Winds

We have been having strong strange winds, coming from different directions, and a shift in temperatures, which has come in right timing for the "rosa dels vents" (wind wheel) in 3rd grade. We have an old drawing from Catalunya, where the various names of the winds are labeled, (I could not find the names in English), and we have been singing the songs of the fishermen, as their wisdom of fishing was weaved into the lyrics for generations to come.

Bufa ventet de garbi,

vent en popa i mar bonansa

anirem cap a llevant,

fins la frontera de Fransa.

The Christopherus Curriculum also has a poem for fishermen, which indicates the best wind for sailing and fishing, so as you can see, the trade has been present and lively during our week.

It is one of these things that happens with teaching, you set off to start the week with some things in mind, and then, all of a sudden, something comes up that makes you change the directions or add things from a different file, and something really magical comes about. The children are really listening to you, with a special attention, as if suddenly you were talking a new language that they could also understand, and joy fills the room and the hours as the theme or motive unfolds during the week.

That is one of the reasons why I do not prepare-structure too much my lessons, enough to know what to do, but also enough to forget about them when inspiration comes in and switch to the living material.

It is in doing the exercises each night, picturing the children in my mind, reflecting backwards through the day and lifting it all up for improvement that I found the answer to my questions, and it is waldorf pedagogy which supports this kind of unfolding of the material lessons, this kind of relationship with the world around us and in us, that makes work so much like play.

As much as the fishermen with their nets ready, the wind in favour, yet always ready to shift the sail, to turn the boat for the changing winds of life, for the calling of God.