Celebrating Purim

By Lukas Schneider

As with many things in the Waldorf curriculum, certain subjects offer teachers a chance to learn and grow alongside their students. Being of Jewish descent, I was very excited for Grade 3's curriculum, as it involves telling stories from the Hebrew Scriptures. Parents have helped to bring the history and traditions of Judaism alive in our class this year by sharing their personal experiences of celebrating holidays. For Purim last month, one of our class parents, Robyn, joined us for a Zoom main lesson to tell us the story of Queen Esther, King Ahasuerus and Haman. She identified a central theme of Purim as bravery in the face of fear.

After hearing the story, our class discussed times when they felt afraid and had to summon courage. It was a wonderful conversation, with many anecdotes from the children. We heard about students summoning the courage to jump, ski or slide down something when faced with a large drop from a tree or a hill. This seemed like such an appropriate metaphor for the nine year old’s mood of soul. Nine and ten mark the transition time from the cosmic spheres of early childhood consciousness to the earthly realms of adulthood thinking. Quite the height to descend from-and often scary!

Next, we tied this lesson into our current block study: volumetric measurement. We used our newly learned measuring skills to bake traditional Purim cookies, called Hamantaschen!

It’s this sort of integration of learning and community building that I find so special about the Waldorf curriculum.