Kimberton Waldorf School

Education That Matters

Resources

Lantern Walks: a festival of compassion

by

lanterns

by KWS Kindergarten Teachers

“I go with my little lantern,
my lantern goes with me.
In heaven the stars are shining,
on Earth are shining we.”

Along with many other Waldorf Schools both here in the US and across Europe, KWS carries the tradition of celebrating the festival of Martinmas with a Lantern Walk during the evening on (or near) November 11th in the Early Childhood section as well as First and Second Grade. But what does a Roman soldier who was born in the 4th century have to do with life in 2023?

The story of St. Martin is one of empathy and generosity. It begins at the city gates in Amiens, France, where St. Martin’s cavalry regiment was stationed. A poor man dressed in rags begged all passersby to have pity on him, but no one bothered to look at him. Martin approached and saw the man shivering. A young soldier, he had no money and nothing else to share and so he took off his cloak and used his weapon to slice it down the middle. Half he gave to the poor man, and half he wore back to his barracks. Now we, as the season darkens, begin to turn inward and ponder such questions as how do I find compassion within? Where is the balance between caring for self and caring for others? It is the work of the adults to ponder the festivals in whatever intellectual, spiritual, or personal way we choose.  

For the young child, however, we offer a much simpler gesture and experience as we know that this is the way the children learn most deeply. We do not bring them the story of St. Martin until second grade. However, we do make handmade lanterns in the weeks leading up to the lantern walk and sing lantern songs. Their beautiful images carry us throughout the day as we bake, walk in the forest, and work on our projects. Slowly the image builds in the class community of how “we go through the land, like the wild geese band, children of one light are we.”  

The Lantern Walk is a simple, reverent event bringing an opportunity for everyone to sense the quiet power of their own inner light; to ponder deeply, wordlessly, their role as a spark of light in the dark of night. It is a night of quiet joy as we walk peacefully along a luminaria-lit path. The children carry their handmade lanterns and all those walking sing the traditional lantern songs that encourage us to be that warmth and light for ourselves and for others.  

Martinmas celebrates hope, kindness, and being called to help others. This is a contemplative, uniquely individual festival in which we may solidify the courage we strove for during the harvest season (Michaelmas) and allow it to grow into soul confidence. Often after the walk in the following days, a new urge arises in us to see how we can give to others. In finding our sense of self, we find trust that our inner light will lead us toward taking care of each other. The children do this naturally without so much as a word from teachers and for many weeks, we often hear the joyful refrain of ‘This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.”  

Reflections on Sprites Night

by

Sprites Night is an emerging tradition here at Kimberton Waldorf School, though it is not brand new. It was celebrated previously, albeit in a different form, ending roughly one generation ago. The inspiration to revive this beautiful night walk experience came from a handful of grades teachers, led by Ann Pasquinelly, to find a way around the limitations COVID presented in celebrating our usual festivals that year. We knew that the children needed these nourishing festivals during that time, and that a magical outdoor walk would be, not only possible, but just right. This honoring of the thinning of the veil has become a beloved part of the All Hallows Eve tradition here at KWS ever since.

You might wonder, however, what the phrase “the veil is thin” means? What is the veil?  Why is it thinning?  Why is that significant?  The origins of Sprites Night, or All Hallows Eve, go back to the rhythms of the natural world. After the earth has breathed out all summer long, it now begins to transition to a deep inhale, preparing for winter.  This transition from life and growth in nature to death and harvest creates a quiet moment in which life and death are very close to one another.  One could say that the veil that separates the world of the physical and the world of the spirit are very close at this time.  One could go further to say that any separation we feel is an illusion and that feeling of separation is lifted during this time.

All around the world, across every continent, different cultures celebrate this time of the year as a point to connect with loved ones who have crossed the threshold or to honor and be in relationship with the spirits of the elemental world.  You can see this on November 2nd in Spanish speaking countries in the celebration, El Día de los Muertos in which people honor their loved ones who have passed with music, altars full of favorite foods and objects of the deceased.  A similar gesture takes place during Samhain, on October 31st, an ancient Celtic tradition in which there are bonfires, games, fortune telling, traditional foods, and in some cases a symbolic meal put out for púca, fairies.  On the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, which is around mid-August to mid-September, the people of Hong Kong celebrate the Hungry Ghost Festival. In several parts of East Asia, people believe that spirits get restless around this time of year and begin to roam the world. The festival is a way to “feed” these spirits both the food and money they need for the afterlife. In India, for 16 days during the second Paksha of the Hindu lunar month of Bhadrapada, many people celebrate Pitru Paksha. During Pitru Paksha, the souls are briefly allowed to return to Earth and be with their families.  These celebrations are just to name a few and there are many more!  At the heart of this time of the year, these celebrations share a common thread in which people embrace connection with those they love in the spiritual realm.

In essence, Sprites Night strives to offer young children and families a meaningful way to experience this poignant gesture of connection with the spiritual realm.  This is why we begin each journey around a fire, waiting for our “spirit guide” to lead us through a door, or portal, taking us to the other side of the veil-to where our eyes are opened to loving realities that are “always there.”  Fostering connection with loving beings, such as the nature spirits of the land and the mysterious truths of fairy tales is a meaningful way for this to be experienced in the heart of the young child…and the young child in all of us.

Every summer, Molly and I think about how Sprites Night can spark the young child’s imagination and bring them into special relationship with nature and the beautiful supportive world just on the other side of the veil.  We find ourselves asking, “Who should we honor this year?”  Last year, we wanted to honor the Lenni Lenape and the land our school is on through the nature mandala and the Elk Herd Song (to honor the Elk that once roamed Pennsylvania).  While these things are not always explicit, it is still held with intention in the hearts of those who create Sprites Night.

When I asked that same question this summer, who came back to me were the trees.  We are blessed with so many grand old trees that are amid where the children play everyday.  They have a profound presence and yet, it can be easy to take their presence for granted.  Story after story began coming to Molly and I over the last several months about the nature of trees as loving, patient, wise beings that deeply care for their “little brothers and sisters”—us.  It felt important to foster this loving relationship already present for the young children. As we continued to plan Sprites Night, the inspiration came to create a simple ceremony at the end of the night in which the children, filled with the magic and themes of love story, could then offer a very old tree a gift: water, soil or beautiful stones as a gesture of gratitude. 

So, Molly and I were on a mission to find songs and stories that might honor the trees.  We struggled to find a fairy tale, but lo and behold, the Seniors brought Spindlewood by Charlotte Comeras, based on the poem by Rose Fyleman, to our 1st Graders at their Rose Ceremony.  Spindlewood is a story of the journey of a little girl missing her fairy and gnome friends as they go back to warm Mother Earth below at the change of season and how the generous trees help her find her way to them.  After finding and spending a little time in the loving arms of Mother Earth, the little girl is told she must return home to her dear mother who will be missing her.  Mother Earth gives her a gift so that her fairy and gnome friends will always be close and return every spring.  The little girl awakens in a field and there is the question, was it all a dream?  However, she finds the gift from Mother Earth in her hand, a golden satchel of flower seeds.  The gift transcended the veil.  To me, this fairytale reminds us that where there is love, whether it be our relationship with the natural world or our connection with one another, there is no separation.  If you would like to read this enchanting story for yourself: Spindlewood Fairytale

As the nights continue to get colder and the daylight becomes diminished, I believe that the gift that this festival of Sprites Night offers us is the insight that where there is love, there is no separation, even in death.  May we all move towards the heart of winter with our light strengthened by this insight.

Blessings to you all.

Love,

Emily Jones

A special Thank You to our many Sprites that made this possible!  We could not have manifested this vision without you and we hold you with deepest gratitude in our hearts.

Continuity Counts: The Power of Looping in Education

by

Lessons from Finland and Estonia’s successful education systems seal the deal on a central Waldorf practice

Dr. Adam Grant, a contributing Opinion writer for the New York Times, is an organizational psychologist at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

In an essay adapted from his book “Hidden Potential,” Grant explores the triumphs of education systems in Finland and Estonia and their successful educational methodologies. It spotlights the concept of “looping,” where teachers maintain continuity by staying with the same group of students for multiple years. This strategy, central to Waldorf education, aligns with the Waldorf schooling model where teachers accompany students through several grades, sometimes as long as first through eighth grade. Waldorf schools leverage this looping practice to enable educators to forge deeper connections with children and their families, comprehend individual learning styles, and provide tailored, holistic instruction to support students’ growth and development across multiple years.

Read the article here.

Waldorf Education, Stolen Focus, and the Crisis of Attention

by

Dr. Brad Kershner offers reflections on the metacrisis and shares an in-depth summary of the book Stolen Focus by Johann Hari. He makes connections between the themes of this book, the larger constellation of social and cultural problems we are all facing, and the principles and practices of Waldorf education – an approach to learning in community that offers timely and relevant values and practices to address our deepest educational questions and dilemmas.

This lecture was offered to parents at Kimberton Waldorf School – October 11, 2023

Community Blessings and a Prayer for Peace

by

October Letter to KWS Community

By Brad Kershner

Dear Families, 

As the leaves make their way from branch to earth, and the warmth of the autumn sun finally subsides to allow for the coolness of November, I find myself wondering how you are doing, and how we are all doing, collectively. How are you? Hanging in there? Wondering how you’d even begin to answer such a question?

There is much to celebrate and appreciate in these first two months of school. We’ve already done so much! And there’s more to come as we move through the winter holidays, which are sure to be filled with meaningful main lessons, off campus adventures, artistic expressions, and enough assemblies and special events to ensure that we all have plenty of chances to revel in the camaraderie of our community, and to enjoy some of the simple pleasures of life that come with raising children within a small Waldorf school, nestled in the beautiful landscape that we call Kimberton.

And yet, our hearts are broken. The indescribable tragedies of the world around us continue to pound on the doors of our conscience and reverberate throughout the many layers of our collective psyche. The contrast between the daily blessings of our community life and the ongoing horrors of war and terror that scream their cries to our unprepared ears couldn’t be more stark or extreme. How could we ever make peace with this situation? How can we come to terms with the injustice of this existential discrepancy? I don’t know. I really don’t know, and I doubt that we can.

But there are some things I do know. I know that we can love and care for each other ever more and even better than we do, and that is worth striving for. I know that everything that we do here in our little corner of the world does matter. And I know that the seeds of peace are best planted in the ground beneath one’s feet, in soil that’s been tended and prepared by loving relationships, for that is where they are most likely to grow strong and tall.

There is much more to say, with many different kinds of truths to be shared and many different perspectives from which to understand our predicament, but I hope you don’t mind my attempt to say something, and I hope you will join me in continuing to work for peace close to home while seeking to understand the wars that rage around us. As was discussed at our recent community education event, there is no way to avoid our shared plight of living through a metacrisis, but the work we are doing here together is a small but meaningful part of what needs to happen for a new and more peaceful world to be born. 

May peace be with you,   

Brad Kershner

Dean of School
Kimberton Waldorf School    

News Feature: Phone-free schools address global problem

by

Kimberton Waldorf School was recently featured in the Daily Local News for becoming phone free. Read the full article below or at the Daily Local here.

Phone-free schools address global problem

A private school in Chester County implements new systems to address distraction by technology.

A phone-free space improves student engagement, class management and reduces distraction, among other benefits. (Courtesy of Kimberton Waldorf School)
A phone-free space improves student engagement, class management and reduces distraction, among other benefits. (Courtesy of Kimberton Waldorf School)

This fall, the landscape looks different at Kimberton Waldorf School in Chester County.

Kimberton Waldorf School implemented new systems across the entire school to address technological distraction.(Courtesy of Courtney Diener-Stokes)
Kimberton Waldorf School implemented new systems across the entire school to address technological distraction.(Courtesy of Courtney Diener-Stokes)

Nothing has impacted the appearance of the picturesque campus that lies along French Creek in the historic district of Kimberton Village. Instead, it was a change the school felt was necessary to make to its technology landscape after its governance identified an increasing concern over the grip that cellphone usage was having on students nationally, and the impact this was beginning to have on their own school environment.

This resulted in KWS deciding to make the entire school cellphone and smartwatch free during the school day.

“One thing that has become clear in recent years, no less for us than for thousands of other schools, is that social media is having a negative impact on our students,” said Dr. Brad Kershner, KWS’s Dean of School. “We see this in terms of how it captures and degrades their attention and in terms of how it influences the process of identity formation.

“The amount of overall exposure is therefore a serious concern, and what we see in schools is that even the mere presence of cell phones has negative consequences. The lure is just too strong.”

Lockable Yondr cellphone pouches are kept in bins that are organized by grade in Kimberton Waldorf School's high school.(Courtesy of Courtney Diener-Stokes)
Lockable Yondr cellphone pouches are kept in bins that are organized by grade in Kimberton Waldorf School’s high school.(Courtesy of Courtney Diener-Stokes)

Beginning on the first day of school, KWS implemented new systems to address the problem of technological distraction in the lower school, middle school and high school. For the high school, they joined a movement of schools that have partnered with Yondr, a company that creates phone-free spaces by way of lockable pouches.

“For those who bring devices to school, we are piloting the program with Yondr in the high school, and in our middle school we are collecting phones and putting them in a lock box during the school day,” Kershner said. “Grades four and below are asked not to bring devices to school.”

A phone-free space is aimed at improving class management, reducing distraction and enhancing student engagement among other benefits, resulting in improved student behavior, academic performance and student connectedness.

“Educators around the world are seeing the damaging effects of phones on student engagement, social development and mental health,” Yondr says on its website.

Each high school student at KWS who brings a device to school is required to place it in their own lockable Yondr pouch upon arrival at school. The students are then in possession of their phone that’s in the locked pouch for the entire school day.

If a student has a documented medical reason that requires them to have access to their phone, the school will make an exception. Otherwise, necessary communications to parents come from the school’s staff as usual, and in the event a student needs to call home for any reason, there are landlines available.

A lockable Yondr cellphone pouch and magnetic unlocking base.(Courtesy of Courtney Diener-Stokes)
A lockable Yondr cellphone pouch and magnetic unlocking base.(Courtesy of Courtney Diener-Stokes)

At the end of the day, their Yondr pouch gets unlocked by tapping the opening of the pouch on a magnetic unlocking base. They then place their empty pouch in a collection bin that’s organized per grade.

Tammi Stein, the admissions coordinator at KWS who has a child in the high school and another who recently graduated, discussed the benefits this change brings to the students.

“Yondr is a way to allow them to be free to focus on learning during the school day,” Stein said.

Not only does she feel this positively impacts her child’s time at school, but it also makes her feel more supported in her home life.

“I think it’s a hard issue to tackle alone as a family, and it’s nice to be a part of a community that is tackling it together,” she said.

Kimberton Waldorf School in Chester County partnered with Yondr as a solution for managing cellphones and smartwatches in their high school to make it a phone-free space during the school day.(Courtesy of Kimberton Waldorf School)
Kimberton Waldorf School in Chester County partnered with Yondr as a solution for managing cellphones and smartwatches in their high school to make it a phone-free space during the school day.(Courtesy of Kimberton Waldorf School)

It’s no secret that we’re living in a time when it’s difficult for both children and adults to unplug. Clearly, schools are taking note, since Kimberton isn’t the only school looking to combat the issue. Yondr partners with thousands of schools across 16 countries.

“This is a global issue,” Stein said.

In addition to KWS taking action to address the issue during the school day, the school creates opportunities for parents to gather to talk about the issue.

“It’s being addressed at a school-wide level versus just leaving parents to address it as a family,” Stein said.

A book that was the focus of a recent KWS Community Education Event that was open to the public is titled “Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention — and How to Think Deeply Again” by Johann Hari. Through extensive research, the book explores how humanity’s focus has decreased over the years.

“It is addressing not just technology, but multiple issues that affect our focus,” Stein said. “This book brings up a lot of ideas.”

On the topic of technology, the book discusses the deliberate way that tech companies are working to get the attention of teenagers.

“It discusses how our society allows corporations to use technology this way, that it’s harming our youth and we’re allowing corporations to take our attention,” Stein said.

The book proposes and explores how collective action could address this issue systemically.

“It is important to understand that removing smart devices from schools is just one facet of a much broader constellation of solutions that are needed to address a systemic social problem,” Kershner said. “We want our students and families to understand how social media dysregulates and disrupts our social fabric, and how the overall well-being of our children requires a holistic approach to social, emotional, cognitive and physical health.

“Our decision to make our school phone-free is just one example of how we’re helping children and families to regain agency, balance, and well-being in an increasingly stressful and complex world.”

More information

About Yondr

Yondr works with educators, artists, organizations and individuals around the world to create phone-free spaces where genuine connection, focus, and creativity can flourish in the absence of technology. To learn more, visit www.overyondr.com.

Suggested reading

“Stolen Focus — Why You Can’t Pay Attention — and How to Think Deeply Again” by Johann Hari (Crown)

About the book: Our ability to pay attention is collapsing. From the New York Times bestselling author of “Chasing the Scream” and “Lost Connections” comes a groundbreaking examination of why this is happening — and how to get our attention back.

Source: www.amazon.com

For more information and to order,  visit www.stolenfocusbook.com.

About Kimberton Waldorf School

KWS is a co-educational independent private school for early childhood through 12th grade located in Kimberton, Chester County. It’s a place where academics, nature and the arts converge to form a holistic-based curriculum that represents a 100-year heritage of Waldorf education. There are 1,000 Waldorf schools in 64 countries.

Reflections on Michaelmas

by

Taming the Dragons

By Miss Huber

Donning sturdy armor, summoning courage and strength, taming the fierce and fiery dragons—sounds like a fairytale, doesn’t it? Michaelmas is such a magical time of year. Not only are the leaves beginning to change and the air is crisp, but it is during this time that we all need a little reminder of our inner light and strength.

Michaelmas, which occurs on September 29th, reminds us that we are entering a time of year when the days are growing colder, shorter, and darker. As we turn inward, we are faced with our own personal dragons now more than ever—worry, fear, jealousy, guilt, anger, grief, pain, (the list goes on!)—but if we summon the courage and strength, we can tame these dragons and keep our lights burning bright all through the cold, dark nights ahead. 

And who says we must conquer these dragons alone? Taming the dragons within is not unique to anyone. We are all faced with an inner battle at some point in our lives, perhaps daily. The sooner we realize this, the sooner we can develop more compassion toward our fellow brothers and sisters. It is crucial that we strive toward having more patience, understanding, and compassion for those around us. You never know who might need the extra armor most, and in doing so, we sharpen our own blades and are able to confidently march into the darkness. 

Obstacles and dragons will always be present but we can be strong for one another. How do we do this? Well, in the famous words of iconic jazz legend, Louis Armstrong…

When you’re smiling, keep on smiling,
The whole world smiles with you.
And when you’re laughing, keep on laughing,
The sun comes shining through.”

Be bold, radiate positivity, smile, laugh, give a hand, have courage for the truth. 

Don’t be afraid to share your joy with the world. Alone you might be one spark in the night, but together we can set the world ablaze!

Love and light to you all,
Miss Huber

From California to 4th Grade at Kimberton…

by

Reflections by Maggie Kincheloe, 4th Grade Class Teacher

When I “found” Waldorf education, I did not have intentions of teaching in a classroom. At the time, I was teaching outdoor education in the mountains of southern California…the forest was my classroom! However, I felt a strong pull towards the Waldorf curriculum and how the arts, movement and connection to the Earth were woven into daily lessons. The developmental intentions brought throughout the span of the curriculum was a new idea for me and these resonated deeply. My curiosity was piqued! 

I decided to begin the Waldorf Teacher Training program in San Diego and was inspired by the work I saw the teachers doing there. The connections between the class teachers, their students and the parent body felt so genuine, (truly, any good teacher can cultivate this!),  and yet I sensed something extra special about these relationships. I recognized, too, the growth that takes place in class teachers who dive into a different curriculum each year. From introducing letters with fairy tales in first grade to finding one’s story and geographic place in fourth, allllll the way up to revolutions and civil rights in eighth, the grades curriculum makes me excited to be a teacher. Humans are creative, intelligent  beings and children should be given every opportunity to draw from their own wellspring while in school. Our curriculum does just that. These are just a few things that prompted me to pursue Waldorf class teaching. 

As I prepare to bring local geography and histories to the fourth graders, I’ve learned a lot about the history and founding of our very special school. I grew up in Northeastern PA and have lived in Montgomery County for just five years now, so learning about local people and places helped me feel ever more at home here…this is what I hope my students feel this year. KWS is the second oldest Waldorf school in the United States, which I’ve always thought was notable. Many, many individuals and families contributed to the various phases and chapters of our school’s biography. Learning about our glass-domed middle school building and all the stories that took place within those walls was especially interesting! I feel part of something bigger whenever I walk through that building now.

In fourth grade, we transitioned from learning to read to…reading to learn! With this in mind, I’ve set up our classroom library to help my students choose topics of interest and books they can read independently. Inclusivity and cultural representation in our library is important to me, too. I hope each child can find their reflection in our classroom books and learn something of one other’s differences and similarities. I’m always on the lookout for new titles and I welcome suggestions!  Another aim is to develop form and flow with our cursive handwriting. I’m hopeful that our new alphabet display and continued practice will help the fourth graders here. I’ve always enjoyed seeing the care that early-grades teachers put into their classroom’s ABCs, as well! 

I’m looking forward to spending the school year in our beautiful, new classroom with the fourth graders! 

Maggie, with her daughter, Ruby, and husband (and KWS Life Sciences teacher) Jake Strevig.

Gifts from Nature

by

by Celia Martin

It has been an especially hot summer so these cooler days are such a blessing and a relief. Because the summer has been so hot, the pears are ripe early and there are too many to pick and process.

I want to tell you two things about pear trees:

  1. They are the overachievers of the fruit world. – Right now the branches of the trees are sagging with the weight of the fruit. They do this almost every year, but this year is especially abundant. Many of the leaves have fallen so hundreds of fruits are visible. Some are ripening and falling on the ground. The ones on the ground are already sweet and delicious. The ones on the trees can be picked and handled gently and will ripen at home on your countertop.
  2. Their fruits are underappreciated. There are few fruits that can match the sweetness and juiciness of a perfectly ripe pear. And so fragrant! One year we made pear sauce and the students remarked that they didn’t understand why we even bothered with applesauce when pear sauce was so superior.

If you visit campus, please take time to appreciate the pear trees and all of the gifts of nature that we receive at this time of year.

Chef Liana’s Pear Butter Recipe

  • 10 pears peeled and chopped
  • 2 c. water
  • 1/2 c. sugar
  • 1/2 c. brown sugar
  • 1 tbs. cinnamon

Place all ingredients in a large pot and simmer on medium until the pears are very, very soft. Then using a blender, puree all items in the pot and return it to the stove. Cook on low for 4 hours or until it has reduced by half.

Our garden’s pears, ready for preparation in the Food For Thought Kitchen

Forest Kindergarten, Gardening Program, and Environmental Studies Curriculum Overview

by

What ties together the Forest Kindergarten, Gardening Program, and Environmental Studies Curriculum at KWS? Intentional, regular, and guided exposure to nature in a way that cultivates a love and appreciation for the earth that gives way to care for and stewardship of our natural resources in adulthood.

Building Bonds and Creating Memories: Playing Sports at KWS

by

Guest post by Ciara O’Hara, class of 2025, a rising junior who recently returned from being an exchange student in Germany. This past year, Ciara was a leading scorer on the varsity girls’ basketball team, performed a lead part in Mary Poppins, and worked part-time. She has been a Waldorf student all her life.

Playing a sport at KWS has brought me some of my best school memories. One of my favorites was our varsity girls’ basketball team going undefeated this past season and becoming champions in our division. I have never seen a group of girls work so hard as they did throughout the season, and we got to do what we set out to as a team and as a family. 

Our team travels throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey to play, and I think being able to travel with your team helps build relationships and brings the team closer every time. If you play high school basketball at KWS (or even if you don’t), once a year you get to experience an amazing weekend called the Waldorf tournament. Waldorf teams from all over come to our school for a three-day basketball tournament. Every year this tournament brings so much happiness and fun to our school and I couldn’t be more grateful that we have it. I have made some amazing friends at this tournament and have gotten to spend time with some of the best people.

As soon as you join a sports team at KWS you become part of a family and with that, there are responsibilities for each member. We work together as a team by showing up to practices, being there for our teammates, and always cheering them on no matter what the circumstance. We are a team, a whole, and I have never seen that so clearly as I do at KWS.

As you grow and start playing sports in high school not only does it begin to impact you physically, but I have found that it also can help impact how you deal with things. I have learned how to manage schoolwork and a social life and playing sports all at once, and my teammates and coaches have done nothing but help and support me and everyone around me. Managing your time is so important if you intend to play a sport; it can all add up very quickly but there is definitely enough time for everything at KWS.

Something that I have found to be so important in managing all of these things in high school is to be never afraid to ask or feel embarrassed because you need some help, whether that be from a friend and teacher or a coach. I am working on enjoying every moment and always putting my physical and mental health first!

If you are thinking about playing a sport, whatever it may be, I highly recommend it, no matter if you haven’t played before or are not sure how good you’ll be. Either way, you will come out being better and look back at some of the best memories you will make in school.

Todd Stong’s Words to the Class of 2023 at their Graduation Exercises

by

Saturday, June 10, 2023

Todd Stong studied art and creative writing at Brown University, graduating in 2014 magna cum laude, with honors, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. In 2016, he started teaching at Kimberton in the painting room with grades 7 through 12 and as math support faculty, working with Tonya Rice in the 9th grade classroom – what he considered a daily masterclass in teaching. It also helped that Mrs. Rice was his own math teacher back in 2008 at Perkiomen Valley High School – he knew he was in good hands. Couple that with thoughtful, careful mentorship from Anna Zay, and he had soon expanded his teaching to include History through Art, Algebra I and II, Geometry, 7th Grade Perspective, 8th Grade Platonic Solids, Comedy and Tragedy Mask-Making, US Government, and Yearbook Advising. You all had him busy! In 2019, he decided it was time to return to his own artistic practice and applied to the Tyler School of Art and Architecture, where he received his MFA at their Rome Campus with a full academic scholarship and teaching stipend. Now back in Philadelphia, he teaches printmaking and design at West Chester University, and works assisting the artist Odili Odita in his studio, while pursuing his own art career through exhibitions and publication. Next fall he will be an artist-in-residence at Yaddo, joining the ranks of past fellows such as Michael Tilson Thomas, Langston Hughes, Philip Guston, Flannery O’Conner, and James Baldwin, among many others.

“A few weeks ago, I had the absolute pleasure of returning to Kimberton to meet with this wonderful group on stage behind me and do something that for them was completely natural: draw. We did a classic exercise: taking a line for a walk. Meaning, we all picked up chalk, committed it to the board, and let our minds unspool across the dark stretch without lifting a hand and breaking the line. Another rule: no going over the lines. Come to a dead end and, sorry, find your way back out of it, think your way through the maze that you’ve just created.

Because drawing is really just that – it’s a kind of thought. It doesn’t feel like thinking in the way we are used to thinking about thinking – a monologue only audible in our own heads. It is a way of negotiating the space and the stuff of the world, internalizing then physicalizing it, like dance but recorded flat. And at the end, you understand differently. You might not be able to put words to it, because, well, that’s the point — it’s drawing.

When the board was chock full, I presented a set of brushes taped to the ends of four-foot long dowels and, holding them from the far end, we dipped them into buckets of water and began drawing again, directly on top of our first attempt. Then, with that practice down, we tried out ink on a long scroll of newsprint.

It was so much fun. What I love about Kimberton students is their willingness to do. Their unblockable, indefatigable, iron-core will. Their fearlessness. Present a four foot long paint brush to any Joe Schmoe and tell him to paint, and he’ll have a panic attack. Give it to a Waldorf student and they’ll try to make you a twelve-division circle without you even having to ask.

I was so proud of the drawings we made together and of the joy we had being in something of an art class one more time. But I wanted them to think about something, something in switching from chalk to extended brush. So I asked them, “what was that like?” “Well, it was easier to control the chalk, easier to get out exactly what I wanted,” said one student. “The chalk is closer to the body. But it was maybe more exciting to use the brush, more free, more expansive”, said another. A flick of the wrist multiplies into a wild gesture.

Though roughly the same principle – using this instrument to put our spatial thoughts outside of ourselves – the body was altered in radically different ways from tool to tool, and so the kinds of thoughts that could come out of ourselves changed with them.

A tool, of course, is meant to help us do things our bodies can’t do on their own. It can be a bit awkward at first. But with practice, a well-designed tool becomes an extension of the body. The hammer, after hitting many nails, is a kind of fist; you swing it and you can see, know, and feel where it will come down, and how deep the nail will sink. The shock of impact rattles through the handle and up your arm; you understand what the hammer has felt.

A piano makes your fingers into vocal chords; the longer you practice it, the more seamlessly you alone sing as a choir. And anyone who has hit a perfectly composed chord in perfect time will tell you that you feel that in your chest. As much as you allow your body to flow into your tools, they flow back into you – don’t forget that – altering you in ways you’re not always conscious of. Think the chalk and the chalkboard, those tools that let us map out our minds, and in so doing change them.

This might all seem a little out there, or maybe totally a given, nothing new. But I’m bringing all this tool talk up for a reason. There are, I imagine, a diverse group of possibilities on each of your horizons, whether that’s more school next year or more school later, whether finding gainful employment, a trade, going into business with family or for yourselves. Whatever the possibilities are, you will have choices ahead about the tools you use. And those are going to be choices distinctly different than any generation that came before you. Because the tools are becoming different.

When it’s getting dark out and you’re just finishing up your German homework and still have a math problem set and a world lit response, or maybe a painting to design, and you get a text from a buddy that there’s a party everyone’s going to in an hour – you’ll have ChatGPT and Midjourney and a host of other generative artificial intelligence tools at your disposal.

When you need to find the right words to convince someone to hire you, or when you need to sell your service to a client, you’ll have these tools available. And it will be your choice entirely whether you use them. I won’t lie to you: if you use them savvily, you’ll probably get the grade or the response you wanted and save yourself a lot of time. It might feel great.

You know, as an artist and a writer, I’ve been thinking a lot about these technologies. In some ways, they seem like a miracle – why not use them in my studio, when I can’t afford to a hire a model? Why not have ChatGPT write that grant application? I’m tempted too, I won’t lie!

So, let’s look under the hood. This is technology built on statistical analysis of inputs culled from human production. Meaning, in essence, that it’s been fed libraries and museums, outputs of the minds of thousands and thousands who used much humbler tools to make their contributions. Give it a prompt, and it’ll simply predict what you want to read or see based on what it deems from its data set to be most likely to follow the given words. It’s a mind eater, chewing hunks and crumbs of thought and vision left for it by thinkers past, and mashing it all together into a paste that can reassemble into whatever is asked of it, by predicting the likeliest outcome.

Do you click a button and let a cloud of probabilities select your thoughts for you? Or do you drudge through your own mind, weeding it and watering it, pulling up ideas from its soil, and planting them onto a page or a canvas. It will certainly take longer to do the latter.

What you choose to do, what resources you decide to cherish most – your time or your mind – those are your decisions. That’s what it means to be a graduate. I will only say this: the reward of making is rarely the execution of a fully preconceived idea, seen in the mind’s eye and brought into reality as an exercise of technique. It is in the starting and getting turned around, looking down at the page and realizing that you understand something in your own thoughts that you hadn’t before. Pausing, leaving, returning, and rearranging. Learning from what you’ve done and thinking deeply, in a way that is far more organized, more crystalline than what you can concoct in your head alone. My biggest revelations in the studio never came from sitting around thinking; they came from doing, which is, actually, just another way of thinking. Are you going to let a machine take away that possibility?

And then there’s this: that the machine will always know exactly what it needs to say, and it will simply say it. But you, you will struggle, and out will come the rough drafts with big plot holes that you find yourself patching with webs of imagination, or perhaps leaving gaps of mystery. The best works of art are ones that don’t tie up neatly in a bow. The best writing takes the writer’s own mind for a walk and sometimes leaves them deep in the forest or far out to sea.

And of course, that’s what is so rich about life, too. I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up; but this journey, this wandering, this is the real stuff of life. We live in a culture that tells us that we’re wasting our time if we’re lost, that we need to find a career and settle down and be productive members of society. But let me tell you this: a machine can’t get lost. Only a human can. And that is maybe the most magic we can wish for. That is key.

One of my favorite classes to teach at Kimberton was History through Art. The graduates on this stage were the last crew I taught, luckily scheduled October 2019 when we could be all together in a room plastered with posters of masterpieces. There is nothing quite like the panoramic of a classroom, as our following year of screen time sorely demonstrated.

Yet in the midst of these many artworks, the very first thing I taught them was not actually a piece of art, as many of us would define it – something made by the hands of an artist. Instead, it was a small jasperite pebble with two little holes – like eyes – carved over many thousands of years by two repeating drops of water, and a small crevice right under them – a mouth. Every feature made geologically, no hands or tools involved. Dubbed the Makapansgat Pebble, for its discovery in the Makapan Valley of South Africa, it was discovered three miles from any other piece of jasperite it might have broken off from, and close to the bones of one Austrolopithicus Africanus, a distant human relative.

It is not a giant leap to the conclusion that this great ape had found this pebble and seen a vision of itself in the two little eyes and mouth, a vision it saw fit to pick up and carry home to a dolomite cave. Of course, and this is something I made clear to my ninth graders, a key tenet of such ancient history is that we will never really know what actually happened; Occum’s razor, the simplest explanation being the most likely, must reign.

No matter what, it’s a great story, maybe one of the most important stories, because at approximately 3 million BC, it would be the first known evidence of symbolic thinking and aesthetic sense of any living creature in the record. A moment when the world presented one if its living with an idea of itself. And that that was a comfort. That that great ape took that rock and carried it away, despite its seeming uselessness.

I like to think that the world was giving our ancestors a hint. It was saying, “you don’t have to keep your mind inside of you. I’m here; there’s space to breathe.” And so, the history of art is born. Entranced by the world around us, we slowly began to hold a mirror up to it, to take our ideas of the mysteries of life and put them out there for everyone else to see. In so doing, we shaped how one another saw the world, and began a chain reaction of thought that provided a foundation for civilization.

Generations moved through the caves of Lascaux, recording the animals they had encountered, perhaps hunted or been hunted by. Generations – many, many generations, hundreds of them – left hand prints in the caves of Borneo. “Here I was, in this world,” they say, “with these five fingers, where all of my people were before me, with theirs.”

What a punch to the gut. If we’re to say that a tool is an object used to extend the possibilities of the body to do work, then the whole world becomes a tool, a place where we let our brains, that most important anatomy, unfurl; to leave clues, give advice, offer respite, puff ourselves up, place ourselves amidst our relations, mark ourselves in time. All these things that would just stink to keep cooped up in our skulls. And instead, we can make the world alive with us. You might say it even wanted us to.

This is not to say that I want you all to grab your cans of spray paint and go out and tag the side of a mountain (I mean, you’re Waldorf students – at least break out a hammer and a chisel). No, but I do want you to keep yourself in this world: you, yourself. What you are matters. I don’t mean that in terms of what profession you choose or what talents you hone. I mean it as this: what thoughts do you nurture? What love? For whom? How will you tell the world?

Will you tell the world? Or will you let something else do that for you?

When we were done with our drawing exercise and had cleaned up our brushes, the seniors took me to see their portraits. Six stellar, sophisticated paintings hanging in the senior hallway, each a marker of themselves. I could tell they were so proud, and for very good reason. When you look at those paintings, know that they are siphons, sieves, dream catchers, pebbles catching water drops – those paintings sift through a miasma of calibrated sight and motion, mind-body-tool-surface. Every mark a culmination of events, begun so many years earlier, nurtured here in this incredible school. Every choice – pose, poise, color, texture – a revelation as much as an inevitability.

When we look at those portraits, it’s not just about the young person in the painting. It’s about us, too: our seeing ourselves, in a collection of marks. Our reaching out to them, and them to us, a chain reaction of empathetic understanding, mixed with awe.

Now I know that as much as I try to be the hype man of everyone’s innate painter, the hurdle that must be jumped to take pride in our artwork is sometimes too high; the often thoughtless messaging of what’s good and what’s bad too ever-present and too ingrained.

Then there’s this: that every letter, number, symbol, that you string together, can do just the same work, whipping up an electric wind, activating worlds in everyone who reads them that deepen into trenches and shoot into the solar system, often without our even noticing. That’s the magic of being human: how we, at our best, electrify one another with maybe just bundle of hairs tied to a handle or maybe just a stick of chalk.”

Mr. Strevig’s Life Changing Moment with 9th Grade

by

Environmental studies and outdoor program teacher Jake Strevig recounts his unforgettable experience on a canoe trip with his students. When his canoe tipped over during rough patch of rapids, the students acted quickly and heroically to save their teacher and all of their gear. Mr. Strevig highlights the importance of teamwork and resilience, and the incredible bond that can develop during class trips and time in the great wide open.

Reflections from Rebecca Frankel, Class of 2017

by

Rebecca Frankel ’17, pictured during her recent travels to Greece

Tell us about your journey since KWS.

After I graduated from Kimberton in 2017, I attended Sarah Lawrence College where I concentrated in Creative Writing and Classics (ancient Greek and Latin language, literature, and philosophy.) I studied abroad briefly in Bath, England While at Sarah Lawrence, I fell in love with the ancient Greek language and decided to pursue study at a graduate level, and I started a Master’s degree in Ancient Greek and Roman Studies at Brandeis University in the Fall of 2021. I wrote my graduate thesis on satirical and sincere interpretations of Plato’s Republic, focusing on receptions of a particular strain of twentieth-century political thought and its dialogue with a contemporary speculative fiction series. Now, I am a Fulbright finalist, headed to Cork, Ireland, where I will attend University College Cork for a Master’s degree in Creative Writing. My project focuses on writing a poetry and prose collection about the Banshee (the Irish death messenger) and other wailing women and death messengers from the cultures that comprise my ethnic and intellectual identity.  

How did KWS prepare you for what you are doing today?

Kimberton prepared me to be an independent and interesting thinker in the world. The amount of freedom that Kimberton granted me to pursue my own interests within the boundaries of the curriculum (allowing me to pursue an independent study in my junior year to work on my novel, offering me an avenue during my senior project to write and publish a book of short stories and poetry) allowed me to learn to play to my own strengths and to always engage my deep sense of creativity and imagination. 

Describe a memory at KWS that particularly stands out.

It is hard to pick a favorite Kimberton memory. I cherish so many of them. The class of 2017’s tenth grade play, Euripides’ Hippolytus, kickstarted my deep and abiding love of Greek tragedy. I translated that play for my undergraduate senior thesis and it is a myth that has stuck with me for many years. It became one of my lifelong literary obsessions. I adored my senior year humanities seminar as well: it was the first place where I encountered Plato. Mostly, though, my greatest Kimberton memories are of a certain kind of stillness and quiet, whenever I was given free reign to write and read and to learn in my own way. Springtime at Kimberton was my favorite time of year.

What would you like to tell current KWS Students (about your studies, about your post-school experience, or general advice)?

In terms of general life advice: never lose your sense of wonder or curiosity. It is the best thing that Waldorf gave me. Do what you love, as often as you can. Dream big, make things.

Two Alumni Receive Fulbright Scholarships in Pursuit of Education and Cultural Exploration

by

Kimberton Waldorf School has always been dedicated to nurturing students’ holistic development and providing them with a foundation for lifelong learning. It fills us with pride to see alumni continue to thrive and make a positive impact on the world. We are delighted to share the inspiring journeys of two remarkable KWS alumni, Anna Sheik and Rebecca Frankel, as they embark on exciting adventures in pursuit of higher education and cultural exploration.

Anna Sheik ’18

Anna Sheik’s Fulbright Journey:
Anna Sheik, a proud graduate of the KWS Class of 2018, has been awarded a prestigious Fulbright scholarship to teach English in Mexico next year. Anna recently completed her thesis, titled “Bridging the Gap: Malinche Reimagined in Mexico and the Borderlands 1960-1987,” at Oberlin College. Her research delves into the cultural and historical significance of Malinche, a controversial figure in Mexican history, and explores how she is portrayed in literature and art. Anna’s dedication to cultural understanding and her passion for education make her a perfect fit for this Fulbright opportunity, where she will undoubtedly inspire her students with her knowledge and enthusiasm.

Rebecca Frankel ’17, pictured during her recent travels to Greece

Rebecca Frankel’s Path to Ireland:

A member of the KWS Class of 2017, Rebecca is embarking on a captivating journey to Ireland that builds upon her impressive academic pursuits. After graduating from Kimberton, she attended Sarah Lawrence College, where she concentrated in Creative Writing and Classics, immersing herself in the study of ancient Greek and Latin language, literature, and philosophy. During her time at Sarah Lawrence, Rebecca’s passion for the ancient Greek language flourished, leading her to pursue further studies at a graduate level. In the Fall of 2021, she began her Masters degree in Ancient Greek and Roman Studies at Brandeis University, where she wrote an exceptional graduate thesis on satirical and sincere interpretations of Plato’s Republic, exploring the dialogues between twentieth-century political thought and contemporary speculative fiction series.

Rebecca is now set to attend University College Cork in Ireland for a Masters degree in Creative Writing. Her project focuses on crafting a poetry and prose collection centered around the Banshee, the Irish death messenger, and other wailing women and death messengers from the cultures that shape her ethnic and intellectual identity. This endeavor intertwines her love for folklore studies with her personal connection to ethnic and genetic mythological history, promising an intense and compelling poetic exploration of the national mythologies surrounding the banshee.

Rebecca’s recent accomplishment includes passing her Master’s thesis at Brandeis University with the highest honors. Titled “Plato’s Republic: Satirical and Sincere Philosophical and Literary Interpretations,” her thesis showcases her exceptional academic prowess and her ability to engage deeply with philosophical and literary works. As she embarks on her Fulbright journey, Rebecca brings with her a wealth of knowledge and experiences gained from her time at Kimberton.

Of her time at Kimberton, Rebecca shares “Kimberton prepared me to be an independent and interesting thinker in the world. The amount of freedom granted me to pursue my own interests within the boundaries of the curriculum (allowing me to pursue an independent study in my junior year to work on my novel, offering me an avenue during my senior project to write and publish a book of short stories and poetry) allowed me to learn to play to my own strengths and to always engage my deep sense of creativity and imagination.”

As we celebrate the achievements of Anna Sheik and Rebecca Frankel, we extend our heartfelt congratulations and best wishes for their future endeavors. Their journeys and goals exemplify the values of Kimberton Waldorf School. We are immensely proud of all our alumni who continue to create positive change and make a difference in the world.

Growing a Green Legacy: Students Collaborate to Restore Kindergarten Creek’s Ecosystem

by

by Jake Strevig, HS Life Sciences teacher

Students in Kindergarten through 8th grade joined forces to plant over 100 native trees and shrubs around one section of Kindergarten Creek that runs through campus. It was lovely to see all the grades working together and learning how they can help their local environment!

To help the younger students understand the importance of protecting the creek, I visited each of the classes in grades K-4 and told them a story about one of our local amphibians, Ned the (Eastern) Newt.  The tale is about a happy newt who grew up in Kindergarten Creek, eating snails, worms and other aquatic insects alongside green frogs, painted turtles and other creek critters.  However, his home became uncomfortable due to splishy-sploshy feet that came three times a day.  Though the feet had innocent intentions, they muddied the water, injured the plants around the creek and frightened Ned.  Ned adventured to find a new home, but always returned to check on his favorite childhood habitat.  One spring day he returned to find his section of creek had new plants planted and a rope surrounding it.  The rope protected his section of Kindergarten Creek from splishy-sploshy feet.  The new plants shaded the creek and provided great habitat for a variety of critters.  Soon in the protected habitat the plants grew rapidly, and more newts, frogs, toads and turtles flocked and flourished. 

After the story, the Lower School classes met with their Middle School partner classes to start planting.  The new trees will act as natural stabilizers, helping to prevent stream slides or erosion. Their strong roots will anchor the soil, keeping the banks intact and safeguarding the stream for years to come. They’ll offer cool shade during warm days, creating comfortable, cool water for the native species in the creek. Moreover, these newly planted trees will serve as vital habitats for a variety of wildlife, promoting biodiversity and creating an ecosystem that supports countless species. 

Last but certainly not least, these trees will enhance the water quality in our stream, acting as natural filters. By absorbing nutrients and reducing pollutants, they’ll contribute to a cleaner and healthier environment. 

The newly planted wildlife preserve section of Kindergarten Creek will be closed to students for general play.  This will allow the area to recover and naturalize for the wildlife.  Students will occasionally enter the newly planted section with their teachers to check on their trees, water them and observe the steady progression and recovery of the area.  The students mostly remember what trees they planted and are able to observe them growing together over the years.  The section of the creek below Ned’s Preserve by the sandbox will still be open for daily play and exploration!  We are all learning how to balance our needs for exploration and hands in the water, with protecting the environmental conditions that the local flora and fauna need to thrive!

Together we’re creating a greener, safer, and more vibrant future for everyone. 

News trees along the path leading up to Ned’s Preserve
Students in lower and middle school planted together with their partner classes
Mr. Strevig’s chalk drawing of Ned, the Newt

The Need to Create with our Hands

by

By Jonathan Steckel, Class of 1996

Life for me after Kimberton Waldorf School in 1996 was focused on studying at Oberlin college and playing sports.  I felt like I had to find an area of study that I was passionate and excited about and that would lead me on a career path towards the ability to earn a good salary to support my desire to travel and eat well.  My first year at Oberlin was dedicated to playing varsity soccer and lacrosse with less focus on taking the standard prerequisite classes.  I felt lost with no class subjects or idea of what I wanted to study pulling me forward.  I pushed through the academic system last minute a one-year study abroad in Bologna through Brown University and spent my second year of college in Italy.  I studied Italian literature, architecture, and history at the University of Bologna, but spent most of the year traveling around Italy and emerging myself in the culture.  That year I met my current wife, Francesca, that lead me down a path of a lifelong connection to Italy and Europe’s culture.  My third year of college at Oberlin after my year abroad exposed me to Chemistry and Physics and everything clicked.  I was excited to study and dive deeper and I had found an area of study that pulled me in and allowed me to explain the physical world I saw around me.  I worked hard and threw all my energy and passion towards chemistry for my remaining time at Oberlin, which lead to a PhD in chemistry at MIT in Boston that started in 2001.

MIT challenged me like nothing I had ever experienced previously in my life.  Once I understood how to leverage all the resources around me and ask for help from all the amazing people working by my side, I started to thrive.  My first year was miserable and I almost quit and walked away several times.  I’m thankful I had Francesca there with me encouraging me and forcing me to continue in the toughest moments.  After all the grueling classroom work and cumulative exams in the first two years, the lab work focused on the development of a new class of materials called quantum dots was great fun.  In close collaboration with a professor in the electrical engineering department, we made new types of light-emitting devices (LEDs) using thin films of these semiconductor nanoparticles or quantum dots (QDs).  We made infrared emitting devices, red, green, and blue emitting devices for displays, and developed a new way of fabricating and patterning these light emitters, which led to several patents and publications and ultimately to us founding a company called QD Vision.

At QD Vision we commercialized the world’s first solid state light bulbs containing QD materials in 2010 and then in 2013 we commercialized the world’s first TVs containing QDs with Sony in their Bravia line.  The company was sold to Samsung in 2016 and was the basis for all the current QLED and QD-OLED TVs and monitors currently made by every display company in the world.  QD Vision was not a financial success for me personally, but it was a huge technological success that propelled my career significantly forward.  I joined Apple in Cupertino after my time at QD Vision and for many years worked on developing new display and sensor technologies based on quantum dot materials.  The sensor projects brought me to Europe frequently, where eventually I found a way to move to permanently by taking a new role at STMicroelectronics located in Grenoble, France.  I’m now a Fellow and Director of Advanced Technology in the imaging division at ST, where I have a very dynamic role working to commercialize a new QD image sensor technology that I have been working on for many years.

I’ve worked hard and had a lot of success in my career to date and am recognized as one of world’s top experts in quantum dot materials and devices, displays, and now sensors.  I give several invited talks and seminars at large technical conferences every year and I also try to give back to the community and do a lot of volunteer work.  I do guest editorial work, participate in several technical conference committees, and provide my guidance and advice to many startups as well as large companies in the US and here in Europe.  

Moving permanently from Silicon Valley to Europe 4 years ago was a very deliberate decision we made based on our desire to live a more balanced lifestyle, where quality of life is prioritized over career, where good food and local cuisine is prioritized over profits, and where the cost of living is more reasonable.  More vacation time and significantly better work life balance has provided so much more free time for me to spend with my family and begin to explore a key component in a balanced and happy life, which I’ve come to believe is building and creating with our hands.  As time passed since my days at Kimberton Waldorf school, I could feel that this was an important piece of life that was missing for me.  I started to feel the need to make stuff with my hands and to create and build things in my free time.  This brought me a sense of accomplishment and contentment as one idea sprouted and turned into a physical reality that we could use in our house or share with others.  For me this unfolded over the past several years in the form of woodworking as I took on more practical projects for the house like cabinets and shelves to more creative projects like carving fish with my daughter.  I’m now in the process of continuing to build out a more serious wood shop in our house and to take on more challenging builds of furniture and artistic pieces.

I’ve come to believe that all of us need to spend some amount of time expressing a little creativity and using our hands to build or create.  Some people turn to playing music, others to painting, and in my case, it was woodworking that filled this missing piece in my life and brought back a sense of contentment and peace.  I was lucky to attend Waldorf school from 2nd to 12th grade where we spent so much of our time crafting and making with our hands.  I now understand why and believe that this aspect of life is one of the most important for us to engage in regularly throughout our lives to give us a sense of wholeness and feel complete inside.

River Ecology and the world of aquatic macro-invertebrates

by

by Jake Strevig, HS Life Sciences teacher

In the 9th grade River Ecology course, we take an in-depth dive into the world of aquatic macro-invertebrates.  We inventory the number and diversity of critters living in French Creek using leaf packs to create a controlled experimental habitat.  After a few weeks we remove the leaf packs from the stream, then count and record the numbers and diversity of macro-invertebrates.  Next we enter those numbers into a simple equation and we are able to have a good indicator of stream health.  

Friday, April 21st was our first day and the creek, and we were not looking for specifics yet.  We were exploring and getting a feel for the amazing amount of diversity in our little creek.  We gently captured some specimens using nets and carefully placed them in our sample boxes for observation and preliminary identification.  There are at least 15 different species in these pictures!  They are not all invertebrates, and some are hidden amongst the rocks, but they all live together in our little river.  Not pictured are the six big crayfish in a separate bucket.

Can you identify any of them?

If you want to learn more about Leaf Packs, visit https://leafpacknetwork.org/

See the tiny critters up close!

Erin Byrne, Forest Kindergarten Teacher

by

What draws you to the Waldorf approach to education? And in particular, to leading the Forest Kindergarten? 
I have been a Waldorf teacher my whole adult life, and my first teaching position was at KWS in the high school. As a young person I was searching for meaning and looking for a new approach to education, found Waldorf education and started teaching when I was 24. This is my 4th time coming back to teach at KWS, as I left to go back to school, then when I had my two boys, etc. I also taught young adults with special needs at the Camphill School Transition Program at Beaver Farm. I was there as program manager, faculty chair, and special education teacher for 12 years and then became Regional Coordinator for the Camphill Association of North America for another 3 years. My job as regional coordinator was wonderful when I was traveling to all the Camphills for meetings and peer reviews, but I spent way too much time in front of a screen. I had always been intrigued with the forest kindergarten approach and was able to visit the forest kindergarten at KWS before the pandemic. When school started up again, I became an assistant in the kindergarten, and proposed the idea a year ago to expand our forest kindergarten program. 

Is there a particular highlight from the first year of the Forest Kindergarten that stands out to you? 
Every day before we enter the forest, we sing a song together to open our senses, and to have good manners while we walk quietly to our forest program area, as we are entering the home of all our forest friends. The song goes: 

Look with our owl eyes 
Listen with our deer ears 
Smell with our dog nose 
Feel with our raccoon fingers 

I especially love it when the birds come to our pinecone bird feeders while we are quietly eating our snack. We’ve had visits from nuthatches, blue birds, cardinals, and woodpeckers! 

You have sons that graduated from KWS? How have you seen this unique education impact their lives as they leave the nest and create their own lives?  
Both my boys went from preschool through 12th grade. I realize now that the things we did with them when they were growing up has had a huge impact on their lives. We spent a lot of time in the great outdoors: bicycling, canoeing, hiking, fishing, swimming in creeks, camping, canoe camping, etc.! They both work in outdoor education: Jackson (KWS class of 2011) worked in wilderness therapy as both a guide and a medic, and now is a back country park ranger in Yosemite. Gabriel (KWS class of 2013) has just left his job as a senior guide in wilderness therapy and is currently working at a Waldorf kindergarten in Colorado. They both inspired me to work outdoors as well. 

Jackson just released an album entitled Moving Water. You can listen to it on Spotify, Apple Music or free on YouTube.  

Eryn Byrne with Jackson & Gabriel

Waldorf Education in the 21st Century

by

Creating resonant spaces for learning, with Jan Goeschel

Waldorf education was born in the beginning of the 20th Century, in response to the social crises of the years between the two World Wars. This was a time when the political world seemed fragile, traditional values were disintegrating, many questions of emancipation were at the center of social and cultural debate and dominating the media, and a generation was going through childhood and adolescence, whose parents could no longer remember a time before the Industrial Revolution. Today, we are in a different situation, globally and in our various local contexts — and yet, there are many echoes of this seemingly fragile state. Can we develop some ideas of what Waldorf education might be called to offer today, and how it might transform to meet today’s needs? On March 8, KWS will welcome Jan Goeschel to lead us in this discussion.

Jan lives at Camphill Beaver Run and has been active in the Camphill Movement in North America for over 20 years. He is the founding president of the Camphill Academy, a higher education and professional training organization embedded in the Camphill Movement. He is also a member of the leadership team of the Anthroposophic Council for Inclusive Social Development at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland, facilitating networking, professional exchange, research and development in the worldwide network of anthroposophic organizations active in the disabilities field. Jan is trained as a Waldorf and special education teacher and curative educator and holds degrees in psychology and education, as well as a PhD in special education and rehabilitation sciences.”

Click here to watch Jan’s lecture on our YouTube channel.

Magical memories made at Kimberton Waldorf School

by

Neomi Haut, Kimberton Waldorf School Class of 2013

Neomi pictured here with her son, Micah.

Looking back, middle school feels like a blur of hikes, dodgeball games, campsite stories, eurythmy shenanigans and many playdates. As an adult with a new baby of my own, I have the privilege of watching him discover new wonders daily, and it brings a new appreciation for all the magical experiences I was able to have as a child at Kimberton Waldorf School. One experience that I always looked forward to as a student was when Santa Lucia and her helpers (all played by students), made their way through the school singing a beautiful hymn and handing out cookies. Whatever class we were in at the time, there was always a magical pause as the procession made their way through the classroom. As an 11th grader, it felt full circle when I got to wear the candle crown and be Santa Lucia for the day, followed by the sweet second graders, which happened to be my brother’s class! I cherish my time at Kimberton, and look forward to one day hearing about my own child’s experiences at such a special school.  

Doing my best work

by

Tim Foster, Kimberton Farms School Class of 1983

Tim, pictured here with his wife Stephanie.

As I get older, I find myself thinking more and more about that for which I am grateful. While I was only at Kimberton for grades 6 through 9, the experience changed my life. It cultivated my love of the natural world, my curiosity, my sense of self and place, and my feelings about the power of community and shared traditions. I believe educational experiences are defined by the people who surround you, and in the case of KFS, I was spoiled by the people who were my classmates and those who were my teachers within and beyond the classroom. 

At the center of it all, really the curator of our educations, was Miss (then) Deborah Miller. She was extraordinary. She had such high standards and yet she met each of us where we were. And given who we were and where we were, this was no small feat! I will forever remember turning in my first main lesson book, and Miss Miller telling me that I would need to do it again. A DO-OVER?!? This, coupled with a big dose of encouragement along the way, was the impetus for me wanting to do my best work—in the classroom and then in my places of work and even in my own vegetable garden in Maine (with a big assist from the lessons of Mr. Eberle). The shared community values and the many teachers who took a personal interest in me made me want to be my best self. 

When I was in elementary school in New York, I dropped a building block on a classmate’s head. My teacher told my mother I would never go to college. Kimberton changed all that for me, and I am forever grateful.

Tim, pictured here with his wife Stephanie and his daughter, Dakota and son, Reed. 

“The Art of Education”

by

Michelle Popowsky Spring, Kimberton Farms School Class of 1973

Michelle Popowsky Spring is pictured here with her husband, Baker. 

Kimberton’s recent catchphrase, “The Art of Education,” perfectly sums up my experience there. Emphasis on “The Art.” Nearly every memory I have of the school and its people centers around their appreciation for the arts, their talent for inspiring art, and their desire to infuse the artistic impulse into every aspect of school life. I didn’t know how to write before Dr. Noer and Mr. Brossene trained me. More significant, they taught me how to find my own inspiration. Mrs. Kimmich’s lectures on art and art history were perfectly illuminating and demonstrated to me the immense power of the visual arts. And after a particularly lively main lesson with Mr. Stone, Parzival became my spirit guide for life! 

I carried this emphasis on the arts with me throughout my further education and career. I graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Barnard College of Columbia University with a major in literature. After years working in book publishing in New York City, I ventured to Washington DC to write speeches for a U.S. Senator. Most recently, I communicate to others my love for art as a Docent at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. 

Star Money Day

by

Here in Kimberton, we are constantly looking for ways to re-enliven our festival life to bring diversity, equity, and inclusion to the forefront of our work with even the very youngest children. We do not want to invalidate or judge what has been done before but we do want to find ways to make our festivals relevant for the children in our care here in 2022. An example of this is the festival of St. Nicholas—a much loved and cherished Waldorf festival. How do we make an Eastern European festival relevant to children in America today?  St. Nicholas’ message of charity and caring for those less fortunate is an important one, so = in the kindergarten we decided to reimagine this festival and on December 6th we celebrate ‘Star Money Day’. This is a beautiful yet simple story of a child who has very little and gives it all away to others in need. The story conveys an identical gesture to that of St. Nicholas and perhaps because it is the story of a child, resonates more deeply with the young ones in our care. On December 6th, Star Money visited our classes and left little tokens (and a whole lot of stardust!) to acknowledge the kindness and goodness of the Kindergarten children. 

Our garden through the summer

by

Our two-acre school garden is a very busy place over the summer! Scroll through to see happenings in the garden during summer 2022. – Celia Martin, Gardening Teacher

Anyone who has a yard or garden will tell you that there is a lot of work that goes into caring for it during the summer months. Our two-acre school garden is no exception. When the students leave for their summer break in June, they are leaving behind a freshly planted vegetable, flower, and herb garden that is just beginning to grow. Then, in September, they come back to productive and well-maintained beds that are ready to be harvested. But what happens in our school garden between those two times? During the warm days of summer, plants, including weeds, grow very quickly and it is the job of the garden crew to keep up with them. If it were not for a handful of paid students and a few dedicated volunteers, this would not be possible.

20220802_085523.jpg (Intense)

“Gardens are not made by singing ‘Oh, how beautiful,’ and sitting in the shade.” – Rudyard Kipling

The summer starts with the harvesting of herbs such as oregano, mint, basil, chamomile, thyme, parsley, calendula, and lemon balm. We can get several cuttings of these herbs throughout the early summer and the harvested leaves cover all of the table tops in the garden building as they are drying. We dehydrate very large quantities of them for later use in teas, salves, and our very coveted Kimberton’s Own Herb Salt.

Holy Basil
Calendula
Onions
Garlic drying

The first vegetables to be harvested are the allium family – garlic and onions. Both are dried for a few weeks on the windowsill before being cleaned and trimmed. The onions go to Hilla Haut, the kitchen manager for our Food For Thought lunch program, along with some of the garlic. The remainder of the garlic will be used to make garlic powder with one of the fall classes while the very best ones are saved to replant in October.

String beans and summer squashes are the next vegetables to come into season and we harvest them three days a week. In late July the tomatoes also start to ripen along with cucumbers. Hilla picked up huge amounts of all of these vegetables each week throughout August and processed them for later use in our organic, homemade lunches. Potatoes, winter squashes and dent corn will all be harvested by the gardening classes after school starts, along with fall raspberries, sunchokes, and dried beans. Soon we will be planting the fall crops such as lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts.

Many varieties of spice peppers
Pickling cucumbers
Almost 2 1/2 pounds
Heirloom tomatoes
So many string beans!
Summer harvest

In between all the watering, weeding, harvesting, and mulching, we managed to put together our brand-new cider press! We used some early ground-fall apples to make a few gallons of fresh apple cider with delightful results. All the fall classes will have a chance to make some cider using our new press and our own apples. It looks like there is a very bountiful crop of apples this year. No doubt that our six hives of bees were very helpful in pollination during the spring.

Constructing the new cider press
Four of our resident bee hives
Our first pressing!
Passion flower

After much lively discussion and debate with the students over the color, the garden building received a new coat of paint this summer and it now looks brand new. For those who are interested and were hoping for their favorite color – it was painted color choice #5, Cobble Brown, with the trim in Shade Tree Green. Please be sure to notice and admire it next time you are in the garden.

The color choices
A beautiful new coat of paint

I personally want to thank Aaron, Anika, Jojo, and Sarah for all their hard work and dedication to the garden this summer. This was Aaron’s fifth summer working in the garden and he has been especially indispensable in reminding me of what needed to be done and taking charge to do it. I will miss our conversations but am looking forward to hearing about where his life journey takes him. I appreciated all of Anika’s attention to detail in doing all the little jobs without being asked, being able to find all the beans and cucumbers that everyone else missed, and her incredible ability to clean everything spotlessly afterward. I appreciated Jojo’s fascination with every bug we came across and I’m looking forward to seeing his inspired insect collection. I appreciated Sarah’s positive attitude and her special enthusiasm for our tomatoes which, I agree, have no equal. Kudos to Ram and Luca for being dedicated volunteers who kept showing up and whose contributions to the garden were hugely significant. I especially appreciated Ram’s great enthusiasm for mulching. Honorable mention to Jacob and Tula, who showed up unexpectedly and helped to do whatever we were working on.

Ram
Sarah
Aaron
JoJo
Anika

I also want to thank Hilla Haut who came one or two times a week to collect what we had harvested to preserve for the lunch program. Tomatoes were made into sauce, peppers were sliced and frozen, apples were made into applesauce or sliced and frozen for future dessert, cucumbers were made into pickles, basil was frozen for future pesto, and many, many, many string beans were processed and frozen for future soup days. Growing and then preserving food from our garden is not the easy way or even the least expensive way, but it is the best way. Growing and eating our own organically grown crops is one of the most environmentally responsible things we can do, and the quality and taste cannot be beaten. We are committed to our very unique, organically grown, garden-to-kitchen program!

Sweet basil for pesto
Beans ready for freezing
Fresh tomato sauce
Colorful peppers for soup
Pickles from our cucumbers
Hilla processing beans

Thanks to everyone who helped in our school garden this summer!

Education of the Will

by

Written by Ona Wetherall, Early Childhood Section Leader

One of the common threads in Waldorf education, which is especially focused on and talked about in early childhood, is the education of the Will; nurturing the young child’s natural impulse to do and channeling that into purposeful activity that nourishes their growing bodies, minds, and souls.  In reflecting on the education of the Will, different approaches and examples can be found.  The pictures below all depict moments of engaging and nourishing the Will.  Perhaps the first ones are obvious but the last one is as well, for even finding moments of pause, reflection, and relaxation are activities of the Will.  Whether for a child or an adult, feeling and thinking cannot balance without an engaged Will.  Another way a child’s will is educated is through imitation, with adults setting examples.

In our ever increasingly busy lives, where we always seem to be engaged in something, whether physically, mentally, or emotionally, we can ask ourselves, “what is driving us?” Or “where is our Will coming from?” Is it coming from external influences or internal impulses?  It’s important to notice this because how we engage ourselves is setting an example for how our children will.  External influences will always be in flux and bring positives and challenges, but internal impulses will sustain us, will hold us steady and strong in the ups and downs of life.

As parents and educators, we want to support our children as best as we possibly can to grow up with the ability to feel steady, strong, and positive about themselves and to go out into the world with that influence upon it.  We want our children to have the ability to sustain themselves in a positive way and have the heart, wish, and drive to take care of their world and their fellow humans, in part by seeing and knowing the good, truth, and beauty of it.  This is how we make the world a better place, this is how we hold on to the goodness in humanity for ourselves and our children, and it starts with the Will to Work.  The Will to do something purposeful and good.  

When our daughter picked that snap pea that she had planted, watered, and watched grow, she ate it and proclaimed, “it is so good!”, and it is.  

– Ona Wetherall
Early Childhood Section Leader

Building Foundations in Early Childhood

by

by Ona Wetherall

Our youngest students’ curriculum is designed to support children’s instincts to be active and social while supporting foundational sensory development of balance (vestibular), touch, movement (proprioception), and well-being in a rhythmical, self-directed, nature-based, holistic learning environment.

In an organic and unique expansion of our Kindergarten programming, we are excited to be revisioning and expanding our forest experience for all our Kindergarten students next year.  Erin Byrne, who has been working in our Kindergarten and has many years of Waldorf experience and knowledge, will be attending The Academy of Forest Kindergarten Teachers this summer and will be our Forest Program teacher!  We have designed our Forest Program in a way so that every kindergartener gets to experience and enjoy our beautiful campus and forest which supports our students’ development in so many ways, bolsters stewardship of the earth, and brings our students in direct connection to the rhythm of nature which is also an important part of the foundation of our pedagogy.  Kindergarteners from each class will come together to form a forest group for 2-week blocks at a time and in this way, every kindergartener will have a forest immersion experience at least 3 times a year and get to fully experience every season during the school year.  In addition to updating our forest facilities, which include a yurt,  our Forest Program will have its own space on the main campus which is being renovated this summer.  This space will also serve to support after-school and summer programming as well. 

Growth, movement, and working together to meet education and our students in intentional, progressive, and relevant ways; this is KWS!

Music at Kimberton Waldorf School

by

by Esther Walsh

In many ways, music weaves through the daily lives of each and every student at Kimberton Waldorf School. Not only do the students create music in their music classes and ensembles, but they sing and play music daily during their Main Lessons, in their class plays, in special subject classes such as Spanish and German, and during school festivals. Music is an essential, dynamic frequency that uplifts and enlivens the spirit of the school. What sets Waldorf schools apart, is the use of music during the day and the belief regarding the special influence of music on each child’s physical body, feelings, cognitive processes, social interactions, and inner development.

Rudolf Steiner described the human being as a musical being. He also suggested that creating music is essential in experiencing what it is to be fully human. The Waldorf music curriculum follows specific stages of child development. The aim is not simply to teach children to sing and play music, but actually, awaken qualities of the soul at each developmental phase. What is done in each grade builds upon the work of the previous year, deepening and broadening the skills and experiences already acquired. In the teaching of music, as in all Waldorf pedagogy, there is an awareness of the importance of bringing the right thing at the right time.

For example, if we look at the development of music composition through the grades, the reader will get a picture of how we build composing skills through the years. We could apply this to instrumental music and singing as well. 

In first grade, the students move, sing, and listen to many songs that have free rhythms and moods of the fifth and pentatonic scales. They are given simple chimes, bells, lyres, and flutes to play. As we sing simple songs, they improvise and create harmonious sounds that blend nicely with the songs and images that I bring them. Although they do not write music yet, they are listening and creating sounds that fit together nicely.

In second grade we continue to work on their instrumental and singing skills. I introduce a simple colored dot and slash system. The students write their own simple melodies for their pentatonic flutes and lyres using this system. 

In third grade, the students learn musical notation. The students transition from playing songs using the pentatonic scales to the C diatonic scales. We still color code the notes. Again, the third graders create simple melodies for their C flutes, the 12-stringed lyres, xylophones, and bells.

In fourth grade the students jump into the world of music notation, theoretical rules, rhythms, and they start playing a stringed instrument; violin, viola, cello, and bass. The knowledge learned during this year will enable the students in fifth and sixth grades to write nicely formed small pieces.

In seventh and eighth grades, we look more closely at rhythms, harmonies, themes, and the blues scale. Students continue to work in smaller groups with various instruments creating original works. Amazingly, most students will get to play at the very least ten different instruments from 1st-8th grades. 

By High School, many students have the capacity to write their own compositions, especially if they choose to take our electronic music class. We have had students write ragtime melodies, string quartets, vocal songs accompanied by guitar or ukulele, instrumental solo works, orchestral pieces, and electronic-sounding music. The goal is to have our students gain the music skills needed to be creative and independent musicians at all levels. They achieve an aesthetic awareness of beauty, expression, and confidence to bring music forth and share it with the world.

Kimberton Waldorf School is fortunate to have an experienced and talented music faculty. The teachers are passionate about music and strive to bring meaningful musical experiences to our students. A Cooperative work model, allows the students to experience, first-hand collaboration at a high professional level.

Our Music Department Faculty is:

Esther Walsh is Kimberton Waldorf School’s Music Director. She has been a Music Teacher at KWS since 1998. She helped develop KWS’s current music curriculum. Esther teaches general music classes, all choirs, group lessons, private lessons, and orchestras, and conducts many performances. She is an alumnus of KWS and has two children currently attending KWS.

Mike Ruhl is a classically trained pianist and accomplished performer.  He accompanies many of the ensembles in the music program. Mib Campbell, Hsiao Ming Chen, and Mike Ruhl also accompany the Eurythmy classes.

Hsiao-Ming Chen is a professional cellist. She teaches group lessons, private lessons, and orchestras. Her son graduated from KWS last year.

Ryan Leaver plays many different instruments professionally. He teaches group lessons, private lessons, orchestras, and electronic music classes. 

John Sergovic is a professional violinist. He helps with our orchestras and teaches private and group lessons.

Dan Smith is an accomplished guitarist. He teaches HS guitar. Dan also teaches sciences and math in the HS. He has two children who currently attend KWS.

Susan Schwaneflugel is an accomplished vocalist. She teaches 11th-grade History through Music Main Lesson. She also teaches German, handwork, and games classes. Her two children have graduated from KWS. 

“Music gives a soul to the universe,

wings to the mind, flight to the imagination 

and life to everything.”         

Plato          

Handwork at Kimberton Waldorf School

by

by Annaleena Hoffmann

Handwork lessons are one of Kimberton Waldorf School’s distinctive curriculum features. The creative design of workpieces has always been seen as constitutive, even when the first Waldorf School was established. Handwork teachers are chosen with this foundation in mind; they should be artists and educators in the growth of manual dexterity and aesthetic expression. Handwork lessons teach not only the development of fine motor skills, concentration, and willpower – all of which are important and desirable side effects of learning– but also teach the children the joys of creating projects for themselves and having an aesthetic experience with handwork. 

During the first 9 years of school, the children sew, embroider, knit, crochet, braid, knot, wash and comb raw wool, spin it into yarn, dye wool, weave, and dye, process leather, knit socks and hats, and much more. Handwork classes allow for internal differentiation, making it simple to modify the criteria for different activities so that any child may participate and be encouraged in their growth. At first, the children are unaware of how instructive the handwork sessions are in terms of aesthetics and sensory experience. However, they quickly realize that they accomplish things in class that they can utilize. “What do you want to make, and what do you need?” I ask the students, and this is how flute cases, shoulder bags, hats, socks, Eurythmy slipper nets, hand puppets, and a variety of other items are made. It is because of this creative nature that children like handwork classes. 

The students are empowered in their creations and have the ability to then pass those creations on as gifts to their family members and friends–or keep them for themselves as tokens of their creative and manual capabilities. Hand-knitted or crocheted hats are worn proudly throughout the year and frequently not taken off even in the warm weather! Relatives and friends compliment the students on the visible proof of what they’ve learned and worked for. In the end, everyone holds their final piece in their hands, which was created in a variety of artistic processes. In handwork, children learn to persevere, appreciate the process, learn how art and function can coexist, and gain confidence in themselves through a sense of accomplishment. This not only supports and enriches their entire educational experience but offers them capacities they will utilize for a lifetime.

Nurturing the Young Child’s Creative Forces

by

by: Molly Brett

In Waldorf Early Childhood education, we work to foster and strengthen the young child’s imagination.  We do this by focusing on many different aspects of life that support the child’s growing creative forces.  Our classrooms are designed to be warm, inviting, and inspiring for the children in our care while intentionally making available simple, natural, and open-ended items that can be utilized in many ways.  Our songs and stories use rich vocabulary to stimulate and encourage language development as well as, the ability to create whimsical, internal imagery.  Our arts and crafts help to develop the children’s motor skills, self-esteem, and sense of beauty—enlivening both their inner and outer worlds.  An artistic practice that is unique to Waldorf education is wet-on-wet watercolor painting.  Today we will delve deeper into this artistic practice by looking at what it is, why it is a part of our curriculum, and how this activity builds on itself throughout the years.   

Wet-on-wet watercolor painting creates a fluid and dreamy artistic experience for the young child.  The colors move, change, and possibly mix creating an ever-changing landscape of emotive color. In Waldorf Early Childhood education our goal is for the young child to encounter the variations of shade, tone, and even mood of all the colors of the rainbow. We start slowly with one color at a time.  Beginning in the fall we will paint with yellow mirroring the golden rod we see growing in the fields and then in a few weeks when the apples are ripe and ready to be harvested, we will transition to the color red.  We will be singing songs about juicy apples, making apple sauce, and experiencing the gesture of the color of the season thru our wet-on-wet watercolor painting.  As the seasons change so does the color.  Once the trees are bare, the temperature has dropped, and we are anticipating “King Winter’s” arrival and his bearing of the first snow we transition into the blue of winter.  The contrast between the Red of Fall and the Blue of winter is soul-felt throughout our weekly painting time.  These gestures are never spoken to but simply experienced as we glide our brushes over our paper.  Eventually, the colors begin to “play” with one another, and the children begin a quiet exploration of the secondary colors and how they arise.  

The painting sessions in Waldorf Early Childhood are process-oriented and led thru imitation by the teacher.  There is little to no talking once the painting has begun.  The teacher quietly illustrates the process: sponge dry the wet paper, “dip, dip” the brush in the color, “drip, drip” the brush on the side of the container, and allow the brush to glide across the paper from left to right our eyes following the brush just like when we read.  We are not focused on an end product while painting.  The nurturing of the senses and the therapeutic gesture of the activity is what we strive to create space for in our weekly painting rhythm.

Not only do our weekly painting sessions create a space for experiencing the gesture of color but they are also a time to develop healthy habits that will carry into grade school when wet-on-wet watercolor becomes more complex.  Learning to respect and care for the watercolor materials is woven into our painting time.  In my class, a story is shared to invoke the child’s imagination in this process and to develop imagery for the processes of painting.  It is because of the intention of creating this form that the space for a quiet and meditative experience becomes available.  Hopefully, the skill of learning how to quiet the mind and oneself lives on within the child for years to come.

For young children, the gift of time and space for play and the creative process is foundational for the growth of imagination, the strengthening of originative forces, and the experience of the fluidity of thought.  Wet-on-wet watercolor painting embodies these concepts thru a physical and concrete exercise of exploration by a participatory process.  This ethereal experience of color deepens the child’s connection to the seasons thru color and offers an inner experience which develops the feeling forces within, all the while honoring where the child is developmentally.  When we honor and teach towards the malleability of the young child’s mind, we strengthen the imagination, and just like the malleability of color the birth of the heart forces and critical thinking arise in due time.  Like the birth of spring, in the early childhood classroom, when suddenly the yellow of the golden sun meets the blue of the sky making way for the lushness of green on our paper, suddenly the magic of growth and creation is reflected back to us right before our eyes.

Tree Species on Campus

by

Our community knows that the Kimberton Waldorf School campus is a beautiful, tree-filled place, but do we really know the extent of the arboreal diversity on campus?  Well now we have a pretty good idea! 

The 11th grade in their main lesson time with Mr. Strevig worked to inventory and map the great variety of tree species on campus.  The class identified and located on an updated campus map the location and names of at least 49 unique species of trees and shrubs on our campus.  The list includes common native shrubs and trees, as well as fairly unique ornamental and imported tree species.  

The students also recounted stories of their favorite trees and submitted photos of their favorites for the map.  The list and map will continue to grow and evolve, as already several new native species have recently been planted in the riparian area next to Kindergarten Creek and near the track.

In the coming years, classes will work at inventorying and identifying exceptionally large trees in the wilder portions of campus.  By measuring the circumference of the trees, we can find a good estimate of the age of known species.  As we learn more about the individual trees and water resources on campus, we can come to a deeper understanding of the history of our campus as well as the overall health of the forest and creeks that we love so much.

The positive identification of so many trees would not have been possible without the help of our resident tree experts Celia Martin and Mike Ruhl.

Click here to view or download the map

The Joy of Learning Begins Early at Kimberton Waldorf School

by

When was the last time you baked bread? If you were a Preschool child at Kimberton Waldorf School, you would quickly respond: Last Wednesday!


Weekly bread day is exemplary of the independent private school’s mission to teach students, from Preschool through 12th grade, to be creative and critical thinkers and unfold their unique capacities to meet the world with confidence. “This education can begin as early as infancy, with parents who seek an intentional, holistic, and progressive education for their child and community for their family,” said Ona Wetherall, Rosebud Cottage Pre-Kindergarten lead teacher and co-administrator. “In a home away from home setting, the two-, three-, and four-year-olds feel secure, and learn in a cooperative social environment that nourishes their senses, builds self-esteem, and lays a foundation for a lifetime of learning and success. The children participate in their day together, following a rhythm they can expect and rely on, spending lots of time outside every day, and flowing naturally from child-led activities of play and teacher-led activities like circle, story, and eating. They help make their snacks and lunch, fold laundry, and help sweep with little brooms and dustpans. This stage is the beginning of their journey to become self directed, conscious, and compassionate human beings.”

Click here to read more!

10th Grade Artisan Practicums

by

The “how” of things is a critical part to a Waldorf student’s 10th grade year.  How does the past influence the present in writing, in history?  How does ancient history reflect in modern history?  Physics class has them examining how force, motion, and gravity work.  Waldorf education brings this question of how out of the classroom and into the world with practicums. A practicum is an experience that requires the practical application of theory or conceptual knowledge.  These experiences allow students to explore in new ways and see how their learning relates to real life.

Our 10th grade students have the opportunity to participate in an Artisan Practicum. “Traditionally, that has meant shadowing an artisan to learn how something can be created and brought to market. it is becoming more and more difficult to find artisans able to take in students, we have also placed interested students in small businesses, which will dovetail beautifully with the Entrepreneurship block they will begin after spring break.” explains Elisabeth Burgess, German and ESL Teacher & Exchange Coordinator.

We are so appreciative of the businesses who have hosted our students this year:

Sweetwater Bakery   

Bridge Street Chocolates   

Baba’s Brew 

Threads, Phoenixville

Handels, Royersford 

Handels, Berwyn 

Soltane Café 

Birchrun Hill Farm, Cheese Making 

Corkum Tree Farm 

Realty One Group 

Honey Flour Bake Shop 

Practicums are one more way that Kimberton Waldorf School helps students acquire skills for a lifetime of learning.  Read more about our all school learning goals here: All School Learning Goals – Kimberton Waldorf School

A Vibrant Legacy: The Rev. Charles William Rice Scholarship Fund

by

Written by Sarah Tudor

The Kimberton Community knew the late Rev. Charles Rice in his capacity as an enthusiastic KWS Parent, as a supportive Father to Roby and Martin, as the dedicated husband of beloved High School Faculty Member Tonya Rice, as an active volunteer, and as a powerful and dynamic speaker at events like the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Assembly. A charismatic presence in any room, Charles was known above all as an encourager—his great passion and warmth were larger than life, still shining brightly today in the many lives he touched. “Everything he did was out of love,” Tonya shared with me recently. 

Charles went by many names, colleague, teacher, pastor, mentor, friend, and advocate. He had a rich history of positive public impact. He went to New York City public schools and is a 1979 graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. He received a Master of Divinity degree in Historical Theology from Colgate-Rochester Divinity School at Crozer Theological Seminary in Rochester, N.Y., and did his doctoral studies at Syracuse University. Charles worked tirelessly as the chaplain as well as an assistant professor of philosophy and religious studies at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pa. Charles left a path of love and dedication as he held ministerial and teaching positions at Colgate University and Suffolk University. He also served as interim pastor at the Memorial Congregational Church in North Quincy, Mass., as well as pastor of the United Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain, Mass. He served on the National Council on Adoptable Children and the National Photo Listing of Children Waiting for Adoption. In addition, he worked with 100 Concerned Black Men as well as the Children’s Defense Funds’ Good Schools Initiative. Charles was also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Wissahickon Charter School in Philadelphia, the Charlestown Playschool and the Board of Directors of the Phoenixville Area Positive Alternatives Group in Phoenixville, Pa. 

Many students and colleagues at Ursinus College, where he served as chaplain starting in 1997, credited him with helping them find their life path and with greatly impacting their spiritual development.  Charles was a magnetizing force in both school communities. He was passionate about education, specifically Waldorf education and helping to make it more accessible. It was clear that Charles made the most of his bold and passionate life in a way that few dare.

“Like Socrates, he was a gadfly in the best sense of the word, always challenging Ursinus to be its best morally, and always challenging students to be their best selves – intellectually rigorous, honest, and kind,” said Christian Rice, no relation, a former student who is now on the faculty.

The Charles Rice Fund

In response to the sudden loss of Revered Charles Rice in April of 2017, KWS established the Revered Charles William Rice Scholarship for diversity in his memory. The Scholarship, a needs-based fund to foster diversity, was established in May of 2017. During the live auction portion of the May event, attendees were given the opportunity to make a pledge and our caring community’s contributions that evening totaled $24,000. Since then, the scholarship has continued to be an important source of funding to further the cause of diversity at KWS.

“We continue to be moved by the generous support for the Rev. Charles Rice Scholarship,” says Editha Tendencia, Director of Development. “This fund continues to indicate what a positive impact Charles had on our community.” 

“We have something special at KWS and this was yet another reminder of the incredibly supportive community which encircles our students and enriches all of our lives,” said Bill Wiedmann, a father of four children who attend KWS in addition to being the chair of the Board of Trustees at KWS. 

If you would like more information or to make a contribution to this scholarship, please contact us at development@kimberton.org

Sources: 

The Rev. Charles Rice, 60, chaplain at Ursinus College (inquirer.com)

In Memory: Rev. Charles Rice • News • Ursinus

Make a Difference, Donate to the Charles Rice Fund here

Eurythmy

by

By the time the first Waldorf school opened its doors in September 1919 in Stuttgart Germany, Eurythmy was 7 years old; old enough to go to school! Leading up to this auspicious moment, Rudolf Steiner offered a Eurythmy performance a few months prior; a performance attended by the teaching staff, the staff of the Waldorf Astoria Cigarette Factory* whose children would now make up the core of the student body plus other invited friends and guests. He gave an introduction to this new art form and spoke of the clear purpose for Eurythmy to be taught as a core subject from early childhood through to graduation.

It is a formidable task to describe the significance and purpose of Eurythmy in our education in one short article, so I will merely render some ‘brush strokes’ as it were, and hope interest is sparked!

Eurythmy, as an art form in which speech and music are made visible, fully integrates the body, soul and spirit. Willing, feeling and thinking are in constant, harmonious engagement. The Waldorf curriculum, grounded as it is in the knowledge and understanding of the development of the child, details the steps from the earliest beginnings in Rosebud to graduation from 12th grade. This curriculum forms the basis for the Eurythmy curriculum, and the Eurythmy teacher works in concert with colleagues to achieve that end.

For the youngest, the once weekly ‘visit’ of the Eurythmy teacher is a special occasion, as this is the only ‘outside’ teacher that comes into their classroom! A short but highly ‘potentized’ experience is offered in which beautifully, artistically detailed movement using seasonal themes, allows these little children of unbridled movement to hop with joy like the bouncy rabbit; to fly with wings outstretched to the tippy top of the tall tree; to clip-clop like the proud pony across the field to greener grass, or yet to crawl into a soft snug nest to sleep for the winter. Hands and feet are joyously engaged as the powers of imagination are invited into this magical yet relatable world.

In 1st grade, imitation is still relevant but will begin to be replaced by a capacity to ‘dream about,’ inwardly starting to visualize. The pictures must be rich and are drawn from the world of the fairy tales. Each lesson is filled with movement that requires feet to be agile like the nimble deer; firm steps for the child who must go in search of healing water; fingers to show a snail coming out of its shell; or arms stretching out like the glorious rays of the sun. A spear narrow bridge must be bravely walked across, eyes looking straight ahead; the twisting winding river followed to its source! This ‘underscoring’ of the script of our language will be supported and given a wholesome place in the active expression of the child through moving these archetypal form elements: the straight line and the curve.  Unbeknownst to these young enthusiasts, the first rudiments of music theory find their expression in the happy stepping of the feet to pulse beat or rhythms, or the rise and fall of a melody allowing the arms to reach up high for those high notes and descend as they tumble downwards.

So, with each step of the way from grade to higher grade the necessary building blocks are used. An amazingly rich curriculum is provided in which the growing, developing child is receiving in the Eurythmy class what allows for an integration of the 3 hallmarks of Waldorf Education: Thinking, feeling, willing- head, heart and hand. The developmental milestones are always the key guidelines for what needs to be worked on as in the example of 1) the ’9-year change’ in which the child experiences a separation of self from the group, from the ‘oneness’ so beautifully represented by the circle.  Through an exploration of poetry and music in which polarity of movement is deliberately emphasized, the child is recognized and supported through this necessary developmental stage; 2) In 6th grade, when the natural harmony of the 5th grade year lies far behind, a change has manifested in growth and physical development as well as in the cognitive realm. This calls for a new focus in the Eurythmy class! Geometry is taken up very rigorously by the class teacher and finds full support in the exploration of challenging geometric forms and principles which demand precision, control and collaboration and focus.; 3) In the 9th grade we can observe a tension between the further unfolding of   puberty and their studies that now lead more towards abstract thinking. Polarities in the sciences, humanities and arts can be supported again in the Eurythmy class by movement elements that emphasize these differences and require the students to be keen observers in the process.

Accompanied through the years, the child is developing stronger self- awareness while constantly assisted in building greater social awareness and a sense for the rightful place in the circle of activity, the circle of community of life. Ultimately by 12th grade, the last pieces of the puzzle of this curriculum are fitted into their remaining places in this process of ‘synthesizing’ and the students can now look back at and recognize why they did what they did and when!

As I conclude, I need to still briefly address the importance of the Music curriculum in relationship to that of the Eurythmy curriculum. It is critical that a musician is a part of each Eurythmy class in which not one, but two subjects are taught: visible speech, visible music. The accompanist is far more than what that title suggests! This individual has to be involved in the creative process of the shaping of the lesson through intentional collaboration with the Eurythmy teacher. This dialogue is of incredible mutual benefit and the children have the gift of live music which can best represent the foundational elements of music. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the listening component is vital, is essential and is only really allowed to develop when the music is provided in the moment by the nuanced and sensitive hands of the musician. The music tells us all we need to know, but we must listen to it with keen ears and hear into it through repetition and growing discernment.

*Further reading on Dr. Emil Molt and the path that led to his founding of the first Waldorf School at Stuttgart in 1919.