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The importance of music in the classroom

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“There is no complete spiritual life without music, for the human soul has regions which can be illuminated only by music.” Zoltan Kondaly.

In 1951, Zoltán Kodaly (Kecskemét, 1882 – Budapest, 1967), Hungarian researcher and musical composer who introduced Hungarian schools to the music lessons period ampliation into a complete hour daily. Results were amazing, having an overall performance increase compared with the rest of the region’s schools; a remarkable point is that in order to dedicate a complete hour to music the rest of the lessons had their period’s time shortened.

Music influences in a great way the sensitivity development, creativity, discipline, and the human’s social behavior; These can be seen holistically reflected on the self’s development.

In Escuela Caracol, music is a basic tool used to holistically nurture our Caracolitos and Caracolitas. It begins during the first septennium (ages 0 – 7) with singing until reaching the melodic instruments such as the flute or the guitar during the second septennium (ages 7-14).

Students show such happiness every time they master any task related to this subject, such as tuning the guitar or interpreting a whole song, beyond that, its wonderful to see the way they share their achievements instead of falling into competitive or comparative conducts.

Once you know this, it’s no hard to understand why Escuela Caracol is the place where children are happy.

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Central American Waldorf Kindergarten Teachers Gather at Caracol

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Escuela Caracol is proud to be hosting this week the fifth annual Conference of Central American Waldorf Kindergarten Teachers with over 40 participants. The guest lecturers this year are Inés Spittler, from Peru, and Tamara Chubarovsky, from Spain. Inés is presenting the principal seminar on the 12 senses and their development in early childhood, and she is also leading a workshop on doll-making. Tamara is leading the morning rhythm, speech and singing, as well as presenting a seminar on the art of the word (working with Rudolf Steiner’s formative speech).

In these photos you can see an assortment of images from the week thus far.

Chalkboard Drawings

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If you walk into any Waldorf classroom in the grades, one of the first things to strike you is probably the chalkboard drawing. Chalkboard art has become a time-honored tradition in Waldorf schools. It is how the teacher brings to imaginative life the content of the lessons. In a day when dry erase wipe boards (and their fumes) have taken over, Waldorf schools remain a sort of classic throwback to the days of chalk and slate. Dry erase boards, however, simply do not lend themselves to the artistic sensibility and emotional range that bright colored chalk can bring to a classroom.

It is also an important part of how the teacher’s own artistic activity — his or her own development and activity — relates both directly and invisibly to the child. Children experience great anticipation of the teacher’s next awe-inspiring image, which they later have a chance to recreate in their own books, in their own way. The images connect to the curriculum content and take the child deeper into the experience, through his or her feelings.

Here you can see a few of our teacher’s recent chalkboard drawings at Escuela Caracol. We cannot get slate chalkboards here, so we have to make our own using plywood and homemade chalkboard paint. Sometimes the grain of the wood is a challenge for the teacher, but the overall experience in the classroom is worth it.

 

You can also see the video of one of the most famous Waldorf Teacher Brian Wolfe in action With Some chalk.