Melinda Martin (Class of 2011), writes:
She told us she was writing a book. We, the class of 2011, were wrestling with the content of Steiner’s Man as Symphony. She spoke humbly of an upcoming publisher’s deadline about the time we were immersed in weekly posters for Study of Man.  What we did not know, was that our classmate Willow was co-writing (with Novella Carpenter)  what I believe is the gardening book of the decade.  While diving into the sometimes obscure depths of anthroposophy and Waldorf education, Willow Rosenthal prepared chapters for the book that one reviewer says, “and if you eat, this book belongs on your shelf, right next to the Michael Pollan* row”.

Easy and delightful to read, factual and humorous, well laid out and unbelievably thorough, The Essential Urban Farmer will inspire and educate beginning gardeners and full-fledged farmers alike.   This how-to-do guide, full of well-founded common sense and  a timely eco-sense,  was written in an effort to provide us with a resource that Willow and Novella wished they had had when founding their successful urban farms.  Their years of experience and expertise are evident on every page, covering virtually all topics from seeds to soil, bees to goats, irrigation to tools and more, with a fifty page appendix with links to further resources if needed. Since reading this book, my gardening space has grown, my fingernails have had a bit more dirt in them and I am not planting anything until I consult the book. I’m filled with gratitude and awe, with a certainty that my harvest will be more plentiful!

*Omnivore’s Dilema

A limited number of copies are available at the bookstore for 40% off of the regular $25 price, and, of course, the book is widely available at your local bookstore or online.

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/feed 0 http://www.bacwtt.org/alumni-news-a-report-from-leslie-young-2003 http://www.bacwtt.org/alumni-news-a-report-from-leslie-young-2003#comments Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:17:53 +0000 Dave http://www.bacwtt.org/?p=6239 As announced in our recently distributed Golden Gate/2012, we have dispensed with our Alumni Association. Instead, we want to strengthen our “alumni network” or “alumni group” or “alumni community.” To that end, we will feature alumni in forthcoming issues of Current Matters. And we will be publishing an annual Alumni Directory. We inaugurate our Alumni News with a report from Leslie Young, Class of 2003, who works at Summerfield Waldorf School and Farm.

Report from the Field:

I graduated in the summer of 2003 in sunny Santa Cruz, having maintained, throughout the 3 years of teacher training, my office job at Summerfield Waldorf School which I had held since 1989. When I began at Summerfield, I was the sole secretary – 3 non-faculty members ran the entire school administration (along with Board & College direction). Now there are 12 of us in 3 offices - it’s a much larger and more complex organization, but still just as exciting! I go to work each day with a feeling of joy and pride in the cooperative will of my colleagues and in the school community we serve. My official title there is Lower School Secretary but, as well as the natural work areas of faculty assistance, class textbook & supplies ordering, and substitution, my tasks also involve development support, writing/editing and general communication, parent education, festival work, school store purchasing, and teaching. The teacher training made it possible for me to step out of the office setting for a period of time, to interact more deeply with the children who attend the school. Since graduating from the BACWTT, I have taught 7th and 8th grade language arts classes, including grammar, spelling, composition and creative writing. A 7th grade main lesson block in poetry was my favorite class to lead, and I especially enjoyed our study of Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner. I cannot imagine a more enjoyable experience than teaching middle school age students – they never cease to amaze and show me something new. And then, afterwards, I am able to return to the organized hum of the office and connect with the striving in the teacher and parent realms there. For me, it’s two (or more) constantly varied and enjoyable jobs in one. I’d highly recommend anyone interested in Waldorf administration also taking the teacher training (and yes, even teaching a bit!) as it certainly complements and deepens the work of the Waldorf school office. I have also benefitted greatly from my years of serving on the Bay Area Center Board of Directors, as it put me in closer touch with the larger Waldorf movement as well as providing me with the opportunity to give back to the rich educational program that was, for me and my fellow classmates, a life-changing experience.

Henning Kullak-Ublick,  editor of Erziehungskunst, member of the Hague Circle, and Waldorf teacher, wrote:

“Our regular readers are Waldorf-families in Germany and libraries and other public institutions, which adds up to 72,000 copies a month. This special edition will be tucked into the regular December-Erziehungskunst and, additionally, be printed as a separate newspaper for the “Freunde der Erziehungskunst” with another some thousand copies.”

Dorit Winter’s article is available  here on page 20 in the magazine.

Thanks to an AWSNA grant to facilitate mentoring of recent graduates, Dorit Winter, our director, spent 2 mornings in January at Summerfield Waldorf School and Farm.

Frosty though the weather was on those two mornings, inside the classroom warmth prevailed.

Annemarie Goslow has 25 first graders in her class. She took the class upon graduating last summer with the Class of 2011. Annemarie is married, and has a daughter in the kindergarten and another daughter in 2nd grade, both at Summerfield. While in the teacher training, Annemarie distinguished herself as a prized proof reader, a wonderful singer, and by being the beetroot in her Third Year class eurythmy performance of the fairy tale by that name. She was also the graduation speaker, and you will find an article by her in our most recent Golden Gate.

Inner Activity/Outer Demands – New Impulse Conference February 23-25, 2012

Visiting Day March 10, 2012

This fall’s Hague Circle meetings were preceded by a wonderful opportunity to see a
nearby exhibition: Rudolf Steiner – Alchemy of the Everyday. Located some 12 miles from
Dornach across the border in Germany in the town of Weil am Rhein, the exhibit took place at
the Vitra  Design Museum in cooperation with Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg and Kunstmuseum
Stuttgart. Several photos are included in our slide show below.

See also:
http://www.design-museum.de/museum/ausstellungen/steiner/index.php

Beginning with the Essential

Our introductory session on Thursday evening was presented by Claus-Peter Röh, one of the two leaders of the Pedagogical Section. He combined an overview of the 14^th Class Lesson, which was to be our focus Saturday morning, with the themes of the upcoming World Kindergarten and World Teachers Conferences next April. The theme for the conference is: How the Self Finds its Way. Focusing on the “middle sphere” as the place of balance, Claus-Peter spoke about how the “middle in the teacher meets the middle in the child.”  He addressed the dynamic between “upper” and “lower” in both teacher and child, and how these can find balance and freedom through a continual interplay between these two realms. Bringing in contemporary phenomena such as technology in education, Claus-Peter described the modern human being as wanting to live at the threshold of the extremes, rather than in a state of harmonious balance. The teacher needs to provide a steady, well-balance middle realm, so that children who are still in a dreamy state and not yet incarnated, as well as those who are too densely incarnated can find a right relationship to their own, individual incarnation. That means the teacher has to know what each child needs in this process. “How can I help the child in his or her incarnating activity?” is the question for every teacher with every child. At each stage of our education, we need to strive for the appropriate balance between thinking and doing.

Claus-Peter described four ways that the freedom of the middle sphere is expressed:

1. In the realm of early childhood: when the child is doing something out of sheer joy.
2. In the grades: when the child experiences freedom in doing what the teacher expects.
3. In high school: when the student arrives at a more conscious recognition of freedom.
4. For the teacher: when the teacher has the freedom to create the appropriate “space” for the child, meaning, when the teacher knows what the child is really asking for.

For the teacher this means finding freedom in the possibility of change, being able to respond from the middle upward (with more cognitive work), or from the middle downward (with more activity).

On Friday morning Gerd Kellermann, one of the Directors of the Witten-Annen teacher training program, Germany, presented another picture of the times we live in, also in relation to the theme of the World Conferences, “The Future is Now.”

Gerd started by quoting former German Chancellor, Willy Brandt: “The best way to predict the future is to determine it.”

Gerd’s focus was the difference between “outcome based” education, and Waldorf with its emphasis on the experience itself, rather than the goal. Summarizing the great shifts in societal goals since the industrial revolution, Gerd described the knowledge-based society we now live in, and how this must be transformed into a more meaning-based paradigm. He described the typical schools in the German state system: Hauptschule (for the workers), Realschule (for the trades people) and Gymnasium (for the intellectuals). He then added the fourth type of school, the Waldorf school, which is for the human being.

The greatest distinction of the Waldorf school is its understanding of the human being as central to the education, i.e. in Waldorf education the child’s development is the main thing. A second important and distinct Waldorf ingredient, is working with the senses. A third distinguishing characteristic is the understanding of conclusion, judgment and concept, as the three steps toward learning and understanding.

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Organizational Work

During the second part of Friday morning the group focused on the final steps toward the forming of a legal Association to be known as “International Forum of Waldorf/ Steiner Schools (Hague Circle).”  Gerd Kellerman chaired this session and suggested the following procedure:

Read and work on the statutes, vote on the statutes, have all members sign, elect the Board and elect the Treasurer. In short, this procedure was followed, and the new Association legally incorporated the next day with signatures by all present. Work on hammering out the details of the new association began Friday night. Saturday morning was devoted to a free rendering of Class Lesson 14 given by Claus-Peter Röh. A conversation followed. Before lunch on Saturday, the discussion about the new Association was successfully concluded. It took some time to sort out a variety of significant details, some very basic to the mission of the Association, including the size and responsibility of the Board. Ultimately it was agreed to have a small, three-person board. The board now consists of Robert Thomas (Switzerland), who is also the treasurer; Henning Kullak-Ublick, representing Germany and the German Bund (or German national Waldorf association); and Lourdes Tormes (Spain), also representing the early childhood movement.

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World-wide Reports

Saturday afternoon we had reports from Taiwan (and China); New Zealand; and South Africa.

Chih Hung reported on the burgeoning Waldorf movement in Taiwan and China. He provided a brief and helpful background of the political strains between the two nations. Chih Hung is working on bringing about collaborative activities’ between Waldorf initiatives in Taiwan and those in China.  There are 3 main schools in Taiwan. Altogether there are seven schools. The first was founded in 1996 and now has over 600 students. There are about 20 early childhood initiatives. There are three teacher training centers, one under the auspices of the teacher training in Mannheim, Germany. Chih Hung spoke about the need for self-reflection in this school movement where there is so much enthusiasm for growth that it is now important to make sure that the inner criteria are commensurate with the outer criteria.

In Chengdu, China, the pioneer school was founded seven years ago. There are over 180 early childhood initiatives. Teacher training is wide spread, but consists of only 1 or 2 week sessions held three times a year. A short course to “train the trainers” can draw up to 180 participants. The explosive growth of Waldorf in China can be traced to the Chinese people’s desire to overcome the “cultural revolution”, and to connect with their spiritual roots. Sometimes this burgeoning of Waldorf has awkward consequences because the Europeans who come to China to help don’t all realize what the local conditions on the ground are really like. The government is liberal in the economic sphere, not in the cultural sphere, and care has to be taken in how anthroposophy is brought in. Thus there is a wide range in how much anthroposophy underlies the schools. Chengdu has a good working relationship with the authorities, but that is not the case everywhere.

Sue Simpson, representing New Zealand as General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society as well as Hague Circle member, reported on the aftermath of the earthquakes in Christchurch. Aftershocks are still a fact of life in Christchurch. The initial quake did not destroy any of the Waldorf  school’s buildings, but created a lot of chaos in the community nevertheless. Each aftershock, of which there were many, meant the children had to be sent home. The school lost many children to loss of homes, businesses, and jobs. Sue spoke of a subtle change in the souls of the people – a new possibility for relating to the spiritual world.

Sue also reported on the attempt to avoid the need for national assessments before age 10. She reported that a high school certificate is recognized by the state university system. The University of Auckland has a Steiner Course that is so well-attended that not all graduates can find work.

Since our meeting the following news has come from Sue: “We are all enormously thrilled to have received the fantastic news that Universities New Zealand- Te Pokai Tara has approved the Steiner School Certificate Class 12/ Year 13 Level 3 for ad eundem statum.”

The third national report came from South Africa. This was also our introduction to our new representative from South Africa, Joan Sleigh, who is taking over from long-time member Michael Grimley. [see photos of his “farewell” recognition.]

There are 16 Waldorf schools in South Africa, 5 with fully developed high schools. They are all private institutions, and the oldest is 52 years old. Though the Waldorf schools are in the middle realm of fees for private schools, the tuition rates are problematic for the smaller schools. The well established schools have waiting lists. The teacher training in Cape Town, The Center for Creative Education http://www.cfce.org.za , is fully accredited by the government. It offers recognized BA’s in education, early childhood, and eurythmy. It is the only fully accredited teacher training in the southern hemisphere. Once you have earned your BA here, you can teach in any Waldorf school, but also in any other type of school as well. Right now this teacher training is in crisis because of lack of funding. A steady stream of income had come through a stream that has been cut off. Salaries of personnel at the center are not possible. Many questions are being asked about how to manage this crisis, financially and culturally. A transitional fund of 150,000 Euros is being sought. Appeals have gone around the world. http://www.cfce.org.za/info/be_involved.html

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The late afternoon on Saturday was taken up by the pesky and important “trademark-right” issue. Christof Wiechert presented a report of the working group which also includes Robert Thomas and Nana Göbel from the Hague Circle and three members of the German Bund which has been the verifying organization up to now.

The working group has come up with a proposal which includes the idea that there should be a three year transitional period to test whether “two assessment experts” for any school wanting to be on the World List of schools qualifies.

A lot of discussion went into the question of whether and how to of transfer the trademark rights from the national association to the Hague Circle in the future.

In the end the working group members were asked to take the many questions that arose during the discussion back to the whole working group for further consideration.

We then had an opportunity to meet two potential members to our circle: From Slovenia: Branca Strmole-Ukmar and from the Netherlands: Paul van Meurs.

We welcomed two new members: From Finland: Helena Sandell and from South Africa: Joan Sleigh. The new members as well as the potential members introduced themselves, and told us a bit of their Waldorf story.

At this point we also bid farewell to two long time and established members,

Brigitte Goldmann, who has been representing IASWECE and the early childhood work, and Michael Grimley, South Africa. [see photos]

Saturday evening we were treated to a wonderful performance by Switzerland’s beloved clown, Dimitri. He is in his 70’s now, he is embedded in the Waldorf community (I wish I knew exactly how – possibly his children attended a Waldorf school), there are those who say he is an anthroposophist. No matter, he is a national treasure: http://www.clowndimitri.com

His performance was exquisite and the epitome of genuine humor.

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Wrapping Up

On Sunday morning, after a final round of thoughts on the trademark question, Nana Goebel spoke about the World List, and asked all national associations to send in their most updated lists so that the complete list is ready for the April conference.

We concluded by going around the entire circle to hear “burning questions.” Unfortunately this final session from around the world was pressed for time, and a potentially most interesting set of concerns was very hurried. The minutes note only: Dorit announces an initiative to form a worldwide conference for teacher trainers to be held May 4-6, 2013, either in Dornach or in Vienna. And: Christof announces the renewing of the book “Towards the Deepening”.

Next meetings of the International Forum 2012, after the two international conferences next

April: Saturday, April 14, 7pm – Monday, April 16, 12am, Dornach.

Thursday, November 15, 6pm – Sunday, November 18, 12am, Dornach

Dorit Winter (thanks to minutes taken by Dorothee Prange, Pedagogical Section)
Director, Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training

In the First Year, Peggy Rock (Greenwood School), Meg Weber (Marin Waldorf School) and Douglas Gerwin (Center for Anthroposophy) introduced the students to Waldorf Early Childhood work, the Waldorf Grade School, and the Waldorf High School, respectively. Second Year students had three weeks of Chalkboard Drawing, one with Kristine Deason (Marin Waldorf School)  and two with Wendy Baschkopf (Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training). The Second Year students also had two weekends of intensive Speech work with Christine Burke (CSUS Channel Islands in Southern California). Most recently, Paul Gierlach, San Francisco Waldorf School, is currently teaching Parzival to the First and Second Year students, combined together in one large group.  Third Year students have been hard at work with their Practicum assignments out in the local Waldorf schools, and have been engaged in practicum preparation each weekend under the guidance of Janet Langley (Practicum Coordinator)  and Diane David (Director of Early Childhood Program & San Francisco Waldorf School).

Dave Alsop
Assistant Director, Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training