Our Early Childhood Director, Diane David, attended The World Early Childhood Conference. She writes:

Approximately 1100 early childhood teachers, both accomplished and neophytes, from 54 countries gathered for five days at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland to look deeply at the development of the young child. The theme of the conference, “The Journey of the ‘I’ into Life – A Final Destination or a Path Toward Freedom” was the culmination of three years planning by IASWECE (International Association for Steiner Waldorf Early Childhood Education). Among the attendees were myself, Margrit Haberlin (Class of 2010) and Dorit Winter, a much welcomed guest to these early childhood explorations.

There were five keynote speakers who spoke from a variety of points of view in looking at the incarnational process of the young child from the medical and pedagogical to the more practical and inspirational points of view. The speakers were American Louise de Forest; Dr. Michaela Glockler who is head of the Medical Section of the School of Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum; Dr. Edmond Schoorel, a pediatrician in the Netherlands who also wrote “The First Seven Years – Physiology of Childhood”, popular book with many early childhood educators; Renate Long Briepohl, director of early childhood training in Australia; and Claus Peter Roh, a leader of the Pedagogical Section and a familiar speaker to those who attended the New Impulse Conference in Tiburon this February.

Following the main speaker we attended two working/discussion groups with varied subjects from deepening the conference theme to practical circle time explorations. Later in the afternoon was the “pedagogical market place” where one could attend onetime sessions ranging from forest kindergartens to dyslexia research. The evenings were full of beautiful eurythmy and world music and dance by conference participants. On the finale evening we were entertained with a raucous performance by the Lautenbach Brass Band made up of handicapped and some non-handicapped musicians who replaced any minor skill deficits with overwhelming enthusiasm and passion. I’m guessing the Goetheanum hasn’t seen such laughter and loud music in quite some time.

Attending a conference at the Goetheanum is to bathe in anthroposophical delight, that is viewing Steiner’s seminal sculptural works, drinking in the paintings and forms in the Great Hall, and just BEING in the Goetheanum. As well it is an experience in Swiss life such as hearing bells chiming from the churches in the valleys below all the time and eating muesli for breakfast and dinner. The weather upon arrival was unseasonably balmy but April showers and a rumble of thunder arrived towards the end of the week.

The diversity of attendees spoke to the width of Waldorf early childhood education worldwide. Strolling the halls of the Goetheanum were ladies in colorful African attire, many teachers from the nearly 200 Waldorf early childhood initiatives in China, and even Tabor White Buffalo, a Native American teacher from the Lakota Waldorf School in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation who shared segments of a Lakota ceremonial dance during the evening celebration.

Besides the main speakers, perhaps the most stimulating conversation for me was the early childhood trainer’s meeting that was its own discussion group. About half of those who attended (about 40 in all) had also attended, along with me, a world-wide teacher trainers meeting in Dornach the previous October. Here, as in October, we tackled pertinent issues around our work, in particular Steiner’s challenge to us to develop a new understanding, out of knowledge, of the Christ impulse. On the first morning Dorit addressed the group on this point, opening the discussion. Thus we teacher trainers from many different faith and cultural traditions, wrestled with this topic, both philosophically and anecdotally for the next three mornings. In the end we achieved much understanding of the various quandaries around this issue, but perhaps also a more qualified sense of what this Christ impulse is – an inner experience that lives within the concepts of self development and love. To achieve this experience one must work artistically (telling stories, etc.) and practice listening, openness and trust. This conversation was held with the acknowledgement that we were indeed in the throes of Holy Week, where the ideas of sacrifice and dying, and then arising to new life – universal principles in our work, in nature and in the world, are also pictures in this struggle to understand the Christ principle.

Regarding the World Teachers Conference, our Director, Dorit Winter, writes:

A World Teachers Conference is an enormous undertaking. For six days in early April right after Easter, over a thousand Waldorf teachers from all over the world streamed through the halls of the Goetheanum, heard talks in the great hall, trekked through the landscape on the way to workshops, forums and other activities, and had the inspiring experience of being surrounded by fellow travelers. Many of the participants were younger folk, a hopeful sign.

The days were full. The sound of a thousand Waldorf teachers singing lifted us into the day. Youngsters from nearby schools then provided us with a window into Waldorf-in-action. The day’s keynote speech followed. After the coffee break came the workshops. Lunch was followed by time for artistic activities, interest groups, spontaneous meetings. At 5pm on most of the days, research on biorhythms and especially the rhythms of sleep was presented as part of the “science forums.” Evenings saw us back in the great hall for specifically national presentations by older students and these included folk dances from Finland, dances from aboriginal Taiwanese cultures, and a play, “The Skin of Our Teeth” by Thornton Wilder, performed by 12 graders from the Summerfield Waldorf School.

Two events of particular interest to our teacher training were the gathering of teacher trainers to consider the merits of a proposed teacher training conference in Vienna in May of 2013, and a forum at which various teacher training institutes presented their current profiles. The proposal of the meeting in May of 2013 was enthusiastically received, and the Hague Circle, in particular Tobias Richter of Vienna, and to a lesser extent myself, in partnership with Florian Osswald of the Pedagogical Section, have taken on the responsibility of forming that event.

Because I was one of the keynote speakers, my own personal experience of this conference was incomparably different from the previous three and a half decades of such conferences. I was on tenterhooks up to the moment when I stood on stage. The talk, I am happy and relieved to report, was well-received. I was very moved and touched by the scores of people, especially younger people, who thanked me. A summary of the talk will be published in the Newsletter of the Pedagogical Section, and we will provide a link in our next Current Matters.

At the Hague Circle meetings following immediately upon the two big, international conferences for which the Hague Circle is nominally responsible, a review of both took place. It seems that much has changed in the Waldorf world since the last conference four years ago. The Early Childhood Conference, on the same theme as the Teachers Conference, was deemed a success. Whether there will be another round of conferences in four years is not yet clear. 2019 is the year for the BIG century celebration, which will no doubt include a mighty gathering in Dornach, and the timing of events in the intervening years will have to be determined.

The rest of the Hague Circle meeting consisted of welcoming new members (Australia and Slovenia); continuing work on questions around the “trademark right” – i.e. how to establish a process to determine whether a school qualifies as a “Waldorf” school and can be listed on the World School list; and a report from the Association of the Hague Circle (or International Forum of Waldorf/Steiner Schools), including questions of financing the meetings, and ongoing work on the website http://www.haager-kreis.org/ which is still in process. There was also discussion of the teacher training meetings to take place in May of 2013 in Vienna, and a possible World Teacher Training Conference to take place in Dornach at Easter of 2014 – but the latter has not yet been confirmed.

All in all the three conferences were intense, exciting and complex and will take a while to digest.

We are pleased to report that registrations are coming in from all around the country, and that we will have a vibrant community of participants on the East Bay Waldorf School campus this summer. To make the program more accessible to those with young children, we are offering a childcare program each day consisting of “outdoor play, storytelling, song, movement, crafts, creative play and games” for children 4 years and 9 months or older. Lunch is available daily, and a substantive snack with tea and coffee will be served free of charge each day.

The registration deadline is June 1, with a $25 late fee for registrations received after June 1.

For more detailed information about each course and registration information, please click here.

Various fine publications have accompanied the rapid spread of schools which arose from the educational impulse and methods developed by Dr. Rudolf Steiner (1861 -1925), Austrian philosopher, scientist and educator. Especially since the second half of the 20th century Waldorf Schools, sometimes also called Rudolf Steiner Schools, invite people from all walks of life, from various religious and / or philosophical persuasions and from every country and ethnicity to regard and to study the child and the younger person as uniquely capable of development. Rudolf Steiner offered the basis for a practical understanding of this development as well as possibilities and levels of approach. In this new publication, Teaching – The Joy of Profession, the author opens up vistas not only for parents but also for teachers, which distinguishes this book as a unique contribution to existing literature in this field.
Christof Wiechert, a teacher with enormous experience resulting from many years in the classroom with children at all age levels as well as carrying the responsibility as the leader of the Pedagogical Section at the Goetheanum, Switzerland, shares valuable principles of education with vivid examples which easily remain with the reader to be called forth when a specific occasion arises. One of the outstanding qualities of the book,  which the author places at the very beginning, concerns the necessity of colleagueship among the teachers arising from mutual recognition and its subtle but persuasive effect on the pupils, the parents and the school community.
The importance which Christof Wiechert assigns to this aspect he sums up as: “Social life, getting along with each other, is a mighty task in school… . If you concern yourself energetically with recognition of the other, if you are willing to scrutinize your own actions, and if you make an effort to be awake to the ebb and flow of feelings that arise from your collegial dealings, you will have created a basis for inner autonomy.”
An educational institution which can serve the needs of our time, namely helping children to develop their innate talents and placing seeds for the unfolding of new and necessary capacities, can arise only on this “basis for inner autonomy.” Rudolf Steiner called the first school in Stuttgart, Germany, “Die Freie Waldorfschule”, “the Free Waldorf School” which in English does not convey the same meaning as in German. In the original wording it signifies free or independent from political (state), religious-confessional (church) and sociological (class-structure) constraints. For in such a setting the inner autonomy for the developmental stages of each child and also the individual and creative responsibility for the pedagogical unfoldment of the pupil on the part of the teacher can be promoted and safeguarded.
In some publications about Waldorf education one significant factor is missing – the parents. Here however, the author devotes direct emphasis to this indispensable reality: “One of the characteristics that makes a school into a Waldorf School is the intensive collaboration with the parents.  …what is meant is the sort of working together which unites the parents and teachers for the sake of the children’s welfare.”
As a former Waldorf School teacher in California (Highland Hall Waldorf School) I look back now after many years have elapsed with deep gratitude to the inner and outer support which the parents offered to the process in which I was directly involved with their children. We enjoyed many happy (and a few challenging) moments together.
The far-reaching insights which Christof Wiechert describes in regard to the development of the child in relationship to the curriculum are too numerous to mention here. Also the same applies to the final chapter concerning “Inner Preparation or Self-Education” in which he addresses the inner readiness of the teacher for his/her task through qualities taken from his own experience as well as what he has been able to glean from his intensive study of Rudolf Steiner’s educational and other works.
This book, now available for the English reader through the superior translation by Dorit Winter, conveys not only invaluable information but may also enkindle a real joy for the teaching profession – whether in a Waldorf School or in any other type of school!

Virginia Sease, Ph. D.
Goetheanum, Switzerland
February 2012

A limited number of copies are available at the bookstore for $25.

Bookstore

Our Bookstore is located at our East Bay Waldorf School campus, 3800 Clark Road, El Sobrante, CA 94803. Our store hours are Monday 3:30-4:30pm, Fridays 8:30-9:30am and 6:30-7:00pm, and Saturdays 12:30-1:00pm.

]]> http://www.bacwtt.org/book-of-the-month-for-april/feed 0 http://www.bacwtt.org/alumni-network http://www.bacwtt.org/alumni-network#comments Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:11:41 +0000 Dave http://www.bacwtt.org/?p=6542 This month, a glimpse into the current whereabouts of Thomas Routt (Class of 2004) and Claudio Salusso (Class of 2009)

Thomas Routt (2004) writes:

I’m doing well….healing from a knee injury and surgery a few weeks ago; it’s coming along nicely.

My path has led me to Bend, OR, where I’ve been for the last couple years.  I decided to pursue wild-land firefighting as part of my attempt to be active in strenuous manual labor, as part of a team, while spending weeks at a time in the wilderness.  This satisfies some parts of me with the experience of excitement, danger, travel, and physical exertion, but there’s so much more that it doesn’t satisfy.  Of course, during the winter there are no fires, so I’m working at our local ski mountain as part of the ski lift maintenance crew.  Not totally my cup of tea either, however, there are parts that I do enjoy.

I’m definitely in a place of contemplation of my current life path which is both exciting and challenging.  I have so many interests and a few talents, that my options seem limitless.  However, not the best job market these days, so I do realize there are quite a few limits.

Long story short, I’m trying my best to live in truth, beauty and goodness….specifically, honesty, integrity, positivity, health, and love.  I feel that if I continue doing this, while holding the intention to contribute and serve humanity as best I can, my next path will become clear and flowing.

Claudio Salusso (2009) writes:

Even if I lived a hundred lives, I still wouldn’t be exhausted.

There is a sense in which teaching is a parachute jump from a dream: while you can see from far above the vast horizon, the still earth, everything moves very fast. The priest within assures you that you are not alone, that you ought to trust the spiritual world; the doctor within advises you to breath evenly, because in breathing rests the secret of everything; and the village idiot within whispers in your ear again and again, “you’ll be fine, enjoy the ride, if you don’t enjoy it, nobody will.”

Born and raised in Argentina, at 17 I became a Karate instructor, at 23 earned a B.A. in Education and began teaching elementary school, and since then, with some hiatuses, I have been parachuting from a dream. I will be 50 this month, and even if I lived a hundred lives, I still wouldn’t be exhausted. And for this I ought to thank Waldorf Education. I began teaching at Marin Waldorf School 16 years ago, knowing nothing about Waldorf, yet the wisdom of this education –and its practitioners- ignited a small flame that over the year became what it is today: a roaring fire.

And this fire burned so much that I needed to know what I was really doing, thus I entered the Teacher Training Program (2006-09). Before then, the school helped me become, by doing, a teacher who could follow the school’s lines. In this following there was understanding, there was increasing comprehension, but a nagging voice alerted me to stop following, and for that to occur, I have to attempt to know myself.

With some degree of arrogance and skepticism, yet with diligence and unconditional commitment, I began the Training while with my own students we moved from 5^th to 6^th grade. No single class, teacher or book in the Training could be singled out as the agent of the change I experienced. Only the sum of its parts, that ungraspable whole, made me pause, reflect and carefully consider what is the true purpose of this missionary profession. I pause everyday.

Although I always wanted to learn, now learning has a purpose that transcends my own small world. I remain who I was, but now when I stand in front of my students every morning to meet their eyes and shake their hands, a spark of the roaring fire blesses the encounter, and there is no other place in the world I would like to be but there, with them, while the priest assures me that the angels have been busy all night long; the doctor advises me to breathe and relax my shoulders, and the village idiot whispers, “this is a crazy job, but if you don’t enjoy it, nobody around you will.”

After months of research and preparation, the twelve members of the Third Year Class delivered their Projects to interested and intrigued students, alumni, faculty members and several family members. Given thirty minutes each to make the presentation and to answer questions from the audience, an important aspect of the Project is to present what is essential to the topic at hand, and to address new discoveries made during the course of the research. Students were tasked with identifying an element of a particular lesson in a specific grade, and to look deeply into the what, how, and especially why one would bring that element to the children in a lesson or series of lessons.

Each year, this weekend is a threshold moment for the Third Year students, and is inspirational to the First and Second Year students, who begin in earnest to imagine themselves making such a presentation in the not-too-distant future.

(Click on Program for enhanced version)

By Dave Alsop

After giving a brief welcome and introduction, including greetings from Dorit Winter, who was in Switzerland for the World Waldorf Teachers Conference, Dave Alsop began the Assembly with a reading of the Easter Verse from Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul. Recorder instructors Jennifer Scaff King and Tom Bickley played a recorder duet, which was followed with a presentation by visiting teacher Douglas Gerwin.

Douglas reminded us of the unique nature of the way the date for Easter is determined each year – that is, by taking into account the relationships of the sun, moon and earth at this time of year: the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. He spoke about two “births” that human beings undergo – our physical birth, which is given to us with our arrival upon earth, and the birth of our conscious individuality, which has to be worked for and achieved. He then invited participants to share a moment from their lives in which they had an actual experience of second birth, or a moment when they felt “the captain come aboard” and take hold of life’s circumstances in a moment of a genuinely free and fully conscious deeds, as opposed to actions that felt reactive or coerced or simply half-asleep.

The Assembly broke up into small discussion groups. Reconvening in the Eurythmy room, we all enjoyed the intermediate and advanced recorder groups, and Dave closed the Assembly with a second reading of the Easter Verse. A festive and abundant pot-luck lunch in the Teacher Training room concluded the festivities, and then everyone left for the two week Easter holiday.

by Dave Alsop

Our guest speaker, Claus-Peter Röh, one of two leaders of the Pedagogical Section, provided us with five lectures during our recent New Impulse Conference. He also moderated and answered questions during our three plenums. All in all it was a tour de force on Claus-Peter’s part. Each of his lectures was accompanied by a black board drawing which seemed to take on a life of its own, growing lucidly before our eyes and beautifully complete when the lecture ended. Each lecture flowed effortlessly out of the previous lecture. All of the lectures were highlighted by anecdotes, often humorous, all profound, skimmed from 28 years of class room experience. Who will ever forget the girl who ran through the long jump, unable, even there, to “come to the point.” Children’s art work, obviously treasured, also accompanied the presentations. And then there were the jokes. Our photos and videos will give you a taste of our conference, and summaries of each lecture, provided  by our Third Year students, can be found below.

First Lecture: Metamorphosis — From the Surroundings to the Point of Consciousness

Claus-Peter began by emphasizing how important it is for teachers to hold a clear picture of each of their students. The teacher must ask the question, “How can I meet this child on this particular day?” Each child brings different qualities. The teacher must remember that the children have just as much to teach them, as they have to teach the children. Claus-Peter continued by describing the young child in comparison to the young adult. The first graders live strongly in their will forces. They learn by doing, by imitating that which is around them. Instinctively, they know what is important to imitate and we can see this in their play. Their imagination is alive and strong. Growing up is a gradual process of moving from doing, where the young child lives in their surroundings, to the thinking realm where the young adult lives largely in the head. Young adults understand the world through cognition. They think things through. Claus-Peter gave an example of a young child who sees the machines working at a factory and afterwards must act them out using the whole body. In contrast, the adult engineer who works at the factory understands the workings of the machines through looking at charts and diagrams, by using the head forces. Nowadays, children are waking up and are being called upon to use their head forces too early. This can lead to imbalance and rigidity. In the Waldorf classroom, imaginative pictures in the stories, as well as the creative arts, engage the will of the child and helps to build up the foundation necessary that these thinking forces may emerge in a healthy way later on. At the end Claus-Peter again encouraged the teachers to try to see the children in front of them as clearly as possible and to keep a living moving picture of them, to know that they will change as they grow up. Our picture of them must be able to change as well. The teacher can work on this by fostering the ability for amazement. In the process of being amazed or astonished our ego, which likes to label and compartmentalize, is not the first active, it is our astral. Our astral body is much better at sensing and exploring an impression, of having a correct feel for it. Thus teachers must strive to see their students with new amazement with each new day.

By Kelli Brennan, Class of 2012

Second Lecture: The Three-fold Human Being as a Key to the Curriculum – K through 12

Claus-Peter discussed how the Waldorf curriculum is not a list of requirements that a teacher merely fulfills.  It is not a method.  The curriculum is a vessel that gently carries a child through his development from being one with the world to being inside themselves in their thinking looking outward to the world.  Though the curriculum carries children from the periphery to the very center of their being, no child’s path of development is the same.

The Waldorf curriculum must be kept a living curriculum in order that it continues to be broad enough to address children with many different learning styles, for example a child who learns through will or through doing to a child who learns through cognition.  The teacher must ask herself of each student, “Are the ego and the physical body together in the right way?”  The teacher must then use the curriculum to bring about the balance between the ego and the body.  Within each lesson there must be a constant breathing from outer (the will) to inner (the ego).  The Waldorf teacher strives to make old ideas new again, to find the balance for her individual class and individual children.  This approach to the curriculum keeps it alive for the students and renews the teacher.

The teacher must also discover the links in the curriculum where something from earlier years can be brought back to the student in a new way.  The curriculum, if brought in the right way, cultivates forces in the student in the early grades that will come to fruition during the high school years.  If the ten-year-old child’s soul has truly entered into the life of an animal during the Human Being and Animal Block in fourth grade, the student will bring a different understanding and relationship to the Zoology Block as a senior in high school.    Forces of soul cultivated early on transform into forces of cognition in later years.  As the students approach puberty, it is important to allow the students to discover for themselves the learning in each lesson.  If the students have discovered concepts for themselves and then worked through them, they become living concepts for the rest of their lives and build life forces in the students.

The Waldorf curriculum is filled with wisdom and possibilities to assist each child in his path of development.  It is up to each teacher to discover the wisdom and to find the imagination to bring it alive for the students.

By Jodi Casey, Class of 2012

Third Lecture: How Do Sculptural/Painterly & Musical/Speech Forces Work With Each Other?

Rudolf Steiner indicated that it was our task as teachers to develop the limb man and part of the chest man and then let them awaken the other part of the chest and the head. Claus-Peter recalled an experience from his early years as a Waldorf teacher when he was giving his students a form-drawing lesson. The children became very interested in the lesson and many of them wished to continue the form many times over to see if they could draw it twenty, forty, even a hundred times! The fledgling class teacher, Mr. Roh, was impressed with their enthusiasm and didn’t wish to stop the work so he allowed the lesson to spill over into the next, skipping their speech and singing that morning. Later, when they returned from their English lesson the subject teacher came to Claus-Peter and informed him that she’d had to stop what she was teaching to give the children their speech and music exercises because they were not properly prepared for the lesson. Why was it so important to go from art to music in order to prepare the children for the transition to language? Different forces are at work in these activities and a balance must be maintained in order for them to work together in a constructive way.  When engaging in sculpture, painting and form drawing, we are working out of the limbs through the will. In music, singing and speech we are working in part from the chest through feeling. If we only worked one-sidedly with these forces, there would be an imbalance that would lead to a hindrance of intellectual thought. In the case of his example, Claus-Peter’s students were too deep in their limbs and needed awaken the chest through music and speech before they could work from the head in language class. Through creative and musical activity one can develop the forces needed to bring real meaning to their thinking life, and it this task that brings real purpose to the teacher.

By Angelica Wilton,  Class of 2012

Fourth Lecture: The Artistic Approach to Fostering Individuality in the Child

Claus-Peter began by noting that all of us experience the question of coherence of being. What is it to be an individual? What is it to maintain a sense of unity amidst the changes of outer life? What is the connection between inner life and outer life?

Steiner indicated that the outside world needs to relate to the inner being of a child in a new way in order to allow the individual to flourish. Claus-Peter read the following passage from Steiner: “The child today is often already something quite different from what he shows outwardly.” Steiner asked teachers to remember that even a child that seemed quite an urchin outside carries a good seed inside. Thus the teacher needs a prophetic gift, the ability to see past troublesome behaviors, to see what wants to come out.

The child will respond to this care for the potential in each individual. The teacher who radiates this care for the child is not judgmental but interested in seeing the child as a spirit force that comes to the teacher for higher reasons. The teacher does not fixate upon pushing the children to have success, but rather seeks to appreciate the mystery of this spirit force that the child bears. Claus-Peter says that we begin to experience this in our own time as children are often incredibly open about showing their deepest wishes, hopes and fears. Sometimes, in fact they are too open and need a teacher’s guidance about how to protect themselves.

This ability to see the spirit force in a child comes to all of us in ordinary moments of working with children. Claus-Peter related an incident where he caught the eyes of a baby boy being bathed for just a moment and was struck by the age and wisdom that flashed through the eyes in that instant.

This is like the flash of intuition that the higher self has in times of trouble. We need this flash to be able to respond to the spirit force in the children. Letting go in a moment can allow an idea in that shows us how to support this fragile process. Of course this brings up the question of how do we find this flash of insight without crisis? So often we do not seek the counsels of the higher self until we have exhausted everything else. Claus-Peter left this question unanswered to let the audience think upon it further.

Claus-Peter drew a diagram showing the child’s progress from birth into adulthood. He put the three phases of childhood into his own language. The first stage he characterized as “Movement into consciousness.” For the next stage, from 7-14, he gave the phrase “We heard the Child.” Finally he called the last stage of childhood “I know you.”

The first stage is when the child can be given living pictures and imaginations such as in fairy tales. He spoke of a student who was unable to give up a negative behavior until the teacher told her a fairy tale about a fictional character who got in a mess because of this behavior, thus providing a picture the child could live into.

In the next stage a child needs reassurances that adults hear. Claus-Peter gave an example of a child who climbed dangerously high into a tree. When a teacher asked the student to come down she shouted down, “Who are you, to tell me I cannot climb.” Instead of reacting or trying to force compliance, the teacher took the question seriously and started telling the student who she was. This defused the standoff because the student was heard. To hear students the teacher must make special room inside for the unexpected in children. Also reviewing at the end of day can help the teacher understand why a student had a certain question or comment. All of these are ways to help the teacher grow in capacity to really hear the child.

In the last stage, students can self-assess themselves and want to feel known. A student may know that something they have done is not positive but if they are sent away, they do not know what to do. The teacher must ask, if an explosion happens, how do I react? This way the teacher will be less driven by the immediate external behavior of the child and able to see these future forces. The teacher is able to ask, “Who are you?” Even when confronting the child.

These three ages require three methods. First we communicate to the child in living pictures, then we give the child room to feel heard, then we recognize that the child wishes to be known. Together this allows space for the individuality of the child to blossom.

Claus-Peter concluded with the same quote with which he had opened the lecture: “The child today is often already something quite different from what he shows outwardly.”

By Jason Murphy, Class of 2012

Fifth Lecture: The Resonance Between Meditation and Daily Work- How to Awaken the Will

Claus-Peter spoke about how daily meditation can help us reach deeper levels in our teaching, allowing us really to see the children.  We strive to reach beyond our conscious mind, into the realm of living pictures, and even beyond that to the realm of will, so that we will be able to follow through and actually carry out our ideas and plans for teaching.  If we can do this, we have true freedom.  He talked about a turning point in mediation, when we go beyond ourselves and the effort we are putting into it and we get something in return.  We feel the presence of an energy beyond us, and beyond the intellectual realm, which is helping us, giving something to us.  When we are teaching we will sometimes do unexpected things in the moment that we couldn’t have planned, and our lesson is full of life.

Steiner called meditation the only truly free deed since we don’t need to do it for any outer reason, we must simply want to do it for our own self-development.  Claus-Peter discussed the teachers’ meditation given by Steiner and said that every teacher needs to find his or her own way to connect with the meditation; it’s not the same for any two individuals.  Doing visualization exercises prior to it may help some people.  Claus-Peter was able to connect more to it by thinking about the gap between our inner life and the outer world.  He realized that it is up to us how we fill that gap, what we bring to it, and that it brings meaning to our life as human beings.

As in meditation when we put effort in and finally get something back from beyond ourselves, in teaching something similar happens when we get something back from the children.  He offered a few examples, including one about a girl in his class who never stopped talking.  She often tried to stop but just couldn’t.  In fifth grade when he observed her try to do a long jump and she couldn’t- she just ran straight through.  This seemed to show that she wasn’t capable of bringing her intention down into her limbs (her will).  Claus-Peter felt that if he had observed her more at a younger age he could have helped her to overcome this- if he had gone deeper into his relationship with her, in a way similar to meditation.

By Jane Ghotlos, Class of 2012

This summer, we are offering a series of courses for Waldorf teachers, and several courses that are open to all.

For the teacher:

Speech for the Waldorf Teacher, in the afternoons from June 18-22.

Teaching Grades 1-3 with Imagination, all day July 2-6.

Geometry Intensive Grades 6-8, one hour each morning, July 2-6.

Chemistry Intensive Grades 7-8, another hour each morning, July 2-6.

Physics Intensive Grades 6-8, two hours in the afternoon, July 6-8.

Open to all:

Rhythms of the Home, mornings, June 25-29.

Woodcarving, two hours on Tuesday afternoons, June 19, 26, July 3, 10.

The Form World Within; Goethean Morphology of the Human Body, Friday evening, July 6, all day July 7,8.

For more detailed information about each course and registration information, please click here.

Plan on joining us for one or more of these innovative courses.

On August 27, 1919, in a lecture to the founding teachers of the soon to be opened Waldorf School in Stuttgart (now available in the lecture series Practical Advice to Teachers), Rudolf Steiner says: “That is why it is essential in any good school that the teacher remain with a single group of students for as long as possible. The teacher takes them the first year, continues with them the following year, moves on again with them to the third year, and so on—as far as external circumstances will allow. And the teacher who has had the eighth grade one year should start again with the first grade the following year. It is sometimes appropriate to return only years later to something you have instilled into the children’s souls. Whatever the circumstances, the education of the heart forces suffers if the children have a new teacher each year who cannot follow up what has been instilled into their souls in previous years. It is a feature of this teaching method that the teacher moves up through the grades with the same students. Only in this way can one work with the rhythms of life. And life has a rhythm in the most comprehensive sense.”

Please feel free to send the names of anyone you know who is eligible for this recognition to dave@bacwtt.org and we’ll forward them on to AWSNA – we don’t want to overlook anyone in this initial phase, which will cover some 87 years of Waldorf Education here in North America!