Forest Kindergartens in Whatcom?

Bob Keller is an historian and editor of the photo essay book Whatcom Places. In 2004 RE Sources named him an “Environmental Hero” for his work with the Whatcom Land Trust. In 2005, the Community Food Co-op honored him as a “Cooperator of the Year” for community service.

The forest as a place for experiencing life invites you to climb, leap, balance, and to get in touch with yourself, to realize your strengths. Wind and sunlight playing on the leaves, the smell of damp earth, the humming, buzzing and chirping of forest creatures, all this enlivens the senses to produce a profound experience.

- “Waldkindergarten”
(M. Bode, trans.)

In early morning the column of small children trudge across a field on a one-lane road, turn left onto a dirt path, walk another quarter-mile, then disappear into the Black Forest of southwestern Germany. Five hours later these three- to six-year-olds come back over the same route. Whether rain, snow, sun or sleet, this happened every late autumn weekday in 2003. When we returned to Germany two years later, it still happened—so we decided to investigate. That led to the discovery of something called Das Waldkindergarten Dreisamtal Gruppe Buchenbach: a village branch of the Dreisamtal Forest Kindergarten, a preschool in the German woods.

After reading some literature, interviewing teachers, meeting parents, and reflecting on what has largely disappeared from American childhood experience, it became apparent that this place had an educational message worth pursuing in Whatcom County. German forest kindergartens are much more than outdoor day-care centers; rather, they are schools founded on a deliberate pedagogy.

Forest kindergartens actually began in Denmark during the 1990s as a means to provide inexpensive preschools for children living in poverty. The concept soon spread to Germany, which now has over 500 sites. The one near our home 15 miles east of the Rhine River began in the summer of 2003. It currently has 18 students, two instructors, two dogs and one intern. I interviewed the teachers, Peter Larsen and Michael Ditteney, last December.

This location in the Black Forest, Larsen and Ditteney explain, had been carefully selected for its woods, trails and auto access in case of emergency, plus having a nearby parking lot where parents can safely deliver children. However, any parking had to be a 30-45 minute walk to reach the small Bauwagen (literally, “wagon building”) where indoor learning also occurs. The hike begins and ends each school day. Complex negotiations for this site involved a neighboring farmer, a clinic that owns the walking route, village government that owns the land and the area forester who can veto any activity (Germans are exceptionally fussy about their timberland).

Students bring breakfast and eat meals together. Warm clothing and a backpack are mandatory. Except for designated Wednesdays, the school allows no manufactured toys or tools, forcing the children to depend upon natural materials and their own ability to create implements of work or play. Kids swim nude in a nearby pond, they cross a creek walking on a single rope with a hand-line and they sing to Peter Larsen’s guitar.

On special Wednesdays students bring a favorite toy to share. Twice a month, again on Wednesdays, they travel to visit farms, museums, businesses, craftspeople or the Freiburg cathedral (Freiburg is between Heidelburg and Basel in the Rhine valley). During the week of my visit these children had observed a sheep fleecing.

Parents may visit, join the class and host parties. Peter and Michael visit student homes twice a year to evaluate the program and report each child’s progress. Tuition runs $120/month (U.S.). Teachers possess ample preparation. Peter, for example, holds a university degree in science education, plus special Waldkindergarten training and an internship. He previously taught 13-15 year-olds, then sought out this job because he enjoys the age group and prefers to work outdoors. He and Michael embrace the required Waldkindergarten pedagogy; both find their vocation here personally fulfilling.

This preschool stresses language development and dealing with emotions, as well as physical movement to develop motor control and kinetic responses (“to be at one with their bodies,” as Peter puts it, “children this age require physical activity, not sitting.”) Music and song serve these ends. A German forest kindergarten seeks balance between freedom and discipline. “No walls exist in the forest,” Michael observes, yet the school closely follows established routines. For instance, each day ends with a 20-minute story told indoors with students required to sit quietly and listen closely.

At a pizza house in the town of Kirchzarten I joined the school’s 2005 annual meeting with several dozen parents. After Peter’s brief talk about policy, theory and curriculum, parents asked questions and gave Christmas presents to the instructors. An easy, relaxed tone prevailed, with much laughing and good humor assisted by beer, wine and hot chocolate. Drink and small size helped, but the evening arose from a shared conviction that parents and teachers must connect.

Four basic principles, translated here from the German, sum up Waldkindergarten philosophy:

•“Nature, with its vast sources for play, provides space for the emergence of a child's fantasies, curiosity and creativity.

•“Direct contact with Nature allows the minds of children to develop a sensitive appreciation for the earth.

•“The forest provides an ideal place for children to move freely about, thereby developing trust and gaining self-confidence.

•“In free play, above all, but also through daily routines, children gain competence in social relationships and in resolving conflicts.”

For environmentalists and everyone else, an important message—a warning to put it more bluntly—underlies the mission of these forest kindergartens: deep psychological appreciation of forests, farmland, seashores, animals or mountain meadows is not formed in adulthood. Als Erwachsener schuetzen wir das, was wir als Kind kennen und lieben gelearnt haben. “As adults we treasure that which we have known and loved as children.” §