Of mud and silence
“In a world of plastic and noise, I want to be made of mud and silence” Eduardo Galeano.
For a few decades, a great industry has been emerging around childhood. An industry in which I wonder if there is too much "plastic and noise" and little "mud and silence", little space to be yourself, for that conscious place, happy, warm and simple that I feel my children need to grow. The first time I stepped foot in a Waldorf Kindergarten, I saw a sunny corner with a fertile and beautiful environment, suitable to take care of the first sprouts of the seeds that will be the women and men of tomorrow ....
It was clearer to me when my four-year-old daughter met her teacher, the first day of class. He crouched down to her height, He looked into her eyes with a radiant smile and opened his arms. My daughter got closer to her little by little until they hugged each other.. "How I wanted to meet you and what a good time we are going to have a good time! ”, Told him. At that moment I felt very excited and grateful that someone received her in that way, a welcome full of illusion, of affection and conscience on the path they were going to travel together. Although parents can stay in the period of bonding with the children, in our case it was not necessary, that moment was enough to awaken the confidence and security that a child needs to feel at home in Kindergarten.
From this garden my daughter does not bring homework, but the pockets full of treasures: piñas, palos, seeds, dry leaves ... It also brings drawings, all different, full of colors, of lines, of fantasy, with the date and name carefully written by your teacher, as if wanting to remind us that they are important and that we keep them for them.
In this Garden there are no notes or reports on whether the letters are known, the numbers or the colors. The teacher tells me if she has been happy or talkative, if you seemed sleepy or if you haven't had a good day. He tells me with sincerity and lightness the anecdotes and the conflicts, their encounters and misunderstandings, your achievements and unfinished business, but without labels, with confidence in their strengths and open to the wonderful capacity for transformation and change that children have.
In the south it rains little, but when it does, Kindergarten is a great party where, well covered with their boots and rain bibs, the little explorers happily enjoy the magic of the wet earth and the music of the puddles.
In this Garden the “Cantajuegos” does not sound nor are there digital blackboards, the voice of their teacher and her presence is like the water of an inexhaustible source of melodies from which the children drink every day. Popular songs, pentatonic, according to the time of year, also of rhymes and finger games, that later at home they hum without stopping.
From this Garden my daughter brings phrases full of force, that have become frequent sayings in our day to day as a large family: "To whom it is his turn, touch, luck is not wrong "he says when there is conflict over the blue glass. "One can have a little while to get angry", says when something irritates him.
In this garden, the breath and the rhythm of the morning is harmonious and complete, protecting children from the intellectual burden that is already common at these ages. One day I had to go early to pick her up and she didn't want to leave without listening to the story, the narration with which they end each day, which is like that delicious dessert after a healthy meal, but that in this case feeds his inner world.
For these and other experiences, I am convinced that the first shoots of our daughter are accompanied by experiences that she treasures in her heart. I trust that they are forces and impulse so that , also in his adult life, can be herself.
Carmen Saura, mother of the Waldorf School of Alicante.
