A Window into 7th-Grade Perspective Drawing and the Game of Chess

By Jake Ciofalo

How do we awaken adolescent students to a feeling for goodness and beauty as they begin to unfold new capacities during this pivotal phase of life? How do we help lead them in their dawning yet often challenging search for and foundation of truth?

Seventh grade in Waldorf schools sees the introduction of perspective drawing in tandem with the study of the Renaissance. One of the remarkable aspects of the Waldorf curriculum is that each of the subjects mirrors and supports the development of the child. In the 7th grade, students are undergoing puberty and discovering their intellectual abilities yet crave a scientific lawfulness to support and manage the rollercoaster ride of these stirring times: it is as if they experience a ‘rebirth’ (renaissance) in their own lives.

The beauty of this world was not as interesting in general to the mostly spiritual/honor based world of the Middle Ages. In the drawings and paintings from this time, you see little interest in perspective drawing, or a window on the world, such as in the drawing from that time of two women playing chess. But I love that we see women playing chess! In the Renaissance, we have a turning once again toward the beauty, science, and more of the here and now as was the case generally for the ancient cultures of Greece and Rome, at least here in the West, hence the period of “rebirth.” But as we look at the history of the world, it is not surprising that the game of chess itself was invented in Persia or India 1500 years ago and it’s more popular than ever.

My students love playing chess and making puzzles in their free time as you can tell by the photograph, which indeed resembles the Renaissance view of art: that it should be a window on the world. As you see in the photograph of a 7th-grade perspective drawing in progress, the challenge is to have the will, which they also need for focus (in precious need in our stimulating world of electronics) and pride in process to carry out the laws that enable the 7th grader to create a beautiful 3-dimension drawing (height, width, and depth) on a flat 2-dimension piece of paper (height and width).

The 7th-grade students loved this perspective drawing block, the challenges it presented, and the beautiful results of patient and hard work.