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How Teacher Looping Eases Learning Disruption

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New studies show that a teacher educating the same group of students in multiple subjects over multiple years (looping) has lasting benefits. Students who stay with the same teacher see both academic improvement as well as reductions in absences and behavioral issues. Teaching a child for multiple years allows teachers to better understand each student’s learning style, to work with families to help support students, and to challenge them to do their best work. That’s why in Waldorf education, teachers stay with their class for multiple years, building a safe and supportive learning environment and strong relationships. This multi-year student-teacher relationship helps each student to unfold their unique potential.

At Richmond Waldorf School, there is always a new 1st grade teacher. Why? Because the Class Teacher loops with their class for many years, often all the way from 1st through 8th grade. The relationship between teachers and their students and parents are essential to fully engage our students in their learning. We get to know how our students learn, understand their strengths and challenges, and model how to navigate long-term relationships. 

To read more about how teacher looping points to greater learning in the classroom, check out this article from HechingerReport.org:

Two studies point to the power of teacher-student relationships to boost learning

At Richmond Waldorf School, we recognize that our student’s physical, social and emotional well-being are a key part of their ability to learn and thrive. Our holistic approach to education prioritizes critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity to prepare students for the challenges of the 21st century.

We are accepting applications for the 2022-2023 school year. Join an information session or meet with our Enrollment Administrator to learn more about Richmond Waldorf School. 

Get to Know RWS

 

Choosing a school is a very important decision in a family’s life. Our admissions process is designed to give you as much information as you need to make an informed decision about enrolling your children. Whenever possible, we encourage all families to book a visit when considering Richmond Waldorf School. We want to meet you! It is just as important for us to know who you are and what you are looking for in a school, as it is for you to know who we are and what Waldorf education is about.

Valerie Hogan
Enrollment & Marketing Administrator
| 804-377-8024 ext 3

Pushing Academics into Preschool is Harmful

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 A brand new comprehensive study of preschool finds significant drawbacks to pushing academics too early. Researchers found  that any initial academic gains were quickly erased, and children who attended academic focused Pre-K were actually behind their peers in elementary and middle school. Another troubling finding was that students who experienced early academic pressure showed dramatic increases in behavioral issues later on. In Waldorf education, we focus on what is developmentally appropriate for each age group, understanding that children especially need play, movement and art, which are all critical to social-emotional health and academic success. Asking children to take on tasks before they are developmentally ready for them can have lasting negative effects, and that is why we take a different approach to early childhood education.

At Richmond Waldorf School, preschool and Kindergarten learning takes place in our Early Childhood program. Mixed-age classrooms give children opportunities to build social and emotional skills and to practice resiliency and empathy. At RWS, we develop physical capacities through active play and work, in addition to the critical “soft skills” that bring meaning and joy into the learning environment. A Waldorf preschool experience is unique, as we emphasize a developmentally-appropriate curriculum built on a foundation of practical work and play. The experiences of a Waldorf Kindergarten are shown to develop a strong sense of self, a desire to contribute to the group, and an enthusiasm for learning about the world. 

To learn more about the recent study that shows how early academics can be harmful to developing children, follow the link below: 

Early Developmental Competencies: Or Why Pre-K Does Not Have Lasting Effects

At Richmond Waldorf School, we recognize that our student’s physical, social and emotional well-being are a key part of their ability to learn and thrive. Our holistic approach to education prioritizes critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity to prepare students for the challenges of the 21st century.

We are accepting applications for the 2022-2023 school year. Join an information session or meet with our Enrollment Administrator to learn more about Richmond Waldorf School. 

Get to Know RWS

 

Choosing a school is a very important decision in a family’s life. Our admissions process is designed to give you as much information as you need to make an informed decision about enrolling your children. Whenever possible, we encourage all families to book a visit when considering Richmond Waldorf School. We want to meet you! It is just as important for us to know who you are and what you are looking for in a school, as it is for you to know who we are and what Waldorf education is about.

Valerie Hogan
Enrollment & Marketing Administrator
| 804-377-8024 ext 3

Movement is Fundamental to How Children Learn

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Scientific understanding of how the brain influences the body, and the body influences the brain, is shedding light on the role movement plays in learning and memory. Incorporating movement has a significant impact on what students remember as compared to taking in concepts just auditorily or visually. In Waldorf education we use movement as a teaching tool throughout our curriculum. Incorporating movement helps children with everything from learning their multiplication tables to understanding complex physics concepts.  

At Richmond Waldorf School, movement is integrated into the academic subjects as we know that children learn best when they are engaging their fully body. From math, language arts, science and history, we incorporate group and individual movement, play performances, and more. Further, weekly biking classes, movement arts instruction, mindfulness and unstructured play are part and parcel to Richmond Waldorf School’s program through 8th grade. 

To learn more about the science behind movement and learning, go to https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/58051/how-movement-and-gestures-can-improve-student-learning

At Richmond Waldorf School, we recognize that our student’s physical, social and emotional well-being are a key part of their ability to learn and thrive. Our holistic approach to education prioritizes critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity to prepare students for the challenges of the 21st century.

We are accepting applications for the 2022-2023 school year. Join an information session or meet with our Enrollment Administrator to learn more about Richmond Waldorf School. 

Get to Know RWS

 

Choosing a school is a very important decision in a family’s life. Our admissions process is designed to give you as much information as you need to make an informed decision about enrolling your children. Whenever possible, we encourage all families to book a visit when considering Richmond Waldorf School. We want to meet you! It is just as important for us to know who you are and what you are looking for in a school, as it is for you to know who we are and what Waldorf education is about.

Valerie Hogan
Enrollment & Marketing Administrator
| 804-377-8024 ext 3

The Greatest Scientists are Artists Too

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Louis Pastuer was a painter. Albert Einstein and Francis Arnold were both accomplished musicians. New research shows that award winning scientists, and especially Nobel Prize winners, are far more likely to have artistic hobbies than the general public.

Many of them, including Einstein, cite the role of the arts in their breakthroughs. Creativity and perseverance are at the heart of both scientific discovery and artistic expression.

That is why music, drama, visual and practical arts are key components in Waldorf education and are integrated throughout our curriculum here at Richmond Waldorf School.

At Richmond Waldorf, students begin music education in the 1st grade, with the entire student body learning and performing as an orchestra in their middle school years. Additionally, the performing arts are woven into the Grades curriculum, culminating with each class presenting a play that relates to and enhances their studies. Visual, performing and practical arts are integrated into everything our students do here at Richmond Waldorf School, strengthening creativity and perseverance in all of their academic endeavors.

To learn more about the interconnectedness of art and academics, specifically science, check out this article “The Symphony of Science” originally published by Nobelprize.org.

 

What does music mean to you? Do you use it to help relieve stress, anxiety and fall asleep to? For many, the value of music is endless and scientists and Nobel Laureates are no exception. From seeing problems in a new way to fostering discipline, expressing creativity to working as a team, music has helped many laureates in both work and life.

Music has often helped Nobel Laureates think and process scientific information in a new way. Physics Laureate Albert Einstein was influenced by his mother who taught him to play the violin at a very early age. He was especially fond of Mozart, Bach and Schubert. Einstein often highlighted and emphasised the importance of music to him. In his lifetime he owned around ten violins, all receiving the nickname ‘Lina’. For Einstein, music worked as a brainstorming technique to help him reflect on his theories and resolve difficulties he encountered. He often indicated that if he hadn’t worked as a scientist, he would have become a musician. Einstein’s scientific ideas were often firstly created in the shape of images and intuitions, and later converted into mathematics, logic and words. Music helped Einstein in this thought process and helped convert the images to logic.

Physics Laureate Werner Heisenberg was also highly interested in music and occasionally played together with Albert Einstein. From an early age, Heisenberg seemed destined to become a musician and concert pianist. It is said that he started reading sheet music at the age of four. However, as he grew older, his passion for science outgrew his love for music and he decided to become a scientist instead. Despite this, music remained a lifelong passion of his.

Fellow Physics Laureate Max Planck was similarly a very gifted physicist and musician. Planck sang as well as played the piano and organ. Einstein and Planck supposedly used to play together, finding not only a shared love for science but also music.

Besides helping them reflect on scientifically complex problems, music has helped Nobel Laureates learn discipline and the importance of a creative mind. For Thomas Südhof, awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, music gave him important inputs and ideas. Similar to previously mentioned laureates, Südhof mostly enjoys classical music. Südhof played the bassoon, and says that classical music and his music teacher has had a huge influence on him. Classical music requires a creative mind as well as enormous discipline. These two factors are said to have shaped Südhof’s development as a scientist. The repetitive and disciplinary task of practicing the same symphony over and over again slowly become a part of Südhof’s personality. The repetition helped him acquire knowledge and gave him the basics to start with. However, he also realised that in order for him to use that knowledge to create something new, he needed a creative mind. Südhof sees the parallels between music and science. In science, the two requirements of practicing a lot as well as having a creative mind are necessary in order to achieve something extraordinary.

Besides music’s ability to spark creativity and teach scientists disciplinary practice, Nobel Laureates compare and see similarities between science and music. In her Nobel Lecture, Chemistry Laureate Frances Arnold mentioned the similarity between Beethoven’s symphony and her work with the code of life. They both are beautiful and intricate, however it seems as if we still need to practice if we want to write the code of life as beautiful and intricate as Beethoven wrote his symphony. Frances Arnold played piano and guitar as a teenager and she is still very fond of music.

Furthermore, the dynamics between the members of a music band can be compared with the team effort found within a research group. Medicine Laureate James Allison points out this distinct similarity between music and science. According to Allison, it is necessary in both fields to build a team where each individual makes their own contribution to the overall work. However, it is important that the communication between the members work so smoothly that each individual also understands what needs to be done to accomplish breakthroughs. Each member is doing what they are supposed to. As James Allison states “every now and then my lab has been as well tuned – it feels like a really good band” – the concept of great team work leading to great success can be applied to both science and music.

Medicine Laureate Barbara McClintock played the tenor banjo in a jazz band in New York during her senior year at Cornell University. However, as with many other scientists, McClintock discovered that her love for science was greater than her love for music so she decided to immerse herself completely in her research work. Nonetheless, she was very fond of music, enjoying its rhythm and structure.

Two other Nobel Prize-awarded physicists Martin Chalfie and Frank Wilczek are keen musicians in their spare time. Chalfie’s dad taught him to play guitar from an early age, and Wilczek started playing piano, drums and accordion as a child. Similarly to Südhof, Wilzcek believes that music requires the disciplinary practice to acquire the basic patterns as well as the creativity to put these patterns together in novel ways. A reoccurring favourite amongst the scientists is the composer Bach. As Wilzcek summarises it: “Bach is a great manipulator of patterns”.

In Wilczek’s book ‘A Beautiful Question’, he discusses if the world embodies beautiful ideas. He then mentions the idea of a ‘music of the spheres’. It is an ancient philosophical term used by classical astronomers and it represented the supposed ‘music’ produced by the movements of the celestial spheres or heavenly bodies. Maybe these spheres of music are accessible to Nobel Prize-awarded scientists? That remains a mystery.

The symphony of science. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2022. Mon. 14 Feb 2022. <https://www.nobelprize.org/symphony-of-science/>

At Richmond Waldorf School, we recognize that our student’s physical, social and emotional well-being are a key part of their ability to learn and thrive. Our holistic approach to education prioritizes critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity to prepare students for the challenges of the 21st century.

We are accepting applications for the 2022-2023 school year. Join an information session or meet with our Enrollment Administrator to learn more about Richmond Waldorf School. 

Get to Know RWS

 

Choosing a school is a very important decision in a family’s life. Our admissions process is designed to give you as much information as you need to make an informed decision about enrolling your children. Whenever possible, we encourage all families to book a visit when considering Richmond Waldorf School. We want to meet you! It is just as important for us to know who you are and what you are looking for in a school, as it is for you to know who we are and what Waldorf education is about.

Valerie Hogan
Enrollment & Marketing Administrator
| 804-377-8024 ext 3

Working with Your Hands Does Wonders for Your Brain

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New research highlights the fascinating things that happen with your brain when you work with your hands. It gives your active mind a rest by engaging it in a totally different way, which helps your mind relax and recharge. The shift away from “active” thinking often allows you to digest information and process and solve problems in the background while your attention is engaged in your task.

That’s why we at Richmond Waldorf School make sure students work with their hands every day through incorporating the arts, movement and practical work throughout our curriculum. Our students engage in woodworking classes, handwork, painting, clay modeling, biking to name a few all from 1st through 8th grade.

To read more about the latest scientific evidence behind the connection between working with your hands and brain development, check out this article from Psychology Today, written by Susan Biali Haas M.D.:  

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/prescriptions-life/201906/working-your-hands-does-wonders-your-brain

At Richmond Waldorf School, we recognize that our student’s physical, social and emotional well-being are a key part of their ability to learn and thrive. Our holistic approach to education prioritizes critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity to prepare students for the challenges of the 21st century.

We are accepting applications for the 2022-2023 school year. Join an information session or meet with our Enrollment Administrator to learn more about Richmond Waldorf School. 

Get to Know RWS

 

Choosing a school is a very important decision in a family’s life. Our admissions process is designed to give you as much information as you need to make an informed decision about enrolling your children. Whenever possible, we encourage all families to book a visit when considering Richmond Waldorf School. We want to meet you! It is just as important for us to know who you are and what you are looking for in a school, as it is for you to know who we are and what Waldorf education is about.

Valerie Hogan
Enrollment & Marketing Administrator
| 804-377-8024 ext 3

BBC: Is ‘AQ’ more important than intelligence?

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With increasingly rapid changes in technology and the nature of work, employers are interested not just in intelligence and social skills, but in an employee’s adaptability quotient–their ability to adapt to new challenges with flexibility, curiosity, problem-solving, courage, and resilience. That’s why in Waldorf Education we deepen rigorous academics through integrating art, outdoor education, music, theater, practical work, movement and hands on-learning. The depth and breadth of our curriculum challenges our students and develops crucial capacities that help them adapt and thrive throughout their lives.

 
As workplaces change, is it enough to be smart? Enter AQ, the capacity to adapt that may well determine your future career success.

Once, if you wanted to assess how well someone might do climbing the career ladder, you might have considered asking them to take an IQ test. For years, it was thought that the intelligence quotient (IQ) test – which measures memory, analytical thinking and mathematical ability – was one of the best ways to predict our future job prospects.

More recently, there has been increased attention on emotional intelligence (EQ), broadly characterized as a set of interpersonal, self-regulation and communication skills. EQ is now widely seen as a tool kit that plays an important role in helping us succeed in multiple aspects of life.

Both IQ and EQ are considered important to our career success. But today, as technology redefines how we work, the skills we need to thrive in the job market are evolving too. Enter adaptability quotient, or AQ, a subjective set of qualities loosely defined as the ability to pivot and flourish in an environment of fast and frequent change. 

“IQ is the minimum you need to get a job, but AQ is how you will be successful over time,” says Natalie Fratto, a New York-based vice-president at Goldman Sachs who became interested in AQ when she was investing in tech start-ups. She has subsequently presented a popular TED talk on the subject.

Fratto says AQ is not just the capacity to absorb new information, but the ability to work out what is relevant, to unlearn obsolete knowledge, overcome challenges, and to make a conscious effort to change. AQ involves flexibility, curiosity, courage, resilience and problem-solving skills too.

As society changes, could AQ be more crucial to career success than IQ? If so, how do you identify it – and is there a way to hone AQ to future-proof your career?

Tending bar requires lots of skills that can’t be automated yet – It’s process-driven tasks like document review that are more susceptible to change (Credit: Getty Images)

Adapt – or become obsolete

Amy Edmondson, a professor of leadership and management at Harvard Business School, says it is the breakneck speed of workplace change that will make AQ more valuable than IQ.

Technology has vastly changed how many jobs are done, and the disruption will continue – over the next three years, 120 million people in the world’s 12 largest economies may need to be reskilled because of automation, according to a 2019 IBM study.

Any roles that involve spotting patterns in data –lawyers reviewing legal documents or doctors making a patient diagnosis, for example – are easy to automate, says Dave Coplin, CEO of The Envisioners, a UK-based technology consultancy. This is because an algorithm can do these tasks faster and more accurately than a human, he says.

To avoid obsolescence, workers doing these jobs need to develop new skills like creativity to solve new problems,empathy to communicate betterand accountability, using human intuition to supplement insight from machines.“If an algo can do 30% of the tasks that I used to do, what can I do with that spare capacity? The winners are those who choose to do things that algos can’t.”

Edmondson says every profession will require adaptability and flexibility, from banking to the arts. Say you are an accountant.Your IQ gets you through the examinations to become qualified, then your EQ helps you connect with an interviewer, land a job and develop relationships with clients and colleagues. Then, when systems change or aspects of work are automated, you need AQ to accommodate this innovation and adapt to new ways of performing your role.

All three quotients are somewhat complementary, since they all help you to solve problems and therefore adapt, Edmondson says. An ideal candidate possesses all three,but not everyone does. “There are rigid geniuses,” she says.Having IQ, but no AQ would leave you struggling to embrace new ways of working using your existing skills – and low AQ makes it harder to acquire new ones.

The IBM study found “willingness to be flexible and adaptable to change” was the most critical skill for workers in 2019, up from fourth place in 2016 (Credit: Getty Images)

Asking ‘what if’

AQ is now increasingly being sought at the hiring level. According to the IBM study, 5,670 executives globally rated behavioural skills as most critical for the workforce today, and chief among them was the “willingness to be flexible, agile and adaptable to change”.

Will Gosling, Deloitte’s UK human capital consulting leader, says there’s no definitive method of measuring adaptability like an IQ test, but companies have woken up to AQ’s value and are changing their recruitment processes to help identify people who may be high in it.

Deloitte has started using immersive online simulations where job candidates are assessed on how well they adapt to potential workplace challenges; one assessment involves choosing how you would encourage reluctant colleagues to join a company triathlon team. Deloitte also looks to hire people who have shown they can perform in different functions, industries or geographies. “This proves they are agile and a fast learner,” Gosling says. 

Fratto of Goldman Sachs, meanwhile, suggests three ways AQ might manifest in potential candidates:if they can picture possible versions of the future by asking “what if” questions,if they can unlearn information to challenge presumptionsand if they enjoy exploration or seeking out new experiences.

She says this is not a definitive recipe for AQ, but recruiters should pose these kinds of questions to tease out evidence of AQ in candidates.In fact, she puts them to founders of start-ups seeking her investment.“Start-ups go through evolutions,” she explains. “It’s not like the founder has a written job description; they need some of a fluctuating list of 30 or 50 skills to be successful.”

A study published in June by analysis firm Oxford Economics estimated up to 20 million manufacturing jobs globally could be replaced by robots by 2030 (Credit: Getty Images)

‘Mission critical’

One good thing about AQ is that – even if you can’t measure it – experts say you can work to develop it. Penny Locaso, the Australian founder ofBKindred, an education companythat helps people to become more adaptable, says some people have more curious or courageous personalities, which may explain why they are naturally better at adapting than others. “However, if one does not continue to surf the edge of their discomfort, the adaptability you are born with could decrease over time.”

She suggests three ways to boost your adaptability: first, limit distractions and learn to focus so you can determine what adaptations to make.Second, ask uncomfortable questions, like for a pay rise, to develop courage and normalise fear. Third, be curious about things that fascinate you by having more conversations rather than Googling the answer, something “which wires our brains to be lazy” and diminishes our ability to solve difficult challenges.

Otto Scharmer, a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management who has written books on learning from the emerging future, suggests other methods. In a TED talk, he recommends remaining open to new possibilities, trying to see a situation through someone else’s eyes and reducing your ego so that you can feel comfortable with the unknown.

One thing we do know is that the workplaces of the future will operate differently. We may not all be comfortable with the pace of change – but we can prepare. As Edmondson says: “Learning to learn is mission critical. The ability to learn, change, grow, experiment will become far more important than subject expertise.”

At Richmond Waldorf School, we recognize that our student’s physical, social and emotional well-being are a key part of their ability to learn and thrive. Our holistic approach to education prioritizes critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity to prepare students for the challenges of the 21st century.

We are accepting applications for the 2022-2023 school year. Join an information session or meet with our Enrollment Administrator to learn more about Richmond Waldorf School. 

Get to Know RWS

 

Choosing a school is a very important decision in a family’s life. Our admissions process is designed to give you as much information as you need to make an informed decision about enrolling your children. Whenever possible, we encourage all families to book a visit when considering Richmond Waldorf School. We want to meet you! It is just as important for us to know who you are and what you are looking for in a school, as it is for you to know who we are and what Waldorf education is about.

Valerie Hogan
Enrollment & Marketing Administrator
| 804-377-8024 ext 3

NPR: Greener Childhood Associated With Happier Adulthood

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New research indicates that access to the outdoors in childhood is strongly associated with happiness, mental health and well-being in adulthood. That’s one of the many reasons Waldorf schools prioritize outdoor learning and recreation for our students. Not only are outdoor spaces great places to move, discover and develop curiosity, they also help our students feel balanced, refreshed and ready to learn. 

Article below originally published on npr.org on February 25, 2019. Written by Jonathan Lambert

The experience of natural spaces, brimming with greenish light, the smells of soil and the quiet fluttering of leaves in the breeze can calm our frenetic modern lives. It’s as though our very cells can exhale when surrounded by nature, relaxing our bodies and minds.

Some people seek to maximize the purported therapeutic effects of contact with the unbuilt environment by embarking on sessions of forest bathing, slowing down and becoming mindfully immersed in nature.

But in a rapidly urbanizing world, green spaces are shrinking as our cities grow out and up. Scientists are working to understand how green spaces, or lack of them, can affect our mental health.

A study published Monday in the journal PNAS details what the scientists say is the largest investigation of the association between green spaces and mental health.

Researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark found that growing up near vegetation is associated with an up to 55 percent lower risk of mental health disorders in adulthood. Kristine Engemann, the biologist who led the study, combined decades of satellite imagery with extensive health and demographic data of the Danish population to investigate the mental health effects of growing up near greenery.

“The scale of this study is quite something,” says Kelly Lambert, a neuroscientist at the University of Richmond who studies the psychological effects of natural spaces. Smaller studies have hinted that lack of green space increases the risk of mood disorders and schizophrenia and can even affect cognitive development.

But more practical factors, like socioeconomic status, family history of mental illness, and urbanization can also have large effects on mental health. Wealthier families, for instance, might be able to afford to live in neighborhoods with more access to nature and also have access to other wealth-related resources that could enhance childhood development.

To isolate the effects of nature from so many potential confounding factors requires a large and rich data set. The Danish Civil Registration System is just that.

Created in 1968, the system assigns a personal identification number to every Danish citizen and records gender, place of birth and parents’ PINs. A PIN links individuals across multiple databases, including mental health records, and is updated with changes of residence. “It’s an incredibly rich source of data,” says Engemann. The researchers’ final data set comprised nearly 1 million Danes who were born between 1985 and 2003 and for whom they had longitudinal records of mental health, socioeconomic status and place of residence.

Satellite data extending back to 1985 allowed the researchers to calculate vegetation density around each residence. Unfortunately these data can’t distinguish an old-growth forest from an overgrown field, but in general the more greenery that is packed into a plot of land, the higher the vegetation density.

Armed with these data, the researchers compared the risk of developing 16 different mental health disorders in adulthood with how much green space surrounded each child’s residence. And because they had yearly income, work history and education level, they could weigh the relative contribution of green space against socioeconomics of the parents and neighborhood.

After accounting for those potential confounding factors, the researchers found that growing up near green space was associated with a lower risk of developing psychiatric illness in adulthood by anywhere from 15 percent to 55 percent, depending on the specific illness. For example, alcoholism was most strongly associated with lack of green space growing up, and risk of developing an intellectual disability was not associated with green space.

The strength of the association between green space and risk of psychiatric disorder was similar to other factors known to influence mental health, like socioeconomic status. According to Engemann, it is estimated that about 20 percent of the adult Danish population will suffer from poor psychiatric health within any given year, making these slight changes in risk potentially important.

“Green space seemed to have an association that was similar in strength to other known influences on mental health, like history of mental health disorders in the family, or socioeconomic status,” says Engemann. What’s more, the effect of green space was “dosage dependent” — the more of one’s childhood spent close to greenery, the lower the risk of mental health problems in adulthood.

Engemann cautions that the study does have limitations: “It’s purely correlational, so we can’t definitively say that growing up near green space reduces risk of mental illness.” Establishing cause and effect for variables like these is incredibly difficult, according to Engemann.

Still, the breadth and depth of data used for this analysis add to the circumstantial evidence linking green space and mental health. “The effect is remarkable,” says Lambert. “If we were talking about a new medicine that had this kind of effect the buzz would be huge, but these results suggest that being able to go for a walk in the park as a kid is just as impactful.”

The greenery association with better mental health held across both rural and urban areas of Denmark. “You could grow up in very urban areas but still have reduced risk if you’re surrounded by green spaces,” says Engemann.

The study also can’t address how different kinds of green space — and how people use it — affect mental health. Are forests more impactful than sparer park spaces? Do you need to actively use these spaces, or is simply growing up near greenery enough? These are questions Engemann hopes future studies can answer.

One large question remains: Why? What is it about growing up near trees, shrubs and grass that seems to boost resilience against developing mental health problems?

Lambert suggests the explanation might run deep, evolutionarily speaking. She says we evolved surrounded by green space, and something about being exposed to our “native” environment might have powerful physiological and psychological effects.

Additionally, more green space might simply encourage more social interaction, exercise, or decrease air and noise pollution, all of which are known to impact mental health. Even exposure to a wider diversity of microbes in childhood could play a role.

“There are a lot of potential mechanisms to follow up on, but generally I think this study is tremendously important,” says Lambert. “It suggests that something as simple as better city planning could have profound impacts on the mental health and well-being of all of us.”

Jonathan Lambert is an intern on NPR’s Science Desk. You can follow him on Twitter: @evolambert

At Richmond Waldorf School, we recognize that our student’s physical, social and emotional well-being are a key part of their ability to learn and thrive. Our holistic approach to education prioritizes critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity to prepare students for the challenges of the 21st century.

We are accepting applications for the 2022-2023 school year. Join an information session or meet with our Enrollment Administrator to learn more about Richmond Waldorf School. 

Get to Know RWS

 

Choosing a school is a very important decision in a family’s life. Our admissions process is designed to give you as much information as you need to make an informed decision about enrolling your children. Whenever possible, we encourage all families to book a visit when considering Richmond Waldorf School. We want to meet you! It is just as important for us to know who you are and what you are looking for in a school, as it is for you to know who we are and what Waldorf education is about.

Valerie Hogan
Enrollment & Marketing Administrator
| 804-377-8024 ext 3

Waldorf Schools are Media Literacy Role Models

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Originally published in October 2021. Written by Soni Albright for CyberCivics.com

As we celebrate Media Literacy Week 2021, it’s hard to believe that Waldorf schools in North America have been leading the way when it comes to Media Literacy education.

What’s that? Waldorf schools and “Media” Literacy?

Do you mean those schools that are notoriously low-tech, and focus on things like face-to-face communication, hands-on learning, the great outdoors, and an art/music/movement integrated curriculum?

Yep, those schools!

Cyber Civics was founded at a public charter Waldorf school —Journey School—in 2010. Since its inception, most Waldorf schools (private and public) in North America, and many more internationally, have adopted the Cyber Civics program in their schools, and the vast majority have been teaching the lessons—which include digital citizenship, information literacy, and media literacy— since 2017.

Fast forward to 2021. The United States and most of the world is just now talking about the ‘need for digital citizenship’ and the importance of ‘educating our youth’ about media use, misinformation, balance and wellness and, most importantly, how to use tech ethically and wisely.

People worldwide are asking themselves “How do we control this Pandora’s Box after the pandemic? What can we do to help our kids help themselves in the digital landscape?”

All the while, Waldorf schools have been quietly holding this conversation with intentionality and patience: asking families to be thoughtful, mindful, discerning, and slow with media access for children. Not to deprive them, but rather to give children the gift of childhood—the endless opportunities that come with downtime, boredom, and unscheduled freedom. To favor face-to-face interactions over abstract experiences. To work on self-regulation, problem solving, physical movement, and social-emotional regulation.

By the time Waldorf students get to middle school, even though many aren’t using digital media at the same level as average kids their age, most are participating in weekly Cyber Civics lessons ranging from simple concepts such as what it means to be a citizen in any community and how to apply that to the digital world to more advanced topics such as: privacy and personal information, identifying misinformation, reading visual images, recognizing stereotypes and media representations, and ethical thinking in future technologies.

While many middle school students know their way around the device / app / platform, they haven’t been trained much in ethics, privacy, balance, and the decision-making aspects actually needed to survive and thrive in the digital age during adolescence.

We are so grateful for all the Waldorf schools that recognized the need for this important curriculum years ago, and who have grown with us over the years. We have learned with you, about our young people and what they need from us as examples and digital citizens.

Thank you for paving the way for this curriculum to be brought to so many other schools and community groups beyond the Waldorf sphere—public and private schools… Catholic, Hebrew, Montessori, and more.

And please take a bow for being the Media Literacy role models the world so desperately needs.

 
Author Soni Albright joined the Cyber Civics team to focus on the enrollment and successful onboarding of schools, homeschoolers, and organizations. She also gives instructional webinars. As the Admissions Director and Cyber Civics teacher at the City of Lakes Waldorf School in Minneapolis, MN, she has extensive experience in the curriculum and also in education. Her classroom experience spans over two decades and includes homeschool/coop, Montessori, and Waldorf pedagogy. She holds a B.A. in Education and Fine Arts from the University of North Dakota.

At Richmond Waldorf School, we recognize that our student’s physical, social and emotional well-being are a key part of their ability to learn and thrive. Our holistic approach to education prioritizes critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity to prepare students for the challenges of the 21st century.

We are accepting applications for the 2022-2023 school year. Join an information session or meet with our Enrollment Administrator to learn more about Richmond Waldorf School. 

Get to Know RWS

 

Choosing a school is a very important decision in a family’s life. Our admissions process is designed to give you as much information as you need to make an informed decision about enrolling your children. Whenever possible, we encourage all families to book a visit when considering Richmond Waldorf School. We want to meet you! It is just as important for us to know who you are and what you are looking for in a school, as it is for you to know who we are and what Waldorf education is about.

Valerie Hogan
Enrollment & Marketing Administrator
| 804-377-8024 ext 3

To Solve the Environmental Crisis, We Must Foster the Power to Imagine

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By Peter Sutoris on 

Toward the end of my senior year at Dartmouth, I watched my peers line up in front of the Career Services building. Waiting for their interviews for corporate jobs, all seemed to be dressed the same—the men wearing navy jackets, the women dark dresses. I thought back to my first day on campus four years earlier when we all wore different colors and dreamed of different futures. It was as if our education, instead of enhancing our individualities and imaginations, had reduced them to sameness.

It was not a unique scene. All over the world, formal education supplies the economy with workers who will increase productivity. Its purpose is to fuel the economic machine rather than to alter its inner workings. But this machine now threatens our very survival. If the entire world reaches the levels of consumption seen in high-income countries today, we’ll need multiple planet Earths to supply the resources. The absurd idea of infinite growth within a finite territory is at the heart of our economic system.

To keep this machine running, formal education generates ever more efficient “human capital.” Increasing productivity metrics—such as revenue per employee or return on investment—rather than the individuality of students, drive our civilization’s approach to schooling our young people. Whereas the Sustainable Development Goals call for turning education into a force for sustainability, the opposite is often true: the ways Western societies have come to think about education undermine our ability to deal with the environmental crisis. To get through this crisis, we need to cultivate our imagination, not undermine it.

Growing up, none of my schooling fostered my ability to imagine a world different from what I saw around me. As a child in 1990s Slovakia, I had to memorize textbooks word by word. Decades later, as an education researcher, I see children elsewhere going through the same—a chorus of Indian pupils repeating the sentences written by their teacher on the blackboard, a South African child yelled at by the teacher for failing to reproduce exactly the content of the textbook. Rote learning, discouraging individuality and instilling docility in children are still at the root of what it means to be educated across much of the world.

Many experts agree that we need to move away from such approaches to education. But the suppression of children’s imagination doesn’t take place only in underresourced communities or outmoded education systems. The issue is obscured but even more pernicious in “elite” institutions that tout “critical thinking.” Save for a few wise mentors, hardly anyone encouraged me to imagine an alternative future for the world throughout my Ivy League undergraduate years and my Oxbridge graduate years. These institutions want to see their graduates succeed, and success is too often about maintaining current structures—not about reimagining their foundations.

In recent years, we have witnessed efforts towards standardizing curricula across the globe. Such reforms bring Western notions of educational success to the rest of the world. Driven by the OECD’s standardized tests, which rank education systems, countries focus on improving quantifiable outcomes such as literacy and numeracy. Winning the competition for the most efficient educational system today means having the most efficient workforce and growing the national economy faster tomorrow.

Our standardized, metric-driven, “efficient” education systems essentially shape children in the image of artificial intelligence (AI). The perfect “worker,” AI continually improves its own productivity but doesn’t challenge the larger structures within which it operates. It is one of the great paradoxes of our time that we invest so much into building supercomputers while marginalizing the imaginative potential of millions of human brains.

Our focus on technological solutions to our civilization’s challenges is driving our approach to education. More students at British universities are studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) than ever before, including a 400 percent increase in enrollment in AI courses over the last 10 years. Compared to STEM, social sciences and humanities are often underfunded and seen as inferior by policy makers and the public alike. But this approach is counterproductive because non-STEM subjects are crucial to fostering our ability to reimagine the world.

We even put our hope in solving the environmental crisis on AI. We use machine learning to optimize energy networks, track land use through satellite imagery and predict extreme weather. But AI, like our other technologies, can only treat the symptoms of the environmental crisis, not the causes. These lie in our arrogance and lack of sensitivity to our impact on the planet. We can’t outsource to computers the solutions to the flaws in our politics and culture that underpin the environmental crisis.

Throughout history, achievers of great change have relied on their imaginations to address fundamental flaws in society. In my country of birth, Czechoslovakia, dissidents against Communism kept their dreams of democracy alive for decades by imagining different futures. In South Africa under apartheid, Nelson Mandela’s followers had to be radical in their imagination to create a vision of a fairer society. Imagining democracy when living under a totalitarian regime isn’t that different from imagining degrowth when living in a world of infinite growth.

The kind of intelligence Nelson Mandela and Václav Havel possessed was not artificial. The ability to reimagine the future and disrupt the status quo remains a distinctly human quality. Unlike AI, children are naturally imaginative and question the premises of society. In my research, I have observed that younger children are often the most radical in imagining different futures; as they get older, their imagination tends to become more generic, mimicking mainstream narratives of technological progress.

As long as our imagination is curtailed, ideas like degrowth or intergenerational justice remain fringe and sound utopian to many. Cultivating imagination means learning from history’s disrupters who made the allegedly impossible palatable. It means moving away from our standardized curricula, quantifiable metrics and authoritarian pedagogies. Instead of dismissing “childish” ideas about the world’s future, it means seeing inspiration in children’s imaginations.

In an education system that celebrates imagination, arts and creativity are as important as math and science. Teachers develop and act on their own pedagogical philosophies. Children define success for themselves. Idealism coexists with pragmatism. Expressing opinions and taking political action are goals of education, not distractions from it. Some of these ideas have already inspired educational projects around the world—such as forest schools in Europe, jeevanshalas (schools of life) in India or Schumacher College in the U.K.—but these are the exceptions.

The environmental crisis is not a crisis of technology or science, it is a crisis of imagination. If we let children be our guides, we might just be able to imagine our way to survival.

This is an opinion and analysis article; the views expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

Peter Sutoris is an environmental anthropologist based at SOAS University of London and the author of Visions of Development and Educating for the Anthropocene. More about his research can be found at www.petersutoris.com/. Twitter handle: @PSutoris.

At Richmond Waldorf School, we recognize that our student’s physical, social and emotional well-being are a key part of their ability to learn and thrive. Our holistic approach to education prioritizes critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity to prepare students for the challenges of the 21st century.

We are accepting applications for the 2022-2023 school year. Join an information session or meet with our Enrollment Administrator to learn more about Richmond Waldorf School. 

Get to Know RWS

 

Choosing a school is a very important decision in a family’s life. Our admissions process is designed to give you as much information as you need to make an informed decision about enrolling your children. Whenever possible, we encourage all families to book a visit when considering Richmond Waldorf School. We want to meet you! It is just as important for us to know who you are and what you are looking for in a school, as it is for you to know who we are and what Waldorf education is about.

Valerie Hogan
Enrollment & Marketing Administrator
| 804-377-8024 ext 3

Boys Who Sit Still Have a Harder Time Learning to Read

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BY BELINDA LUSCOMBE  
 
UPDATED: JUNE 8, 2017 10:11 AM ET | ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: DECEMBER 2, 2016 11:07 AM EST via Time Magazine

Anybody who has watched little boys for even five seconds knows that they are exhausting. At school, they tear around the playground, bolt through corridors and ricochet off classroom walls. According to a new Finnish study, this is all helping them to be better at reading.

The study, released Nov. 30 in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, found that the more time kids in Grade 1 spent sitting and the less time they spent being physically active, the fewer gains they made in reading in the two following years. In first grade, a lot of sedentary time and no running around also had a negative impact on their ability to do math. 

Among girls, sitting for a long time without moving much didn’t seem to have any effect on their ability to learn.

Researchers at the University of Eastern Finland analyzed studies that measured physical activity and sedentary time of 153 kids aged six to eight. The studies used a combined heart rate and movement sensor, and researchers gave kids standardized tests in math and reading. “We found that lower levels of moderate to vigorous physical activity, higher levels of sedentary time, and particularly their combination, were related to poorer reading skills in boys,” the study says.

While the test group was small and Scandinavian (the Finnish school system‘s freaky success is almost legendary), the study offers some evidence for what parents have been thinking for a long time: we may not be educating boys the right way.

As pressure increases on schools to show evidence of learning, many education systems have tried to provide a more academically rich environment. But sometimes this has come at the cost of physical education, which is often considered an optional extra rather than one of the core skills a student must master.

Money and school hours that might have been spent on P.E. are now devoted to libraries, science labs and better tech gadgets. All of these are worthy teaching tools, but they promote a very sedentary style of learning. Add to this the reliance on testing, which, again, has it merits, and you have kids sitting down for longer and longer periods every day. Most U.S. schools don’t require any P.E. or recess.

The connection between exercise and learning is not new, but the Finnish study provides stronger objective evidence that the increased emphasis on sedentary academic activity among the youngest learners may be fruitless if it comes at the cost of physical activity. Boys whose days were more sedentary when they were in first grade (a crucial year for learning to read) made fewer gains in reading in second and third grade. They also did worse at math for that year.

The authors aren’t sure why the difference between boys and girls is so stark. Not as many girls participated in the study, so that may have influenced results. Moreover, it may have less to do with the difference between the male and female brain; for girls, academic achievement may be more influenced by factors such as parental educational support, peer acceptance, teachers’ positive attitude and their own motivation.

At Richmond Waldorf School, we recognize that our student’s physical, social and emotional well-being are a key part of their ability to learn and thrive. Our holistic approach to education prioritizes critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity to prepare students for the challenges of the 21st century.

We are accepting applications for the 2022-2023 school year. Join an information session or meet with our Enrollment Administrator to learn more about Richmond Waldorf School. 

Inquire about a Virtual Information Session

 

Choosing a school is a very important decision in a family’s life. Our admissions process is designed to give you as much information as you need to make an informed decision about enrolling your children. Whenever possible, we encourage all families to book a visit when considering Richmond Waldorf School. We want to meet you! It is just as important for us to know who you are and what you are looking for in a school, as it is for you to know who we are and what Waldorf education is about.

Valerie Hogan
Enrollment & Marketing Administrator
| 804-377-8024 ext 3

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