In the Waldorf kindergarten, the adults (teachers, assistants) are there first and foremost for the children. A teacher usually spends the first part of her morning, before the children arrive, meditating on each child, on what each child needs for the coming day. The adults are also there for the parents, other teachers, the entire school and of course for their own enrichment and development as individuals.
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Because the teacher deeply understands the needs of young children at this developmental stage - their need for imitation - he will make every effort to bring full consciousness into all he does in front of the children. The attitude with which an adult approaches his work is just as important as the work itself. Children watch and then imitate what they see, not what they hear in the form of instructions or lectures. The children truly "do as I do, not as I say." Because the young child picks up on adult energy, if the adult is anxious, fearful, disapproving, hurried, so becomes the child. The children need the adults around them to be relaxed in order to truly play freely. Adults tidy the room, polish wood toys, chop vegetables for soup, mix dough for bread, mend doll clothes, knit, and hum or sing simple songs as they work. They perform their work in a joyful manner. Children immediately pick up on this positive energy and bring it into their own play, whether free playing in a self-built "home," or joining the teacher in preparing bread dough or sewing.
When a visitor spends time in a Waldorf kindergarten, they are usually struck by the peaceful, harmonious energy of the environment. This tone is set by the teacher(s).
The teacher also puts tremendous thought into the space itself, creating it initially and then preparing it each day for each activity. The classroom is set up as a warm, nurturing home environment. Warmth is of primary importance. Warm colors wash the walls, wood is a dominant material, soft curtains of silk or cotton drape around windows and from ceilings, warm lights as well as natural lighting, rather than cold fluorescents, are favored. Natural fibers are used because what children touch is considered extremely important. In the Waldorf view what young children touch, as well as what they see, taste, smell, and hear, goes into the building of their physical body. Every little detail is important to the teacher. The classroom toys and supplies are orderly and put away in the same place and same way, using natural baskets or wooden buckets as containers. The beauty and order of the classroom is taken in by the children, to develop a sense beauty and order in their bodies, and to see this in the world around them.
Because children absorb all sense impressions around them indiscriminately, teachers are also extremely thoughtful in everything they say and how they say it. And because young children are in the developmental stage in which their intellect is still not yet awakened, the teachers do not wish to awaken this prematurely with "adult talk." If there is more than one teacher in the class, they minimize speaking to one another in front of the children. They use unspoken understanding to facilitate the flow of the morning, to perform their work and interact with the children without bringing adult intellectualizing into the atmosphere. They truly wish to preserve the kindergarten space as a space just for children, a space for play, a space for nurturing, for joy, and unhurried imaginative activity. This is a place where childhood is considered sacred. Adult talk and intellectualizing can easily break this magical spell of childhood wonder that Waldorf early childhood teachers are so protective in preserving.
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