Waldorf Anyone? - Ben Slavic

This morning a member of our group and a gifted TCI teacher sent me this in an email:

…my dream is to work in an alternative school, like a Waldorf school, where kids are treated like human beings, and creativity encouraged….

Then a few minutes later I got another email from someone who just ordered both of my books in ebook form:

…I am so excited about TPRS. It is the perfect addition to the Waldorf curriculum….

Of course, this idea that comprehension based instruction and the Krashen Way (my term) is perfect for Waldorf or alternative schools/learning environments, etc. in which

…kids are treated like human beings, and technology is eschewed and creativity encouraged….

raises the question if we might be a bit foolish in trying to push a square ball of a thousand pounds up an impossible mountain, given what only we know about trying to bring comprehensible input into the standard schools of today.

I say we are the only ones who know how hard it is, we in the TPRS/TCI world, because we are the only ones doing it, or at least trying it. Krashen isn’t doing it and even he says this about us – and I got this from Contee Seely:

…one significant thing that is lacking in Krashen’s approach to this and other questions is that he is not a language teacher and, so, doesn’t have the hands-on experience of a language teacher. I have heard him say that (some) teachers have the experience that he lacks and that their effective practices are more important than his opinion….

So just throwing that out there.