What is it you envision for your child's childhood educational experiences?

Sitting still at desks for long periods of time? Going to school to learn how to take federal tests? Little or no art? Little or no creative free play time or recess? Military-style bells and lunch room seating? Vacuum sealed nutrition? Little or no access to the natural world? Sitting through programs on "no bullying" and "drug free school zones?" Plugged in to all kinds of electronic teaching methods? Early burn-out?

Current research is producing rapidly mounting evidence that the above educational experience is fraught with problems for the well-being of children.

Some current statistics:

• Between 1997 and 2002, the number of kids diagnosed with ADHD increased 33 percent, and spending on ADHD drugs for children UNDER FIVE rose more than 300 percent!
• Childhood obesity has TRIPLED since 1980.
• Overnight stays in national parks have declined 20 percent in the past 10 years.
• A recent study by the Nature Conservancy found a high correlation between the drop in park visits and increased time spent on TV, videos, video games, and the internet.
• According to a 2000 study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, only three states require elementary schools to even hold recess (Montana is NOT one of them).

"In a matter of a few decades, we are seeing the disappearance of unstructured outdoor play," says journalist and child advocate Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods.
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There are other ways to preserve the "wonder of childhood." Just in the area of exposing children regularly to the natural world, things like ADHD disappear, love for nature blossoms, attention span and ability to think increases, self esteem and confidence boosts, and physical health dramatically improves.

Here are a few recent research study results:

• In 2004, researchers at the University of Illinois found that children as young as five showed significant reduction in ADHD symptoms when they engaged in nature.
• According to a 2003 Cornell study, exposure to nature causes "profound differences" in attention capacities, and "green spaces may enable children to think more clearly and cope more effectively with life stress."
• A Yale study that examined the effects of wilderness adventure programs on teens found significant benefits in the areas of self-esteem, confidence, independence, autonomy, and initiative.
• In Sweden, researchers discovered the incidence of illness in nursery school students dropped by 66 percent when they played outdoors in all weather. The children also showed improved concentration, longer attention spans, and better motor functions.

Dr. William Crain, author of Reclaiming Childhood: Letting Children Be Children in Our Achievement-Oriented Society, says: "In natural settings, children become very patient observers. They'll look at bugs, insects, ponds... There's a connection with ADHD to the loss of nature in children's lives as well as the increase of electronic media which speeds up their sensations, creating a revved up, over stimulated child who can't sit still."

Waldorf education, for nearly 100 years, has held that children need to be outdoors in nature, especially during early childhood. Glacier Waldorf School honors that with outdoor free play in our beautiful natural setting every single day for at least an hour, usually more, no matter the weather. GWS also has in our Statement of Principles a commitment to a "wilderness component" in its curriculum.

It is also imperative, according to Waldorf, that education be considered an art, and therefore art is THE medium through which academic subjects should be presented. Art is the nourishment of the soul, the way children develop morals, feelings and a love for humanity and the earth.

At the same time, Glacier Waldorf also agrees with the research that supports NOT using fear-inducing language with children about how the world is falling apart with global warming, extinction of species, and all the terrible things that are happening, as this only causes children to disconnect, feel helpless and shut down. Educator and author of Beyond Ecophobia: Reclaiming the Heart in Nature Education David Sobel says: "If we want children to flourish and to become truly empowered, let's allow them to love the earth before we ask them to save it." The way to love it? Experience it on a daily basis.

And finally, Waldorf holds that the push for early academics is detrimental to children's development and ultimately sabotaging to instilling a lifelong love of learning. Dr. Crain says it best: "Parents (who push for early academics) feel that if their child does not get early academic instruction, they'll be left behind. They won't be left behind. The evidence is that early academic instruction increases stress and contributes to a dislike of learning. If a child moves in slowly and feels that reading is based on play and stories, the child will do well. It takes faith...it's important for parents to have faith in their children. What the arts and time for free play allow for are for children to express themselves as individuals. This is getting crushed; everything is becoming extremely regimented. Children are physical, imaginative beings. To restrict play is to restrict natural development...You see kids who can perform academically but are very miserable, hurting inside, and don't feel free and spontaneous or calm and comfortable with themselves. We have to fight this obsessive achievement-oriented attitude and fight for the child's right to develop fully and happily."

Finland is a striking example of this. There, formal education does not begin until children are age 7 (also when Waldorf advocates children begin grade school), and are given abundant free play time as part of their educational day. In 2003, Finland scored highest in literacy and in the top five in math and science in an international survey. One of the hallmarks of the Finnish educational system is the belief that children will come to love learning through play.

In summary, Waldorf education is an advocate for preserving the wonder of childhood:

• to allow children to develop at their natural pace, to not push them into the "hurried child" syndrome whether at school in early academics, or after school with a filled-up schedule of extracurricular activities;
• to allow plenty of time for free, creative play, including abundant time daily in the outdoors developing a love for the natural world and their place in it;
• to reduce or eliminate the negative effects of electronic viewing on the rapidly developing young brain, from the "revved up" over stimulated nervous system to the "dumbed down" brain, the combination of which kills the will and fosters passivity;
• to place art front and center of academic learning which nourishes the soul and emotional development of children, while at the same time allowing them to develop deep inner enthusiasm for whatever subject is being presented;
• to keep childhood, which passes all too quickly, the magical time it is meant to be; entrance into the adult world comes soon enough, but Waldorf maintains that this nurturing way of educating our children actually prepares them far better to enter and "handle" the adult world with confidence, grace, beauty, a strong will to help, and a deep love for humanity and the earth.