What place does "place" have in education?
Place-Based Programming at an Urban Waldorf School
Amid the challenges of classroom learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, Tamarack Waldorf School (TWS) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin had to find alternative ways to facilitate learning. As an urban-based school without any private green space, finding outdoor places and spaces for our students was essential. To address this challenge, our school used nearby public parks and green spaces, including Milwaukee's lakefront, river walk, and other urban parks. We encouraged our staff to spend as much classroom time outside as possible, which led to the purchase of camping chairs, wagons, large clipboards, and other materials. We also hired specialists to teach Environmental Education and Place-Based Education classes, expanding the time spent outside to an additional 2-3 hours weekly.
Finding space outside has always been a unique challenge for us. Tamarack Waldorf School (established in 1996) has rented a former Catholic parish school building since 2002. We use a public park with a playground about two blocks from the school for most lunch recesses, but you will often find our classes further away from the building. From their time in the Early Childhood classrooms, our students are used to walking over a mile in and around our neighborhood and exploring all the hidden nature spaces Milwaukee’s East Side has to offer.
With the addition of the Environmental Education class (Grades 1-4) and Place-Based Education class (Grades 5-8), the faculty began to facilitate more intentional guided nature hikes which allow students to experience regular encounters with “place”, from direct experience with the local neighborhood to a wider consideration of our region.
Educational work involving the premise of “place” is really about connection. We strive to provide as much individual opportunity for connection as possible for students but also ultimately for teachers and even the broader parent and family community that surrounds and supports the school. , In a nutshell, we work to get out of the classroom and school building and into the surrounding neighborhood as often as possible. Not only does this direct emphasis on connection translate to personal affection and conviction for the outdoors and nature, but it also serves the individual on an inner basis in the form of physiological and emotional wellness.
The Relationship of Place and the Human Being
At TWS, the Place-Based programming serves not only to encourage general physical fitness but stimulate the senses and enrich the aesthetic experience. Along with traditional Waldorf movement and games classes, the regular opportunity to get out and hike local Milwaukee green spaces is a great way to assure students get regular, ideally daily, physical exercise. However, on a deeper level, regular encounters with nature on class hikes and outings stimulate unique sensory experiences in a manner that is fundamentally different from those offered by the confines of a classroom. In a manner that complements opportunities of free play, such as recess, the structured motion of walking and similar movements nourishes the senses of proprioception and balance. Varied terrain and experiences with diverse weather help us harmonize the faculties of breathing and thermoregulation. Recognizing and nourishing the body-related senses of movement, balance, and warmth are traditional hallmarks of Waldorf pedagogy and its emphasis on the whole human being.
Frequent natural encounters foster somatosensory health and overall neural wellness for a generation conditioned to schools and daycares, city apartments and subdivision houses, virtual realities, and social media. The contemporary cultural milieu of young people offers all too frequent visual and emotional encounters without a somatosensory counterbalance. This occurs daily for many young people with exposure to video games and various forms of social media and the frontier of virtual reality provides nearly unlimited opportunity for out-of-body experiences. Frequent hikes and encounters with nature provide a necessary corrective measure for the questionable imbalance of neuro-stimulation experienced by so many young people today. Regular encounters with nature, physical exertion, and conditioning by the elements help individuals of all ages get back into their bodies in a healthy way.
In addition to persistence in getting students regularly outside and its benefits for physiological health, we attempt as part of the TWS program to vary the inherent aesthetic experiences the student has from day to day. In Milwaukee, we are gifted with opportunities to regularly explore the lakeshore of Lake Michigan, local wooded river greenways, and various urban trail systems. Each of these locales offers a different matrix of sensory stimulation, unique sight lines, sounds, moods, and impressions.
The On-going Role of Place-Based Education in Waldorf Schools
From our perspective as Waldorf educators, there is very little doubt that these diverse somatosensory and aesthetic experiences translate directly to wellness that is measurable physiologically and emotionally. Of late, it is not just among Waldorf educators that this conviction is growing. Holly Weir, a researcher at the University of Westminster in England and writing for the online version of the journal Conversation, recently concluded that the experience of walking through their neighborhoods – close to home and school – can empower young people, giving them a greater sense of control and autonomy. Even within the broader field of educational psychology, the regularized opportunity for connection with nature is being re-evaluated.
Although urban schools may be perceived as lacking in outdoor resources, the absence of our own green space has resulted in unique opportunities for our students. By being forced to find areas of our properties, we have been able to provide a diverse range of experiences that we would not have otherwise been able to offer. This has allowed our students to engage in flexible thinking and creatively utilize various spaces in our community. As they take ownership of these spaces, they develop a stronger sense of grounding and self-awareness, ultimately resulting in a deeper understanding of themselves. Furthermore, these experiences are not the typical curated ones that come with owning one's own space. Rather, our students are exposed to the real-life places and people that coexist with us in the community, providing them with a more authentic learning experience.
Especially since the emergence of Covid-19, “getting out” of the close confines of the school building has become something of an educational best practice. We can only hope that this motive will continue to influence the educational narrative within and without the Waldorf community. From the standpoint of the whole human being, confidence, autonomy, and well-being are central to individual biographical development and whenever possible should be a central objective of the Waldorf pedagogical approach.
Here are some resources to help you and your family get outside:
https://www.forestholidays.co.uk/outdoor-education-and-child-development-guide/
https://www.1000hoursoutside.com/
Peter DeBoer, Tamarack Waldorf School Teacher (Fifth Grade Homeroom, Upper Grades Science and Place-Based Learning)Peter was born and raised in the western Great Lakes region. He received a degree from UWM in Conservation Biology and Political Science. Peter has held teaching positions at the Sacramento Waldorf School and Tamarack Waldorf School.
Dorothy Kulke, Tamarack Waldorf School’s Enrollment and Outreach Coordinator. Dorothy has worked at Tamarack since 2019. She taught in the Milwaukee Public Schools for 11 years. She has both a Waldorf and Traditional teaching certificate as well as a Waldorf Early Childhood certificate through LifeWays North America.
Larissa McKenna, Parent at Tamarack Waldorf School. She has a background in Environmental Public Health and Sustainable Agriculture.