The Story of Job / The Middle Ages

As I wrote back in my Favorite Picture Books for the Old Testament post,

"I have LOTS of notes for this block on my website since it was the very first Waldorf block I taught. Back in 2006, when the girls were still quite small (ages 1, 2, and 4) and I was first researching the curriculum used in Waldorf education, I was so eager to teach a real Waldorf main lesson block that I offered to teach Sunday School at my church! I knew that I had a ton of resources and teaching ideas inside my Waldorf books. And we did the Old Testament stories and the Waldorf Third Grade class plays for years and years. It was really fun. And I always thought quite funny that the church never noticed that we never got to the New Testament!"

The Waldorf "stories" curriculum traditionally presents the Old Testament Stories in 3rd grade, around the time of the 9 year change, when children are going through developmental changes and working through quite a bit of self creation and transformation. The Creation part of the Old Testament appeals to them, as do the different moral conflicts and how they are resolved. (For more on this, the book Rubicon, a collection of quotes from Steiner, is available free online at the Online Waldorf Library.) It is seen as a piece of the World Mythology curriculum; it is NOT religious education.

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if you're curious to see the whole curriculum from soup to nuts, as it were, here is a very nice free resource

Emerson Waldorf School
Curriculum Guide (PDF)

covers Early Childhood through Grade 12

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This year I arranged things so that my 9-10 year olds would be doing the Old Testament Stories at the same time as my oldest student would be doing the Middle Ages and the Renaissance/Reformation.

I'm glad I did!

It has been so interesting for them to hear the folklore -- the shared stories of the Abrahamic Religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) -- presented side by side with the history. These stories are more than stories. These stories affected daily life. These stories changed the history of the world!

My students have seen clearly how the Christian faith deeply pervaded all aspects of dailiy medieval life. The harshness of daily life and the comfort that faith brings, the unwavering belief in heaven-sent signs and omens, the terrifying plagues looming over everyone, the monasteries quietly keeping learning alive, the feudal system with its strict hierarchies but also its unanswered questions (is the King on top? is the Pope? we see power continually swing back and forth), the pilgrimages, the constant struggles to convert the infidels, the battles over the Holy Land... it's all fascinating. Second Grade, when children learn some of the famous Saints, is also a good pairing with Sixth Grade Medieval History, with its obsession with holy relics.

I'm really curious to see what they say when we get to King Henry VIII and the Reformation... and if they can understand why it was such a big deal!

Waldorf doesn't shy away from strong themes in its literature curriculum (the Grimm's fairy tales in first grade, the North Mythology in fourth grade, etc.) because children are often drawn to -- and identify with -- great struggles between good and evil. However, I have always held a question in my mind about one piece of the Old Testament Story collection. That is, what to do with the story of Job? I've found two retellings, the "Heliodorus" and "Job" chapter from We Will Build a Temple: The Path of Israel from King Solomon to John the Baptist by Jakob Streit, and Regina Doman's little book.

We Will Build a Temple:
The Path of Israel from King Solomon to John the Baptist
retold by Jakob Streit

The Story of Job
retold by Regina Doman

Part of my struggle with when and how to present this story is that I can't decide whether it's a happy story (about faith) or a sad story (about death). I think adults tend to feel it is about the triumph of faith over adversity.

quote from Job 5:9

In my experience, however, children seem to perceive it as a story about death. The first time I taught this block at the homeschool co-op, it was to children who were 12. For her MLB page, Becca drew 10 little gravestones and the summary of the story of Job above them.

The second time I taught this block at the homeschool co-op, I debated whether to include this story, writing in my notes on the webpage,

"... I debated over this story for a long time and finally just did not do it because it is so strong. But chronologically there is interesting evidence that it happened much earlier in the Old Testament, and should probably go before The Binding of Isaac. I can't see, though, having it be THAT early in the block since it really is hard on children! Jakob Streit saves it for the end of book 3. Imagine if it wasn't. First Adam and Eve get kicked out of the Garden of Eden, then nearly everyone on Earth drowns in a huge flood, then Lot's wife turns to a pillar of salt because she looked over her shoulder, then 10 of Job's children die for no reason, and then Abraham gets ready to kill his son Isaac. Harsh!"

When in History Does the Story of Job Take Place states the evidence as this:

"Job's length of his life (he lived 140 years after his trials ended, 42:16) is similar to that of Terah (205 years), Abraham (175 years), Isaac (180 years), and Jacob (147 years). Also, the writer measured Job's wealth in terms of his livestock, which is how Moses evaluated the wealth of Abraham and Jacob (1:3; 42:12; compared to Gen 12:16; 13:2; 30:43; 32:5). Thirdly, the Sabeans and Chaldeans (1:15, 17) were nomads during the patriarchal period, but not later. Finally, the Hebrew word for "piece of silver [money]" (qesitah; 42:11) is found elsewhere only in connection with Jacob (Gen. 33:19)."

This time, which is the third time I have taught this block at the homeschool co-op, I decided to include Job. I told it on the day before we left for Spring Break, so that children do not have to write about it in their MLB. They could just hear it and reflect on it. I put it chronologically where I've decided it should go, which is after the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah -- and Abram has been renamed Abraham but The Binding of Isaac has not yet happened -- and Lot's wife turning into a pillar of salt.

I quite liked having it there, actually.

I'm not sure why Jakob Streit has the story of Job at the end of his third volume, unless it was because he didn't know where to put it, but the figure of God does go through a change in the Biblical Stories and starts out more punitive (Noah and the Ark, Lot's wife, Job) and later becomes more gentle. So, in that way, having the story of Job near the time of the story of Isaac makes sense (and notice that, in both of them, the devil and God have a chat and then God tests the faith of one of his people).

The change in the figure of God is actually a lot like the changes in the justice system that we've noticed in the Middle Ages stories. First it's all about vengeance -- an eye for an eye -- and then wergeld was all the rage, and now our justice system is about rehabilitation, and doing community service or going away to prison is really about making amends to the larger group as a whole. Now when someone commits a crime, we see it as doing wrong to our whole community, not just about doing wrong to one victim. This is an idea that came up in Charlemagne's biography!

"Though Charles allowed his different subjects to live by their own codes of law he tried to improve some of them. The old custom of 'wergeld,' a fine imposed on a murderer to be paid to the family of the victim, had been devised to curb revenge and blood feuds by substituting a payment for vengeance. The amount of the wergeld was determined by the victim's importance, a noble's being three times as much as a peasant's. But blood feuds still existed in Charles' day; he determined to stop them and insisted that wergelds be paid promptly and that the victim's family, under no circumstances, seek revenge. He added a new touch to the old law, that the Church mete out a penance for the murderer. So began the theory that murder was a crime against the community rather than just an offense against a family or clan. [emphasis added]"

The World of Walls: The Middle Ages in Western Europe, p.68
by Polly Schoyer Brooks and Nancy Zinsser Walworth

I think it's really fun to be able to see connecting threads like this!

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