Pacing

I visited the Waldorf School this week as one of my grade level observations this semester. UVEI recommends visiting three schools/districts and observing classrooms at or around your current grade level placement. Last fall I visited three schools and observed in 4th, 5th, and 6th. This spring I'm visiting different schools and lower grades.

Of the many differences I noticed between the Waldorf School and the public schools I’ve been involved with, the pace was prominent. During my morning at the Waldorf School not once did I hear a teacher say to hurry up, which is something I feel we say constantly in kindergarten at my school. Our days feel so fast and I often feel like we are rushing the students from one activity to the next. Even snack is rushed so they can get their snow clothes on for recess. Lunch is rushed. The only thing not rushed is quiet time when we spend a half hour telling the kids to lay down and be quiet, but even that doesn’t feel calm.

Today we took the kids on a field trip and it was the epitome of rushed. We cleaned up early from free play in the morning, rushed through number corner and morning message, then hurried them through bathrooms and getting ready to go outside. We scurried to the bus and to our seats for the show. Then we sat and waited for half an hour before the show started, all the while telling the kids to sit down, sit still, be quiet. The show was nice, but very slow paced and some kids did better than others. When the lights came back on we sat for another 15 minutes telling the kids to be still and be quiet while we waited for our bus to be called. Once it was called we rushed down the stairs and out the door, only to find out it was the wrong bus, so we stood in the cold for another ten minutes waiting for our bus. Of course we were late getting back to school and therefore late for their already-rescheduled late lunch time. We zipped back up to the classroom, coats and boots off, lunch boxes in hand, and hurried down to the cafeteria for lunch. They had about ten minutes to eat before we had to rush them off again, already late to their special. One girl, who often gets stubborn and shuts down, was starting to protest the rushing and I ended up sitting with her in the cafeteria for an extra five minutes while she eagerly and actively ate her entire lunch. I made the executive decision that she needed a few minutes to breath and eat a healthy lunch more than she needed those five minutes of art class. I know I made the right decision too, because she kept it together for the rest of the day, which I doubt would have happened if I’d taken her lunch away and rushed her to class.

This was not a typical day, of course, and they aren’t usually that rushed, but they do move fast and we do spend a lot of time hurrying them from one place or activity to the next. I find the pace exhausting sometimes. At the Waldorf School, though, they moved slowly through the transitions. The teachers spoke in song (there was a lot of singing!) and the students were allowed time to complete their tasks. It was very nice and very calm.

That said, if you removed all academics from the public school schedule there’d be a lot less rushing as well. There must be a balance in there somewhere.