When I was 10 years old my mom packed up my little sister and me and moved us from Reno, Nevada to Placerville, California. The reason was to start us at Cedar Springs Waldorf School. We had already had our initial interview with our soon to be teachers, Mr. and Mrs. Connolly. The thing that stands out most to me about my interview with Mr. Connolly was that he had me read a passage from ‘The Little House on the Prairie.’ I thought I did a fine job reading out loud but I was still nervous about the possibility of not being accepted into the 5th grade class.We moved into a two bedroom white house with dark green trim that looked like a barn. You had to drive 2 miles down a long dirt road but it was worth it to make it to the beautiful and adventurous plot of 10 acres. There I found many manzanita forts in the summer and hidden waterfalls cascading through moss covered granite rocks in the winter. It was very different than the dry desert neighborhood that we moved from. This house gave me my first peak of living in the country. It also allowed me a lot of time to explore on my bike and on foot, and hide away in my many hidden manzanita groves.
My first day at Waldorf was the beginning of my 5th grade year and the beginning of my Waldorf education that continued through high school. When I first began I think there were a total of 15 students in my class. We were the oldest class and were destined to be the first graduating 8th grade class from Cedar Springs. By the time we graduated we were a grand total of 12 students, 8 boys and 4 girls.
Everyone was very kind to me as the “new girl” and it didn’t take long before I felt like I was part of the family. Everyday I looked forward to the lessons of the day, the new arts and crafts I was learning and the new songs and verses I was memorizing. Every morning we were greeted by Mr. Connolly with a “good morning” and a hand shake. The chalkboard had a quote of the day chosen by Mr. Connolly that was surrounded by a flower border that soon became familiar as Mr. Connolly’s signature border. We all recited a morning verse together and then sat down for our first lesson of the day.
Soon Mrs. Connolly came over to teach my class handwork. Since all the other students in my class had been knitting and working with yarn for a few years already they were all working on socks and mittens, but I had never even picked up a knitting needle. My first assignment was to make myself a handwork bag to store all my projects in. I hand sewed myself a bag out of blue flannel and then learned how to hand knit a drawstring to close off the top. With my bag done and ready to store a project I was ready for the next task of making a pair of needles so I could learn how to knit. I was given two dowels and some sand paper and instructed to sand down the tips on one end of each dowel until it was sharp, but not too sharp. When that was completed I waxed the whole dowel with beeswax and glued an acorn top on the unsharpened end. With my first pair of knitting needles made I was ready to learn how to cast on and knit. My first project was to knit a flute bag for my newly acquired sea flute. I carefully chose the colors I wanted to use out of the basket of yarn. Now as I look back and think about the colors I chose I laugh: pink, maroon, dark green, light green and blue. I learned how to cast on my stitches and then I learned a little rhyme that I often still recite when I knit: “In through the front door, run around the back, peak through the window, off hops jack.”
This was the beginning of my knitting experience. Under Mrs. Connolly’s instruction I later learned how to knit a pair of mittens, which turned out two different sizes, and a scarf. All through the rest of my life up until the present I have continued to knit. Now my projects consist of arm warmers, doggy sweaters and scarves. Knitting is a way for me to meditate. Thank you Mrs. Connolly for teaching me such a useful craft.
There were many arts and crafts that I learned throughout my education and I still use all of them often. I will make sure to talk about all of them in the future as they are a big part of what has shaped me as a human being. I am very grateful that I was given the opportunity to experience such a rich environment and special education.
