is an exception to this: not another bunny, but a welcome academic fox, which like Ted Hughes’s thought-fox, signifies more than his bark.

This is also a book that deserves discussion by those concerned with governance, management & leadership in Steiner Waldorf schools. It is striking that among the many books recently published in English on the subject of Waldorf quality development, awkward questions of who leads & what leadership in a collegial organisation is are seldom addressed, or receive only superficial treatment. One of the results of this involves implanting a crude notion of “line management” into a professional culture that clings to rather vague principles of “collegiality”, resulting in innumerable inner contradictions & not infrequent injustice. Our continental colleagues also seem generally to regard leadership as a “difficult” question, a hot potato best left to grow cold & fester, sometimes leaving the starchiest questions in the hands of “school director” or “business manager”. Unfortunately, in such a climate, calls for greater “accountability” or sermonising on the need for “trust”, may amount to mere wishful thinking or word-spinning. Unless genuine leadership is practiced in each realm of the schools’ organisation, the core activity is left under-supported & older students grow disappointed at the ineffectiveness of the adult community. It may be that some readers begin to feel uneasy at the use of the words “leader” or “leadership” when speaking about Waldorf schools, if so, that uneasiness is what this essay is about.

There remains a common misconception that Waldorf education & leadership belong in different dimensions; that Steiner schools operate according to “flat management” (a concept rarely explained, still less justified) & that leadership inevitably involves “hierarchy” (which, it seems is always & forever, a bad thing, also rarely explained!). The consequence of such thinking is to reduce by one the dimensions of social space. A Waldorfian equivalent of disc-world, or flat-land, replaces one in which differentiation & depth is valued. To increase the general confusion, it is usually opined that Waldorf schools are “republican, not democratic”, a statement that derives from an essay by Ernst Lehrs[1], who has the authority of having been among the first generation of Waldorf teachers (though not one of the twelve founding teachers). This is a particularly problematic use of words for schools in the United States, but setting such local difficulties aside, the usual interpretation of the “republican” principle goes on to claim that the teachers lead the school & adds further refinement to the problem by reserving (especially in the UK) primacy to the “College of Teachers” (a phrase Rudolf Steiner never used[2]), & which may exclude many or even most staff members. Strained notions of “the College” give rise to difficulty on many levels. In the context of the UK regulatory structure & charity law, unhandy compromises or over-zealous dogmatism can involve so many perceived & actual conflicts, contradictions & uncertain consequences that discussion typically sinks to its axels in threefold theorising or claims that the teachers must have primacy in all things. The title of Philip Woods’ book then already raises a number of issues for Waldorf educators & it will be best to start here, meeting the democratic dilemma & what leadership means in a “republican” context head on.

Early on in Lehr’s essay[3] he adds a footnote about the apparent conflict between his argument & Steiner’s use of the phrase “republican-democratic” (see Conferences January 16th 1921). Lehr’s notes this phrase, dismissing it, however, on the grounds that “this formulation was meant to be used for the ‘general public’”, a strange solipsism given that Steiner was speaking to an internal meeting of the faculty. In fact, Lehr’s has to qualify his dismissal of democracy later by characterising it in terms that show he is thinking of “the modern concept of parliament with its various systems of representation of group interests by elected representatives based on majority vote”[4]. He then goes on to describe a democratic process whereby “officers” of the school are elected: “the faculty thus creates a hierarchy of officers, but subsequently abstains from further democratic relations with them” (my italics). In this way, Lehr’s argues, the quality of “aristos” (“the officers constitute an aristocracy by whose decisions the ‘folk’… [demos]…have to abide”[5]) is established & with it the republican character of the constitution. Thus for Lehrs, a republican median is to be found between “democracy” (rule by all – “folk-rule”) & “oligarchy” (rule by the few):
…”there is the danger on the part of the officers that their rightful aristocracy degenerates into oligarchy, since in order to safeguard their freedom of action, they may not sufficiently inform the community, or evade discussion[6]”

Neither Woods nor Lehrs provide specific solutions or working procedures to solve the practical problems all this entails. While Lehrs is concerned with qualities, Woods’ more academic approach supplies the reader with a number of highly differentiated conceptual frameworks to help understand how different types of democracy & leadership relate on the test-bed of education. Whereas Lehrs, in common with a majority of writers from within the anthroposophical movement, avoids the question who leads & what the nature of that leadership might be, Woods provides a number of perspectives from which these questions can be viewed. Taking sociology as his starting point (one sees the influence of the tradition stemming from Max Weber in particular), Philip Woods is far less cavalier than Lehrs in assuming that democracy is a single type of organisation or relationship, indeed, he offers as the essence of democracy a quote from R. Williams’ Culture & Society[7] “how people govern themselves, as opposed to how they are governed by others”, something that should ring bells for Waldorf educators concerned with “self-administrating” schools. In fact, Woods characterises four types of democracy, the first of which is closest to Lehrs version, while the second & third contain many of the aspects of republican constitution as Lehrs sketches it. A fourth transformation is, I believe, one that has enormous practical potential for anyone seeking to real-ise Rudolf Steiner’s social intentions regarding communal & pedagogical leadership. These four types of democracy are:
· Liberal minimalism
· Civic republicanism
· Deliberative democracy
· Developmental democracy
While each of these involves a transcending of the possibilities of the preceding type, each one builds on its predecessor. While liberal democracy is mainly concerned with the protection of self-interest, & civic republicanism involves emphasis on the interest of the collective (this is the classical dispute between capitalist & socialistic modes), deliberative & developmental democracy introduce social discourse & social pedagogical (the “unity in diversity” sought by Gandhi added to the “polis” as educator of its citizens proposed by Plato). Within these can be found potential for a healing of conflict between social & fiscal liberalism, between individual & communitarian approaches. The associative relationships envisaged by Steiner’s threefold social order may, in fact, be unobtainable without a developmental form of democracy.

Philip Woods is very clear about the limitations of “distributive leadership”, contrasting this with “democratic leadership” in a way that should put us in mind of the reasons Rudolf Steiner gave for the staff taking control of their own work. Distributed leadership (as encouraged by the National College of School Leadership) assumes a point of leadership (head teacher, principal) from which the process of distribution precedes & (in extremis) to which it can return. Democratic leadership, as characterised by Woods is far closer to the intentions of Waldorf, collegial, leadership (also called “associative leadership”) because it involves shared governance of equal, free leaders working for a common task. In the case of education, that task is both transcendent & implicitly developmental in practice. Thus, this form of leadership calls for a firm framework of moral transformation. Lehrs too, points to something similar. He quotes what Rudolf Steiner proposed as a motto for spiritually responsible collaboration, “to sacrifice freedom for the sake of higher freedom”, a situation encapsulated in Lehr’s account of the “republican attitude” of two colleagues speaking critically about the order of the programme for a school festival. When asked why they hadn’t tried to change the order of the programme themselves, Lehrs was told, “Once a job has been given to one of us, we must abide by their decision”. The perfectionist might prefer the collegial support to extend to a silencing of off-stage complaints, but the aspiration is refreshingly modest & commonsensical.

Democratic Leadership in Education reminds the reader that collegial decision-making is subject to a number of potential problems: ineffective, time-consuming debate; differentials in terms of commitment, capacity, or willingness to participate; implicit differences (unacknowledged & thus intractable) in power or status; lack of internal critique or challenge. Without work on the processes that sustain & are sustained by effective, affective relationships within the school community, the sort of leadership Steiner schools aspire to becomes inordinately risky. Many schools suffer from constant second guessing of the responsibilities carried by others. The lack of “firm framing” that would ensure the giving of responsibility as a conscious decision, not simply a process of default, leads to endless conflict & wasted time & energy. Lack of knowledge of what is involved in a responsibility provides opportunity for fruitless criticism & destructive interference. Without the methods & courtesies of democracy, “republican” leadership remains a mere echo of what Steiner intended. A collegiate that abdicates responsibility to the loudest or superficially competent colleagues may soon find itself in thrall to collegial tyranny, & inaction can condemn a school to years of in-fighting, crisis & incoherence.

No school exists in isolation & the success of a distinctive form of education like that of Steiner schools, depends on creating a practical basis for unity in diversity. The fundamental task of a Collegiate in that context is to look to the education of the whole community starting with the professional community itself, but never excluding friends, supporters, parents as potential collegial learners. That, I suggest, is the essential nature of the developmental democracy that should inform (provide firm framing for) Steiner Waldorf schools[8]. A “republicanism”, or might we call it a “federation” of remit holders/responsibility carriers can then be sustained within clear, accountable & transparent procedures which include timescale, budgetary constraints, the nature of any necessary consultation & a schedule of competencies (whether required or to be acquired). The very complexity of our society & its ever-increasing regulation is both challenge & opportunity. If Waldorf education is to continue to serve the needs of coming generations as a creative process, school leadership will need to become more conscious & precise. The contribution of writers like Philip Woods, should spur us to see the development of social skill as essential as those needed directly in the classroom. Rudolf Steiner’s assertion that this would make for a teaching team more grounded & better equipped to teach children should always balance with service to core the task of the school, but that service is itself predicated upon relationships & capacities that cannot be developed outside of a democratic context.

Kevin Avison 6th February 2006
[1] Republican – Not Democratic E Lehrs 1987 (AWSNA) Lehrs suggests that this phrase was used by Steiner in a “missing” section of the transcript of a teachers’ conference 23rd January 1923, a remark he adds remembered b6 “at least several of those present”. Those interested in the theme would do well to study carefully the context in which these words were possibly said & then consider what, if anything, they add to the record. There are a number of inconsistencies & uncertainties in the text of the Conferences – a visit to the Steiner archive in Dornach is most instructive when considering these matters. In the light of Democratic Leadership & with regard to this essay, the apposite question might be, “what sort of democracy & what sort of republicanism” was Steiner referring to & what do Waldorf schools need more than eighty years after the founding of the first school?
[2] See Republican Academies F. Gladstone 1997 (SWSF) - the 2001 edition of this book includes an explanation of this on its title page.
[3] See note 1 – p1
[4] Ibid p4
[5] Ibid p5
[6] Ibid p7
[7] R.Williams, 1963 - Harmondsworth, Penguin
[8] We should note here the very close connection between the founding of the first school & the workers education class organised by Emil Molt at the Waldorf Astoria cigarette factory to which Rudolf Steiner contributed.