Forest Kindergartens Revisited

Bob Keller is a historian and editor of the photo-essay book Whatcom Places II. 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.

Now numbering over 500, forest kindergartens (der Waldkindergarten) flourish in Germany. As explained in an earlier Whatcom Watch (July 2006, page 11) they are a pre-school program, small in size, with parental involvement, aimed at giving small children sustained personal connections with nature. Richard Louv’s book “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder” (Algonquin Books, 2005) convincingly explains the environmental and human necessity of such early childhood experiences.

Since our last visit to the Black Forest in 2005, the Gummelwald forest kindergarten located a quarter-mile from our apartment has not only persisted but, following a trend across Germany, thrived. Two dedicated teachers, Peter Larsen and Michael Ditteney with their dogs Johnty and Mara, assisted by two volunteer interns Maike Dams and Katharina Klein, instruct the three- to five-year-olds. Enrollment has reached 19, one short of the limit.

Funding for the school has more than doubled, thanks to successful legal efforts to compel local and regional governments to financially support such private education programs as the Waldkindergarten and Waldorf schools, which poses a major difference from what is possible in the U.S. Even with a public subsidy, parents here pay 110 Euros ($160) a month for tuition.

A serious problem arose last year at this particular school. The kindergarten truly sits in a forest — with its Bauwagen (farm wagon), which serves as a sparingly used indoor classroom, surrounded by towering trees. However, local safety regulations decree that no such structure can be within 30 meters of a large tree, presenting the dilemma of either felling over two dozen mature spruce trees or exiting the woods.

With land under the jurisdiction of the village of Buchenbach, the solution involved extended discussion and negotiation. Resolution arrived when the village government allowed the kindergarten to move its portable classroom onto an adjacent pasture, sufficient meters from the nearest spruce. The irony arose out of the customary German hyper-protection of trees coming into direct conflict with creative environmental education. Simple ideas seldom remain simple.

The pedagogy of the forest kindergarten changed little during the two years since our last visit. The government had passed a few new requirements for teaching science that will take effect in 2009, but most of these concepts are already practiced here.

The goal of bonding children to nature at an early age remains the same: having direct contact with everything found in a forest while learning to use their own bodies as well as learning how to improvise new playthings and tools from natural materials — rocks, leaves, sticks and stones. The kindergarteners engage trees, plants, vines, insects, water, weather and streams. They learn about animals, hunters, farmers and proper outdoor attire.

Music provides another resource. Peter plays his guitar at the morning circle followed by breakfast, a period of silence, and then more singing. Children handle and use musical instruments, not to achieve proficiency (unless there is a Mozart hiding among these three- to five-year-olds) but merely to develop motor control and relate their bodies to various types of tools.

One hopes that the Waldkindergarten idea can take hold in Whatcom County and the Pacific Northwest. Local individuals with interest in such pathways are Aimee Frazier who runs her own program, Gene Myers of Huxley College and Tracie Johannesson at the North Cascades Institute. Peter Larsen will visit Bellingham in April to share insights about his successful program in the Black Forest. Anyone wishing to meet him can contact me at (360) 734-9641. §

Besides Richard Louv, other important sources are:

• Robin Moore, “Natural Learning: the Life of an Environmental Schoolyard” (MIG Communications, 1997);

• Gary Paul Nabhan, “The Geography of Childhood: Why Children Need Wild Places” (Beacon Press, 1995);

• Edward O. Wilson, “Biophilia” (Harvard University Press, 1986).

For German readers, see

• Ingrid Millitz, Der Waldkindergarten: Dimensionen eines paegagogischen Ansatzes (Weinheim: Beltz Verlag, 2004, 3rd edition).