Dear SWS Community,
As the number of cases of COVID-19 begins to increase dramatically and with positive cases in our state, our school has made the difficult decision to move to remote learning, which we are calling Outside the Box. Starting Monday, March 16th, we will close our campus. This decision was not made lightly; it was through a great many conversations among trustees, faculty, administration and our medical advisory task force.
Although our own students are not at high risk coming to school, social distancing is imperative to protect the more vulnerable members of our wider community.
The faculty will be participating in three days of in-service March 16 - 18 to meet, plan and prepare for the work to continue over the coming weeks so that our students can keep up with the year’s curriculum or families can be supported at the early childhood level with structure, rhythm and program. As part of their planning, the faculty will need to know what your family’s technical capabilities are. Please complete the tech survey if you have not done so, so that we can support your family in accessing the information and materials.
We will begin offering our program remotely on Thursday, March 19th for all ages, and expect all students to participate fully. To mitigate the numbers of people in our school, we will be open Monday and Tuesday 12-3 for you to pick up student materials and belongings. Curriculum content will be available on Thursday, and if you need to make a single trip, you can pick up your child’s belongings as well as curriculum at that time. Parent-teacher conferences will take place over the phone at the pre-arranged times this week. Please note that this is an evolving situation and we will update you as soon as possible if our plan needs to change. Thank you for being flexible as we navigate these rapidly changing circumstances.
Through March 27, we will run the Outside the Box distance learning programs for all students. We will observe Spring Break as planned from March 30 – April 10. We will reassess the situation as time progresses and hope to resume on-site learning as soon as we can.
One of the most stressful aspects of this situation is the unknown. Whether to remain open or closed, how COVID-19 is transmitted, how to contain the spread, when we will be able to return to life as normal. We cannot give you a date when we will come together again. That is unsettling for us, and we can only imagine how it might feel for our children. Continuing to nurture our sense of community, which is one of the core values of the Sandpoint Waldorf School, will guide us and help us to meet this challenge with courage and grace.
Right now, the entire world is taking a step back – slowing down and reducing activities – for the sake of those who would be most affected by COVID-19. This is a beautiful act of selflessness that we too will embrace. We recognize the hardship this creates for all of us; this comes at a tremendous cost, inconvenience, and financial expense for the world. We are intending to navigate this time with renewed strength and a greater empathy for the beautiful world in which we live.
The verse below from Rudolf Steiner is the verse that the board and the faculty speak at the start of their meetings. May it help all of us navigate this time with courage, empathy, and strength.
We will update the SWS community as we develop plans in the coming days.
Warmly,
SWS Administration
A Verse for Our Time
We must eradicate from the soul
All fear and terror of what comes towards man out of the future.
We must acquire serenity
In all feelings and sensations about the future.
WE must look forward with absolute equanimity
To everything that may come.
And we must think only that whatever comes
IS given to us by a world-directive full of wisdom.
It is part of what we must learn in this age,
Namely, to live out of pure trust,
Without any security in existence.
Trusting in the ever present help
Of the spiritual world.
Truly, nothing else will do
If your courage is not to fail us.
And let us seek the awakening from within ourselves
Every morning and every evening.
-Rudolf Steiner
How to talk to your Child about Current Events?
The third grade parent meeting discussed this question in a recent parent meeting. Below is an excerpt from Clare Stansberry's class email.
A major question that was asked our recent parent meeting, and that some of you may have experienced, was "how do we handle current events?" It's such a rich question, and it is one that the children are asking as well. They want to know the world better, and are bound to encounter some of the darker edges of the world.
Baseline to this question: proceed with caution. We want to be exceedingly careful in how we expose children to current events, and erring on the side of overprotective at this age is reasonable.
I think there are two major considerations for exposing children to some of these things. First, we must consider their ability to comprehend the event. The children's world is still mostly in the realm of the family unit. If they have family (who they know well) in faraway places, their sense of the world is that we have family here and there. Distance, time, and space are all still abstract for the children, so we must be careful in how we expose them to things. In their minds, Seattle and Switzerland may be equally distant. When they hear about things that are far away, those things can feel very close to home. Relating things far away to events close to home can help ground the children in reality. I would use this strategy when children hear about things incidentally, and come home asking about distant events. Acknowledging and then changing the subject can also help to assuage their curiosity.
The second consideration is whether their knowledge of this event causes them fear or anxiety. Children in the 9th year still tend toward the view that the world is good, and we want to foster their interest in the world without causing undue fear. Teaching children to be worried about cars is one thing; teaching them to be worried about political events around the world is quite another. We want their worries to be in proportion to their lives and immediately actionable. By this, I mean that we want them to be able to do something in the community when they feel anxious. If they are wondering about people going hungry, let them pick out a can of food each time you go to the store to donate to the food bank. If they are worried about wildlife, look for ways to care for the flora and fauna in your neighborhood. Find ways that work for you and your family to transform these fears about the world into action. We want the children to form a direct relationship with the world, and not shy away from it because they are afraid.
If you are finding that your child is asking questions about current events, or hears about them from siblings or friends, turn first to your child and check in with them. Connect with them about their own lives and their concerns. Part of gaining orientation in the world is learning to appreciate your own perspective. When we take the children's thoughts and feelings seriously, they get the benefit of connecting with and feeling affirmed by the love of those around them. The broader world has many difficult situations in it, and what we want first is that the children take an interest world despite its challenges. By giving them some protection and loving guidance, we keep their rich, imaginative, sensitive selves open to new experiences.
Submitted by Clare Stansberry, Grade 3 Teacher