Waldorf Matters … Learning through Movement
Mrs Harriet Quinn is Subject Guardian for Movement at Elmfield, in addition to being our Class 9 Guardian. In our weekly blog series about key aspects of Steiner Waldorf education, Harriet shares her thoughts on the significance of movement in Steiner Waldorf education.
“In less than two generations, physical activity has dropped by 20% in the U.K and 32% in the US. In China this drop is 45% in less than one generation. Vehicles, machines and technology now do our moving for us. What we do for leisure time doesn't come close to making up for what we have lost”. Designedtomove.org
I stand waiting for my next class. We have been practicing listening to instructions: how do we enter a sports hall safely and respectfully? How do we communicate with our peers? What does it mean to cooperate and negotiate? There's a lot more going on than just playing games and gymnastics. Our aim in the Movement Department at Elmfield is to create a space where full bodied movement can be explored, whilst clearly holding pupils in a container that encourages an awareness of themselves, each other and the environment that they are in.
During my jungle gym lesson we create obstacle courses that encourage free movement; inviting children to jump, crawl, climb, hop, roll, run, throw and catch. These skills are not only essential for their physical growth and the integration of their senses but also allows them to find their own agency and ‘will’: supporting them to process all of their rich learning.
I see children coming in bouncing and, at times, finding it a challenge to be still and listen to instructions. I see children still learning to inhabit their body, nervous systems attempting to regulate themselves. These same children endeavour to explore the jungle with me: climbing trees; jumping over rivers; avoiding crocodiles; finding gold and working to solve problems. By the end of our lesson, these children noticeably relax: their relationship with gravity and ground is easier. They listen as we discuss and articulate our experience and head off to their next lesson chatting away with peers about the jungle that they have explored. It is through this experiential learning, social interaction and freedom to use their body intuitively that children are able to coregulate; that they organise themselves, allowing them to be ready for academic learning.
Here, at Elmfield, movement is at the heart of our education. We follow child development throughout our curriculum and we understand that movement is intrinsically important to the development of a healthy nervous system (brain and body).
Movement in children helps to increase memory, perception, language, attention, emotional intelligence and decision making. When language is combined with movement, learning increases dramatically. As well as promoting well-being and a healthy relationship with one's own body, movement can encourage children to become organised both physically and cognitively. Today, many scientists refer to this phenomenon as embodied cognition: the idea that the mind is not only connected to the body but that the body influences the mind.
I have been involved in the movement department at Elmfield for over six years. During this time, a lot has changed: we have entered a new digital era, whereby screens are intrinsically a part of our everyday life, in a way that we have never experienced before. This, with a global pandemic woven in, encourages me to reflect on the day to day embodied experiences of students. I see real changes in the landscape of our classrooms, sports halls and playing fields.
Whether we look simply at posture and notice how students hold themselves in relation to their environment, or notice how it becomes more challenging to ask children to sit for prolonged periods. Our bodies are changing, and our aim at Elmfield is to encourage students to be curious and want to move, play, explore and learn through their body. Imagination is at the heart of this in the early years as we explore the planes of movement and the dynamics in the body and later a conscious understanding of anatomy, physiology, strategy and skill is woven into the upper school curriculum.
As soon as we are conceived, movement is in the making. From a single celled organism to the complex multicellular social organisms that we become, movement is how we learn and grow and it is through our senses that we are able to integrate ourselves in the world around us. From Kindergarten through to Class 11, students at Elmfield are encouraged to have a connection with their senses. This tool allows children to process, learn and in the long term helps them to understand themselves and their individual needs, enabling them to take care of themselves; this I believe is an invaluable tool in a world where the senses can quite often be forgotten or in contrast overstimulated. With an increasing concern about mental health in young people, if we are able to invite students into a practice of noticing, this is a great gift!
I invite the upper school students into my yoga class, the lights are dimmed, gentle music is playing, mats are laid out ready for them. In anticipation of some giggling and chatting I prepare for a short meditation and body scan. I am delighted to experience the reverence from all of the students, the deep appreciation for quiet, focused breathwork, a time to drop inward and tune into their senses. After a series of stretches and movements (including some challenging yoga postures) we enter relaxation, a time to be held by the earth and to notice how we are on the inside without any distractions or anything else to do, for some this is a challenge, for others a deep sigh of relief.
Lower school students start each day with circle time, a time to connect with their peers and teacher, move their body, sing and play. This is also an opportunity for teachers to observe their class, noticing those who need to move, those who do not want to move, or cannot help but move. Movement comes in all forms at our school, it makes me smile as I see younger classes gardening in our curriculum garden, climbing trees during break time, and skipping in the playground. The pure joy and delight that it brings! Our aim at Elmfield is to holistically hold the children supporting the mind, body and spirit to grow and develop with kindness and will and for this I am very proud.
“Watching a child makes it obvious that the development of his mind comes through his movements.”