Working Towards a Lighthearted Childhood
"In the eyes of many ambitious Chinese parents, a lighthearted childhood is being regarded as a waste of time”. Headlines such as this one appear in articles about the situation of children in China. Whereas children living in Chinese cities suffer under the pressure to perform well from the beginning of their kindergarten age, many children in rural areas do not even have the opportunity to study for a longer period of time. Unfortunately there are still around 120 million illiterate people living in a rural environment, a figure, which is obviously unthinkable in the cities of the country. Here children are being urged to study and achieve success.
A few years ago, I talked to a young Chinese woman, now working at a Waldorf oriented kindergarten in Beijing, who told me about her education at an elite school and later on at an elite university, where she successfully graduated in biochemistry. However aged 32 this woman now works at the Waldorf kindergarten and in doing so she is proud to have made a decision, for the first time in her life, which has not been chosen according to her fathers perception.
More and more young Chinese parents are getting interested in alternative educational concepts, in order to protect their children from the experience of a success oriented heteronomous studying and lifestyle in general. This is the basis on which playgroups, following the guidelines of Waldorf education, are being founded since 2004.
Often parents and kindergartens tried the concept of Montessori education for the time being and then later on discovered the concept of Waldorf Education while following up some Internet research. In the meantime several such playgroups exist in some of the big cities with 8-10 children each.
The kindergarten teachers attend training courses, which are being held in the three regions of Chengdu, Guangzhou and Beijing.
In order to coordinate the huge demand for mentors and training supervisors and the immense attractiveness of China as a country in a meaningful way and at the same time preserve a realistic quality, the Friends of Waldorf Education have installed an experienced kindergarten teacher together with IASWECE (International Association for Steiner/Waldorf Early Childhood Education) and the educational section of the Goetheanum. She will take over the role as such a coordinator and at the same time she will be responsible to adjust training curriculums accordingly. This is a huge progress. On this basis we hope that early childhood Waldorf education will develop on solid roots in China.
Nana Göbel
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