Waldorf Education has many unique aspects that add to the richness of the overall curriculum.  One of these aspects is the handwork curriculum, but what exactly is handwork, and why is it such an important part of the larger Waldorf curriculum?  In most Waldorf schools, handwork includes, but is not limited to, knitting, crocheting, hand sewing, embroidery, cross stitch, wet felting, paper crafts and machine sewing.  It is taught as a specific subject, but it often permeates other aspects of the curriculum.

Many handwork skills are integral to various cultures around the world.  In our modern society, many of us often see handwork, but we don’t always realize what it is or how it happens.  When you buy a crocheted purse at Target, you many not realize that somewhere in the world someone is busily crocheting those purses.  Any item of clothing you buy was probably sewn by someone on a sewing machine.  In the past, a sewing machine was a staple of many homes, like a stove or an iron. Nowadays, not every child can identify a sewing machine or realize its purpose.

Many of the examples of handwork around us are mass produced, and that mass production is often guided by need and provides a livelihood for many around the world.  However, handwork can be a very individual task as well.  What many of us often forget is that these practical tasks are often connected to the intellectual and creative aspects of a human being, and it is this impulse that was strongly felt by the founder of Waldorf schools, Rudolf Steiner.  Handwork has been a part of general education of the human being for a long time.  It arose out of necessity, such as the need for clothes or useful items, but often evolved with a more complex purpose.  You might imagine the complicated patterns found on rugs in the Middle East or the American southwest — needed household items infused with symbolism and meaning.  Even in our own country up until the 1980’s, aspects of handwork were still taught in many public schools under the name of home economics.  When we move away from handwork as a part of education, something is lost.  Steiner recognized this and formally integrated handwork into his curriculum for the Waldorf schools.

Knitting, which is taught in first grade, was an aspect of handwork that especially appealed to Steiner.  He often referred to “thinking as cosmic knitting”.  When you take ideas and put them together to form more complicated thoughts, it is similar to the process of knitting where one thread is pulled up again and again to create a fabric.  But handwork for the Waldorf student starts much earlier than first grade knitting. Handwork begins in the Waldorf kindergarten.  It may appear as the chopping of vegetables for soup, the kneading of bread dough, making a belt from a finger chain or a crown from flowers, folding your napkin, or even as basic as tying your shoes.  These simple activities are the foundation for a sense of self reliance and also create an unconscious pool of knowledge which can be drawn from when later subjects such as physics, geometry, or other areas of math and science.

The handwork curriculum weaves through the grades.  Very simple knitting, which often has a balanced sense of using both hands, is taught in first grade.  Crochet, which focuses more on a child’s dominant hand — the one used for writing, may begin in second grade and is often one of the mainstays of third grade.  Sometimes in third or fourth grade there is a return to knitting.  Purling is often taught around this age or later.  The backward gesture of purling, as opposed to the forward gesture of knitting, is taught at a time when children have left the dreamy world of first and second grade and can be more aware of the world around them— especially the “backward space” behind them.  In third or fourth grade, students are often introduced to simple embroidery and the use of a sharp needle.  This activity ties in with the awakening that accompanies the 9-10 change.  In fourth grade the emphasis is also on cross stitch as the students begin the journey of crossing from childhood into adolescence.

There are other hidden gifts found within the handwork curriculum. Current research shows a connection between fine motor skills and brain development.  Activities such as knitting or crocheting also involve using both sides of the brain.  Other skills reinforced by handwork are as basic as eye tracking and numeracy.  The eye tracking which can be as simple as following a stitch from one knitting needle to the other or creating a mirror image pattern on a cross stitch bookmark is a big help for developing and strengthening reading skills.  Number skills are essential to all types of handwork — knitting, crocheting, sewing, cross stitch.  How many stitches did you cast on?  Did you lose any?  How far apart are your running stitches?  How much do you add to this pattern for your seam allowance?

In addition to the sense of self reliance and the intellectual aspects addressed in handwork, there are creative and heartfelt aspects as well. There are artistic and expressive opportunities for students within the work.  Students often give the items they make as gifts to loved ones. Sometimes a class may make an entire project for another group.  For example, a community service group made up of seventh and eighth graders might sew pillow cases for a daycare or knit hats for newborns. On a more widespread note of care, handwork can instill a sense of value and concern for the environment.  If you can sew a hole in your jeans or replace a button on an article of clothing, those items can continue to have use.  So often our society tends towards the disposable gesture. Instead of throwing something out, we can repair it and continue to use it.  In addition, Waldorf schools often use natural materials.  These materials, such as wool, cotton, linen, silk, or rayon, come from renewable resources unlike petroleum based fibers.  Like all of the aspects of Waldorf education, the handwork curriculum integrates the intellect, a sense of care, and practical skills to create strong human beings ready to meet the world.