CURRICULUM: Form Drawing DEVELOPING THE MIND AND BODY THROUGH THE ESSENTIALS OF FORM
By Kathleen Taylor
Crown above, earth below, desk before, I am ready to go. Paper held, pencil in hand, I am ready to draw Straight lines and curves with my steadiest hand. Waldorf Form Drawing Verse
Johannes Kepler (1571-1680) said: “...God in His ineffable resolve chose straightness and roundness in order to endow the world with the signature of the Divine. Thus, the All-wise originated the world of form, the total essence of which is encompassed in the contrasts of the straight and rounded line.” When I began my journey as a teacher, I was working as an assistant in a second-grade class. The class was struggling in many ways. One of my tasks was to take a boy out of the classroom for a portion of the morning as he was not able to be in the room without causing huge disruptions. So, what was I to do with him? I had no idea. Luckily, a more experienced colleague suggested that I work with him in form drawing. Every morning, he and I would go into an empty room together and work on creating symmetrical forms. This boy, who could single-handedly throw off an entire lesson, would sit and focus easily for 20 minutes on form drawing. He would get into the work and then begin to tell me all the things that were going on for him at home, including a contentious divorce between his parents. Waldorf education was new to me. I was still learning its subtle powers, but I knew something was changing for this boy as he worked on these simple forms. The work settled him and centered him. Afterward, he was able to rejoin the class. He was not suddenly an easy student but was able to be in the room with his peers and learn. I will never know if what helped was time to
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share his feelings and thoughts in a quiet space, or the practice of the drawing. Most likely, a combination. However, I have also found that if I need centering, practicing these balanced and harmonious forms works. The founder of Waldorf education, Rudolf Steiner, introduced form drawing in 1919 as a new subject for curriculum. It is drawing that is non-representational; it is not a picture of a “something.” Form drawing was intended to address the need for movement, exercise manual skills, and help develop a sense of form. Steiner also saw it as preparation for writing for those just beginning their journey through the grades. Every teacher prepares for many hours for that wonderful first day of first grade. The first lesson is a form-drawing lesson. It is the only lesson for which we are given a clear description of what should be taught. We teach the holding of the crayon, and the drawing of the straight line and the curve. From this very first lesson, all our drawing, writing, and later, geometry, flow. This is the beginning of creating something on a page with a crayon or a pencil, and later a pen. In many places, Rudolf Steiner expresses the need to develop the intellect through the artistic. He writes, “It is meant, that especially in the very young child, that the intellect, the intelligence which works isolated in the soul, ought not yet to be developed. How-
