Craft Lessons in the Lower School

During the craft and house building block of a third grade class, the children enjoy helping out and are proud of their work and their insights into the various trades. However, they may have to wait another two school years before they receive proper craft lessons.

When the first Waldorf school was founded in Stuttgart in 1919, the education regulations of the state of Baden-Württemberg stipulated that craft lessons had to begin in sixth grade. The new Waldorf school also had to adhere to these requirements. A detailed curriculum for crafts was not drawn up, but Rudolf Steiner's first suggestions to the art teacher Max Wolffhügel to have the children make wooden spoons or movable toys were made early on. Shortly after the First World War, the need was great, everyday objects were useful to families and toys were a precious joy for younger siblings. Steiner was not happy to only start in sixth grade. He would have liked it to be different, but on August 23, 1922 in Oxford he reiterated «... that we let the children do all kinds of practical work. We are now only able to do it from the sixth year onwards; some of these things belong at an earlier age, but – as I have already mentioned – we have had to make compromises. We will only be able to achieve the ideal later - then a nine-year-old child will be able to do what an eleven- or twelve-year-old child does now, also in terms of practical work.»

Tradition and common sense

During Steiner's lifetime, however, this did not change in Stuttgart and the teacher Caroline von Heydebrand recorded the status quo in the curriculum, which is now being replaced by the extensive and constantly changing work of Tobias Richter.

Even though some schools have gradually moved the start of workshop to fifth grade, Steiner's hope, which he expressed in Oxford, remained ignored for a long time. On the contrary, the view prevailed that children under the age of twelve should not yet be taught crafts because of their immature carpal bones. No matter how little anyone in the Waldorf world knows about the subject of starting craft lessons, most people have probably heard of the argument about carpal bones. In Michael Martin's standard work Der künstlerisch handwerkliche Unterricht an der Waldorfschule, Herbert Seufert explains in an essay on metalworking in the upper school that the hand can only carry out heavy work such as that required in metalworking when the carpal bone is fully developed. He's probably right about that; I've never come across any other attitude towards the carpal bone and presumably no one would give third graders a heavy blacksmith's hammer to work with for a double lesson. But is that enough to justify not starting craft lessons until middle school?

Fine motor skills in modern everyday life

Even more so today than a hundred years ago, it is necessary for children of primary school age to train their fine motor skills, because in many families basic activities such as cooking, carrying or chopping firewood, caring for animals, lighting the oven or renovating and building no longer take place at all or only rarely. Many Waldorf schools meet this need by incorporating hands-on educational activities into the school morning: Forest time, work on the school farm and similar activities strengthen the children's sense of self-efficacy and are appreciated by children, parents and teachers alike. Many Waldorf schools start regular craft lessons in fourth grade, some even earlier.

Here in Kastellaun, since the school was founded in 2007, craft lessons have started in the combined third and fourth grade, and since then the workshop has become established in the lower school. When I found out during my in-service training that it wasn't actually possible because of the carpal bones, I was quite surprised. It's a good thing I was one of the few who hadn't heard of it.

Piece by piece

Neither in Kastellaun nor in other schools is metal beaten with heavy hammers in lower school craft lessons. In the first two years of school, natural materials are collected, processed and returned to nature. Paper, cardboard, wool and string, wooden disks, wax and clay provide haptic and aesthetic experiences and strengthen fine motor skills and a sense of form. In the school garden, willow fences can be woven and beds created, which can then be cultivated the following year during the agricultural block. The carving knife is not used on a larger scale until third grade, the blade is short and the handle is rounded for a child's hand. Now the children learn various carving techniques and make their first toys and utensils, mainly from fresh branch wood. Once hand carving is well mastered, each child is allowed to make their own carving knife and in fourth grade the first work on the workbench can be tackled. With small wooden hammers adapted to the children's hands, of course. In this way, crafts in the lower grades slowly transition into classic middle school workshop.

How to create offers?

The new online edition of the Richter curriculum on forschung-waldorf.de has been expanded to include relevant information for crafts lessons in the lower grades, so that the lessons that already take place in this area can gain further inspiration and depth through a broader exchange. Anyone interested in focusing on the subject of crafts in the lower grades at their own school does not have to generate specific subject lessons straight away. Nevertheless, in many of the examples mentioned, double staffing or the help of parents is necessary or the work requires a smaller group. One approach for now could be to use the gaps that usually appear in the school organization at some point anyway. If the class teacher brings in parents for a project, it costs nothing. If workshop colleagues are willing to take on substitutions and prepare themselves accordingly, it is free of charge as well, apart from the regular substitution rules. The afternoon area can also create spaces to offer activities. Collegial and creative collaboration between subject and class teachers can open up new horizons that can lead to successful encounters. However, once you have started to offer such activities in the lower classes, the feedback from children and parents will certainly help you to become even more creative in finding opportunities and to find colleagues who are interested in promoting the topic.

Further information: wiki.waldorf-werklehrer.de