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In Waldorf pedagogy, we strive to surround the children with what is Good, True and Beautiful. These are human archetypes----obviously, there is no end to cultural and individual permutations of these three cardinal qualities. Yet they are also, at heart, at essence, universal in that there are spiritual pictures or beings that embody these qualities and which are available and meaningful to all human beings. We all come from the spiritual world: there is only one spiritual world. Although each of us walks a different path in each incarnation on this earth and although the spiritual journey we take might seem, on one level, to be anathema to other spiritual traditions, at heart, there is no contradiction. On one level, these differences are hugely important. On another level they are simply manifestations of the One.
Starting with the understanding of the human being as a spiritual being, we know that children are only recently arrived here from the spiritual world. The younger they are, the newer they are. Their consciousness is entirely of that world, not of the materialistic world they have incarnated into. Waldorf pedagogy (at least how it used to be practiced in schools) is a long process which honors that slow journey each child takes.
Let’s put aside the universal qualities of Goodness and Beauty for now and turn to Truth, also a universal quality which can be known, understood and communicated. Children live unconsciously within Truth, as with the other two----only as they enter their teens might they be encouraged to consciously consider these archetypes.
If these qualities are indeed spiritual qualities and if little ones do indeed live in a spiritual consciousness then they can perceive, albeit unconsciously, Goodness, Beauty and Truth. This is the birthright of all children, of all backgrounds. Only due to the intervention of adults, whether purposefully or unintentionally, do children leave this realm too soon. As soon as little ones are brought into precocious self awareness by asking questions (which can range from the innocuous to the life-changing) are they ripped from that totally necessary stage of consciousness. Adults with ideological agendas which are focused wrongly on the child as a self conscious being are especially toxic to the natural development of children. Whereas it is certainly important that older teens and of course adults develop self awareness so that they do not remain as children, that previous stage of childhood needs to be honored and protected.
A member of my old yahoo group shared a wonderful experience with us. She described herself as short, round and pink. Her son went to a kindergarten and she had not yet met the staff. Every day he came home and said in great happiness to his mother ‘I love my teacher---she looks just like you.’ At some point mom went to an open morning and her son dragged the beloved teacher over to meet his mother: she was a six foot tall, rail-thin Nigerian woman with black skin. To this little fellow, still immersed in the spiritual quality of Truth, what he saw with his (totally unconscious) spiritual eyes was the love from his teacher which ‘looked just like’ the love from his mother. The child was coming from his spiritual consciousness, seeing the reality of the spiritual substance of love from his mother and his teacher---he was not seeing the material manifestations of the differences between those two women.
I know a family where a child was in a Waldorf (sic) kindergarten and asked the assistant if they were ‘a boy or a girl.’ This trans person was deeply offended and a big fuss was made. The family sensibly removed their little one from this school.
So here we have a situation where someone is working in a kindergarten who has no idea what a child is. How on earth can an adult be offended by a child???!!! And how can something called a Waldorf kindergarten allow this to happen (thus my snotty remarks about ‘so-called Waldorf’ and so on). If any place is meant to be truly safe for children, that should be a Waldorf kindergarten. Having staff who do not understand children is not safe and could be abusive.
For some time I have pondered the question of trans folks in kindergartens. I have a trans friend who worked in a Waldorf kindergarten (not someone who would ever be offended by a child’s question). I have yet to ask this question of them: how does a tiny child fresh from the spiritual worlds, with a consciousness that must be allowed to remain in those worlds, understand a trans person? Their sense of spiritual Truth will know and ‘read’ the truth of that person’s biological gender---what happens to the children when adults override the child’s spiritual sense perception and tells them ‘no, I am not that’?
Another example: one of my mother’s favorite stories about me when I was 4 or 5 was how I went up to a Hasidic man in a store or on the street (can’t quite remember how that went). There he was, complete with beard and side-locks. I said to him ‘Are you Jesus Christ?’ My mother, who did not understand children, was mortified and shooed me away. The man, who clearly did understand children, smiled and patted me on the head. He was in no way offended. Perhaps he knew that on some level, I was seeing something of the Truth of who he was.
These are important things for us all to think about. I don’t care if people call me a right-wing this-phobe, that-phobe, hater—I can only feel sorry for people who have no idea what children are or need. And if I feel sorry for them, what do I feel for the damaged children, often surrounded by people who may indeed come from love but with dangerous ignorance born out of ideological desperation?
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