The earliest forms of writing evolved as a way of keeping records and accounts in several areas of the world, approximately 5000 years ago. Once writing began to be used to record complex ideas from religion, mythology, magic, science and history, it also began to be a way that people could record their collective and personal thoughts and feelings, and so literature was born. The transition from orality (including all forms of performative expression including speech, story-telling, song, sacred dance) to literacy, in which thoughts are conveyed using symbols that have a degree of permanency, changed the way people related to the world. With literacy human beings became capable of greater individual awareness, but also of abstraction and logic. If orality gives people access to the world they are embedded in through participation, literacy gives us the gift of reflection, analysis, categorizing and a sense for history (which categorizes events into a sequence). Literacy in the narrow sense of reading and writing is also the basis for other vital literacies, media literacy, science literacy, emotional literacy, which all share the basic aspects of articulating and understanding complexity.
Literacy always accompanies or perhaps serves orality. In Steiner Waldorf education great emphasis is placed on good, clear, expressive, sensitive and powerful speaking from kindergarten to the upper school. Poetry, drama, story-telling, rhetoric and conversation are cultivated hand in hand with literacy. For young children, making the transition from living in a world of living oral language to adding the dimension of literacy, where abstract symbols to represent reality, is a hugely complex process required powerful energy and focus, and the coordination of our hands and eyes and thinking. Waldorf education therefore, similarly to most countries around the world, introduces explicit literacy instruction at the age of 6 when the children enter Class 1. This enables children to develop high levels of orality, language familiarity, phonological awareness and fine motor coordination as a foundation on which to begin more formal learning. In order to make the transition to using abstract symbols easier for many children, the introduction of writing and reading is facilitated by artistic methods and movement using the whole body.
As Michael Rose (2007) points out, literacy is neither innate nor simply acquired; it is a highly complex cultural technology. Teaching writing and reading is therefore also a complex process that benefits from clarity, consistency, thoroughness and time. Equally important is the way that children feel about the process of learning to read and write. Research shows that reading enjoyment and positive emotions linked to learning are crucial indicators of long term success[1]. Steiner Waldorf education wants children to enjoy writing and reading and be motivated to do it, so they can express themselves, develop literacy skills and access the imaginative worlds and information this makes possible. Right from the start children are encouraged to use the literacy skills they are acquiring in simple reading and writing tasks so that proficiency can develop. Waldorf children become avid readers with extensive interests and enthusiastic writers, capable of a wide range of writing styles, from narrative, poetry, formal and informal writing, scientific writing and ultimately, critical and academic writing.
Literacy is central to full participation in academic, economic and civil society. Good literacy skills (knowledgeable action with purpose) show themselves in pupils’ ability to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their thoughts, opinions, ideas and emotions to others. Reading is an essential pre-requisite for building and using knowledge and is essential for accessing information through media of all kinds, supporting intellectual, emotional, cultural, social and spiritual development. Literature is particularly significant in reflecting traditional and critical values. Oral and embodied communication are equally important in formal and informal settings and professional life.
The overarching aim for Literacy in the Waldorf curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written language, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. The Waldorf curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils:
● read easily, fluently and with good understanding
● develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
● acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
● appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
● write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
● use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas
● are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, presenting their ideas coherently in a range of ways
● express themselves in original and creative ways
● navigate a range of media, and can form judgements about the content of what they encounter
Language and communication
Health and well-being
Senses
Imagination and play
Empathy
Aesthetics
Inquiry
Democratic participation and society
Lifelong learning
Future thinking
Holistic thinking / Spirituality
Judgement