S1 EP7 - Sixth Grade
On this week’s episode of Anthroposophy Today, Scott and Sarita—a certified Waldorf teacher with 25 years of teaching experience—talk about the Waldorf sixth grade classroom.
THE DEATH OF CHILDHOOD
There is a look in the sixth grader’s eyes that seems to mourn the death of childhood. Games from which they once derived so much joy no longer come to them with the same ease as before. Playing with dolls, toys, games based purely upon the imagination, games that once made the hours slip by, these now seem to escape them; they can’t figure out what’s missing, but somehow, they can’t make the magic work anymore.
Sarita speaks about Wendy from J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan and the Pevensie children in the Narnia books as typifying the sixth grader’s grief at the loss of childhood. They’re too old to step through the magic wardrobe into a realm of fauns and lions and witches in white; they have forgotten how to fly.
The sixth graders are clumsier in their bodies now than they were in fifth grade, a result not only of their growing limbs, but of a new self-awareness and self-consciousness that makes them feel awkward. Some of the children may begin to slouch at this age, as though gravity is dragging at their very skeleton.
Naturally, given all this, sixth grade can be a troublesome stage. Puberty is beginning to awaken, but the children are not teenagers yet, and this label should not be imposed upon them prematurely. Sarita speaks with regret about the tendency in modern society to push the child to grow up faster—academically, socially, and physically.
As always, the Waldorf philosophy offers certain guidelines for the curriculum in order to support the child throughout this development stage; everything that is taught, and everything about the way it is presented, is intended to help the children embrace the new forces and abilities that are available to them at this age, even as they bid a bittersweet farewell to the golden years of childhood.
SPARK OF INDIVIDUALITY
Sarita speaks about a burst or spark of individuality which can now be seen to emerge from the sixth grader. This sense of individuality comes out more strongly at age fourteen, but sixth grade may be thought of as a foreshadowing of that.
The children are looking out into the world more now than ever before. They are capable of more critical thinking. They are also more social, which Sarita says can lead to classroom drama and little “feuds” amongst the sixth graders that have previously not been encountered in the group. She discusses how these disputes or arguments can be mediated and turned into healthy experiences where the children learn to get along and foster a healthy sense of community with their classmates.
CAUSE AND EFFECT and TAKING RESPONSIBILITY
One of the key concepts which the sixth graders deepen their awareness of this year is causality, the idea of cause and effect.
The children are able to grasp causality more fully at this age than when they were younger. While younger children understand cause and effect on a visceral level, in varying degrees, it is not until the age of twelve or so that they can understand it as a concept and begin to see it at work in the world around them, and in their own life.
The minor classroom “feuds” we touched upon are one example of the many ways we can help the children to understand the concept of cause and effect. This newfound understanding of cause and effect teaches the children to take responsibility for their own actions, and shows them the corresponding consequences (both positive and negative) which result from their actions, as well as bringing attention to the many subtle ways they influence and affect the world and people around them through their behavior and their choices.
This sense for the concept of causality is developed in many different ways, and not just in conflict resolution.
As stories and experiments are presented in class, the emphasis is placed on showing how “this is what we do” (cause) and then “this is what happens” (effect), and letting that speak for itself, so that the children may observe for themselves the relationships between one and the other.
These observations of cause and effect in all aspects of classroom life, both socially and academically, develops an important inner quality in the children beyond pure critical thinking: it develops a sense of discernment.
FORM DRAWING
Form drawing has been an integral classroom activity since first grade. It has already served many purposes, including but not limited to preparing the hand and the brain to write beautiful letters.
In first and second grade, the children did repetitive, geometric form drawings, learning to move the hand smoothly across the paper during the creation of the repeating shapes.
In third grade, symmetrical designs became the focus.
In fourth grade, braided designs and Celtic knots were introduced and explored.
In fifth grade, the children experimented with a variety of circles, including drawing freehand circle drawings without the assistance of tools like compasses or stencils.
Now, in sixth grade, we see how these form drawings have helped to prepare the child to begin a study of formal geometry.
FORMAL GEOMETRY
The ruler or straight edge was given to the children in third grade, during the measurements block. In sixth grade, the children are introduced to even more exciting new tools: the protractor, compass, and set square (also called a triangle).
Sarita explains how many teachers will choose to introduce these new tools as part of an experience, to really make the tools “come alive for the students and inspire them. There are many activities and exercises that can be done within the classroom, and even some that can be done outdoors.
One example she gives is of creating a “human compass”. You can design an activity where the children stand in a circle and use a long string or cable attached to a point in the middle of the circle, passing the string off from child to child in the circle. You can do this outside or inside the classroom: anchor the string to an object in the middle or have a child hold it, and have the children take turns being the anchor point while another holds the other end of the string. After experiencing being a “human compass”, the children then receive a compass of their own, and are filled with wonder.
Structuring an activity like this is not obligatory, and this is just one approach. However, Sarita encourages teachers and homeschool parents to create an experience like this for the children. She stresses that when a child learns something like this from experience, they never forget it, and carry it with them forever.
There are many beautiful things that can be done with this new tool. Geometric flowers can be created by dividing into several parts the circles created with the magical compass. Different colors can be used, both colored pencils and watercolor, to shade the shapes and create a sense of three-dimensionality. This can be done with the circles, as well as with squares, triangles, flowers, and any other geometric shapes created within the circle using the compass and straight edge.
At this stage, geometry is taught from this artistic standpoint. The emphasis here is not on drilling the theorems and formulas intensively—that comes later on. For now, the aim is to expose the children to the beauty, precision, and clarity of geometry. In high school, they will learn advanced geometry, trigonometry, and learn to draw things with complex perspective, and this early experimentation with formal geometry lays the experiential foundation for that later learning.
BLACK & WHITE: GRAPHITE AND CHARCOAL ART
Up to this point, all the art done in the classroom has been bathed in color, beginning with wet on wet watercolor in early childhood, and progressing to block crayons, colored pencils, tempera paints, and more in the years since. Sixth grade marks the first time the children work with black and white.
The children start the year with graphite and work their way up to using charcoal. This is the first time they are exposed to the stark contrast of black and white which, significantly, reflects the black-and-white nature of cause and effect, the importance of which we’ve already discussed.
This idea of studying black and white through tonality, light and shadow, is carried throughout their studies this year.
During their mineralogy block, they might go out and do black and white drawings of a rock in pencil and charcoal. The children will sit around and draw the rock from their respective angles and, depending on where they are sitting in relation to the rock, they will each produce a different result. Not only will they be sketching a different side of the same object as their peers, depicting different textures and features of it, but the shadows will also be placed differently in each child’s drawing, due to each child’s unique point of view. Same subject, many different perspectives…what deeper lesson could someone takes away from this simple exercise?
No one criticizes anyone else’s drawing because it is different from their own, because they understand that the others’ drawings were done from a different perspective. As always, Sarita emphasizes that these deeper lessons are never “explained” to the children, which would be priggish; rather, they are allowed to stand on their own two feet as powerful experiences that have a profound effect on the children on a subconscious level.
MINERALOGY
One way to begin the study of mineralogy is by studying limestone and granite. This is in keeping with the theme of sixth grade of studying opposites, opposing forces—such as cause and effect, black and white, and now a very soft rock in contrast with a very hard rock.
Limestone and granite are studying by their characteristics, rather than by defining them, the reasons for which we have discussed in previous episodes. After studying the characteristics of the rocks, the class looks at where limestone and granite are typically located. This connects the study of mineralogy to geography, which the children previously studied in fifth grade. Another example of how everything is connected, and how the Waldorf philosophy encourages reawakening knowledge from subjects touched upon in previous years, constantly referring back to and building upon the foundations.
The children and teacher then ask: what rock or mineral is prevalent in our area, compared to other areas, other parts of the country, other countries in the world?
Sarita says that the teacher can also make the children aware of the way mountain ranges in North America go from north to south; yet in Asia and Europe, the mountain ranges go east to west. Why does this happen? This phenomenon is observed and discussed.
The class looks at plants that grow in sand versus clay versus mountainous terrain, and what kinds of soil best serve different forms of vegetation and how that influences the local ecology. In the botany block the year before, the children studied many different kinds of plants. Now, in mineralogy, we circle back to the plants as we study the earth and soil in which they grow. This again connects back to what we learned before and further develops the richness of these concepts.
Here are two verses Sarita shares, which relate to the mineralogy block:
An Emerald Is As Green As Grass
by Christina Rossetti
An emerald is as green as grass;
A ruby red as blood;
A sapphire shines as blue as heaven;
A flint lies in the mud.
A diamond is a brilliant stone,
To catch the world’s desire;
An opal holds a fiery spark;
But a flint holds fire.
GOLD!
by Thomas Hood
Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!
Bright and yellow, hard and cold
Molten, graven, hammered and rolled,
Heavy to get and light to hold,
Hoarded, bartered, bought and sold,
Stolen, borrowed, squandered, doled,
Spurned by young, but hung by old
To the verge of a church yard mold;
Price of many a crime untold.
Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!
HISTORY OF ANCIENT ROME
Studying ancient Rome is hugely important in understanding the development of western civilization, and it is in sixth grade that the children of the Waldorf school delve deeply into this period of history.
There are many stories and legends associated with ancient Rome that may be studied, and Sarita suggests that one way to begin is with the legend of Romulus and Remus, and the story of the founding of Rome. Some of the children may recognize similarities between this tale of two feuding brothers with the tale of Cain and Abel they will have heard in third grade, during the telling of Old Testament tales.
At this age, when telling stories of ancient Rome, we try to strike a balance between telling the history accurately and exposing the children to the reality of ancient Rome, without going too far into some of the violent and bloodthirsty aspects. A degree of realism is important to understand the culture and history of that time, but one should avoid getting carried away and going over the top. In the high school years, Rome will be studied again, and on a level appropriate for that more mature age.
At this stage of the child’s soul development, the child is drawn to order and lawfulness, and seeing the opposite of this in the chaos and violence of Rome can make a powerful impression on them. Sarita describes stories as a form of homeopathy and says they can heal on many levels. She encourages the teacher to observe their class and see what story might be most appropriate for that group.
Thanks for listening and we’ll see you next week for our discussion of seventh grade!