Coronavirus – practical suggestions for distanced-learning at home: “Teaching is a relationship-based profession”

Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland, 2 April 2020

“Teaching is a relationship-based profession”
Coronavirus: Practical suggestions for distanced-learning at home

Due to the measures being taken against the Sars-CoV-2 virus, teachers and parents are now teaching children and adolescents via multimedia or directly at home. The Pedagogical Section at the Goetheanum publishes tips on individual relationship management, age-appropriate content, and how to include the full world of the senses and more on its blog.

Nobody asked for this. But Joep Eikenboom, a teacher at the Dordtse Vrije School in the Netherlands, writes: “Have no fear of […] this modern technology, but show children that a human being can cope with any and all circumstances.” One way to help is to create a daily structure with specific schedules for teaching and for recreation activities.

“The teaching profession is a relationship-based profession par excellence,” says Florian Osswald, a high school teacher and Co-Leader of the Pedagogical Section at the Goetheanum. Distance learning at home is more about how teachers remain available for students and parents and also the school for the parents. Personal concerns can also be discussed in a conversation using internet tools. Through questions to the children such as “What are you enjoying at the moment?,” and the exchange of the results of the pupils‘ work among themselves, a class or course can stay in contact via the tangible school content.

Florian Osswald sees “numerous new possibilities offered by digital media,” and at the same time experiences “the limits of digitalisation.” In doing so, he is alluding to the age-appropriate use of digital media: For children, it can help transmit information through their parents, for young people, working on computers offers new learning experiences. For all age groups, it is possible through homeschooling to take on household tasks, to reflect on observations of nature in a journal using words and drawings, and thus also to stay practically active, including the full world of the senses, for example, handicrafts, handwork and playing music.

Thomas Stöckli, co-director of the Academy for Anthroposophical Pedagogy in Dornach, Switzerland, emphasizes that all the adults involved are responsible for creating balance and opportunities for personal regeneration.

(2186 Characters/SJ; translation by Bettina Hindes)

Blog for Homeschooling www.goetheanum-paedagogik.ch/en/homeschooling

Contact Person Katharina Stemann, katharina.stemann@goetheanum.ch