Before the big outcry starts: I am not an agitator against concepts. I think concepts are great. Yes, also Waldorf and Montessori. To be precise, my children even go to a Waldorf day care center, where they eat millet porridge and greet the season every morning with a round dance. I think it's great, really, I love it. What should I complain about in rituals, mindfulness with nature and healthy eating? Bring it on! What I love a little less are some parents I meet there. I am sure that some of them have a Rudolf Steiner shrine with incense cones in their bedroom. There is no other way to explain the sublime attachment to his over 100-year-old anthroposophical ideas. Because these parents know how happiness works. So anthroposophical happiness. And I don't know Because my kids eat sugar. Help!!! You have Lego. From plastic!!! And they listen to radio plays. OH MY GOD!!!
The divine child has a nickname
My best friend gave her child to a Montessori kindergarten last year. Out of conviction, not for lack of options, as it was with us with Waldorf. I was a little scared to be honest. Would I soon have to be careful not to disturb her "divine child" (the Montessori ideal) in his rhythm? Would I have to read in first to know how to address your offspring? When my girlfriend, after initial euphoria, told me with a roll of eyes that her child was consistently addressed by the educator by his full name and not by his nickname, I could have smooched her. She hadn't given up her brain with the registration forms. What luck! Because Montessori, Waldorf and Co are not the problem at all. The problem is parents and educators who pretend that an educational concept is the sectoid truth set in stone. The only one. On every single point.
It's not that easy
Montessori and Waldorf are really just popular examples now. In the end, I mean any kind of dogmatic upbringing. Once I was at an event with Jesper Juul, a well-known family therapist. I know many who consider him the Pope of Education and I myself am always impressed by his principles. Anyway, Jesper Juul told on stage about a conversation with a woman. "She said she did everything exactly as it says in my books. And I just thought: poor child!" Yes, that's exactly what he said, good Mr. Juul. Since this experience at the latest, I really consider him a very, very clever man. Because educating is difficult. It is individual. It is exhausting. And it's just not that easy to leave every decision to an expert, concept or popular movement. Not even Jesper Juul.
The world doesn't work like that, damn it
Anyone who thinks I think I have eaten the wisdom of education with spoons is very wrong. Honestly, I really have little idea how parenting works. Just like all the other mothers and fathers. Who knows what the world will look like in 30 years and what our children will have to do then? Who can say exactly whether agave syrup will not be revealed as a poison in 5 years? For my part, I have no idea. I can do nothing more than listen to my heart and mind, treat my children with respect and love and hope for the best for the future. Because the world is neither completely Montessori, nor completely Waldorf, nor completely sugar-free. And so I refuse to acknowledge that there should be only one truth and would rather continue to wander through the wide world of educational ideas. I'll snap something up here and there. I'm definitely doing some things completely wrong. But then at least because I didn't know better and not because it wanted some teaching from someone I don't even know. Over and out.