Middle School Science

Last week, we wrote a post where we outlined why we teach each of the school subjects. In a classical education, including the curriculum of Enkindle Academy, these topics each serve vital developmental purposes. (They don’t just serve bureaucrats’ inexperienced ideas about what students should be taught, even though such reasoning often guided mainstream education, today). In this post, we will continue that thread by focusing on middle school science. Specifically, it is the question, “Why do we introduce ‘hard’ sciences like physics and chemistry only starting in 6th grade?”

Why Not Do Hard Science in Elementary School?

In the Waldorf curriculum, we begin science in fourth and fifth grades with life sciences. Namely, they are zoology (human and animal studies) and botany (plant studies), respectively. Before I explain why this is so, I want you to stop and form your own thoughts as to the reason for this.

It has to do with the fact that fourth and fifth graders are still living strongly in their life body. Waldorf Education distinguishes four members of the human being. They are:

• Physical Body, which is directly perceptible by sense observation and which we share with the stones, plants, and animals
• Etheric or Life Body, which is what regulates the rhythms of breath, circulation, metabolism, and growth. We share this with plants and animals.
• Astral or Experience Body, which is what allows us to sense and interact with the world.
• Ego or “I” Body, which is our eternal self and allows us full self-consciousness. This is unique to human beings, generally speaking.

Each of these members emerges at certain times in the life of a developing child. Fourth and fifth graders are still living strongly in their ether body and have not really come yet into the astral. It’s there, it just hasn’t because very conscious yet to a child of that age. You can observe this in the still soft and tender muscles of their bodies. When we teach life sciences at this age, it harmonizes naturally with that stage of development. Even if the child is eager to learn all that “hard” stuff, we would do best waiting. We’ll get there.

So Then, What of Middle School Science?

Have you ever observed a child closely as they transition from 11 to 12 years old? If you do, you’ll notice a few things. First, their muscles develop tone. Second – although this is not obvious to outer observation – their bones harden. Sometimes you can see these two features express themselves in the increasing definition of facial features. Third – and this is also not necessarily obvious either – their breathing and heart slow down to the pace of an adult. This age also corresponds with the freeing of the astral body from its protective sheath.

These facts give us a major clue as to what they are intellectually ready for, which is to say, they are ready for more “adult” stuff. Not entirely – we still have to hold our horses – but sixth graders naturally start wanting subjects with “teeth,” as we often say in Waldorf circles. “Teeth” is actually a great metaphor because it references the hardness of bones. What is happening in the bones and muscles is, unsurprisingly, reflected in the consciousness of the 12 year old. They are now ready for hard sciences.

That is why we begin teaching physics at this stage. It’s the first introduction to what many of them will, in a cheeky way, call “real” science. Of course, the life sciences are real to, but when we bring physics at this age, we satisfy their newly developing intellectual teeth. We continue physics in the 7th and 8th grades and introduce chemistry in those grades as well.

Transcending Materialism in Our Thinking

When we conceive of a curriculum for developing children and youth, we must think deeper than modern materialistic ideas. We must consider who education is for, and that is the developing human being. It is not for corporate nor political interests. If it were it we would call that “indoctrination.” Much of what passes for modern education is exactly that because it does not arise out of the human being. Only a science founded on a holistic understanding of the human being can provide us a proper roadmap for educating him or her. Anthroposophy is such a science. Anthroposophy = “anthropos” (human being) + sophia (wisdom). It is the wisdom that arises out of the innermost depths of who we are.

The soul-spiritual development of human beings happens like plants grow. In Goethe’s archetypal plant we have an outer picture of human inner unfoldment. Such a thing follows an artistic logic that we as educators ought to imbue ourselves so that we do what is based on a cosmic reality and not arbitrariness.

We at Enkindle Academy are dedicated to providing an education based on this holistic wisdom. Visit our website for information on how our curriculum can benefit you and your homeschooler. Signup for a free sample block here, and signup for our free newsletter for weekly wisdom in your inbox.