“My Expirence at Njeri’s Morning Glory School and Art Center” - Fujimi Furuya
If you are looking for an education that will develop your child’s personality and cultivate the power to go through life, you wil find it at Njeri’s Morning Glory School in San Jose.
My family moved to the Bay area due to relocation of my husband’s job. Prior to that, we were living in Europe. We say that Europeans love all sorts of arts and enjoy life according to their own sense of value.That made us realize that our mother country, Japan, is too focused on the economy and material things.
We were blessed with a daughter seven years ago. She is very social and likes to have friends. She is interested in so many things but soon gets tired of them. She is free like the wind or a an autumn butterfly…
She entered a public kindergarten near our house two years ago. Since her school was in the Cupertino School District, their education was solely academic oriented. Her teacher was earnest, but my daughter started losing her cheerful personality little by little. She didn’t like to be forced to do the same thing at the same pace with others. Her teacher told us that she didn’t perform well against academic target during our conference. We felt that the school didn’t fit our daughter.
Building the body and self confidence
My daughter was taking Teacher Njeri’s Art class at that time. We had heard that Teacher Njeri is a specialist on the development of children. I went to see her. As soon as I got into the classroom, I felt so peaceful since the room was filled with a warm atmosphere, with the natural materials, with mellow colored fabrics, and most of all, the teachers’ warm energy. The snack for children on that day was millet poured in the potteries made by the teacher. The napkins were cloths. They wash and reuse them over again.
Teacher Njeri told me, “We should let children gather together slowly as they are comfortable. Then, they will feel that they are accepted, as they are, and obtain inner-confidence. The children who cannot stay still, have not played long enough. We just let them play as long as they can. Once they were satisfied with it, they will start to sit, listen and have concentration. What is needed for Kindergarteners is to build their body and self-confidence.”
My daughter started to go to Njeri’s Morning School from the end of March 2008. She stopped saying “I don’t want to go to school”. It was around 2 weeks later, when I picked up my daughter, Teacher Njeri told me excitedly, “The most wonderful thing happened in school today! One child had trouble with another student and cried, when the others came and surrounded him at a distance, your daughter stepped forward and hugged the child crying. At that moment, the atmosphere in the school changed! After she joined our school, the school turned more cheerful. God brought a sun to this school!”
One month passed and my daughter started to say, “I can do it. Let me do it”, although she always had said “I can’t do it”. She even started to practice monkey bars which she had never tried till then……
My daughter became a first grader last September. Her teacher is Mr. Salim. Every morning he shakes hands with each student, looking in their eyes and saying calmly, “Good Morning, xxxx”. He has a very calm disposition that broadcasts over them. Mr. Salim wathes the children very carefully. It is very important to observe children at Waldorf’s school. They work very hard to prevent any prejudice from judging children easily. The reason is that the education will never start until the teacher knows each child.
Their curriculum is unique, for example, the main lesson, after the students have class, they write down the lesson in their big notebook of 12 x 17 inches in adding illustrations with crayons. Waldorf style education has no text book. That is why students make their own book. I have visited Mr. Salim’s class. He started mathematics by telling a story. I was excited by the imaginative verses introduced throughout the story and was then thrilled to know what was coming next! I was so surprised to see that he had done it almost without reading anything. When doing multiplication we used hands and feet to the rhythm. It remained in my heart with beautiful impression. I realized that Waldolf education contains the elements of arts and the cultivation of aesthetic sentiments to touch their emotion and to nourish the mind at any age.
There are special classes as well such as Music and Spanish class taught (once a week) and Handwork class (twice a week). The first Handwork project was to knit a hen out of wool and to make a nest with corn husk. My daughter hummed a poem like song and knitted it pleasantly. It went like this…. “♪Into the front gate (put the knitting needle into the stitch), run around the back (hang the thread on the needle), peep to the window (insert the needle into the stitch), and off jump Jack! (pull out the needle through the stitch)….”
Mrs. Eva Wang is the Handwork teacher. “Handwork strengthens children’s concentration. They study practical mathematics by adding and subtracting the number of stitches. They establish self-confidence when they complete their works. They know how hard it is to make one object , it’s hard for them to undo the stitches and to start over again when they have mistakes. This grows their mind to cherish things. They learn a philosophy from it that they are able to use again when they faces troubles in their life. ”
Friday is “Nature day” and they all go on a hike. When it rains, they wear their rain coats. There is nothing better than having real experience to feel the mysteries of nature. It will be the base of every branch of learning to know the world surrounding the children.
Marvelous talent sleeping
There is another word that Teacher Njeri talked about of my daughter. She pointed at the center of her chest with her forefinger and said, “Your daughter has her marvelous talent, sleeping in the recess of her heart. However, not everyone can open the door. Since the door is very sensitive, only a few who know that very well, need to open it slowly and very carefully. She is waiting to be opened.” I believe that her word fits all children and the teachers of Morning Glory School are the “ few” who are able to open the door.