Leaven Log Friday, September 26 2014 Grain’s Gestalt In my Waldorf teacher training they emphasized--- Begin with the whole, and then move to the parts. In my Master’s in Teaching training at Evergreen they urged us to begin with an experience, before teaching the abstractions. These very different philosophies had their own good reasons, which somewhat supported each other, but took me years to come to, because of my own elementary education was diametrical. But on a hellaciously hot summer afternoon in Sacramento California, as I sat in a Waldorf workshop on ‘How to Present New Materials’ I began to understand my own why, a light bulb went on for me and it’s been burning ever since. The best ways are always simple. We were asked to introduce ancient wheat and how it became bread through story, imaginative experiences, and hands-on activities--The place: Ancient Egypt for 5th Graders. My story began with the ripe, sweet wild grasses being chewed on by Egyptian children--and as my story went on-- how the grains were finally cultivated, then sprouted and crushed into a porridge, then perhaps accidentally inoculated with wild yeasts and finally the yeasts from brewing. I ended my story with the surprise and delight of the families as they ate the lighter leavened first breads. My story included the forces of nature--the rain, the sun, the soil; the unseen microscopic world --of yeasts and bacteria; the struggles, setbacks, work and community efforts of the people as they came to understand the grain and bread, plus a fair bit of the symbols, myths and art of the Grain Gods of the Egyptians. My lesson plans would include: Growing different grains in class, sprouting grain,capturing wild yeasts and bacteria, learning to make a ‘brewing yeast’ for bread. Crushing grain, simple mills, making and baking ancient style breads; making a small cloche clay oven and baking with it using embers. We would create a class book of our discoveries and illustrate and write continued ‘fictional’ historical accounts of our grain story. We would end by publishing our collaborative --Ancient Egyptian Grain Book and giving a festive celebration for parents. I felt enlivened just imagining teaching this. This was how I really learned--experimenting, telling stories, creating, researching, drawing out the details as I needed them. Coming to the next discovery just around the bend--for myself-- the real stuff: Doing-Feeling-Thinking-Understanding. Not how I often felt in elementary school-- which was lost, tired, disoriented, shall I say it? BORED out of my Gourd. I don’t think people ever grow out of their need to learn in an integrated, fun and holistic way. Where the grain is a gestalt-- where you can’t just take it apart to fully understand, you will lose something vital. It’s whole grain goodness.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:55:19 +0000
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