Ways of knowing the world – Part 1

We know as educators and parents that children learn in different ways. Our role is to acknowledge this and provide an inclusive environment that is conducive to a variety of learning approaches and experiences – seeing the world in new and interesting ways. We need the commitment of fostering creativity to be present and explored in future generations. How do we provide this rich learning environment?

In Steiner education, we talk about educating the whole child. Many schools outside of the Steiner sphere talk about the same thing. So, what do we in Steiner schools mean? We have had over one hundred years to practise, refine and adapt this approach to each of over 3000 unique Steiner school settings around the world. The way I see it, we focus on the three-fold nature of the human being – our teaching is geared to head, heart and hands education. Throughout the school experience, we are conscious of all three aspects of the human being in every lesson and across each day. However, we do tend to focus more heavily on certain aspects at certain stages. In the early years we focus on the hands and physical development, in the primary school years we focus on the heart – developing the feeling life through the arts; and in the high school years we work in the thinking realm – where the adolescent child develops a greater intellectual capacity. 

In a world, dominated by political and economic imperatives, there is an increasing pressure to narrow (focus purely on academic pursuits, especially literacy and numeracy) and push down (exposing children to adult thinking at an increasingly younger age) the curriculum. On the other hand, there is pressure to meet children’s social, emotional and physical needs at school at a developmentally appropriate time. How do educators work with these conflicting ideas?

In my experience, good educators are fierce advocates of what is appropriate learning for the developmental stage of children and will adjust their program to suit the group and individual contexts. They work with breadth, ensuring all students have an experience of seeing the world in different ways. At Orana, we teach students social, practical and artistic skills alongside academic skills because we believe all students have the right to this richness as a human being.

For example; currently our Year 3 teacher, Rachel Appleby, is working with our music specialist Maia Harrison to engage students in a unit of work on musical notation. The students listen to a story where they are invited to use their imagination to create a magical musical land. This helps develop their skills in music notation, connecting the colours of the rainbow to the pitch of musical notes. Alongside this, links are created with mathematical concepts such as counting, fractions, spatial awareness and measurement.

This then sets a solid foundation of understanding and capability where our whole high school student body engages in singing together on Wednesday and Friday mornings. They all participate; reading music, listening to each other, singing in multiple part harmonies and respecting each other’s part in the songs. Through these varied ways of learning, students experience deeper and broader ways of knowing the world.

James Goodlet – Principal