I Projected Learning Goals and Objectives:
In the words of Hermann Hesse, the human being βis not a determinate, finite entity, not a being completed once and for all, but a coming-into-being, a project, a dream of the future, a yearning of nature for new forms and possibilities.β
Of no period in human development is this more apt a description than of adolescence, that fluid time between childhood and full adulthood. By studying the ebb and flow of inner and outer influences upon the toddler, the child, and the teenager, students will come to understand how human beings develop and how β through the developmental structure of the Waldorf elementary and high school curriculum β they can be helped in their unfolding from earliest years through childhood to adult life.
II Overview of Course Content and Methods:
Beginning with reflections upon their own teenage years, students will explore the nature of adolescence β its physiology, psychology, and spiritual aspirations β and the stages of human development leading up to and resulting from this seminal time. The course will proceed in seminar format, starting with lectures to frame the context for discussion. Students will be asked to make individual presentations on various social and psychological aspects of growing up.
III Outline of Topics to be Covered:
βHuman Development from Toddler to Teenβ
Overview of the metamorphic phases of human development:
growing up and growing down. The widening chasm between puberty and adolescence. Polarities of adolescence: falling into (βthe real worldβ) and rising into mental abstraction(βthe ideal worldβ). Training powers of thinking and independentjudgment in four phases of the high school curriculum.
βAdolescence and the Early Yearsβ
The infant as βsculptorβ. The first three great achievements of uprightness, speaking, and thinking. Imitation as mode of learning. Development of four βlower sensesβ in the young years as the basis for the unfolding of four βhigher sensesβ in high school. The crisis of the third year. The grade school child as βmusicianβ. Class teacherand the authority principle as mode of learning. The role of the fourtemperaments. The crises of the ninth/tenth and twelfth years.
βThe Heart of the Teenage Yearsβ
Transition of the thirteenth/fourteenth year into high school. The teenager as βactorβ. Developing independent judgment as modeof learning. Themes of the high school curriculum in four phases of adolescent development. The crisis of βsweet sixteenβ. Social andanti social forces in adolescent life. The lure of the erotic and thelust for power. The appeal of sex, drugs, and technology. The mission of loneliness. Extra-curricular and social interests. Preparing youth for life after high school.
IV Verification Requirements and Evaluation Methods:
The evaluation of students will be based on completed reading and written assignments, as well as on class participation. In addition, each student will be responsible for presenting an aspect of human development to the group.
V Readings:
Required
β Joan Almon, βEducating for Creative Thinking: The Waldorf Approachβ (photocopied reprint)
β Douglas Gerwin, βWaldorf High School Curriculum Guideβ
(photocopied reprint)
β Nanette Grimm, βA High School Course in Child Studyβ, in Waldorf Schools: Volume II β Upper Grades and High School. ed. Ruth Pusch (Spring Valley: Mercury Press, 1993). Available through Anthroposophic Press
(photocopied reprint)
β David Sloan, βThe Waldorf High School: Keeping Ideals Intactβ, in Renewal, Vol. 1, No. 2 (photocopied reprint)
β Rudolf Steiner, Education for Adolescents
(Hudson: Anthroposophic Press, 1996)
Especially Lectures V, then II & III
Suggested
β Torin Finser, School as a Journey
β Erich Gabert, Educating the Adolescent: Discipline or Freedom
β John F. Gardner, Youth Longs to Know
β Douglas Gerwin, Trailing Clouds of Glory: Essays on Human Sexuality and the Education of Youth in Waldorf Schools
β Hermann Koepke, On the Threshold of Adolescence: The Struggle for Independence in the Twelfth Year
β Michael Luxford, ed., Adolescence and Its Significance for Those with Special Needs
β Peter Selg, A Grand Metamorphosis
β David Sloan, Life Lessons
β Rudolf Steiner, The Challenge of the Times
____________, Observations on Adolescence
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