Discipline
Changes in Behavior
Children respond more to the inner feelings and attitudes of the adults around them than to their outer words and behaviors. That is why the starting place for discipline at Heart To Hand School is actually the inner life of the teachers and staff. We are very conscious of serving as models. Young children absorb and imitate our words, actions, attitudes, and unconscious mannerisms. Being a teacher bears with it the imposing responsibility of being worthy of imitation. To this end, we encourage one another to become increasingly open, aware, and inwardly peaceful so that we may engage the world in a manner similar to the young child – not from our heads alone, but from our hearts and our hands, our emotions and our senses.
In the early childhood setting, discipline is primarily about a change in behavior. The young child’s day is interspersed with adults trying to switch them from one activity to another, or redirect their actions to be safer or more productive. Rather than ripping children away from the storyline that is currently engaging them, we utilize gentle songs and sing-song to transition and guide them.
In other words, we work from the “inside out” by inviting and enabling students to gain self control over their actions and words, rather than using external controls to coerce student behavior. This develops within our children the necessary “will forces” that are essential for future initiative, independence, self-management, and an awareness of others’ needs. For example, instead of using “time outs”, we use “time ins”, where the student engages in something productive such as grinding wheat, carding wool, watering plants, or sweeping the steps.
Those in the public school reform movement have some important things to learn from what Waldorf educators have been doing for many years. Schools would be well advised to familiarize themselves with the basic assumptions that undergird the Waldorf movement.
~ Ernest L Boyer, Former President,
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
