Learning to Read the Waldorf Way

Parents take great pleasure in watching their child learn to read. After all, reading is a key to learning and growing into an informed, capable person. Among some adults reading has even become a standard by which we judge a young child's intelligence, which is understandable because reading is a measurable skill to which we can all relate.

It is easy to get caught up in this objective measure of academic progress because we live in a world where standardized testing has put an emphasis on early reading and word recognition. However, when that happens we risk losing sight of the Waldorf approach to reading. Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian philosopher, artist and scientist who apparently read quite well, developed the Waldorf curriculum because he saw the need for an education that responded to the developmental phases of childhood.

As a result, the Waldorf education builds a strong foundation that cultivates skills in memory, comprehension and verbal communication upon which reading is layered. The curriculum also creates a desire to read and write rather than mandating it before the child is ready.

As a parent, this sounds good, but leaves the question, "When will my child learn to read?" This is a question to which I can relate, and I'm happy to give you the answer, "When your child is ready." Prior to enrolling in a Waldorf school, I did a lot of reading about the theory and it sounded good, but now that I have seen it in practice I know it works.

A Waldorf education is interwoven with the oral tradition because oral communication is integral to all learning. Children begin building communication and comprehension skills even before entering first grade. Then, in the first grade they learn to write. They practice form drawing recognizing that everything is a line or a curve and making sense of these shapes. They practice writing their letters. They have a physical understanding of the letters' shapes, and these shapes become sounds to them. They experience these shapes through stories, sounds and drawing - the S becomes the serpent, the K becomes the king and so on.

On a personal note, I have watched my child go to school in an environment where the alphabet and reading created a lot of anxiety. Despite the kindness of the teachers, he was not developmentally ready for the work expected of him. Because of this early pressure, he put a great deal of effort into avoiding learning. At the mere age of six he was becoming self-conscious and uncomfortable with the idea of school. He was already becoming the "funny guy" simply to avoid the work.

On the other hand, the Waldorf approach to reading has cultivated a love of learning because it brings the concepts of the alphabet, their sounds and the resulting words to life. Rather than fidgeting and looking for an escape when faced with the letter "M," he gladly conjures up the image of a mighty, majestic mountain thusly shaped and making that glorious mmmmmm sound. Going through first grade at a Waldorf school has given him a safe space to learn in a way that is right for him. In less than a year, he has shed many of those defense mechanisms he was creating to combat feeling inadequate in school. In addition to regaining his self-esteem, he is also beginning to read whether it's on a cereal box or sounding out and writing the word P-I-R-A-T-E (he needed help with the silent E, but he's doing it).

In a Waldorf school, the alphabet is covered thoroughly in the first grade and then reading instruction typically begins in the second grade, which may seem late to some parents until we understand the foundation being laid. Naturally, there are some children already reading and the teachers are trained to continue challenging those children while laying this foundation.

While I can offer anecdotal evidence, there is quite a bit of research supporting the Waldorf approach to reading. Many people have looked at how children learn. Whether the researchers are connected to Waldorf or not the common thread is that each child learns differently and at a different pace. So, a curriculum that trains its educators to present information in a number of ways as well as to tailor it to the child's needs is the most effective.

There are many physical reasons for the differences among children. For example, Dr. Susan Johnson, a developmental and behavioral pediatrician in Sacramento, writes that she supports the idea that a child needs to develop sensory-motor skills up to the age of seven prior to learning to read. She is one of the researchers who says teaching children to read before they are physiologically ready may cause later reading and behavior problems. She bases this on the fact that reading is a left-brain activity and the left brain doesn't develop, or myelinate, until between the ages of seven and nine. For girls, it may be a bit earlier. Because the sides of the brain operate differently, some children have trouble transitioning from right-brain reading to left-brain reading. These children often write letters backwards, misspell words and have difficulty remembering which sound goes with which letter.

Johnson offers much greater detail and science than I ever could. There are also many articles available online, in the office and in Renewal magazine exploring the theory behind Steiner's approach to reading.

Based on what I have seen there are theoretical and physical reasons for the Waldorf approach to reading. By enrolling in a Waldorf school, I put my faith in what I had read. But, the real evidence has been watching a little boy grow in less than a year from an apprehensive non-reader to a self-confident boy willing to sound out and write words because he thinks it is fun.