The Waldorf School of Princeton

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visual arts & music

In the Waldorf School of Princeton the ability to create something artistic is considered a natural endowment, not an exceptional capacity. Our experience shows that every child can sing, play an instrument, draw, paint, sculpt, carve, knit, embroider and dance, no less than he or she can read, write and work with numbers. Rather than standing apart as a special subject, artistic activity is connected to every subject. A remarkable synergy occurs when subjects generally regarded as “academic” or “technical” are approached with an aesthetic sensibility: skills come to life, and learning grows joyful.

music
Waldorf Schools are full of music. From the nursery to the eighth grade our classrooms are bursting with song at all hours of the day. Like every subject at the Waldorf School, the music curriculum reflects the stages of child development. In the earliest stages children are naturally musical and readily imitate whatever they hear. At this stage, the teacher leads the students into experiencing the beauty and purity of tone by singing in unison. Through daily experience with melodies and rhythms every child learns the joy of singing as an expression of the joy within. After age nine, students are able to relate to music more consciously. They begin to sing rounds and catches in which harmonies are created as different groups blend the same melody. In the upper grades the songs become more complex, often with three or four parts.

All Waldorf students become good singers. They also learn a variety of instruments. The children are introduced to the kinderharp and play simple recorders in the first grade. In the third grade all students learn to play the soprano recorder and the alto recorder in grade five. In the fourth and fifth grades students learn either violin, viola or cello in classes during the school hours. In the sixth through eighth grades they choose between an all-school chorus and orchestra which meet twice a week.

visual arts
At the Waldorf School of Princeton, the components of the Visual Arts Program are painting, drawing, and modeling. In the early years, up to grade six, the class teacher is the instructor for visual arts, and the Morning Lesson book is the focus for the art created by the children. They illustrate their books with crayons or colored pencils; they also paint with watercolor and model with beeswax or clay. With these media, the teacher helps the students to deepen their connection to subjects covered in the curriculum blocks. The aim is not arbitrary self-expression, but rather to develop a disciplined appreciation of the innate drama of the subject matter.

Painting is seen primarily as a color-drama, which works with the feeling life of the child, bringing movements of the soul into visual expression. Though self-expression is always a part of art, the goal of a painting class is to become conscious of the nature of the various colors and to work sympathetically with that nature. Themes are chosen from the dramatic stories they hear in their daily lessons and specific exercises bring more conscious awareness of the dynamics of the various colors.

Drawing in the Waldorf School in the early grades is approached through “form drawing.” Combining the children’s love of movement and the development of manual dexterity, these exercises also build in each child a feeling for the forms themselves. The ultimate goal is to awaken the spatial awareness of each child. In the first grade the elements of straight and curved forms plus simple illustrations suggested by the teacher lead to the forming of letters and words. Over the years the students range from exercises in symmetry to producing complicated woven patterns in fourth grade. Geometric drawings progress from simple forms in the first grade to highly complex, beautiful figures in the upper grades. At first all is done freehand, but the use of compass and ruler are introduced at 6th grade. In the seventh grade the teacher introduces perspective drawing, with its more conscious relationship to the external world. Also in the upper grades the students are introduced to the dramatic interplay of light and shadow with charcoal drawings, scratchboard and linoleum prints.

Modeling in the early grades is done with beeswax. The children delight in manipulating this warm, fragrant and colorful material as they create small forms, and their pleasure in working with this medium is the sole aim of the program. More conscious modeling begins around the fourth grade with an emphasis on figures that come from molding and pressing clay held in the hollow of the hand. Each year the clay work becomes increasingly sophisticated until in the eighth grade students model a human head as an exercise in awareness of their own form.

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