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The beginnings of the camphill school

By 1962 we had seventeen special children in Downingtown (several newly admitted) in the Myrin House. Soon we were "bursting at the seams"

and wanted to expand further. Building a new house was not possible, so we decided to buy a new property suitable for our expanding needs. After a long search, always looking in a thirty-mile radius around the Kimberton Farms School (now called Kimberton Waldorf School), we found Beaver Run in the summer of 1963.

On December 9 we moved in, "lock, stock and barrel", seventeen children, plus co-workers and the Pietzner family! We were happy owners of Beaver Run, packed like "peas in a pod in a bed," beginning to settle and start a new life. During the Holy Nights 1963/1964 we invited the Copake friends for our first regional conference to celebrate together! Our house (later to be known as "Whitestone") was the venue for this joyful occasion (as our students were away during vacation).

In the early years we mostly had privately funded children. So the parents were very involved in our activities and tried to understand what these people from Europe with their strange philosophy were doing with their children. We had to get used to different customs, Americanized English, and the American way of life. For example, the breakfast table had to have a choice of cereals, drinks, eggs, fruit, bread, cheese, sweets, and peanut butter - not that the children had to eat everything, but to have the choice! So we learned.

In addition to housing the school and residential quarters, Whitestone soon provided a home for the Children's Service and Color Light treatment in the living room. It was obvious from the cramped living conditions, that we had to remodel the barn as soon as possible into a living unit - and so our building program began in 1964.

*extract from the book The History of Beaver Run by Ursel Pietzner.

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CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF WALDORF EDUCATION by Becky Rutherford

Waldorf Education is a fast growing independent school movement with more than 1000

schools in over 60 countries and on every continent (except Antarctica!). Why is this? What is it that families are looking for and what is it that they find in a Waldorf school?

Often parents respond to their first visit to a Waldorf kindergarden with a feeling of "Oh! I wish I had gone to a school like this!" At an evening presentation of 12th graders' independent projects, the response is often a feeling of awe... "How could such a young person have such capacities?"

This is an educational philosophy that recognizes and values the whole child and provides a developmentally sound curriculum that addresses the Head, the Heart and the Hands of the child through the grades. All of the arts, visual and performance and different forms of physical movement are embedded in Waldorf teaching. Many of the current, progressive "breakthroughs" in mainstream education -- the necessity for recess, the importance of music education, the inclusion of social skills -- have been practiced for a century in Waldorf schools. This important birthday will be joyfully celebrated in Waldorf schools around the world this year.

Nearly as old as Waldorf Education is what has become to be known as Curative Education, a Waldorf pedagogy and way of living life that addresses the child with developmental challenges and special learning needs. Educating the Head Heart and Hands is central to this as well. The whole child, regardless of the level of intellectual ability , is supported on their path. And this path leads to the same place for everyone: to become a

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human being who is freely able to contribute meaningfully to the world. This will take many and often unique forms. The profound political, social and environmental problems which face us require many unique solutions. Waldorf Education prepares students to be confident, curious and courageous enough to meet these challenges. This will not only require exceptionally bright minds, but creativity in all spheres.

Our school, The Camphill School, is one of those 1000 schools worldwide who joined the 100th anniversary celebration. It was a celebration not only for Waldorf Education, but, as always a celebration of each of our students, past, present and future. We have seen that the blossoming of a curious mind, a compassionate heart and a self confident character are not constrained by the level of intellect. Join us in this celebration!

WORDS FROM SUE RUSHING, KATIE'S MOM

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MAIN LESSON BOOKS by Peggy Hirt

A distinguishing feature of Waldorf Education is the Main Lesson block — a ninety-minute period

devoted to a particular subject for three to four weeks. Components of the main lesson consist not only of listening to the subject material, but also of active participation. If one enters Karl Koenig Schoolhouse during main lesson time, you will likely hear a variety of sounds emanating from the classrooms. Students may be clapping and stepping to a movement exercise, singing a song, playing musical instruments, or reciting the opening lines of a verse or of an epic poem. Adapting the rich curriculum of Waldorf education for our students is a wonderful gift as well as a challenge for curative educators. Working intensively with the material for a particular time and enlivening it through poetry, drawing, painting, modeling and drama gives our students the opportunity to receive the content to the best of each one’s ability.

Another significant aspect of Waldorf Education is its central focus on the teacher speaking directly to the students rather than through the use of abstract textbooks. As the block progresses, and with the help of the Class Teacher, the student creates a “textbook” with a summary of the day’s lesson content. Students will gain daily practice in reading, writing, spelling, and sentence structure. All achievements, no matter the scale, support the student’s confidence and growth. To complement the writing, the students will be guided to capture the content creatively through drawing, tracing, or painting

Main lesson books can be made in several different ways, depending on the topic to be studied and the needs and abilities of the class. The teacher may decide to use a ready-made blank notebook, or loose pages can be collected during the block and sewn together at the end,

using yarn and a decorated cardboard cover. A simple folder can be made from a beautiful watercolor painting. There is no one prescribed way of producing a main lesson book! The objective is to help the students integrate, internalize, and retain the subject material in a creative and lively manner, to the best of each one’s ability.

Creating main lesson books provides a special opportunity for students with special needs to engage personally with each subject and foster a true sense of ownership. The effort required to produce one’s own book helps to anchor lesson content and engages the whole human being through thinking (head), feeling (heart), and will (hands). Every teacher has experienced the pride the students felt as they enthusiastically placed their completed work into their main lesson books. Textbooks made with the students exemplify that “The heart of the Waldorf method is the conviction that education is an art — it must speak to the child’s experience. To educate the whole child, his heart and will must be reached as well as his intellect.” Main lesson books are true learning tools and can become treasured keepsakes of a student’s progress through the grades.

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LIVING WALDORF EDUCATION by Nick Hilbourn

In the 100th year of Waldorf education, the future of the Transition Program looks bright. The recent addition of a new property adds a fifth house to the program, along with new acres filled with bleating livestock, energetic students and staff and the exciting

potential of a new year. The Transition Program has been a place where the ideals practiced and taught within the Waldorf curriculum at The Camphill School are enacted. The Transition Program is engaged education. Students see cycles of life, take part in the creation of new endeavors and live out the festivals through the land. A boundary walk through the Transition Program growing campus reveals, in some cases, the physical embodiment of the festival calendar. A walk from Lucas House to the new house, Foxfield, is on a path of freshly-laid wood chips, a schoolwide project from this past Holy Week. In a small gathering of trees a five-minute walk from the Sarah Jane Herman Education Center, there is a humble labyrinth where Advent is celebrated. On the beach of the French Creek, the school gathers every year to see the St. John’s fire lit at dusk. The land is not just a function at the Transition Program, but a member of the community. Students and staff never forget the essential role that the animals and the soil in their daily lives. The most important book a teacher can read about education, Steiner notes, are the students themselves. Students live out their education, their development, their maturity. On the 100th anniversary of Waldorf education, the Transition Program opens a space where individuals feel their own rhythms reflected in the rhythms of the land: the emotional torrents of its winter storms, the quiet otium of its evening song and the verdant joy of its summer dance.

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NEWS FROM THE KINDERGARTEN by Valerie Thomas

During the summer, kind, helpful people filled our large sand area with beautiful sand. The kindergarten children were so excited when they saw the sand. And quickly shovels and spoons were found and digging began in earnest . Wonderful tunnels and holes suddenly appeared from busy hands. What a wonderful summer gift!

NEWS FROM GRADE 2 by Renata Largent

Second Grade had their first Woodwork class with our dear friend Carlton. All five students took turns with the saw and enjoyed cutting pieces of wood. They are making their own individual blackboards to practice writing skills in the classroom.

NEWS FROM GRADE 4 by Gleice da Silva

Fourth grade has been super engaged in learning about Norse Mythology and its creation! We've been having main lesson in the woods, which has been a great fun!We are also engaged in doing service work for our community. We are collecting organic supplies to donate to a local shelter and we went to St. Peters Village to pick up trash. We collected a lot of it and St. Peters looks a lot cleaner now!

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NEWS FROM GRADE 12 by Andreas Schuschke

In September, the 12th Grade studied Physics - Light and Color. We did a lot of experiments with prisms and tried to describe the phenomena that we saw. We then did further experiments to understand why we see the colors that we see. This led to a discussion of Goethe's primal phenomenon of color and how it compares to Newton's color theory. The students enjoyed the different experiments and became very good at observing the different phenomena.

NEWS FROM GRADE 9 by Sally McDonald

The new highs schoolers start off the year with a block of literature, The Education of Little Tree. They are in the wood shop working hard on projects of their choice.

NEWS FROM GRADE 11 by Stephan Hohlbaum

The 11th grade started off the year by learning about electromagnetism. The first step was to understand magnets and magnetic fields. In the picture we are observing how a magnet laying on a piece of styrofoam which is in a bowl of water, orients itself in accordance with the magnetic field lines of the earth.

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1784 Fairview RoadGlenmoore, PA 19343

610.469.9236www.camphillschool.org

Our mission is to create wholeness forchildren and youth with developmental

disabilities through education, extended family living, and therapy so that they may be better understood, they

may more fully unfold their potential, and they may meaningfully participate in life.

“Receive the children with reverence, educate them with love, send them forth in freedom”

- Rudolf Steiner -

Items for the next issue of Radius must be submitted by the 20th of the month.

Materials should be submitted to radius@beaverrun.org

All material submitted is subject to editing and is included on a space available basis.

Radius Contributions Welcome!

CALENDARParents Workshop at Beaver Run - Oct 12, 2019, 9:00AM - 3:30PMPlease RSVP to Dyanne Terifay via email at dterifay@camphillschool.org or by phone at (610) 469 9236.

Campus Tour at Beaver Run - Oct 22, 2019, 9:00AM - 11:00AMFamilies interested in learning more about our school are welcome to visit to see our programs in action. Please register with Dyanne Terifay if you are planning on attending.

VOLUNTEER AT THE CAMPHILL SCHOOL!CooksEach student receives a home-cooked organic lunch made with many ingredients from our operational farm! All of our house parents appreciate and welcome the help but right now our top priority is Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday 9 - 12:30.

After School ClubsWould you like to share a special talent or interest?We are looking to expand our extracurricular activities! Dancing, singing, yoga…

Ready to get started? Please, contact Sarah at 610.469.9236 x133 or sdowns@camphillschool.org