Schools, schools and more schools

Who knew there were so many different ways to spend most of your day if you are a child?

We have now looked at two different schools, and there will no doubt be more. The Montessori school we toured without the children; the Free School I toured with Douwe and Daan.

The Free School, it turns out, is a Waldorf school. (In the States, a Free School is usually an open school or progressive school, which is different). For those of you not up on your early 20th century pedagogy, this means it is based on the ideas of Rudolf Steiner. My entire awareness of Steiner comes actually from reading Steiner, so I have not got the tiniest clue what they actually are doing in such a school. I confess it does make me nervous, though, as Steiner was undoubtedly very very smart and also undoubtedly a very very strange guy with some very weird ideas.

Hey, I know some other people like that, too. My father. My kid. Me.

However, it must be said that ultimately, the Montessori methood is about the child learning in his/her own way to become a member of society; while the Waldorf method appears to me to be really about trying to change society altogether.

One of the things about Waldorf, though, is that there really is no academic learning, content learning that is, until the children are 6 or 7. There are no alphabet letters in the classrooms, no little posters with the numbers or anything like them. There are books, but the childree are read to; they do not have a reading corner for example.

So Douwe made quite the ripple when he stood next to me and read the form as I filled it out.

I was surprised also; I didn't know he could do that. And some of you may recall that my handwriting is not exactly D'Nealian nor even clear. So the teacher asked me when I taught him to read and I said that I had not, yet. Whereupon we all looked at each other and Douwe said "we're going home, the toys were fun". And shook the teacher's hand and walked out the door.

This is not in itself that odd. I don't think Douwe can read yet, not really. He has a vocabulary of about 80 sight words at a guess (though who knew that "St. Vincentiusstraat" was amoung them?). But it would hardly be unheard of for a 5 year old to read, except in an environment where reading is not emphasized.

However, when we were reading "Little Bear" again tonight (we're having a rash of "Little Bear" here lately) he behaved rather oddly. Usually when we read a book both children go hunting through the page to find words they can recognize. Suddenly Douwe could not recognize a single one. Okay, he doesn't have to, it's just a game. But then he put on this little baby voice, a voice he did not have even when he was a baby, and said, "um, I don't know, is this the word for bear?" and pointed at the word for "doll".

Y'all, Douwe has been able to recognize the word for "bear" and for "doll" for over a year now. Bloody, he spotted "Bear" first time out in that book -- because "Little Bear" is written with capital letters, as is "Mother Bear". Y'all, he stuck his fingers in his mouth when he said it -- Douwe didn't suck his fingers or thumb as an infant and never has since.

I think he was embarassed. Or something. This little moment keeps bothering me; anybody who has any thoughts about why, let me know.

nb to my mother: Stop sending me vibes, damnit, I'll put up some more pictures tomorrow or Monday. Go vibe at one of your other children for a couple days. *grin*