Why Do We Learn Handwork?
A window into one of the most special aspects of Waldorf education, with Patricia Urda
The journey of a Waldorf student can best be represented in their reactions to handwork. While not all students experience the same range of emotions related to this special subject taught in Waldorf schools around the world, many begin by falling in love with the rhythm and flow of finger-knitting, move on to eagerly clacking knitting needles in the back seat of the car or on the living room couch and eventually, usually in middle school, wonder why they’ll ever need the skills from handwork class in life.
Rudolf Steiner said, “Children who learn while they are young to make practical things by hand in an artistic way and for the benefit of others as well as themselves, will not be strangers to life or to other people when they are older. They will be able to form their lives and their relationships in a social and artistic way, so that their lives are thereby enriched.”
At Detroit Waldorf School, the handwork room is a warm and loving space. Natural light cascades through tall windows, and the scent of cotton and wool and just-cleaned hands fills the room. Sewing machines stand sentry along one wall; a rainbow of thread spools decorates an opposite wall.
Rectangular wood tables with low stools wait for children to arrive. In cubbies and on corkboards, projects in process and gifted by past students provide testimony to the heart-filled hard work that happens here.
We are lucky at Detroit Waldorf School to have a loving handwork teacher who completed Waldorf handwork teacher training. Before she joined us, Patricia Urda taught at Oakland Steiner School and devoted nearly a decade to working in arts education at Pewabic.
“Waldorf education really enriches a person,” says Patty. “As a teacher, I’m always learning new things, trying new things, building confidence. It’s interesting and fun work, and challenging, working with students in grades 1 through 8 all in one week.”
From finger knitting to crochet, cross-stitch to leatherwork, handwork develops fine motor skills, creativity, right-brain-left-brain coordination. Plus, children develop confidence that they can make what they need, gaining a sense of self-sustenance to carry through life.
Everything we do in Waldorf education aligns with what is happening for the children at that moment, deep within their being.
In first grade, they spend a lot of time in circles, a group forming. Each student makes a finger-knitted chain as long as they are tall.
In handwork, they discuss color theory, supported by stories of color fairies. Ruby is bold and adventurous; Indigo is shy, introverted. Buttercup is friends with everyone. They come together in the forest and braid their cords to play a jumping game where everyone takes a turn. As the children hear this story, they braid their pieces together to make a beautiful belt.
Children make their own knitting needles, sanding, polishing with beeswax, creating plant-dyed wooden knobs for the tops. Second graders learn to purl stitch. They make recorder cases with a handmade button closure. They build hand muscles to hold the yarn’s tension.
Color theory deepens as the children advance. Third-graders crochet, which ties in with the cursive they are learning. Plant-dying and fiber-processing connects with their farming block. They spin wool and dye yarn with onion skins. That’s another opportunity for wonder and science in our handcrafts. They are looking forward to knitting a horse, taking up the challenge to learn increase and decrease stitches to create the form.
Handwork teaches an ability and a patience to do complex things with our hands. We engage the will and the feeling as we choose colors and patterns, decide whom to make a project for, determine its use, understand its beauty. All of this contributes to the child’s budding self-esteem.
In middle school, students hand-stitch a doll, reflecting themselves on the verge of adolescence. Middle-schoolers make quilts, moccasins, socks.
Rudolf Steiner said, “If you can make your own shoes, you can do anything.” This becomes a lesson in intellect, a development of standing in a rootedness.
In the book, Teaching through Stories: Jane and Jeremy Learn to Knit, author Elizabeth Seward, who has taught handwork and mentored handwork teachers in Waldorf schools since 1984, writes: “The value of handwork extends well beyond the ability to make a cute little decorative item. Pairing thinking with action, beauty, function, and service in the work of our hands brings innumerable benefits. The place of handwork in education is to integrate and address, and hopefully also to nourish and stimulate, the whole human being – head, heart, and hands – and to challenge and support the development of the full potential of each child – physical, emotional, social, and intellectual – in a way that affirms and empowers them as a productive member of their community.”
A Los Angeles resident who has been knitting for more than 60 years, Seward is an expert on textile arts and Waldorf education. She writes: “Working with our hands directly confirms our place in a larger ecological whole…Outer stillness, imposed by the need to hold and support the knitting, leads to inner stillness, which can result in positive health benefits.”
Handwork teaches so much. Sustained attention, deferred gratification, impulse control. It sharpens observation skills and perception. Feelings of belonging blossom, as children feel anchored to the moment at hand, neither looking forward nor back, happy in the product of their hands.
To answer the wondering middle-schooler who asks why handwork?, we might reply: because in handwork, we connect directly to the soul, to our connection with self, and with community. Handwork is everything a Waldorf school aims to be!