“Human passions are a mystery, those who have not lived them cannot understand them and those who have lived them cannot explain them”
The endless story. Michael Ende.
Something like this happens to me when they ask me about the Waldorf School, I find it hard to explain what is lived there. I could count the great coherence of the contents and its adjustment with what the human being needs. I could talk about the depth with which the subjects are worked and the skills that children acquire. Also from the feeling of familiarity that one has there, turning the school into a second home. But there is something more than that, there's something i can't explain, it is a feeling that this pedagogy offers the child what he really needs and allows his individual qualities and characteristics to flourish.
When I go to pick up my children, at the time of departure, I can notice how the unbridled rhythm in which we move slows down and harmonizes with that of childhood. I like to arrive a few minutes early and sit in the shade of the huge pine trees, in the playground. I can hear the sound of birds, interspersed with the songs of the story that are heard from some classrooms and smell the delicious and healthy homemade food that the children will eat in the dining room. If I look closely at the ground, I can see a clever wooden bridge built by the children around here, a stone path beyond, a row of well-ordered pineapples or some enigmatic drawings on the ground, fruit of the game that they abandoned a while before. It is possible that don José will pass, always friendly and busy with one of the many maintenance arrangements at the School or a nice parent who always waters the plants. I may be greeted by the charming person who lovingly takes care of the cleaning or the secretary gives me a smile, while patiently solving the message that a child brings him from his teacher.
At those moments, just before my daughters show up and greet me with a hug, I wish that all the children of the world go to a school like this.
Carmen Saura.