School Subjects

I’d like to explore why we teach the different school subjects and make a case for each. Although this post is applicable to all teachers, I usually talk to homeschoolers many of whom unschool. It’s becoming increasingly trendy to walk away from academics entirely, preferring instead to learn building, survival skills, gardening, navigation, tracking, etc. We absolutely should learn these things, and homeschooling provides ample opportunities to do so! That being said, we should not cast aside the classic school subjects because “school” is no longer cool. Academics still have a place. Let me explain.

Math: The Search for Truth

I can’t tell you how many homeschoolers/unschoolers would just as soon do away with math. Or, they might say, “I can teach math in the wilderness by measuring the lengths between trees to calculate how much rope we need.” Absolutely, do it! You definitely should measure the length of your property, calculate long jump statistics when doing the 5th grade olympiad, and figure out how much wood you’ll need to build a treehouse in the forest. All of that is great. You should also teach arithmetic with movement.

AND, you should do written work, like hard-nosed algebra with pencil and paper. Why? Because perhaps of all the school subjects, math is most about truth. Generally speaking, there is a right answer and a whole lot of wrong answers. Some things in life are not black and white, like relationships. Then, some things are like the fact that slavery is wrong.

Speaking of which, do know how President Abraham Lincoln built up the capacity to convince enough Americans of that fact? He spent months studying and mastering Euclid’s geometry proofs. Becoming an exceptional mathematician made Lincoln the statesman America needed when it mattered most. Math is about the search for truth and the ability to prove it. If we deny our children the opportunity to do it, we let this capacity atrophy.

History: Understanding the Identity of Humanity

In history, we explore the “who” of humanity. Who are we, and how has that being evolved through time? Biographies are the core subject of history, and they become the guides for young developing souls. For example, we hear the story of Robert Smalls, the daring and cunning slave who stole a Confederate ironclad ship and sailed it to the North. In such a story, we see what a human being is capable of, and it inspires us to face the hurdles in our own lives with bravery and skill.

History also develops the sense of time in students. For example, have you ever considered how many generations of your ancestors have lived since Charlemagne did? When we make that visible in the room, it gives the students a sense for what fifty generations looks like.

History helps develop in them a sense of time, and also the clarity of looking backwards. We can do imaginative exercises with them which puts them back into those times and places and how harrowing they must have been. For example, What do you think the Athenians felt when the Persian Emperor Xerxes and his massive army were coming to conquer? It must have been terrifying. Yet, we can look back now with an objective eye. Can students not also learn to do that in their own life and, thereby, become more objective with themselves? That is, after all, the only way you come to know who you truly are.

Science: Observation, Sleep, Conclusion

When we teach science the Waldorf way, we have a set of school subjects that draw on the powers of observation, sleep, and drawing conclusions. In all my years of teaching, I’ve never come across another method that teaches science this way. Born of a spiritual scientific understanding of the human being, Waldorf Education gives us a roadmap of how we function and develop in realms both seen and unseen. We can work in harmony with that human geometry, crafting our lessons to work with, rather than against, it.

All Waldorf science is experiential. Thereby, we get to recapitulate the same discoveries made by geniuses along the way. It calls upon the students to observe with all their being, which is challenging to do and which hardly anybody does these days – especially adults. After the experiment is done, we recall in vivid detail what we just experienced. Then, we let it go and sleep that night. Sleep is a magical time in which we commune with our own high intelligence. In the morning, we wake up and harvest insights we would not have had without this nightly integration period.

Science the Waldorf way develops powers of observation, as well as an innate sense of rhythm in learning in students. They don’t even know they’re learning how to work with their own inner geometry, but by putting them through this process, we are secretly teaching them this. As a free giveaway to help you structure your own homeschool lessons and days, we have created a Rhythm Guide available for download which you can access by going here: https://enkindleacademy.com/rhythm-guide-signup.

Geography: Mastering the Bird’s Eye View

Rudolf Steiner said even 100 years ago that geography has become treated as the forgotten step child of education while at the same time being the most important subject. Wow, were those words prophetic. Do they even teach geography in public school anymore? I don’t know, but we do it here at Enkindle Academy because it’s vitally important. Why?

In teaching, geography, all the other subjects come together as we learn how human life is shaped in relationship to the Earth. We have math, economics, botany, zoology, chemistry, history, and more. In so doing, geography gives students the capacity to look up upon human life, as if from above. We learned to synthesize all the subjects into a whole. We also make a lot of maps, which gives students a clear experience of this bird’s eye view.

In so doing, students are gaining the capacity for big picture thinking. This is a sure antidote to the small-minded materialism and specialization so rampant in society today.

The Ultimate Purpose of Teaching the Various School Subjects

We teach all the different school subjects to create capacities for later in life. It is the capacities, more than the content, which matters. These days, bureaucrats and parents seem so concerned about teaching the “right” subject matter. In all our glorious heaviness, we adults love to get righteous about ensuring our children are on “the right side of history,” so to speak.

Yet, these efforts are often misguided because they miss the point of education which is this: we should not be teaching students what to think. We should be teaching them how to think, and we do this by cultivating their full range of capacities. It is the truth seeking, the objectivity, and the powers to observe and harness one’s own innate intelligence. It is the ability to zoom out and see issues holistically. If we develop these right capacities through the various school subjects, we won’t have to indoctrinate our children with what we see as the morally right way to think. They will learn to think for themselves, and free thinkers is what the world needs most right now. Is it not so?