Excerpt from Interview for Singapore Women's Weekly Magazine:


Hi

My name is Vincent Soh and I am writing an article on childhood education and development in Singapore for Singapore Women's Weekly Magazine.

I am interested in your unique Waldorf Steiner program. I have some questions that I hope your principal, director or a representative could reply to.


1. What do you think is the most important element of the program design in successful childhood development?

There may not be one “most important element” of our program but the one that comes to mind when I think of what Waldorf Education offers is the training, attitude and development of the teacher. Waldorf teachers believe that their students are human beings with capacities of the mind, body, soul and spirit, which are educated by those very same capacities within the teacher. Waldorf teachers do not follow a formula for teaching. They follow the requirements of their students’ development. Because of this it is necessary for the teacher to have ongoing personal and professional development in the form of research, mentoring, interaction with parents and inner spiritual practice.

2. What would be some of the unique activities or teaching methods?

Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Waldorf pedagogy, taught us that the human being develops first the body, then the life forces, then the emotional forces, intellectual forces and finally the spirit forces. It follows then that the activities and methods of teaching would help these “forces” to develop as they become realized in the child. In the early years music, rhythm, play, and physical activities that occur in the home are “taught”, in the primary school years artistic activities (painting, claywork, drawing, writing, knitting, woodwork) are taught in harmony with teaching of number qualities and Language arts. By middle school and through secondary education the foundations of this education allows for a deeper relationship to learning and the students have developed an ability and keen interest in more disciplined artistic work and study of history through biography, construction of Platonic solids, clothing design, architecture, philosophy, Theories behind the laws of Physics through experimentation and so on.

3. How does this program specifically nurture independent and creative thinkers? What else can parents expect their children to take away?

Every Waldorf educated graduate I know is a confident thinker and activist who knows how to listen and to solve problems. These are “out of the box” thinkers. Though probably not the best bean counters.

4. How can parents reinforce the lessons learned at the classes?

Parents can remove as much media and technology from their children as they can until their children understand how these devices operate and how advertisers that use these technologies target audiences to sell products that may not serve the health of the planet. This kind of understanding doesn’t develop in children until they are past puberty. Also if parents can spend time doing things with their children like physical activities or artistic activities instead of passive activities (in front of a screen) the quality of the family life increases and the child’s connection to the home and the world increases.

5. Anything you might like to add concerning the strengths of Waldorf Steiner education?

When parents ask me if it is fair to keep their children away from the “real world” by signing on to the Waldorf philosophy I have to laugh a little. What we are calling the real world today is largely a world designed to deceive. I believe that if people just made the decision to spend time with their brilliant children and the incredible people around them they would be convinced that the real world is within the human being and our ability to see beauty and goodness in the life that surrounds us. The material world is just one small part of the "real" world. There is so much more out here and it is so fascinating! Waldorf education inspires us to discover things that are not obvious. This makes life fun!



Elizabeth Doshi is an experienced Waldorf teacher from the United States. Mrs. Doshi has taught Waldorf education as a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th grade teacher and has lead Waldorf camp for children aged 6-9. She has handwork experience ( knitting, crotcheting, dollmaking, felting, weaving, sewing etc.) and specializes in form drawing, drama, music and the manual arts . Currently Mrs. Doshi is teaching Waldorf Encrichment classes for children ages 6-11 and hopes that Waldorf education will “sing” in Singapore. Perhaps you will join her in making this joyful wish come true. For more information on the Waldorf Education talk series beginning in August please contact waldorfstein@yahoo.com.sg

Well. Booty isn't ready to share me with anyone quite yet. For two days I have tried to go over to Joo Chiat to help my friend with her beautiful twins. She is here for another week with her grown daughter and the babies on their way back to Australia. Booty would have none of me focusing on the tiny, tinies or even trying to spend some time catching up with their mumma. Lucky that her daughter is here to help so my assistance was really intended for mom to get a quick cat nap or food break. But it was not to be. Still, look at that beautiful mom and one of her magical babies.

Newborns can be breathtaking. Really.

Booty's favorite short film makes her laugh every time

But I am the “Doer”!
Living with a Live In Helper


For some time I have been wanting to write about this delicate subject, “Living with a Live In Helper” but have been afraid of sounding ungrateful or elitist or one of those adjectives describing the Odious and the Wealthy. But now I feel like I need to because it is such a big part of our life and also because I have been in our helper’s shoes and I feel like I can be somewhat fair.

Most people I know back home don’t have live in help and may have some ideas about what it is like or what it means. For one, when you live in Singapore it doesn’t mean you are rich. It only means that when you researched the options you discovered that it is more cost effective to hire someone to live in your home and work full-time than it is to hire someone for, lets say, 12 hours a week.

When we lived in California, we hired someone to clean once a week. She also offered to care for Booty. If we had hired her to do both for 15 hours a week we would have paid what we pay now for roughly 60 hours a week of cooking, shopping, gardening, cleaning and childcare.

The second misunderstanding is that if you have a live-in it means you have less to worry about. This isn’t true for me as I feel that I have another person to care for. Is she getting enough to eat? Is she rested enough? Does she miss her family? Does she need to hang out more with her friends? Does she have enough spending money? Am I too hard on her? Too soft? Can I be clearer about what we need? Imagine having an employee that doesn’t work at your place of employment but in your home with your child and your personal “stuff”.

Singapore may be one of the only places on earth where one can find this kind of affordable help in a fully functional city, but what are the other hidden costs?

For our helper the cost is her privacy and her independence. She depends upon us for her health care, for the food that she is “allowed” to eat, her social life (if she gets one) and for her ability to stay in this country and work so that she can send money to her family.

While I know that MB (her initials) is treated better than most helpers, certainly better than all of my friend’s helpers, it doesn’t keep me from examining my behavior around her employment. There are times that I am just plain “weird” about things, stupid things like when she makes food for herself and heats up left overs for us. Or her inability to dry the bathroom floor no matter what I say, or her strange lack of precision with bed making, mopping, dusting, and laundry. But what can I, within reason, complain about? Nothing really, except one thing that is beyond MB’s control. And that is our privacy.

MB knows that when I am stressed out I become a fanatic about everything. She knows what my H and I fight about. She does our laundry for heaven’s sake and when you are caring for a family the way she cares for our family she knows stuff about us. More stuff about us than we know about her. And I think this is what my old boss had a problem with when I took care of her family of 6 children. When you take someone in to live with your family, you are taking them INTO your family and they are changing the identity of the family.

Booty considers MB as one would consider an Aunt. She is a family member who deserves honor. But what is tricky is that H sees her totally differently, (having grown up with “servants”) and so do I.

I think of MB as a young, dependent niece or someone who “doesn’t know better” or who isn’t ready to be challenged intellectually. I have tried to invite MB to the table to eat with us. I have encouraged her to enroll in adult education classes that we would help pay for. I have invited her to watch movies with me. Or to go shopping with me. Rarely does she take me up on the offer. But does this mean she is not my equal? Why would that be so?

Who is really in control? And what is it that is challenging for me who has everything? Once again I run up against these ideas of “status” in the home. And it has made me realize that at this seemingly absurd time in my life when it seems all my peers are growing into their creative” peak”, I am feeling like a total anomaly. I know who I think I am AND I know that this idea (of who I am) is not entirely true.

Having a live-in helper doesn’t do what I supposed it would. Instead of making me feel empowered to do the things I didn’t have time for before it reminds me of the things I made time for despite chores piling up. And I am not speaking of the ability to do my teaching work. I am speaking of the whole “live in” situation. It works upon the will very strongly when you have someone always “doing” for you. And yet if I can call upon my higher forces to do what is being asked of me regardless of my privilege, I could really “do” something myself.

The deeper question for me at this time is,

Despite ALL you have been given,
Despite what you think you know
And despite the ideas you carry about who you are,
Can you accept what is present here and act upon what is needed now?

I have been fighting the tide. In an effort to keep Booty out of her "head" I have been encouraging more playing and creating (painting, drawing, building, cooking, cleaning, pretending...) and less reading. I have failed, miserably. And so, in the spirit of, "if you can't beat 'em join 'em " I have purchased some books that I feel are appropriate. At this time Booty's favorite books are:



"Bigmomma's" and "Shortcuts" by Donald Crews
These are two seperate stories but they take place at the same time in the author's life and are wonderfully illustrated.



Come on Rain by Karen Hesse and Jon J. Muth.

Oh. By the way. The reason I do not use Booty's given name (or anyone's full name for that matter) in this blog is for privacy reasons as this is a public blog. We have already discovered how scary it can be to be recognized on the street by strangers so thanks for not posting our names.

We have bees living and working in our Chiku tree. They are making a honey comb and have been busy for the last five days. At first we thought that we were just a pit stop on route to a new hive because bees don't usually like to build their honey making establishments in such an open spot. But since they have been working away for five days now, we are assuming that they are producing SOMETHING. They are very relaxed bees and allow me to stand 2 feet away from their business without so much as a buzz. They occasionally ripple their wings across the hive and it is fun to watch them. Oh. And they are very small.

I just finished a Waldorf Arts camp with a great big bundle of joyous kids.
I hope to see these gorgeous and sweet ones soon. Tho' one of these angels is moving back to Korea I plan to gather them up again soon to play some more.

We painted almost every day. Worked with clay, felted with wool twice, made our own personal deck of "Go fish" cards, spilt lots of glue, splashed soapy water and put on orange peel "perfume".

One of our cats, Missy, is no longer eating or moving from her spot on the marble living room floor. She doesn't seem to be in a lot of pain but is not able to walk much. She is very old (19.5) and we do not want to take her to the vet for "tests". I don't care if this seems cruel to anyone. I believe that it is cruel to force the elderly into institutions and then expect them to thrive. Missy is drinking ice water (she won't drink it unless it has ice in it) and sitting up when I pet her (every few hours). She is, however, walking into Mary Beth's bathroom and urinating on the floor at night. This is her best effort.

Missy is a wonderful old girl. She is still purring when I spend time with her and seemed to enjoy the children's attentions when they arrived for and departed from camp.

Actually, I like preparing for the children to come. I guess I am a bit of a dork that way. Lining everything up. Putting things in baskets or writing children's names on water colored labels. I like to imagine that when I am telling the story it comes out like magic. And then the day comes and we are sometimes too busy doing it to remember how much is here. So much to work with!

Instead of freaking out over night before camp jitters I am eating these. There isn't a recipe because you don't need one.
Just unsweetened cocoa, dates, nuts of your choice and dried fruit if you like. I put almonds, walnuts, dried blueberries and cranberries in these and rolled some in sesame seeds. That's right. No sugar. But keep them in the freezer. They taste best cold.

It has been raining buckets today and there has been a lot of flooding on Orchard Street (the high end part of town) but I don't mind the rain at all. I can give the AC a break.

Yesterday the twins came for their math practice and we had lots of fun talking about number qualities, learning about "abundant numbers" and making free-hand geometric drawings (above).

The dates aren't definite but these are the talks I am proposing starting in the fall:

Why do children like to "doodle" and how can we make doodling into a practice that helps create inner and outer balance? Come to practice Form Drawing with a Waldorf Certified teacher and learn how to turn those free moments into opportunities to balance the life forces. We will practice form drawings for people of all ages so come with your colored pencils and explore at 3pm August 21 at WSEAS! (Note* form drawing is done without aid of any instruments.)


From the cover of "Formdrawing" by Laura Embrey-Stine and Ernst Schuberth

Are you always first in line and do you become impatient with people who are "slow"?
Do you have many interests and many friends but sometimes find yourself forgetting your appointments?
Are you most interested in good conversation and a delicious meal?
Do your friends like to share their troubles with you?
Find out what this might mean in our "personality types" study of The Four Temperaments on September 18 at 3pm (at WSEAS).

If you have young children at home it can sometimes become exhausting trying to find appropriate activities. Build a healthy foundation for development by playing Games for Developing the lower senses. Discover how Saturday, October 16 at 3pm.

"Home is where the heart is," or so they say. But lately home has become the place where our "stuff" is. And this "stuff" can sometimes keep us from what we really want, that is, connection with our family and friends in a nurturing atmosphere. What can you do to bring simplicity and encourage participation in your home and family life? Please attend this talk, Simplicity in the Home to answer this question, on Saturday, November 20 at 3pm.

This is a very BASIC round but so lovely.
I am gathering my resources for camp and hope to use this one.
For this Waldorf Craft Camp starting at our home here on Monday I have the following fun activities planned:

Games with a rope that involve shaping the rope cooperatively and jumping over it,
"Jack be nimble..."
Singing and clapping songs.
Form drawing (read drawing celtic knots) starting with spirals.
Clay with pressed leaves.
Wet on wet watercolor painting.

Bean bag games.
Wool felting colored balls with ribbons which turns them into cool comets.
And a story.

Seeing as how we are doing camp here instead of at school I pray that the Booty girl doesn't get too bent about me being here but not available. I guess it will be as it needs.

We have guests staying on Friday and Saturday night (Jake and Bella Tan) who are doing a Waldorf intro talk. I hope Jake and Bella can bring some light onto the subject as we have so many "talks" and so little actual Waldorf living here. It is a question that lives inside me. Marinating. Well, actually right now I believe it is simmering.

While searching for the perfect fairy tales for our Waldorf Craft campers I discovered the Enchanted Snake from the Green Fairy tale book which starts out:

Once upon a time...
There was once upon a time a poor woman who would have given all she possessed for a child, but she hadn't one.

Now it happened one day that her husband went to the wood to collect brushwood, and when he had brought it home, he discovered a pretty little snake among the twigs.

When Sabatella, for that was the name of the peasant's wife, saw the little beast, she sighed deeply and said, 'Even the snakes have their brood; I alone am unfortunate and have no children.' No sooner had she said these words than, to her intense surprise, the little snake looked up into her face and spoke: 'Since you have no children, be a mother to me instead, and I promise you will never repent it, for I will love you as if I were your own son.'

This made me laugh...

Lately I have come to a realization about why communication can be so difficult.
Not many really want to connect. We have all the tools in the world for "reaching out" but we prefer to sit on our computers and email at a distance. I found myself doing this today. Meeting with parents here to discuss education and to share ideas has become such a challenge because for the most part parents want one thing for themselves and another for their children. I nearly eviscerated myself trying to explain to one mom about how when a group reaches for a goal, it is necessary for everyone in the group to leave their personal desires at the door and focus on the goal, (I was not being subtle I know). I realized the best analogy would be the Goethean conversation but then she accused me of being high and mighty or not transparent enough and could I write it down in a letter for her? Maybe the following essay will help.


“Whence came you hither?” asked the golden king.
“Out of the clefts where the gold dwells,” replied the serpent.
“What is more glorious than gold?”
“Light.”
“What is more quickening than light?”
“Conversation.” From Goethe's Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily

Unless one understands what Goethe meant, one can feel disappointed at the serpent’s answer, which scarcely seems the revelation one expected. For is conversation as we know it in the Twenty First Century really more glorious than gold, more quickening than light? Hardly! We attach the term to every casual exchange, to the most idle, inconsequential chit-chat. Surely, we feel, the term must have come down in the world since Goethe’s day, suffering the severest diminution in its slide.

That this is indeed the case becomes apparent when we recall the salons of earlier centuries where great minds came together for significant talk. These occasions were of a wholly different order from our social happenings. They were disciplined, where ours are chaotic. They were built around a common purpose, mutually enriching rather than depleting. It is impossible to picture the participants in a salon all talking at once, babbling away on as many subjects as there were pairs of conversationalists present. No! Rather, the star of a theme hung over the assemblage as over a pool studded with crystals, and the responsively scintillating crystal intellects took turns voicing the reflections awakened in them.

Goethean conversations differ at least as much again from those of the salon as did the salon from today’s cocktail party. Their purpose is to call forth a fullness of spiritual life, not to stage displays of intellectual fireworks. They have nothing in common with the salon’s formal play of light points sparkling in cold starlit glitter. Instead, they strive to enter the sunward realm of living thoughts where a thinker uses all of himself as a tool of knowledge, where, in the manner of his thinking, he takes part as a creative spirit in the ongoing process of the cosmos.
For more click on
The Art of Goethean Conversation
Marjorie Spock

Red Tent Project:

Hello crafters!
I have just been alerted by my friend over at Solohandmade about a wonderful work in progress to provide much needed supplies to women in Ethiopia. Find details below and let me know if you are interested in helping out. I am putting this out because I don't think it is ANYTHING to be ashamed about but something natural and worthy of attention and HELP.

Written by a mom who also adopted from Ethiopia:

Our agency felt burdened by the young girls’ overwhelming need for sanitary pads in Ethiopia. I don’t think I need to explain what a HUGE problem this is. Many girls are considered “unclean” for a week each month and are unable to go to school or work. Here are some facts:

Ordinary woman are unable to afford basic sanitary protection.
One pack of sanitary pads costs more than 50% of the average monthly wage for women.

Millions of African women are forced to replace tampons/pads with newspapers and dirty rags.

This can lead to infections for which there may not be available medication. These infections are often mistaken to be STDs leading to social embarrassment and in some cases, domestic violence.

Wives and mothers are unable to work when they have their periods, further hindering already impoverished families.

Girls are forced to take time off school, further jeopardizing their education.

Because of the economic and cultural crises in Ethiopia, its schools serve as more than academic centers. They provide community resources where young people receive basic care and services, such as food programs, clean water and counseling.


We are currently working on a project to provide the girls at our agency’s transition home with reusable menstrual pads. We are starting with the older girls first. There are about 30 girls who need the pads and we’d like to send 3 of the outer envelopes and 6 of the inner pads to each girl – so we’ll need 90 envelopes and almost 200 pads!

Here is where I need your help…I don’t know a thing about sewing, but I am very passionate about this cause. I am calling all my friends (adoption-related or not) to consider helping these young women have a safe way to protect themselves each month.

If you are interested, I will send you the pattern and a photo of the pads. I have been told that they are fairly simple to make.

We had several meltdowns today. But they were good ones. That is, an indication of how tired the girl really was.
Typically, whenever we leave a friends house or when friends leave ours, Booty says, "Ohhhh, I am so sad! I miss my friends!" Well today after we left Nikki and Loewen Gardens ( w/singing duo Mark and Ruben and the trampoline) she said, " Next time I want to stay with my friends FOREVER!" and she meant it. She really gets a lot from being with other children. In fact, I encourage her being with "naughty" children too. She doesn't actually care if the children can't share or they go on and on about the "stuff" they have. She likes everyone. And luckily, most of her friends are peaceful sorts. Henry is the picture of peace. The guy runs around his house primavera and everyone is great with it. Booty doesn't even notice. I think Booty expresses my feelings exactly. Life is so rich because of our friends!!!

D and her daughters met us at Jacob Ballas yesterday and it was hot but a very nice time for all. We had scheduled it for the day before but I had to switch at the last minute because of a forgotten engagement with my superstar Dr.Lakshmi. Lucky for us it was a good move. On Wednesday it rained so hard for two hours in the morning that there was severe flooding in the Orchard Road area. It looked like India! So instead we had a hot but relatively dry afternoon marveling at dragonflies, trees, vines of fruiting plants and unsupervised children throwing rocks.

As usual, the company was superb. I couldn't have chosen a more amiable and peaceful group. And Booty loves the girls so! If I am lucky I will be teaching them one day a week in the fall.

I just withdrew my proposal for the extended day program at the school. With the admin. responsibilities and a whole mess of other "new" pursuits I really don't have the energy to renegotiate a program (the board came back with issues )that was going to be a real stretch for me as it is. I guess part of my problem is I want to teach so badly that I am compromising myself and I know it. But I am sad too. As I feel there is something happening in this community that keeps it from saying "YES!"

Trying to navigate the bureaucracy of Singapore's MOM (Ministry of Manpower) has been quite maddening. I have spent hours just trying to cancel a work permit to no avail.

And now we are trying to get a PIO card for me and a COI card for Booty. Lots of paperwork which we retained from our last effort thank goodness.

And a big

THANK YOU to Dr. Lakshmi who is staying here and doing wonderful work with every person who walks through the door.
We are so lucky to have her here. She saw the H this morning and he walked downstairs with a big smile on his face and I know there was a good session that took place between them. What blessings!!!

This week we had some new friends over for a lovely, relaxed afternoon. The back of Davina is shown here as she watches Booty who is "waiting for a bag-ride". Her daughters Sophia and Olivia painstakingly sculpt many bread dough figures in between playing with the little energy girl. Davina's girls have been home-schooled for the past two years and their ability to work with what they have is quite impressive. I have never met such independent and content spirits. But also it must be noted that their mum is someone I would describe as angelic, in the classic sense. Light seems to surround her.



I continue to marvel at the book, Secret History of the World by Jonathan Black published by Quercus in 2008. Below are some brief passages.

After a mention of ancient man's view of 'biorhythms" (the relationship between the earth and the moon, sun and seasons) he proceeds-
"But beyond these more obvious rhythms, the ancients recognized how other, more mathematically complex rhythms that involve the outer reaches of the cosmos work their way into human life. Humans breathe on average 25,920 times per day, which is the number of years in a great Platonic year ( i.e. the number of years it takes for the sun to complete a full cycle of the zodiac). The average or 'ideal' human life, seventy two years also has the same number of days in it."

Also deeply affecting:
"We saw earlier that gods, angels and spirits were believed to be emanations from the great cosmic mind- Thought Beings in other words. What I am asking you to consider now is that these great Thought-Beings expressed themselves through people. If today we naturally think of people thinking, in ancient times they thought of Thoughts peopling."

Thoughts peopling.

A good remedy for birthday anxiety is a long and strenuous walk. We took one to Clark Quay, which is a bit commercial especially with the canal tour. But Booty enjoyed the walk and boat ride and frankly, we were just glad to get out of the house.

Beeswax fruit anyone?

I know it may seem weird after all the regular ranting and raving that happens here in this blog but let me just say,
I LOVE MY MACBOOK PRO.
I mean, (to steal from Woody Allen) I don't just love it, I lowwwb it, I Laaaaave it!
There are all these ways of organizing things. And tweeking. And making things easy! This I need. Especially now.

Open House at the school was very busy. I ended up staying in the bread baking room to help out and never got the chance to mingle downstairs or purchase Waldorfy items. It was nice to chat with some new families who are considering Waldorf.

Of course the visiting dads were all, "Will my child know the quadradic equation by the time they graduate Kindergarten?" and we, the crazy Anthropops were all, "Oh No!!! All we ever do is sheer sheep and spin wool and don't you know books are the devil's work!?" but luckily some Waldorf graduates were present and they sort of calmed everyone down by saying stuff like, "Really! You people act like you never met before. Please let me introduce you, again..." so esoteric. (Please forgive me for joking like this. It must be done.)

But I AM a hopeless salesperson. My attitude has got to change. I really do understand that Waldorf education isn't for everyone. I just don't understand why.

I was recently accused (or so it felt) of being high and mighty, that is, someone told me, "Do you think your family or the world owe you something?" And my response is, yes. They owe me the privilege of belonging. When I am in pain I don't want to be told to "suck it up", do you? I want to be held. If not literally, figuratively. But the liability of growing up in New England (a place I will always love) is a sort of rugged individualism. Get on with it! So here I am. And here I go. Getting on with it.