Language and Literature
In Waldorf education writing and reading are introduced at age six or seven; Beginning with oral storytelling, a Waldorf child listens to and summarizes oral language. Then, using imaginative pictures of sounds (e.g. a snake shape for the letter "s"), the children gradually learn the abstract letter forms, and move on to phonetics, spelling, grammar and punctuation. After recording their own stories and illustrations in personal books, children learn to read from the words they wrote themselves. In secondary school, there is an increased focus on literature.
Read more about this topic: Curriculum Of The Waldorf Schools
Famous quotes containing the words language and, language and/or literature:
“Was there a little time between the invention of language and the coming of true and false?”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Our goal as a parent is to give life to our children’s learning—to instruct, to teach, to help them develop self-discipline—an ordering of the self from the inside, not imposition from the outside. Any technique that does not give life to a child’s learning and leave a child’s dignity intact cannot be called discipline—it is punishment, no matter what language it is clothed in.”
—Barbara Coloroso (20th century)
“A people’s literature is the great textbook for real knowledge of them. The writings of the day show the quality of the people as no historical reconstruction can.”
—Edith Hamilton (1867–1963)