February 6 Parent Evening

Parent Evening Notes

Our parent evening held at UVWS on February 6th was planned months in advance through Doodle, the calendar scheduling poll that helps find dates that are compatible for groups. It was not the silver bullet we needed to get 100 % attendance, so there is still room for growth as far as getting good planning tools to pick and send regular updates on the right date and time.

We started at 6:30 pm and ended around 8:15 pm. Afterwards there were some parents who felt there just was not enough time to fully cover all the questions and topics that were rising.
In attendance were representatives from these families: Marshalls, Julie Derksen, Walker-Money, Swetts, Starke- Meredith, Lutz and Elin.

Those absent ( Boland, Stafford, Bradley, Paul Derksen, Umpleby, Goldstein) are welcome to send along your thoughts about the questions we worked on during the meeting in this blog so we can get a firmer sense of relevant issues which represents the whole class.

The themes for this meeting were described in the doodle invitation as a chance to preview planning for the Middle School years. I had received some questions from two parents about our current Middle School curriculum and school choices in November 2011 and this meeting was designed to follow up on the broader issue of how Waldorf Education meets the needs of students in grades 6-8. Since we knew ahead of time that not all parents would be able to attend our second parent evening and that the time we had was limited, the meeting was not planned with guest speakers as a substitute for a Middle School Committee informational enrollment event. Rather, we continued the collaborative parent-teacher process that began five years ago to create a class community that can share the joys and challenges of an educational process in the deepest sense.


It was also the beginning of a more intimate conversation for our families concerning the Middle School pre-teen years. We looked at where we have come from, what we have learned together in the first four grades and what our values are that we wish to bring forward into the next three years.


I had just returned to life here in Vermont after a trip to South America, so our meeting began with an anecdote from the rain forest in Columbia regarding schools and parenting.
In the ecoutopia in San Francisco, Columbia where my son Rowan lives with his new little family, ( you may have seen the slide show link I sent you) some young, idealistic parents were starting a new school for their children and other children in the local villages.

As part of an international perma-culture conference that was happening there during my stay , they were working on a sustainable model for education that met their criteria for spiritual, cultural, economic and enviromental stewardship. From our work here in Vermont I shared a few of the principles and practices of our classroom which held the greatest value for us as a community based on what was working over time. I tried to reflect on how our students in our school respond to and build on the strengths that grow out of our common values as adults and role models. What I forgot to ask was how these new parents felt and thought about their own essential values and practices as the foundation for sustainable and successful educational processes.Later, I was surprised to find out that there was a vibrant and powerful connection to indigenous wisdom already living in their educational philosophy as its source.


What, then, is the source for you, as parents in our work together, and how would you express it, if asked? That was the underlying theme behind the following activities in our parent evening.

Using Craig Weber's advice from model 2 thinking, "state your position", I presented my position from the viewpoint of imitation ( as in the apprentice using a sharp tool exactly as instructed) and authority ( as in adults who are natural role models worthy of giving authentic mentorship and good advice) as powerful yet controversial gifts unique to our school.

In Waldorf Education there are two primary sources of strength that can help the child find their voice and selfhood as free individuals learning and thinking creatively. Ironically, these two notions, imitation and authority, are easily misinterpreted as forces that stand in opposition to individual freedom and independence.

Parents in attendance then created the next part of the evening which was an active gathering of insights based on the following experiences.

We started with the strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-truth telling model (S.W.O.T) tool from corporate strategic planning, to address these questions:

1. What are the values that you see in the first four years of your child's school life that are sustainable for the next three years?
2. What changes would you see benefiting these next years?
3. What opportunities do we have to grow into a new understanding for the middle school years as our students become more independent and self-governing?
4. What actions and ideals will be our north star guiding our actions as adults that will be remembered by our children when they become parents and are looking for role models in their daily living?

To explore these questions, I gave everyone three sheets of colored note paper; blue, magenta and green. What needs to start, stop and continue? What are your questions? Each color stood for one of these gestures.

We went on a learning journey in pairs walking down the hallway, into and through the classrooms of the school building, standing in the space of each room to re-collect the experiences of each year. To move forward we needed a concrete image of what had actually been the path so far.

What were the strengths, events, challenges and unspoken questions of each year?
We looked at the class play and how it impacts learning, how parts are chosen, who gets big parts and why and what the pedagogical purpose of the play is. and can be as the children develop.


We looked at the outdoor education experiences- starting in first grade and continuing every year- field trips, hikes, projects and work we have cultivated and the richness of our outdoor classroom experiences which characterize the social fabric of our class. There was an appreciation for the 3rd grade daily chores of feeding and watering animals that lifted the farming block into concrete practical reality as opposed to brief encounters with animals and crops. The skills involved in making and baking in a bread oven were highlighted as a foundation that could lead to 8th grade volunteer projects like the Waldorf class that worked on a Habitat for Humanity crew, building an entire house for their 8th grade trip, as they put it, "giving back to the world for the wonderful education " they had received.

Parents expressed an appreciation for the whimsical and beautiful quality of creative expression, artistic ability and overall aesthetic that our students had developed since first grade in their beeswax sculptures, 5th grade wooden eggs, 4th grade animal soapstone carvings, weekly paintings and artwork in general.

Parents wondered about the importance and value of Eurythmy and reflected on how the students in a Waldorf School curriculum would benefit from reinstating this essential form of movement into the weekly schedule.

We discussed questions about math facts, the need for more math practice, our spelling and vocabulary list, summer reading homework assignments and explored the question of diverse learning styles in academic learning.

We looked at the controversial Goethean notion of "teaching to the top" that pulls everyone forward and upwards when it works well. Providing support for learning styles that require extra "hands on practice" is crucial in a mixed-abilities classroom. We looked at the emotional needs of students who are acutely aware of how stressful school can be for those who are struggling to keep up or who are bored to tears because they are ready for new material long before others have begun to grasp the current lesson.

The social needs of a smaller class call for an approach that brings other grades and schools together for events that are developmentally appropriate, such as dances or the Medieval Games in 6th grade where 6th grades from other Waldorf schools continue to celebrate as in the 5th grade we do in the spring Greek games.

We discussed our need for attention and understanding for our school's social media policy, how it can be enforced and why. The years ahead call for a collaborative approach to the needs of girls and boys on different levels, and the article handed out by Betty Staley from her book Between Form and Freedom gave some wonderful examples to consider. The communication styles of boys and girls calls for a sensitive approach. On the one hand, we see a high level of privacy expected by boys. We gain their respect and confidence when we learn to limit our curiosity to objective, verifiable data and few interpretative "fishing trips" into " how they are really feeling" because they simply have "no clue." as one boy put it. For the girls we must develop in ourselves new levels of compassionate patience for the melodrama that can live between the girls in the years to come.

Thank you to everyone for their heartfelt participation in this evening. I look forward to our next session when we will be planning our class Pentathlon, including overnight trips to Burlington and on the A.T.

I welcome your insights and reflections on any of these questions or other thoughts that can guide our future conversations about the health and well being of our class as we move forward.

I will be sending an update on homework and reading assignments this week. Assembly dress is requested for our Wednesday assembly this week which is here at school, not at the church.

Sincerely yours,

Linda Johanson