If you want an opportunity to teach children with all of your heart and soul, being a Waldorf teacher just may be the avenue you are searching for. Never has there been a better time to consider becoming a Waldorf teacher. While the public boards in Ontario are barely hiring for any teaching positions, Waldorf schools in Ontario, across Canada and internationally are actively seeking qualified teachers to fill a broad range of positions for the coming school year. Our student teachers are often scouted out as early as our opening day and then sought after for employment after they complete our programs. The demand for qualified, inspired and dedicated teachers in the Waldorf schools remains as robust now as it has been for the past two decades.

Congratulations Class of 2013

We are pleased to celebrate the talented and hard working graduates from our Professional Development for Waldorf Teachers Class of 2013. This talented and accomplished group of professionals has worked dilligently this year to master all aspects of Waldorf pedagogy, child development, inner development and the arts. They are bright, caring and inspired to make a difference in children's lives. Most of them have secured teaching positions in early childhood and grade school classrooms across Ontario and in British Columbia for the coming school year. They make us proud.

Nevertheless, there are many more Waldorf schools in Canada and abroad that are still searching for trained Waldorf teachers to serve the needs of their communities. Being a Waldorf teacher could be the hardest job you will ever love. Contact us today for more information.

By Derrick Meador, reprinted from About.com Guide

Qualities of an Effective Teacher

Think back to when you were in school. Who was your favorite teacher? Who was the teacher you dreaded having? Almost everyone will instantly be able to answer these two questions. We've all had good teachers and unfortunately most of us have had teachers that were not effective. So what qualities does an effective teacher have that an ineffective teacher does not? The answer is that it takes a perfect blend of several qualities to create a truly effective teacher who can have a lasting impact on virtually every student. In this article we examine ten qualities that virtually every effective teacher will possess.

An effective teacher loves to teach

The single most important quality that every teacher should possess is a love and passion for teaching young people. Unfortunately there are teachers who do not love what they do. This single factor can destroy a teacher's effectiveness quicker than anything else. Teachers who do not enjoy their job cannot possibly be effective day in and day out. There are too many discouraging factors associated with teaching that is difficult enough on a teacher who absolutely loves what they do, much less on one who doesn't have the drive, passion, or enthusiasm for it. On top of that, kids are smarter than what we give them credit for. They will spot a phony quicker than anyone and thus destroy any credibility that teacher may have.

An effective teacher demonstrates a caring attitude

Even teachers who love their job can struggle in this area, not because they don't care, but because they get caught up so much in the day to day routine of teaching that they can forget that their students have lives outside of school. Taking the time to get to know a student on a personal level takes a lot of time and dedication. There is also a line that no teacher wants to cross where their relationship becomes too personal. Elite teachers know how to balance this without crossing that line and once a student believes the teacher truly cares for them, then there is no limit to what that student can achieve.

An effective teacher can relate to their students

The best teachers go out of their way to find ways to relate to each of their students. Common interest can be hard to find, but good teachers will find a way to connect with their students even if they have to fake it. For instance, you may have a student who is a Lego fanatic. You can relate to that student if you do something as simple as ordering a Lego catalog and then going through it and discussing it with that student. Even if you have no actual interest in Lego's, the student will think you do and thus naturally create a connection.

An effective teacher is willing to think outside the box

There is no one set cookie cutter way to teach. If there was, teachers and students would both be bored. What makes teaching so exciting is that kids learn differently and we have to find and utilize different strategies and differentiated learning to reach every student. What works for one student, will not work for every student. Teachers have to be willing to be creative and adaptive in their lessons, thinking outside the box on a continual basis. If you try to teach every concept in the same manner, there will be students who miss out on key factors because they aren't wired to learn that way.

An effective teacher is a good communicator

To be the best possible teacher you must be an effective communicator. However, in this area you are not just limited to being a good communicator to your students although that is a must. You must also be a great communicator with parents of your students as well as your faculty/staff team within in your building. If you have a difficulty communicating with any of these three groups, then you limit your overall effectiveness as a teacher.

An effective teacher is proactive rather than reactive

This can be one of most difficult aspects for a teacher to conquer. Intense planning and organization can ultimately make your job all the more less difficult. Teachers who plan ahead, looking for aspects that they might have issues with, and proactively looking for solutions to solve those problems will have less stress on them, then those teachers who wait until a problem arises and then tries to address it. Being proactive does not replace being adaptive. No matter how well you plan, there will be surprises. However, being proactive can cut down on these surprises tremendously, thus making you more effective overall.

An effective teacher works to be better

A teacher who has grown complacent in what they do is the most ineffective kind of teacher. Any teacher who is not looking for new and better teaching strategies isn't being an effective teacher. No matter how long you have taught, you should always want to grow as a teacher. Every year there is new research, new technology, and new educational tools that could make you a better teacher. Seek out professional development opportunities and try to apply something new to your class every year.

An effective teacher uses a variety of media in their lessons

Like it or not we are in the 21st century and this generation of students was born in the digital age. These students have been bombarded by technological advances unlike any other generation. They have embraced it and if we as teachers do not, then we are falling behind. This is not to say that we should eliminate textbooks and worksheets completely, but effective teachers are not afraid to implement other forms of media within their lessons.

An effective teacher challenges their students

The most effective teachers are often the ones that many students consider to be their most difficult. This is because they challenge their students and push them harder than the average teacher does. These are the teachers who are often students' least favorite teachers at the time, but then later on in life they are the ones that we all remember and want to thank, because of how well they prepared us for life after our time with them. Being an effective teacher does not mean you are easy. It means that you challenge every one of your students and maximize your time with them so that they learn more than they ever thought possible.

An effective teacher understands the content that they teach and knows how to explain that content in a manner that their students understand

There are teachers who do not know the content well enough to effectively teach it. There are teachers who are truly experts on the content, but struggle to effectively explain it to their students. The highly effective teacher both understands the content and explains it on level. This can be a difficult skill to accomplish, but the teachers who can, maximize their effectiveness as a teacher.

Lylli Anthon is this year's honourary recipient of a certificate in our Professional Development for Waldorf Teachers program. We want to recognize Lylli for her 30 year's of dedication to Waldorf education, the Halton Waldorf School, the Sensible Science Program and the Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto. Her brief biography below makes for an interesting and inspiring read.

Born to Polish immigrant parents, I grew up on a farm in the Barrie area and started my professional career with a BA earned at Queens University in 1973.
A strong interest in spiritual matters from my early twenties was directed towards Anthroposophy via encounters with such representatives a Peter von Zezschwitz at Georgian college, where participation in an anthroposophical study group eventually led to meeting my future husband and cementing my commitment to the work of Rudolf Steiner and spiritual research.

After we moved to B.C. in 1980, now as a family with one child, I became involved in a small country school in Duncan, where I was able to plant seeds for its future as a Waldorf school (The Sunrise Waldorf School) by giving talks to the school community and hosting community events with several Waldorf graduates from the area.

Upon returning to Ontario in1983 with all of 3 children in tow, we focused on being near a Waldorf school for our children. As my husband found work at the University of Guelph, we were able to settle in Rockwood within reasonable distance to the newly founded Halton Waldorf School in Campbellville and as direct neighbours to a parent couple from that school.
With our daughter Sarah enrolled in their first grade one class at Halton, I became involved in fund raising and eventually was also asked to substitute in grade one. During the second year of the school, I became the first nursery teacher in the HWS under the guidance of Dorothy Olsen. Interesting enough, that nursery class later became the core of my first grade one class, which I took through to grade eight. Also, our daughter Sarah became the first graduate to emerge from the Halton School.

After one year in this position, I was asked by Dorothy Olsen and the board chair to take on the grade two class, as their teacher was leaving, which I did up to grade four. Alan Hughes from TWS was my mentor with help from Georg Locker, who observed my teaching and gave me a great deal of guidance.
When Helmut and Renate Krause joined the school, it was agreed that he would take over my class that was going into grade five, and I found myself starting with a new grade one. As an aside, I'm currently mentoring a graduate of this very first class at our school, where she is now teaching.
While taking this new class through to graduation, I attended curriculum intensive courses every summer on that amazing journey through all eight grades. After graduation I had one year off, where I did a teaching term in a third grade class at the Waldorf Academy.

When returning to HWS, I taught a split grade 6/7 to graduation, which strengthened my interest in the sciences and their relation to the development of independent cognition and thinking in the students. With constant support from my husband as an anthroposophical scientist, this interest, combined with a strong interest in that age group and the associated growth and emergence of the human Ego into the world, led to me becoming the go-to person and teacher for a grand total of six successful upper grade classes taking each of them through to graduation at the end of grade eight.

Another outcome of my strong interest in the math-science curriculum and its cognitive perspectives was my connection to Michael D'Aleo, with whom I am working teaching Sensible Science over the last eight years and counting. A workshop with John McLaughlin about enlivening Math through the grades also fell into line with these interests.

Currently my focus has been supported by the issues surrounding the needs brought about by our so-called technological age and how we can address the needs of the students throughout the grades to meet the challenges of high school and the abrupt encounter with this (computer) technology, so that this happens in a very human and real way. Enlivening and integrating independent thinking and cognition, as the Waldorf curriculum ultimately aims to do, became a subject at the most recent AWSNA conference at HWS; and I hope to continue working with recently developed aspects of this.

Warren Lee Cohen, MEd, BA Physics, is the Co-Executive Director and Director of Teacher Education at the Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto. Join him this summer in his sculpting workshop 'The Human Form Divine' July 22 to 26 at the RSCT Summer Festival of Arts and Education.

During my annual visits to Brazil, I have noticed that Brazilians ('Cariocas' in particular - people from Rio de Janeiro) are looking for practical ways to approach an understanding of the spirit that will make a difference in their busy lives. The forces of materialism are powerful in Rio. Chaos is abundant, poverty and senseless violence all too common. The daily struggle for survival can be exhausting, leaving little time or energy to pursue other interests. Yet, the people there want to reconnect with their ideals, to bring meaning to their lives for inspiration and fortification. For these reasons, I was asked to lead a workshop, at the newly forming Waldorf Teachers' Seminar, on the three-fold nature of the human being. I decided to work not only with the head, heart and hands; thinking, feeling and willing; body, soul and spirit ... but also with the three-fold nature of the spiritual guidance available to us.

The College Imagination

Rudolf Steiner had less than three weeks to prepare the first twelve Waldorf teachers, who were dedicated to incorporating a living, spirit-filled view of the human being into their teaching. Steiner knew that the teachers' continuing development as whole, interested and open-minded human beings was central to the healthy functioning of the school and to the education they hoped to bring to the children. Therefore, from the beginning, he urged them to develop capacities within themselves to learn how to ask for and receive spiritual guidance and assistance in their work, and he warned them that were it not for this spiritual help, they would likely find the task of founding the school overwhelming and be tempted to give up. On the first day of training, he offered this imaginative picture, now often called the College Imagination, of how beings of the spiritual world support our daily work, even if this collaboration is often unseen and unacknowledged by us.

'Behind each of us stands our Angel gently laying hands upon our head. This Angel gives each of you the strength you need. Above your heads hovers a ring of Archangels. They convey from one to the other of you what each of you has to give to the other. They connect your souls. Thus you receive the courage you require. (From this courage, the Archangels form a vessel.) The Light of Wisdom is given to us by the Higher Beings of the Archai, who do not form themselves into a ring, but come from the beginning of time, reveal themselves and disappear into primordial distances. They project into this space only as a drop. (A drop of Time Light falls into the vessel of courage from the active Time Spirit.) '
(noted down by Caroline von Heydebrand):

This was summed up by Walter Johannes Stein:
'Strength - Angel
Courage - Archangel
Light - Archai '

Angels

Behind each one of us stands an Angel, our Guardian Angel. Like our mothers (ideally), it envelops each one of us in unconditional love. It prepares us to meet the challenges that are coming. Everyone has such a dedicated spiritual guide. They give us the safe space in which our higher selves can develop and eventually come into independent maturity. Angel light allows true imaginations to stream into our consciousness. These guide us in our earthly tasks and relationships and give us strength to overcome the inevitable challenges we all meet along the way. Eventually, in the very distant future after a number of incarnations, we will take over this responsibility from the Angels, just as we gradually find our independence from our parents. Until then, the Angels' unconditional love remains steadfast, guiding us along our way and giving us the strength of which we are in need.

Archangels

Archangels unite groups of people, who have a common purpose or mission, by flowing in rhythmic motion amongst group members and their angels. They weave together mutual intentions and striving to help us form a sense of group identity, be it a community, family or nation. While angels give to each individual member the strength she needs, Archangels inspire and give courage to each member of the group to work together to fulfill their common tasks. Whether forming a school, a team, a theatre play or a political movement, the work of the Archangels helps form the group into a dynamic and viable whole. This group may well become able to receive higher spiritual intentions in order to meet challenges particular to its historical setting and time.

Archai

Archai, sometimes called Time Spirits, shine the light of intuition into the dynamic relationships or vessels that have been built with the aid of the Archangels. These exalted beings appear only in the form of a drop of light, which they offer to help us to meet the ever changing needs of humanity. The Archai help us attune our efforts to be most fruitful at this time and place. You can see the results of their work in the rise and fall of various peoples and impulses over the course of human history.

Individual strength from imaginations, courage and inspirations to work with one another and the intuitions to help us meet the essential challenges of our times: these are the gifts of the Angels, Archangels and Archai. As we work together as teachers or in any community for that matter, it is helpful to recognize the presence of these exalted beings that are ever ready to support our common work. Without their help, much that we set out to do would be too difficult, painful or disheartening to carry through to completion, or too misguided to be beneficial. With their help, true social innovation is possible. They support the creation of social initiatives that benefit individual societies and the continuing development of humankind.

Clay Modeling and the Imagination

Rudlof Steiner did not hope that the teachers would mindlessly recite the College Imagination or that they would believe in it as a doctrine. He wanted them to penetrate between these words to form a living understanding of the dynamics of how these spiritual beings work together with human beings to support their daily work, relationships and collaborations. He wanted the teachers to keep these ideas in the front of their minds so that these spiritual beings could give their optimal benefits to the first Free Waldorf School.

Attempting to better understand and make connections with these ideas, we set out to model this verse in clay. First we spoke and contemplated the imagination in both English and Portuguese, allowing plenty of time for the images to build up our imaginations. We then set the text aside and brought out large bags of ceramic clay. Sometimes hands can reveal ideas and relationships that do not easily arise to full consciousness in our thinking alone. A more tangential approach can free us to become aware of deeper insights and meanings that seem to emerge when we least expect them

Each of us began by forming a large lump of clay into a sphere. We worked in the air with only our hands trying to make this sphere as round and homogenous as possible. Our hands appeared to intuitively know the shape of a sphere and to need little input from our other senses. In fact, even when we paused to reflect on our activity, our hands seemed to carry on forming the spheres on their own accord. Through this process we discovered the three-fold nature of the hand: the powerful base or heal of the hand that easily moves large amounts of clay, the sensitive and rarely touched inner palm and the dextrous and clever finger tips. We worked in silence (not easy for such social people) so that we could be attentive with all of our consciousness to the unfolding creative process. After 15 minutes we passed our spheres to other people and compared the remarkably different qualities they embodied, including their shape, density, smoothness and warmth. We had all crafted spheres, and yet each one reflected unique qualities of its creator.

I encouraged each person to imagine that she was working as the Guardian Angel of her clay sphere, helping it to approach its true form, its ultimate perfection, in much the same way as our Guardian Angels work with us, giving us strength and guidance. We held this imagination while working (and then again in quiet contemplation before moving on to the next step of our creative process).

We then gathered into groups of five participants. Each set her sphere next to four others forming a circle or ring of spheres. I invited participants to envision the dynamic activity of the Archangels as they flow from one being (sphere and sculptor) to another. We then worked with 10 hands per group gently moving and moulding the clay together in these now larger collaborative sculptures. Each person was given permission to make changes to any part of the sculpture and equally encouraged to accept the changes that others made. No part of it remained identified with an individual. It became a group collaboration. Gradually, the spheres merged into a form that then began to take on some of the qualities of a vessel with an inside and an outside. The participants regularly moved around their emerging sculpture. This helped them to perceive it in its full dimensionality, to contribute to all perspectives and to accept responsibility for the whole sculpture and not just one part of it.

After working in groups for some time, I then invited each group to make their vessel ready to receive a drop of light from a yet more mysterious spiritual source, the realm of the Archai. This process is akin to making a home ready to receive a new baby. Questions of sensitivity and robustness emerged. Was the vessel ready? Would it be strong enough to hold this drop of light? How would the vessel be altered by receiving the light? The groups worked to simplify, strengthen and focus their vessels so that they could best receive this gift, which in this context would be a small ball of clay.

The groups worked with concentration and focus to prepare their vessels. Some sculpting groups invited a golf ball size ball of clay into their vessel. Others only wanted the tiniest drop, and others wanted a few drops in a number of special spots. These drops transformed the vessels completely. They gave the vessels a sense of purpose, a mission to fulfill, and a responsibility. Participants expressed that had there been more time, they would have wanted to allow their vessels an opportunity to respond to the unique impulse that each drop brought to their vessel.

Collaborative sculpturing requires a lot of giving and receiving, acceptance, rejection and coping with change that is and clearly feels beyond one's direct control. Yet, the participants were remarkably full of energy, enthusiasm and grace. They expressed that this process, while challenging, had helped them to step closer to the mysterious workings of Angels, Archangels and Archai. They were grateful for the mutual support and inspiration that came from working collaboratively and said that this far outweighed the challenge of having to let go of their individual impulses. This exercise helped them to imagine the subtle ways in which these spiritual beings' support for human endeavours might manifest in their own work and lives. The participants were active in body, soul and spirit. They used their imaginations and will to penetrate into the mystery of communal creation. The dynamic quality of this exercise cultivated a living quality of thinking and feeling that enabled them to sense and consciously work with the spiritual world.

References

Steiner, Rudolf Foundations of Human Experience, SteinerBooks, 1996
Photographs courtesy of Isabel Santos

Senses' Revelation

Fire your imagination, renew yourself and play with other like minded adults. On offer are grade level intensives for Waldorf teachers, administrators and parents; workshops on Waldorf science, creative writing, biodynamic nutrition and biography; and to balance it all out artistic workshops in felting, metal working, veil painting, storytelling, music and clay modelling.

Presenters and participants are coming from all across Canada and all around the world.

Evening activities include coffee houses, lectures and study group.

Click here to see our full colour brochure.

Contact the Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto,
info@rsct.ca to register of for more information.

Five kindergarten principals from Japan visited RSCT this week. They could not have been lovelier or more interested in the work we are doing here to bring spirit into education. As fate would have it, they visited a cutting edge plugged-in kindergarten directly before coming to us. In the morning they went to a school that features 'smart boards' and lap tops for each child and in the afternoon they came to the Toronto Waldorf School where we use all natural materials and traditional crafts to help awaken the children's innate abilities.

After offering the principals, their delightful translator and the president of the Kobe Shinwa Women's' University a brief introduction into the ideals and practices in Waldorf schools, I led them into two of the early childhood spaces and let these well loved rooms speak for themselves. They were delighted by the nursery and kindergarten classrooms and gardens, the beautiful decorations, the lack of clutter, the emphasis on natural and seasonal motifs. They climbed right into the children's play loft and carefully inspected all the wooden and felted toys. They were so eager to engage.

We then sat in a circle on the floor, shared our observations and questions. They were such keen observers and noticed how the specially painted walls of the classroom contributed to the calm wholesome mood of the rooms. I told them that I wanted to introduce them to two friends of mine. I brought out two Waldorf dolls that my wife, Luciana had made. We passed them around. They enjoyed holding these healthy rounded forms. They lovingly cradled them and gently squeezed their firm fleshiness. One principal even discovered that the dolls had real nappies beneath their garments. We observed how different their reactions were to these Waldorf dolls than they might have been to typical Barbie dolls, who do not invite cuddling in any fashion, but rather inspire one to grab them by their long hair, cave man style. One of the women who was a psychologist noted how wonderful these Waldorf dolls are for young girls so that they can form healthy images of their female bodies - so unlike Barbie...

Somehow one of the dolls made its way back to me and lay comfortably resting on my lap for the rest of my talk. The other found herself well cuddled in the translator's arms. And so the four of us, lecturer, translator and two well loved dolls proceeded to lead the rest of the talk with our foreign dignitaries. At one point the university president broke into laughter, pointing everyone's attention to the doll that was cosily resting in the lecturers lap. 'Where else,' he exclaimed, 'would you see a lecturer comfortably talking with a doll on his lap!' We laughed. This scene must have been inspired by the nurturing mood of the kindergarten space itself.

We then offered the principals some twice-blessed, organic sourdough bread that I had baked specially for them. I taught them a blessing which we sang together just as the children do at school. They them presented us with lovely gifts from Japan. It was such a warm and heat-filled exchange. In the end two of the principals said to me that the contrast between the two schools they had visited could not have been stronger. They wondered how schools could become so cruel to the children they are supposed to be serving. This was difficult for all of us to understand. Many of these principals have been in education long enough to see the unfortunate trajectory of modern education towards earlier and earlier academics with less time for play and nature. Clearly this does not sit well in their hearts. They were so grateful for their visit to the Waldorf school, which reminded them of many of the ideals that led to their going into education in the first place.

The task of parenting and educating children can be wonderful, inspiring, exhausting and exasperating often in equal measure. Children see right through us. They have a way of revealing both our best and worst sides. It would not be a stretch to say that it is their task to help us continue to grow and learn the true work of becoming human, learning how to love.
They demand it.

At RSCT we strive to offer wholesome educational and artistic nourishment, food for the long haul so that teachers and parents can better meet challenges with creativity, clarity and joy. This is no small task. Working artistically is central to this picture, for children even more than adults live in a creative, imaginative space from which they learn all their skills to thrive in this world. Art refreshes and offers new challenges no matter what our phase of life. It stimulates life long neural development and leads one into the timeless realms of childhood

Art, education and an understanding child development in the context of an evolving picture of human consciousness, these are the central themes that run through our Summer Festival of Arts and Education. Come have fun, challenge yourself and meet remarkable people.

While working the Waldorf Language and Literature week of our Professional Development for Waldorf Teachers full-time program we were discussing the content and rationale for the Waldorf curriculum and in particular why we teach Old Testament stories in third grade. This is an important theme that invariably challenges parents and teachers alike.

The Waldorf curriculum is intended to offer the children stories, images and activities that help them to assimilate changes they are going through in their journey to become responsible, compassionate and skillful adults. Children in third grade (9 years old) are gaining more and more confidence in their academic, social and physical capacities. They still appreciate the clear and unwavering guidance, the loving authority, of their class teacher. However, this too can come under question as they go through their proverbial fall from grace, their nine year change, which we mirrored for them in the tale of the Fall of Adam and Eve. They also meet Moses who led his people out of slavery, through the desert for fourty years until they reached the promised land, yet he too was far from perfect. These stories apart from their religious significance recount not only the journey of the Jewish people towards their promised land, but that of all humanity as we wrestle with the challenges of morality, justice and meaning in our lives.

Below is one student teacher's brief reflection on her own relationship with these stories and their value in pedagogy.

Why study Old Testament?
by Azita Jovaini

The Old Testament is a record of God's dealing with his children from creation to about 400BC. We could also see it as a covenant, a special relationship in which the lord pledges his support to a group of people, the Jews.

The Old Testament is a voice from the past with vital messages for today. It also contains the historical roots from which all of other scriptures such as New Testament and even the Koran spring and lays a foundation for understanding who we are today and what we believe.
Ancient and modern prophets have stressed the value of old testament in helping us come to know God. In the Old Testament we learn about creation and fall of man. We learn what a prophet is and we learn about obedience, sacrifice, covenant and priesthood. The whole basis for Judaic-Christian law, and Islam is thought through and developed in the Old Testament. We read about prophesies of the coming Messiah and of the restoration of the gospel. We get insight by studying Old Testament. We learn about the fall of Adam and Eve. We learn that God can and do intervene directly in the lives of individuals and nations. We learn that Idolatry in any form is destructive.

The Old Testament also contains vast quantities of wisdom that contributes to humanity and informs how people strive to treat one other. It contains lessons for all of us through the lives of its many fallible characters, for are not we all fallible? By observing the lives of the people in these stories, we can be encouraged to trust in God no matter what happens.

Coenraad died thursday, march 28, 2013
in Ueberlingen, Germany at age 91.

It was a lecture by Coenraad which gave the impulse for the forming of the Rudolf Steiner Centre now in its 33rd year.

Coenraad started out in Holland working at the NPI, the Netherlands Pedagogical Institute with Bernard Lievegoed, but later lived in England where he established the Centre for Social Development connected with Emerson College. He finally moved to Germany where he led the Adult Learning Network.

Coenraad visited the Rudolf Steiner Centre over many years, giving countless lectures and teaching three intensive weeks of courses for our student Waldorf teachers and the generpublic.

Week 1 was: Learning to Learn
Week 2 was: Destiny Learning
Week 3 was: The Spiritual Path

His work, including Destiny Learning which he originated, is now practiced in many countries around the world.

We gratefully remember this great man and the many gifts he brought to enrich our lives.

May he now rest and rejoice in spirit light.

Over the past ten years, I have become increasingly
aware of how soil health is an essential component
to farming and gardening. Given the recent variations
in climate with late frosts, long dry spells and heavy
rains, it becomes imperative to build resiliency and
sustainability into our soil, such that it becomes less
susceptible to these and other changes.

This curiosity about soil and its essential helper,
compost, led me to study biodynamic farming and
gardening. I soon found a new way of thinking about
soil, land, plants and animals. I learned how this living
soil can be enhanced and how plants, which are part of
this soil complex, can be better nurtured and become
more resistant to outside forces, such as weather and
pests.

Biodynamic Agriculture

Biodynamics is a practical approach to reconnecting
with the earth and its living elements through
observation and revitalization techniques. Becoming
aware of cosmic and earthly forces and working with
rhythms and seasonal cycles, one can optimize basic
growing practices and work in harmony with nature
and one's individual environment.

These basic principles and practices have evolved
from a set of eight lectures on agriculture given in
1924 by Rudolf Steiner. Several farmers, who already
appreciated Steiner's contribution to the understanding
of human nature, education, medicine, science, art and
spirituality, approached him asking for these lecturers,
as they noted that their soils were being depleted and
their crops were decreasing in quantity. The lectures
were intended as a 'Spiritual Foundation for the
Renewal of Agriculture,' not as a set of rules and recipes
to be blindly followed.

Over the past 90 years, Steiner's life-affirming
approach to agriculture has been developed and refined
by biodynamic farmers and gardeners around the
world, including Australia, Canada, England, France,
India, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa and the
United States.

In 2012, after many years of trials and tests, Prince
Charles and his son, Prince William, publically endorsed
biodynamic practices and implemented them on their
farm at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.

Introduction to Biodynanmics

This year, starting Sunday, April 21st from 10 am to
4 pm, together with my colleague, Kathryn Aunger, I
am presenting a series of 10 teaching sessions on the
'Introduction to Biodynamic Farming and Gardening'
at her Demeter biodynamic certified farm between
Tweed and Belleville, off Highway 37. This seasonal look
at cycles, rhythms and patterns, as well as soil science,
compost and food vitality offers a shift of thinking from
the conventional approach to agriculture. Participants
will grasp biodynamic concepts and practices that allow
them to continue their own journeys into being in harmony with nature
and connecting with the earth.

This Introduction to Biodynamics is offered with
outreach support from the Society for
Biodynamic Farming and Gardening
in Ontario.

My name is Thea Blair. As a teacher I witnessed the magic of comforting touch in resolving children's emotional difficulties. This led me to research peer massage, which is student-to-student. I used it in my teaching and found it to be a great way to settle the kids down and have more cooperation. This is such a great tool and yet almost no one has heard of it!

I met Jean Barlow online. Based near Manchester, England, her organization, Child 2 Child, has been training schools in peer massage for 12 years. She arranged all the school visits so that film maker Amanda Bontecou and I could document this amazing practice. We interviewed students, teachers, and heads of schools.

Everyone we spoke to said, in their own way:

PEER MASSAGE BRINGS CALM, FOCUS, AND FRIENDLINESS

Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto

July 8 to 26, 2013

Senses' Revelation is our guiding impulse for this summer's festival.
Revel in what your senses can reveal to you. Surrender to the beauty of
new sights, colours, textures, sounds, stories, songs and tastes. Fill up your
senses this summer with nourishment for the long inward journey toward
spirit revelation in midwinter. Refresh yourself in the soothing waters of
artistic renewal and community and kindle the flame of inspired action.
We welcome parents, educators and artists interested in working with their
senses to reveal meaning, joy and depth in all that you do. Join with our
international team of workshop leaders in a guided exploration of the arts and
ideas inspired out of anthroposophy in collaboration with other like-minded
individuals. This year we have expanded our festival to three weeks.
Welcome all!

'Art has a quality that can excite people not just once, but
can time and again directly give them joy. For this reason,
we directly connect the artistic element with what we want
to achieve in teaching.'
Rudolf Steiner

Click here for the full brochure

by Dawne McFarlane

An introduction to the Development of the Creative Imagination

Dec.28-30/12

A Workshop with Master of Storytelling Inger Lise Oelrich (Sweden)

This workshop came highly recommended by a dear friend who is extremely trustworthy in such things, so I signed up in advance. But when the bluster of Christmas whirled all around me, with all the trimmings of family, I must admit that the spirit was willing but the flesh was exhausted! The thought of a workshop intensive was not at the top of the list though it had been checked twice. What a gift to pour my tired self into the sacred space of Inger Lise's workshop and find renewal.

When the space is created, the story can be told. That's what the workshop was about for me; creating the space, listening, and telling stories. Inger Lise invited us as a community to gather together and create a space of respect and reverence, invite the storyteller to step forward, and ask for a story. This separate space, where respect and reverence can give way to awe, becomes sacred. The stories come from 'behind us,' we stir them in the space we have created, and we are all changed with this experience. Connections are made, hearts are opened, minds are engaged, and transformation can happen. New connections, new ways of thinking, and new ways of being are possible.

We were a diverse community of familiar strangers; storytellers, teachers, magicians, and musicians from around the world. Several people from the group brought grief into the room with them, mourning the loss of a young man's life to violence in the Regent Park community. Inger Lise held a healing circle using the tools of Celtic blessing traditions, and each of us offered a wish connected with images from nature for the young man and those who love him. Tears watered the fertile place of hope. We listened to stories and worked with picture images from them, drawing them and describing them to each other. We clapped and stomped and spoke our words into a great mythic silver bowl and let them resonate. There were stories from our own lives, from fairy tales, and spontaneous ones that unfolded. It was an opportunity to reflect on our intentions in this work, inwardly and with the group. Inger Lise spoke to us of storytelling as a social activity, a place where the questions unite us, where we can meet the challenges of our times in a new way that's as old as the hills.

Diasporic Genuis

This workshop was organized by Diasporic Genuis www.diasporicgenius.com. David Buchbinder's project has been working in the Thorncliffe Park community using Inger Lise's vision and method for the past year, connecting people from all over the globe who live right here. Inger Lise Oelrich is a theatre director, storyteller and adult educator who travels widely working with storytelling as a healing and transformational art.

By JAN PATTERSON

Candlemas - February 2nd - comes exactly 40 days after Christmas and marks the end of Epiphany. It is more commonly known as Groundhog Day, when good weather foretells severe winter conditions still to come. 'If Candlemas day is clear and bright, winter will have another bite.' Folklore tells us that not only groundhogs but also bears and wolves emerge from hibernation to inspect the weather. If they find sunshine, they will not venture out for at least another 40 days.

Let us concentrate on the warmer aspects of Candlemas. This is the day of the presentation of the Christ Child in the temple, also called the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin. From the Gospel of Luke: old man Simeon has been promised by God that 'he should not see death before he had looked upon the face of Christ.' You can only imagine his smile as he called this child 'a light for revelation to the nations.' The 'light' is symbolized in the tradition of blessing the church candles on this day that are then used throughout the year.

What is the significance of 40 days? Forty has long been a spiritual number both in the Bible and in many other religions: the 40 days of Lent, Christ's 40 days in the desert, 40 days of mourning after death, 40 days of rain before the dove was sent out from Noah's ark. It takes 40 days to mend broken bones or to recover from surgery. In the days of worldwide plague, the quarantine period was 40 days. It takes 40 days to master a new skill.

Rudolf Steiner indicates that it is this holy period of time, 40 days, for the child's soul and spirit to be comfortable in its new body. Anthroposophical doctors recommend that the mother needs this time to reclaim her own physical body and for the whole family to begin adjusting to the new constellation.

In our work in early childhood, we want to regain awareness of this sacred time, not only for the protection of the mother's etheric forces but also to protect the child. In the book The Red Tent by Anita Diamant there is a wonderful description of how the new mother and child are cared for by the women in the community. The mother is fed and waited on so that she can give her complete attention to healing herself and focusing on the needs of her child. It also supports the child's gradual and peaceful awakening to the world. Joan Salter's book The Incarnating Child has some lovely examples of the essential conditions needed for a new-born child to feel protected during this transition.

Some Waldorf communities have adopted this custom by creating their own '40-day network.' The aim is to offer support to new families. Baking, shopping, cleaning, arranging play dates for older siblings, or car pooling are some of the ways to help - particularly for newcomers and those without extended families. But it is also a wonderful way to build awareness of what a family needs to make this a special time.

The end of the 40-day period is celebrated by the baby's first true smile, an indication that the individual ego has reached the first milestone in her journey of incarnation.

Jan Patterson, Director of Early Childhood Teacher Education Rudolf Steiner Center Toronto, completed her Foundation Studies at Emerson College and her early childhood training with Margret Meyerkort at Wynstones, England. She has taught for over 17 years in England, the USA, and Canada. She has served on the WECAN Board and is an active mentor and consultant in Waldorf schools in Ontario.

Warren Lee Cohen, M.Ed.
Director of Teacher Education
Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto

'Are Waldorf schools Christian?'
'Why are there copies of Raphael's Madonna and Child in classrooms?'
'Why do Waldorf schools celebrate Christian festivals?'

I have heard questions such as these any number of times as I meet with parents and teachers in Waldorf schools across the continent and around the world. Questions about the connection between Waldorf education, Christianity and Jesus Christ are challenging to field. These terms can have a broad range of meanings, often with strong feelings attached to them. Depending on someone's past experiences and religious affiliations, the interests and concerns they express through such questions can reveal deeply held beliefs, traditions, pride, prejudice and equally personal pain and cultural suffering. As I have endeavoured to meet people through their questions, I have realized that there are no, simple answers that I find satisfying. Rather, I prefer to receive such questions as opportunities to explore more deeply into what is important. They are invitations to meet in meaningful and perhaps tender ways.

Waldorf education was born out of a spiritual impulse to renew education for all children regardless of race, religion, gender or income. While Waldorf education has been cast in language that was clearly Christian, it aims to foster a universal spirituality that transcends any one religion or creed. Waldorf education seeks to cultivate the highest potential for humanity. It is education towards the ideal of freedom for each student, teacher and school community member.

Waldorf schools strive to carefully balance the essential respect all people desire for their religious and spiritual choices with the overarching desire to build a spirit-filled and unified school. Each community, geographic region and culture requires a unique approach to serve the needs of its children and their families. A Waldorf school must respect the heritage and beliefs of its members and seek for ways to bridge differences between people. It is a complex balancing act. Waldorf schools now exist in countries whose spiritual/religious outlooks include Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Animism, Judaism and Secular Humanism. Needless to say each school must adapt to its circumstances. While respecting individual freedoms they also need to build fellowship with in their communities. Finding this delicate balance between personal and universal aspects of spirituality can strengthen Waldorf school communities. Members must necessarily take an interest in and learn about one another and will inevitably face conflicts. These cannot be avoided. In fact, conflicts are only made more intractable through avoidance. Developing and maintaining a spirit-filled educational community requires conscious effort and effective strategies for working through the challenges that arise.

To illuminate these ideas I would like to share a process I have recently employed in working with the newly forming Saltwater School in Courtenay, BC. I was invited to help them identify and communicate about Waldorf pedagogy and the unique spirit of their new school. Over the course of a week, I met with their faculty, board and broader community. Each member brought a personally unique worldview and religious/spiritual background and yet had a strong desire to create a school that openly nurtures the whole human being: body, soul and spirit.

I spoke openly with them about potentially difficult and divisive issues connected with spirituality in Waldorf education. Experience has shown that it is best to try to work together through challenging notions. This supports peoples' ability to stay open, withhold judgement and supports their process in building a tolerant and creative learning community. No one has to agree with anything someone else says, but what is essential is to talk about spirituality and to actively listen. Tolerance alone for another's point of view is not enough, interest in others' ideas and beliefs are essential qualities in building a spirit-filled school community.

The founder of Waldorf education, Rudolf Steiner, spoke to the teachers of the first Waldorf school (Stuttgart, 1919) about the central spiritual role of 'the Christ' in the development of human consciousness. He did not mean the person Jesus, but rather the unique spiritual being and impulse that found its way into incarnation and entered (mostly unconsciously) all the world's peoples and the earth itself. He termed it variously the 'Christ Impulse', the 'Deed of Christ' or the 'Representative of Humanity.' He emphasised that this universal spirit represents that which is highest and best in all humanity and impacts all people regardless of their religious persuasion or belief. This spiritual being is our potential, our inspiration, a universal teacher in our striving to become human. The ideals of freedom and love, inspired by this spiritual being, live at the heart of Waldorf education.

Steiner's notion of the Christ (as a spiritual being that that only unites itself with the body of Jesus of Nazareth at the time of his baptism in the river Jordan) is challenging for many people as it runs counter to aspects of what most religions teach. Therefore, it often stirs up a wide variety of difficult thoughts and feelings. Steiner asserted that the Christ, the spiritual potential of all humanity, is actively working at the core of Waldorf pedagogy. So, while being non-denominational and open to people of all persuasions, Waldorf school members have the difficult task of also finding their own relationship with the Christ. Rather than deny this fact or try to avoid it, it has proven most fruitful to explore the potential significance of this spiritual/religious/cultural hot-topic with eyes wide open.

At the Saltwater School, the faculty members and I began our process by listening to one another's experiences concerning our spiritual and religious upbringing and beliefs. Each faculty member shared her story. All were remarkably different, yet each contained universal elements of wanting to belong, wanting to find meaning in life and wanting to connect truthfully with the divine .... We agreed to withhold any comments or questions until after everyone had spoken. When dealing with questions of peoples' personal relationship to spirit and religion, the principles of freedom, tolerance and abiding interest are paramount.

Having established this foundation of openness and trust with one another, we read some of what Steiner had to say about the Christ Impulse in his lectures to the first Waldorf teachers and then paraphrased what we understood to one another. We then discussed our own responses to these thoughts. The conversations were rich, open and wide-ranging. We drew from our hopes and fears and successfully wove together the strands of our lives into a robust warp that could then serve the cloth of the whole school community.

We built a collegial vessel of trust by first listening, then speaking, studying and finally discussing these guiding thoughts and questions about spirituality and Waldorf education. At this point the teachers knew one another in new ways. They felt united and able to work in unison shaping the spiritual life of the school. They decided that they could then healthily create their first school festival, the autumn celebration of Michaelmas. They designed this festival in a way that would both strengthen the unique spirit of the school and respect the spiritual faiths of their community.

These founding teachers stand at the very core of their new school. They are its guiding lights. They speak and act for the school in how they teach every day, in how they govern the school and in how they speak with children and parents. Their courage to listen and take interest in one another's stories and then to wrestle to understand the difficult notions of how spirituality and the being of the Christ stand at the core of Waldorf education was not always easy. There were times of laughter and tears in our conversations. Nevertheless, their striving to understand one another in the light of the guiding impulses of Waldorf education sets a wonderful precedent for the school. Their courageous way of working through these challenging issues has become an inspiration for their school community. Not every member of the community may choose to dive into these issues so fulsomely. In this each person must be left in full freedom. Nevertheless, it is inspiring to know that these teachers' integrity lives at the heart of this school. The community will benefit from their earnest striving to understand one another, their care for children and their dedication to nurturing the unique spirit that seeks to unite its guiding light with that of their school.

So in the end, we uncovered no easy answers to the question: 'Is Waldorf education Christian?' But, we did find that pursuing the question remarkably fruitful in helping the teachers to build robust colleagueship. Whether one answers the question with a yes or no seems less important than listening attentively to one another and exploring it with openness and genuine interest. The deed of how one wrestles with this question is invaluable in building understanding and in so doing strengthening the core value Waldorf education places on individual striving and community cooperation.

Furthermore, while religion is not overtly taught in Waldorf schools, students work with the life stories of most major religious/spiritual leaders Zarathustra, Moses, Buddha, Christ and Mohamed.... Schools celebrate seasonal festivals which take on the character and images of their culture: Christian in much of the West; Jewish in Israel and Hindu in India. Students are deeply enriched by the teachings and deeds of these important world/spiritual leaders. Each represents just one thread from the tapestry of human existence and human potential. In freedom, each of us has the possibility of recognizing and choosing our own guiding light and as well appreciating the light that shines in others.

This article is based on a draft article that appears in the Fall/Winter 2012 edition of Renewal magazine.

References

Molt, Emil Emil Molt And the Beginnings of the Waldorf School Movement,
Floris Books, 2000

Steiner, Rudolf Foundations of Human Experience, SteinerBooks, 1996

Trostli, Roberto The Work of the Christ Impulse in the Work of the Waldorf
Teacher, from 'And Who Shall Teach the Teachers?'
Pedagogical Section Council of North America, 2005

Warren Lee Cohen is the Director of Teacher Education at the Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto. He teaches and consults internationally and has written a number of books on education and inner development. He can be reached at wcohen@rsct.ca

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe worked on the great poetic drama Faust for most of his life. Actor and storyteller Glen Williamson has been working with his production of the story for much of his life. The combined depth of this experience and insight was a gift to all who attended Beat the Devil! Faust, the Whole Story on November 4/12 at the Toronto Waldorf School. One audience member described Glen as 'one of our greatest living artists.' For me, 'living' is the key word. Glen 'lives' into his performance of the story, inhabiting the characters and breathing contemporary meaning into this timeless story of innocence and experience. The litmus test of the success of his performance was exposed on the faces of the audience. From high school students to Hesperus residents, we were swept into the age-old trials of being human and the compassion that springs forth from open hearts.

Intensify your STORYTELLING SKILLS with Dramatic Arts workshop with Glen Williamson at the Wychwood Barns Community Gallery

Those of us who attended Glen's storytelling workshops at Wychwood Barns and Hesperus were all the more prepared to appreciate his art and craft. During these workshops Glen invited us to embody the elements of earth, water, air, and fire. We began by imagining we were moving through thick gooey clay, and ended by radiating the very warmth of the sun. Then we took a gesture and put words to it. Different gestures, same words. Working in pairs, we were astonished to see how diverse the conversations could be, using the same words with different gestures. So during the performance when Glen embodied Helen of Troy, 'the face that launched a thousand ships,' emerging from the water as a watery apparition speaking in a watery way, we experienced it more profoundly for our own exploration of water.

Glen has been working with Goethe's Faust since 1981, and began developing his story version (condensing 24 hours of playing time to an hour and a half) 'at the request of the New York Branch of the Anthroposophical Society in 1999 in honor of the 250th anniversary of Goethe's birth.' Having spent 10 years or so crafting the Greek myth of Psyche and Eros into an hour and a half storytelling performance, exploring in depth the resonance of the story and how to share this with an audience, it is Glen's creative process of working with this play in such a unique way that is inspiring to me.

Missed it? You'll get another chance! You almost always do.

Glen will be back with a different production- we'll let you know what and when. In the meantime, check out AnthroposTheater and Glen Williamson's website.

Waldorf education values the essential role of play for the healthy development of children (and adults!) of all ages. Free play allows for untold learning in the realms of social interaction and dynamics, proprioception and the imagination. Play is the crucible in which children begin to digest the many experiences of their day, to make sense of them, to groung them in their own experience. The following article by Alfie Kohn was excerpted from his book,

Children should have plenty of opportunities to play.

Even young children have too few such opportunities these days, particularly in school settings.

These two propositions - both of them indisputable and important - have been offered many times.[1] The second one in particular reflects the 'cult of rigor' at the center of corporate-style school reform. Its devastating impact can be mapped horizontally (with test preparation displacing more valuable activities at every age level) as well as vertically (with pressures being pushed down to the youngest grades, resulting in developmentally inappropriate instruction). The typical American kindergarten now resembles a really bad first-grade classroom. Even preschool teachers are told to sacrifice opportunities for imaginative play in favor of drilling young children until they master a defined set of skills.

As with anything that needs to be said - and isn't being heard by the people in power - there's a temptation to keep saying it. But because we've been reminded so often of those two basic contentions about play, I'd like to offer five other propositions on the subject that seem less obvious, or at least less frequently discussed.

1. 'Play' is being sneakily redefined.

Whenever an educational concept begins to attract favorable attention, its name will soon be invoked by people (or institutions) even when what they're doing represents a diluted, if not thoroughly distorted, version of the original idea. Much that has been billed as 'progressive,' 'authentic,' 'balanced,' 'developmental,' 'student-centered,' 'hands on,' 'differentiated,' or 'discovery based' turns out to be discouragingly traditional. So it is with play: 'Most of the activities set up in 'choice time' or 'center time' [in early-childhood classrooms] and described as play by some teachers, are in fact teacher-directed and involve little or no free play, imagination, or creativity,' as the Alliance for Childhood's Ed Miller put it.[2] Thus, the frequency with which people still talk about play shouldn't lead us to conclude that all is well.

2. Younger and older children ought to have the chance to play together.

Peter Gray, a psychologist at Boston College, points out that older kids are uniquely able to provide support - often referred to as 'scaffolding' - for younger kids in mixed-age play. The older children may perform this role even better than adults because they're closer in age to the younger kids and also because they don't 'see themselves as responsible for the younger children's long-term education [and therefore] typically don't provide more information or boosts than the younger ones need. They don't become boring or condescending.'[3]

3. Play isn't just for children.

The idea of play is closely related to imagination, inventiveness, and that state of deep absorption that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi dubbed 'flow.' Read virtually any account of creativity, in the humanities or the sciences, and you'll find mentions of the relevance of daydreaming, fooling around with possibilities, looking at one thing and seeing another, embracing the joy of pure discovery, asking 'What if....?' The argument here isn't just that we need to let little kids play so they'll be creative when they're older, but that play, or something quite close to it, should be part of a teenager's or adult's life, too.[4]

4. The point of play is that it has no point.

I didn't know whether to laugh or shudder when I read this sentence in a national magazine: 'Kids need careful adult guidance and instruction before they are able to play in a productive way.'[5] But I will admit that I, too, sometimes catch myself trying to justify play in terms of its usefulness.

The problem is that to insist on its benefits risks violating the spirit, if not the very meaning, of play. In his classic work on the subject, Homo Ludens, the Dutch historian Johan Huizinga described play as 'a free activity standing quite consciously outside ordinary life as being 'not serious' but at the same absorbing the player intensely and utterly.' One plays because it's fun to do so, not because of any instrumental advantage it may yield. The point isn't to perform well or to master a skill, even though those things might end up happening. In G. K. Chesterton's delightfully subversive aphorism, 'If a thing is worth doing at all, it's worth doing badly.'

Play, then, is about process, not product. It has no goal other than itself. And among the external goals that are inconsistent with play is a deliberate effort to do something better or faster than someone else. If you're keeping score - in fact, if you're competing at all - then what you're doing isn't play.

Implicit in all of this is something that John Dewey pointed out: ''Play' denotes the psychological attitude of the child, not...anything which the child externally does.' As is so often the case, focusing on someone's behavior, that which can be seen and measured, tells us very little. It's people's goals (or, in this case, lack of goals), their perspectives and experiences of the situation that matter. Thus, Dewey continues, 'any given or prescribed system' or activities for promoting play should be viewed skeptically lest these be inconsistent with the whole idea.[6]

Such is the context for understanding well-meaning folks (like me) whose lamentations about diminishing opportunities for play tend to include a defensive list of its practical benefits. Play is 'children's work!' Play teaches academic skills, advances language development, promotes perspective taking, conflict resolution, the capacity for planning, and so on. To drive the point home, Deborah Meier wryly suggested that we stop using the word play altogether and declare that children need time for 'self-initiated cognitive activity.'

But what if we had reason to doubt some or all of these advantages? What if, as a couple of researchers have indeed suggested, empirical claims about what children derive from play - at least in terms of academic benefits - turned out to be overstated?[7] Would we then conclude that children shouldn't be able to play, or should have less time to do so? Or would we insist that play is intrinsically valuable, that it's not only defined by the absence of external goals for those who do it but that it doesn't need external benefits in order for children to have the opportunity to do it? Anyone who endorses that position would want to be very careful about defending play based on its alleged payoffs, just as we'd back off from other bargains with the devil, such as arguing that teaching music to children improves their proficiency at math, or that a given progressive innovation raises test scores.

5. Play isn't the only alternative to 'work.'

I've never been comfortable using the word work to describe the process by which children make sense of ideas - which is to say, adopting a metaphor derived from what adults do in factories and offices to earn money.[8] To express this concern, however, isn't tantamount to saying that students should spend all day in school playing. Work and play don't exhaust the available options. There's also learning, whose primary purpose is neither play-like enjoyment (although it can be deeply satisfying) nor work-like completion of products (although it can involve intense effort and concentration). It's not necessary to work in order to experience challenge or excellence, and it's not necessary to play in order to experience pleasure.

But there's still a need for pure play. And that need isn't being met.

The nation of Bhutan has taken the bold step to consider the Gross National Happiness as the most important assessment tool for their developing nation. Having been long isolated from the frenetic world of international investment, development and monolithic corporatization, they are striving to create new and meaningful pathways to enter into relationship with the rest of the world, while maintaining the rich cultural life that they have. Theirs is a brave step and very much counter to the impulses that seem to be guiding the rest of the world. We can only hope and work to support them to create viable alternatives worthy of emulation.

And now to showcase their work, the are offering a Gross National Happiness International Program. This looks to be a wonderfully balanced mix of inner development, learning about Bhutan, its cultures and artistic work. It is interesting that they have structured their week very much like we would at RSCT, at Emerson College and as Waldorf Teachers in our classrooms. Theirs is a holistic approach that acknowledges and supports integrated nurture of body, soul and spirit.

We wish them all success.

Job Description

The Rudolf Steiner Centre is seeking a full time Administrator to oversee all financial and administrative duties, assist program directors and provide the highest level of service. The successful candidate will have several years of progressive experience.

Responsibilities

- Carry day to day consciousness of financial matters. Oversee bookkeeper and accountant with invoices and payments using basic accounting practices and 'Simply Accounting' bookkeeping program.
- Assist in the preparation of budgets, tax returns and analysis of the financial results
- Day to day office administrative duties: answering questions on telephone and e-mail; greeting the public; registering new students; scheduling meetings; typing and preparing documents; organizing and maintaining an efficient filing system; maintaining office space and supplies

Required Experience

- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Proficient with computer office software: ACT, Simply Accounting, Word and Excel
- Proven ability to develop effective working relationships
- Self motivated, organized, able to take initiative and meet deadlines

Assets

- Knowledge of anthroposophy and/or Waldorf education
- Post secondary education in administration and/or business

Start date December 1, 2012

Salary $40,000 commensurate with experience
Includes full medical, dental benefits and 4 weeks paid vacation

We thank all interested applicants.
Those under consideration will be contacted for a formal interview.

Contact: wcohen@rsct.ca

Dear Friends of the Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto,

As many of you may know, RSCT has had to delay the opening of our Waldorf Teacher Education Program by two months (fearing we might have to cancel it entirely) while we dealt with the Onta
rio Ministry of Trainings, Colleges and Universities request for registration. We have just received confirmation from them that our Program can proceed (exempt from ministry regulation!) under two new titles:

Professional Development for Waldorf Early Childhood Educators Full-Time
Professional Development for Waldorf Teachers Full-Time

This name change will in no way effect the content or quality of our programs; however, all students applying to our programs will now need to demonstrate some previous teaching experience to be accepted into the program. We believe that this requirement will help us to prepare better Waldorf teachers.

We also want to let you know that our two part-time teacher education programs have earned the same exempt status:

Professional Development for Waldorf Early Childhood Educators Part-Time (currently running)
Professional Development for Waldorf Teachers Part-Time (beginning July 2013)

Thank you all for your support.
George Ivanoff
President of RSCT Board of Directors

I learned from Cynthia Aldinger that there were four male students in the LifeWays training recently. I was so glad to hear that! And then I thought again, 'Wow, there are only four men taking up the LifeWays training, out of how many women?' I was glad - and I am glad - that there are at least four.

But there's no getting around the fact that childcare and education in general below the high school level are both dominated by the female gender, not only in this country but in much of the world. Mind you, I have nothing against women! But greater gender balance in child care would really help, particularly with the boys. Where, these days, do children see men doing 'manly' things? Where do children see men embracing their 'power?' We need to find ways to help children get some sense of the things that men and women DO, even if it's now mostly on weekends.

LifeWays is excellent in creating a homelike environment where we invite the children to engage in the real work of the 'Domestic Arts' - cooking, baking, washing dishes, cleaning, folding laundry and engaging in many other tasks of the home. We provide child-size versions of stoves, kitchen appliances, ironing boards, etc. for the children to continue these activities in their imaginative play. We also provide child-size work benches and tools (though we would prefer that they not be too noisy with the hammers!). Rainbow Bridge LifeWaysBut it's much less common for children to see or actually participate in activities like repairing things, building a deck, mending fences or gates, painting, etc. that most typically are the work of the 'man around the house.' This is not too surprising as many of these activities tend to lie outside the comfort zone or physical capacity of many female caregivers. Yet the absence of these activities leaves the children's picture of the domestic arts somewhat unbalanced and incomplete.

I have a greater concern than this. My sense is that far too often the early message that boys get in 'school' is that they should be more like girls. They aren't valued for the active male energy they bring. One of the things I really like about Rainbow Bridge is that we work hard to engage the boys and validate their 'boyness.' I know, Rahima would love to have a few more girls in the mix, and I agree, but perhaps we attract so many boys precisely because we provide a welcoming environment for them. Boys are different from girls: their play tends to be rougher, more active and physical, less attuned to relational elements. They love to race cars and trucks and are fascinated with anything powerful. They like to build and create things. They are less keen on doing things that require close focus and concentration. It's hard for them to be indoors, if indoors isn't conducive to the sort of play they favor.

I think that for many female caregivers, it's just hard to truly appreciate - to celebrate - the testosterone-laden energy that boys bring. It would be so much easier if only they were more like girls. So what can we do about this? Obviously, it IS possible, with a bit of effort and intention, to invite more men into our centers. There are lots of retired grandfathers who would be delightful for all the children to experience and who could bring skills and activities that would complement and enhance those of the female Rainbow Bridge LifeWays caregivers. You might even get that fence repaired or painted in the process! In addition to this, I think that it's also important for all of us as caregivers to examine our inner attitudes towards boys and girls, and to actively look for ways we can make space - psychic space - for boys to be boys in our programs. We don't need to stop boys from racing their trucks around ' we need to create a space or venue where it's okay for them to race to their hearts' content! And then it will be okay to have other spaces and times that are only for quieter activities.

My sense is that both boys and girls in our LifeWays programs will benefit from our creating greater balance, both in the presence of men and women as role models, and in the space we make in our hearts to embrace and celebrate the energy that both the girls and the boys bring and long to share with us. I invite us all to examine our attitudes toward these matters honestly, and to keep doing our inner work!

Agaf Dancy is a long-time Waldorf class-teacher and school Administrator, and currently a caregiver at Rainbow Bridge LifeWays Program in Boulder, CO. Learn more about LifeWays at www.lifewaysnorthamerica.org

Report on Waldorf School Board Governance
Conference held at the Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto
14-15 September 2012

With John Bloom,
Senior Director, Organizational Culture
At the Rudolf Steiner Foundation

What is good governance?

Good governance is freeing human capacities with a framework of agreements.
It is delivering your mission effectively at a reasonable cost.
Good governance builds credibility in the world.
Governance is about who decides who decides.
The board cannot delegate its responsibility to govern.
Collaborative governance is a new social art, a co-creative process.
Bad governance is everybody trying to do every body else's job.
Good governance is not about holding power but rather to empower those who carry out the mission of the organization.

Profit vs Non-Profit Corporation:

- Profit : use up human capacities to create surplus capital
- Not-for-Profit : use up capital to build human capacities
In a non-profit organization, board members cannot be paid but their expenses can be reimbursed while furthering the work of the board.

How can human spirit shine and be coherent with the whole?

By bringing together these two distinct axes:
- Vertical: human spirit or our angel or our genius (individual)
- Horizontal: common ground or agreements (community)
Good governance is managing Rudolf Steiner's motto of Social Ethic
My work as a board member is not to try to show my angel to everyone else but to allow other board members to see their own angel.
My work as a board member is to help people to connect to their money in a different way.
When you step in an organization, your work is bound by its set of agreements (ground). You are not free to do what you like.
If you disagree with the agreements, you can either change them together or you are free to leave.

Mission of the Corporation:

The mission of the Waldorf School is to build Spirit (teaching children).
Never loose sight of the end goal!
Board work also has its foundation in spirit.
Individuals are equal in spirit (nobody is more spiritual than another) and bring different strengths. If not considered as equal, it can easily be a source of confusion and lead to abuse of power.
Love and trust are the most important values of the organization.
Board members need to love and trust each other to allow every one to speak out their different views, to agree to disagree.
When the board members come to a decision, whether by consensus or by a vote, it is important that they stand together with 'one voice' regardless of their personal views because they were part of the decision process. This is very important and often hard to understand.
For the Board to be effective, its members must know the framework of agreements for their corporations.
The framework of agreements includes by-laws, policies, procedures, record of decisions, handbook, etc. These form also a legal framework.

The Board and Policies:

Creation of policies is the board's primary work.
What is a policy? Good practice brought into a system.
How do you create a policy? By doing!
Doing once set a precedent and thus create a policy.
There are two types of policies: governing and operational.
Examples of good policies:
- The school will not operate without a balanced budget.
- The school will not take any action that may compromise its charitable status.
- The school will not break any labor laws.
Policies are changed when they are no longer working. Any proposed change must be presented to the board which decides to accept it or not.
How do you create resilience in the organization? By allowing mistakes to happen and learning from them.

Delegation and the three legs of governance:

Governance and management are two separate functions. It is important to have clarity between these two functions.
The Board governs the school and the CEO/administrator and the teachers manage it.
The three legs of governance (threefold social order) comprise:
- Authority (rights sphere)
- Responsibility (cultural-spiritual sphere - destiny path - who will it serve? this can be determined collaboratively)
- Accountability (economic sphere)
The Board must always delegate all three at once to allow people to carry out their tasks effectively.
Directors need to find people (staff) to deliver its mission.
Delegation can be done through a mandate system and terms of reference (job description).
A mandate must be clear and be accompanied with the three aspects of governance: Authority, Responsibility and Accountability.
Good practice: No paid member may vote on the board.
Board must not manage nor tell the CEO how to manage the budget.

Board members as Co-creators:

'Every act of creation starts with destruction' (Picasso)
We live between chaos and order.
An idea is a centre of processes based on human relationships.
The right attitude to adopt in a meeting: the solution is in the room. It can be very disempowering if someone always have to consult with another group or person outside the board.
We must let go of personal agendas and shoulds.
We must hold a question to let it work amongst ourselves until we find a solution or come to a decision.

Where is the Ego of the School?

The Ego of the School finds its expression in the way the agreements are carried out.
The Ego of the School is the reflection of the Higher Being of the School.
The Ego is part of a unified voice.
The Ego manifests when questions and decisions related to the mission of the school are considered.

What is the role of the Board?

The Board is responsible for creating public benefit.
Through its agreements, the Board is accountable to the parents and governments, both provincial and federal, and through to them to the public.
If the Board and the CEO/administrator fulfill their tasks properly, the line of empowerment flows from the government all the way to the teacher.
The government gives the right to the corporation to exist. The corporation is accountable to the government.

How does a Waldorf School board differ from others?
Board members are often parents and thus are deeply connected with the mission of the school.

What are the CEO functions?

The CEO or administrator functions may be held by only one person or shared by several individuals.
The CEO functions comprise five main areas:
- the financial management
- the development of the organization
- the spokesperson to the public
- the state/government requirements
- the effectiveness of the organization
The public should have access to the school.
The CEO is the public face of the school and greets the public as someone who stands for the values of the organization.
The CEO works with everyone in the school (teachers, board and parents) and thus is connected to the Archangels.
The CEO can have volunteers to help them accomplish their tasks. The CEO retains the authority, responsibility and accountability.
A board member (not employed by the school) may serve on a committee as a volunteer, not as a director (does not manage the school).

What are the two primary responsibilities of a board member?

The board meeting can be regarded as a sacred space or vessel.
To make the best use of the time at the meeting, each board member should take the following responsibilities most seriously.
- The Duty of Care:
o The director must come to the board meeting well prepared, i.e. read all the material (reports, minutes, agenda) sent ahead.
o As a director, you must get yourself fully informed about the matter at hand such that you can fully participate in the decision-making.
o Need to build enough time for people to prepare. Material for the meeting must be sent by a certain time.
o Poor preparation may lead to bad decisions.
o Financial statement: need to know and understand the assumptions behind the numbers
- The Duty of Loyalty:
o First and foremost, the board must be loyal to the mission of the school/corporation.
o The board is legally bound to its mission and accountable to the government.
o The mission cannot be changed unless the board members are in agreement and granted permission by the government to make the proposed change.
o The board members must put the needs of the corporation ahead of their personal needs (for e.g. when setting tuitions).
o Once a decision is made, the board members must support it regardless of their opinion.
o Confidentiality must be respected by all those present at the meeting, including visitors (must not tell others who said what in the discussion preceding a decision)
o Visitors are also bound by the duty loyalty and must be made aware of this expectation.
o Minutes need only to include the points of discussion and decisions.
o Duty of Loyalty applies to the whole and the financial information.
Prudent man rule: what any normal and reasonable person would do in the same situation.
A healthy board should meet about 4 times a year.
Board members carry on work in between with committees or individually.
Board meetings can include study, artistic works and guests.

How do you deal with Conflict of Interest?

Conflicts of Interest may be either legal or ethical/moral.
You deal with them by bringing forward clarity about it.
Conflicts of Interest can be offset through disclosure which allows measuring the risk.
The board must have a disclosure policy.
Every board member fills a disclosure form (do you stand to benefit privately for any decision being made?)
Disclosure includes family and corporate partnerships.
Through the duty of loyalty, one can rise above the conflict of interest.
If someone finds him/herself in conflict of interest with respect to a particular decision, it is best to step out while the discussion and decision are made.

How do you leverage the Confluence of Interests?

This is the counter part of the conflict of interest.
The confluence of interests has to be managed.

How do you deal with controlling parties?

A controlling party is someone who can weight unduly on a decision.
For example, a board member is a significant donor and has another close partner on a board with only 3 people. The donation must be refused or the donor must step down.
If you are a donor and have more weight on a decision, you have broken your directorship/trusteeship.

Appointment and succession of Directors:

Board may be representational (elected members) or self-perpetuating (nomination process).
If nominated, there should be a nominating committee who seeks out the right person and skill set for the board.
Once you have joined the board, you don't represent anyone because you are bound to the mission of the corporation (duty of loyalty) even when elected.
The board needs to constantly renew itself.
Limited board terms are important to ensure a rotation of people who bring new and fresh ideas.
Succession planning is an important function of the board.
New board members should receive board orientation.
Orientation may be given in the form of the board handbook which includes: by-laws, policies, mandates of standing committees, communication tools, procedures, corporation/school organization, etc.
The staff provides the continuity to the organization.

Why do you want good governance?

So that the corporation/school can stand in the world with credibility.

As a board member, you can stand for the whole in the world.

How do you stay in touch with the whole?
- By sitting in a classroom with the children
- By going on a tour (WTTG) or attending an open house or other school events
- By checking out what is happening in the world
- By attending meetings or events connected to your mission as a school representative
- By not being afraid to stand for your values and say what you care for
- By knowing what is being talked about in education and contributing to the conversation
If you are interested in the world, the world can become interested in you.

'Every idea which becomes your ideal creates within you life-forces.'
- Rudolf Steiner (How to Know the Higher Worlds, chapter 1)

My view: Obama, Romney need to know one thing about early childhood education - start over

By Nancy Carlsson-Paige, Special to CNN

Here's what I would say to the presidential candidates (in case they ask me) about what we need to do to give the best education possible to our nation's youngest members.

I would start talking in a pretty loud voice to make sure they can hear: You are going in the wrong direction with policy-making for early childhood education! Please back up and start over.

And this time, put early childhood educators at the head of the policy-making table.

Most classrooms for young kids today are driven by a myriad of developmentally inappropriate standards-based tests and checklists. Policy mandates are causing a pushdown of academic skills to 3, 4 and 5 year olds that used to be associated with first-graders through third-graders. Young kids are expected to learn specific facts and skills at specified ages, such as naming the letters and counting by 2's, 5's and 10's.

This has led to more teacher-directed 'lessons' and a lot more rote learning by kids who try to learn what's required but don't really understand.

Many early childhood teachers do not like these policies and how they are affecting their classrooms. They don't like them because the policies are not based on what teachers know about how young children learn - the decades of theory and research that form the knowledge base of early childhood education. Young children learn through activity, through direct play and hands-on experiences that promote creativity and thinking skills. They need to see facts within meaningful contexts, to invent their own ideas and problems to explore and solve.

If you go into a really great kindergarten classroom, you'll see blocks, easels, a science table, dramatic play, lots of books, building and art materials of all kinds and kids interacting with enthusiasm and visible joy. You've probably seen classrooms like this. Your own children probably went to them.

But I wonder if you have seen some of the kindergarten and pre-K classrooms like those I have visited this year - devoid of materials, eerily silent, where children sit as teachers drill them on facts from a prescribed curriculum. Classrooms where teachers spend long hours testing individual children at a computer while the rest of the class sit copying from the board - no talking.

Giving tests and assessments has become much too big a focus in early education. Teachers of children in pre-K, kindergarten and first and second grades are spending far too many hours administering and scoring tests instead of meeting the needs of the whole child. As teachers strive to get the scores up, they depend more and more on scripted curricula designed to teach what is on the tests.

Standardized tests of any type don't have a place in early childhood. Kids develop at individual rates, learn in unique ways and come from a wide variety of cultural and language backgrounds. So it's not possible to mandate what any young child will understand at any particular time. It's much better to have well-prepared teachers who can assess a child's individual abilities, needs and interests and then design teaching and learning for each child from there.

Sadly, the worst of the restrictive, standardized, drill-based education is happening in our poorest communities. More often the teachers in these underfunded schools have less training. They are more dependent on the standardized tests and scripted curricula and more willing to impose them. These teachers haven't learned what they could do instead of the drills and tests, and they haven't learned how harmful these approaches are for kids.

I wish you could see the faces of kids in the low-income communities I visited this year. They are scared, sad and alienated. I see on them an expression that says, 'School is not fun, and it is not for me. I want out of here.'

Early childhood teachers whose professionalism is now hamstrung by current policies are leaving the field in great numbers. They can't teach using their professional expertise and many detest having to follow a prescribed curriculum with which they don't agree.

As one teacher said recently to Defending the Early Years (DEY), 'I feel disrespected as a professional, my students feel the pressure and the parents are confused. I see kids with eyes glazed who are simply overwhelmed by being constantly asked to perform tasks they are not yet ready to do. I finally had to leave my classroom and retire early.'

At the same time, teachers with less training are entering the field and are found in much greater numbers in low-income areas. But we need more highly qualified teachers of young kids, not fewer. We need to finance teachers' education and their professional development so we have the most qualified teachers working with our youngest learners, especially in poor communities.

Many people say we need to put more money into early childhood education. And we do. We need quality, affordable education for all of our nation's children. We are the richest country in the world! Surely you can figure out how to come up with the funds to provide great early education for all our nation's kids. Where there's a will there's a way.

But it has to be education built on the knowledge base of the early childhood field. It has to grow from children's ability to be learners - intellectuals and artists - and not on your top-down expectations.

Let's reverse direction with early childhood education policy and this time, let's get it right. Let's start with children and build from there - and please - start by putting early childhood educators at the helm.

Editor's note: Nancy Carlsson-Paige is professor emerita at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she taught teachers for more than 30 years and was a founder of the University's Center for Peaceable Schools. A strong advocate for public education, Nancy speaks and writes on a variety of education and parenting topics. Her most recent book is 'Taking Back Childhood: A Proven Roadmap for Raising Confident, Creative, Compassionate Kids.'

Biography of Merwin Lewis

Merwin Lewis was born in Cadillac, Michigan in 1945. His mother was a teacher in a one-room school; his father was a factory worker, a musician, and a church minister. Merwin holds two masters degrees, M.Music and M.L.S., from Indiana University. Before becoming a teacher, he was an assistant director of the library system at the University of Western Ontario. He was a faculty member at the Rudolf Steiner Institute, Maine, for many summers. He was also a board member of Rudolf Steiner Centre, Toronto for several years.

Merwin is a poet, a playwright, and a composer. His many compositions include three songbooks for Waldorf schools: When the Green Woods Laugh, With a Voice of Joy, and Something Rich And Strange: Shakespeare Songs, several musicals for Waldorf classes (Wildflowers for Grade Five, The Stones Cry Out! for Grade Six, Channel Crossing for Grade Seven/Eight, and On Riddle Road and The Music of the Spheres for Grade Eight). He has also composed three full-scale musicals: A Masquerade of Dreams, Ariadne's Thread, and Beggar Moon.

Merwin has had twenty-four years of experience as a teacher: he taught a combined class (beginning in Grade Six/ Seven) for two years, taught a combined class from Grade One through Grade Eight (9 years), took another (single grade) class though the eight grades, and has been the Supplementary Main Lesson and Enrichment Teacher for the past five years at London Waldorf School, London, Ontario. Merwin is presently the Pedagogical Chairperson and has been a Board Trustee of the school for thirty years.

Merwin loves telling gnome stories in the younger grades, teaching science and creative writing in the upper grades, and greeting the students as they enter the school in the morning and throughout the day. He is presently writing a play for Grade Eight entitled, Teller of Tales. His first grandson, Elliot James Morris, born on May 3, 2012, is the light of his life. He hopes no one will notice he is past retirement age (so please don't tell).

Along with jimmy Carter and Sir Richard Branson, the Waldorf Schools have been awarded the Green Planet Award for their remarkable commitment to the environment and educating students to be deeply environmental. The Planet Green Award is yet another recognition of the core values of Waldorf education, a holistic approach to educating body, mind and spirit. - WLC

'THE MAKING OF AN ENVIRONMENTALIST IN WALDORF SCHOOLS'

by Patrice Maynard

Waldorf educatorsknow that by cultivating a personal relationship with the Earth and her resources, young people can develop a genuine ecological consciousness.

Waldorf students are engaged in experiential learning that fosters their potential to be thoughtful, caring, and active stewards of the Earth. Waldorf schools work with an awareness of where all things originate as gifts from the Earth: paper from trees; crayons from bees, color from plants, and so on. The teachers lead students in daily practice of remembering these gifts with gratitude and in exercising care for how the Earth's resources are used. This builds inner habits that prepare the children for being environmentalists on the deepest levels. The Waldorf students learn about the ways in which the Earth is threatened and how they can take action to help: recycle trash; tread lightly when in the wild; bring awareness to their energy use and purchases; educate others; identify problems and imagine solutions. To this imagination they bring a deep feeling for the Earth that has been cultivated during their Waldorf years.

About Waldorf Schools

Waldorf schools offer a developmentally appropriate, experiential approach to education. They integrate academics and the arts for children from preschool through twelfth grade. The aim of the education is to inspire life-long learning in students and enable them to fully develop their unique capacities. Founded in Germany in the early 20th century, Waldorf education is an independent and inclusive form of education based on the insights and teaching of the Anthroposophist, artist, and scientist, Rudolf Steiner. Evolving from a profound understanding of the human spirit and human development, Waldorf education is regionally adaptive and has grown to include hundreds of schools worldwide.

About AWSNA

The Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA) was founded to assist Waldorf Schools and Institutes in working together to nurture Waldorf education so that it can manifest more widely in the world. AWSNA provides leadership to the more than 250 schools, early childhood programs and Institutes in North America by facilitating resources, networks and research as they strive towards excellence and build healthy school communities. The Association performs functions that its member schools and institutes could not do alone - outreach and advocacy; accreditation and school support; professional development; and research and publications.

AWSNA also initiates and maintains relationships with groups seeking the revitalization of education for all children and provides a 'voice' for Waldorf Education in national advocacy groups. AWSNA provides strength through collaboration.

Patrice Maynard, M.Ed., is the leader for Outreach and Development of the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA). She was a class teacher as well as a music teacher, taking one class through a complete cycle of eight grades and a second class through 5th grade at Hawthorne Valley School in upstate New York. Her background before teaching was in management, development, and public relations. Ms. Maynard is the parent of three Waldorf graduates and a passionate advocate for the renewal of education and pluralism in our republic.

by Wendy Brown, director of Foundation Studies in Anthroposophy

Perhaps you have looked in the Rudolf Steiner Centre's window on your way to the Village Market on a Saturday morning. You likely saw 16 or 17 people sitting in a circle. Perhaps they were talking earnestly, perhaps listening to a lecture, perhaps laughing uproariously or talking in small groups. They may have been painting in vibrant water colour or sculpting with clay, many for the first time.

What is this group? It is Foundation Studies in Anthroposophy. Designed as its name suggests it has just graduated its 11th class. It is for all interested in the basic concepts and practice of anthroposophy, and is a pre-requisite for entering our teacher education programs.

Anthroposophy-wisdom of the human being- is the name Rudolf Steiner gave to his philosophy and work. It describes a path of self development emphasizing clear thinking, careful observation, refinement of feeling and strengthening of will.

Foundation Studies in Anthroposophy - in house - is tailored to fit in with a busy schedule and can answer the longing felt by many thoughtful people today for meaning and spiritual substance in life. It provides a systematic exploration of the ways in which anthroposophy fosters the connection between the spiritual and the practical, nourishes the inner life, opens up creativity, and can be a basis for service in the world. The full certificate program is 190 hours in length and consists of 31 Saturdays, plus two Sundays and two Friday evenings.

Thinking, feeling and willing are familiar concepts in anthroposophy. The first term is based largely on thinking as we approach the vast body of knowledge offered by anthroposophy. The second (winter) term more on feeling as we explore our own biography and experience destiny learning. In the third or spring term we work more with the will, exploring anthroposophical work in the world, for example by visiting a biodynamic farm and considering the basics of anthroposophical medicine. In the third term students also present a paper to their classmates. While the topic is of their own choice it must come out of some aspect of the year's work. This is a chance to really come to grips with a topic of interest. From The Meaning of Children's Drawings to the Three Fold Social Order to How Modern Brain Research Supports Waldorf Education, these research papers are probably the most challenging as well as the most fun parts of the year. They are also transformative for many, suggesting ways in which they may indeed become 'of service to the world'.

Some people shrugged off the 'Occupy' protesters because they didn't seem to have clearly focused goals, whereas the reason for that was they saw that what is needed is more than a little tinkering around the edges. We need a radical re-think of our whole system.

Our social setup is not human. A whole human being has basically three kinds of activities, exemplified in head, heart and hands. You don't use your head to hammer nails. Nor do you expect to think with your hands and feet. And caring about others doesn't come from either, but from the heart. If we are not just to become widgets in a profit-making machine, our society needs to reflect those facts.

There is such an approach, which has been around for 90 years, but one must look at the whole package before trying to judge it. Dare to imagine the following.

The ideals of the French Revolution still inspire us all: LIBERTY! EQUALITY ! FRATERNITY! The trouble is that they pull in different directions and contradict each other, hence cannot all be guaranteed by a unitary government. Decentralization is not enough. They need to be applied each in a functionally separate sphere.

FREEDOM, or liberty, belongs primarily to those areas of life where we develop and express ourselves as individuals. Here we are obviously not equal in our talents and abilities, although the opportunity to develop them should be available equally to all. Science, arts, philosophy, religion, education, therapy, sports and leisure activities all belong in this CULTURAL SPHERE.

EQUALITY belongs to those areas where our worth and dignity simply as human beings is at stake. Universal human rights apply regardless of wealth, ability, sex or race. This is the only proper sphere of government. Its sole task should be to safeguard these rights and mediate between the other two spheres, in this RIGHTS SPHERE.

BROTHERHOOD, or fraternity, is necessary for our physical survival. Resources are limited. Work must be done to feed, clothe and house ourselves, but no individual, or even nation, can do it all. Through cooperation and the division of labour, we attain the efficiency necessary for this ECONOMIC SPHERE.

Our problems arise through the intrusion of one of these spheres into another and the resulting confusion of operating principles. What are these principles?

In the cultural sphere, whether it is invention, art or sports, we want to be free to express ourselves as much as possible. Out of the infinite creativity of the individual, we always want to do more, and do it better'to give ourselves.
In the true economic sphere, on the other hand, everything is polar opposite. Here we are always trying for efficiency, to save work, to do less. Necessity calls for cooperation and division of labour.

Because superior ability naturally rises to the top, the cultural sphere develops'rightly'a hierarchical rather than democratic structure. As we all want the benefit of the leading person's talents or insight, we put that person on stage, or make him/her the head of an enterprise. To try to abolish hierarchy also abolishes excellence and encourages mediocrity.
The economic sphere on the other hand, should be built on service. We each lend a hand and do what we can for the common good.

It is only the rights, or middle, sphere, that is actually democratic. As we have each only one equal vote, the government should only be able to pass laws that affect everyone equally. Even if there is a majority vote, it should not be able to favour any group, or religion, language, or business.

The chief person, here, is not the one who wields power, but the one who mediates, who is aware of all that goes on and focuses it to allow it to come to balance in a just way. He/she is the heart, not the head, of the body social.
Then we have the head, heart and hands, like a real person. It can also link on to older trinitarian concepts like spirit, soul and body, or thinking, feeling and willing. Our present system is not human. It is based on a materialistic view of the world, and as the economic sphere is the only one that can be conceived in entirely materialistic terms, it has come to dominate society.

ECONOMIC SPHERE: A country is not a business. If the government would leave the economic sphere to itself, pork-barrelling would end. The economic sphere however would have to organize itself into associations'say, one for the clothing industry, one for the transport industry, etc.'where manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and consumers, would get together and end the wasteful duplication and competition. If a company cannot cover its costs, other companies could do the brotherly thing and subsidize it. They would also take over services like roads, sewage, water, electricity, etc. and find the cheapest way to cover them properly.

Virtually all the money would be generated by this economic sphere and its main business--creating and supplying commodities--and it would support the other two. What however is a commodity?

Labour is not a commodity. Whatever persuades one to work'interest, compulsion, or even force'the effort put in is a bit of oneself, freely given, and there is no monetary equivalent for it. It is demeaning, almost an insult, a kind of slavery, to be paid for it. Thus one's pay should be determined not by production costs, but by the rights sphere. One should be paid what one needs to support oneself and one's dependents, and to be available to serve the economy. The astronomical salaries of some executives have obviously no relation to needs.

Land is not a commodity, as it is just 'found'. To tie up capital in such assets, instead of letting the money flow, is one cause of inflation. Likewise, minerals are just 'found' in the earth, although one can charge for the labour of extracting them. To use land for producing food, or growing lumber, is something else, a means of production. Different again is using it for space for dwellings, roads, recreation, etc. All land should be simply held in a kind of stewardship, managed by community-based foundations (cultural sphere).
CULTURAL SPHERE: Everything produced by the cultural sphere should be supported by gifts, as there is again no monetary equivalent. Education, the arts, religion, even medical treatment, (if not medicines) could be paid for this way. There are medical clinics in the U.K now that operate solely on the gifts from grateful patients.

If it must be done through taxes, it must be really 'arm's length', to preserve the freedom of the cultural sphere. Parents must be free to choose the kind of education they want for their children, perhaps by giving them a 'voucher' to take to the school. Likewise the curriculum and standards of schools and universities should be left to them, to coordinate if they wish. People will find what they want.

This is where competition belongs'in the cultural sphere. As depending on gifts for one's livelihood however can be risky, possibly artists, performers, doctors, ministers, etc. could be given a modest income as a basis.
It is the cultural sphere that makes things interesting or beautiful, such as in designing a new style of dress or architecture.

Thus creativity has a hand also in the economic sphere. Also when someone's ingenuity invents a new process whereby a product can be made more efficiently, hence cheaper or quicker, one can charge the same and reap a modest profit until others catch up and do the same. This is legitimate profit, and it is accomplish¬ed by intellect, which works in the opposite direction from manual work. One's capi¬tal, in the end, thus is literally one's mind or talents, and belongs to the cultural sphere.

It can even be argued that profit belongs to no one in par¬ticular, but to society as a whole, through its cultural sphere. The inventor or designer after all developed his/her ability through his/her educa¬tion and training.
Similarly ideas as such cannot really belong to anybody, although the credit for producing them can. Hence a copyright or patent, i.e. the right to use the ideas in production, can be granted to some¬one for a time.

Profit, thus, originating from the cultural sphere, should return to the same sphere to be guided further. That means in effect that it should continue to be in the hands of individuals, not imper¬sonal corporations. Capital, or its expression as a factory or means of production, thus should not simply be inherited, nor sold to the highest bidder, let alone speculated with, but res¬ponsibly passed on into hands as capable as those that made the profit in the first place.

This could be done by some foundation of the cultural sphere, such as banks could become. Capital is the life-blood of new enterprises, the means for carrying out free initiatives. To take it all away as if it were a sin, is itself a sin against possibilities of development.

On the other hand, at present it is assumed the entrepreneur can do whatever he likes with it--enrich himself or use it to build up the business further until it becomes a huge economic power centre, a monopolistic source of artificially raised prices. This is a key source of the present excesses of capitalism.
Essentially profit should be seen as held in trust by the profit-maker. Some of it should go to that person as reward (besides his wages, which do not count as profit) but the bulk of it should be passed on either to fund other new enterprises, or to support cultural activity such as education, research, arts, reli¬gion, etc. which must ultimately be supported from this sphere in some way.

In this way, although at first glance a considerable sacri¬fice seems to be asked of the entrepreneur, he¬/she would still derive some benefit directly, and indirectly we would all bene¬fit. The difficulty of this point arises from the fact that 'freedom' for many of us has not yet matured to where it becomes aware of its other side--responsibility. But we are closer than we were.
One of our greatest problems however is that we have let competition take over the economic sphere. One can see on every side how the drive for profits has corrupted activities which should be based on service.

In health care, for instance, Big Pharma takes in a greater proportion of profit than almost any other business. It uses, for instance, fraudulent science, where adverse effects are suppressed, to push their products, as has been repeatedly proven. It likewise takes advantage in the USA of the suspiciously frequent interchange of staff between them and the FDA. For nearly a century, they have increasingly used propaganda to spread fear of alternative methods, so that even doctors no longer know or understand them. If even one person dies from an alternative method, there is a huge uproar about 'quackery'. Meanwhile, in the typical year of 2009, 37,485 people died in the USA from taking their prescribed medicines--more than from traffic accidents.

Or take agriculture. To make more money, entrepreneurs persuade farmers to convert to monoculture, which is more efficient, but over the years makes the soil unbalanced and arid. The big chemical companies then step in with their fertilizers. Becoming even more one-sided, the soil breeds weeds and insect pests. The companies push their herbicides and insecticides. When these also kill the good bacteria and the soil becomes dependent on the sprays, the farmers have also to buy their genetically modified seed, as no other will work anymore. They cannot even keep seed for the next year, as it will not work. Big factory farms are thus built up, which produce bigger cash crops, though of nutritionally inferior food, and farmers are forced to keep buying their chemical products. In India, thousands of poor farmers, driven to despair by all this, have committed suicide.

Farmers using organic and biodynamic methods have already proven that good crops can be produced without the chemical fertilizers and sprays. Nor can the excuse be used that they are needed to feed the world's expanding population. On the contrary, it has been shown that organic methods, used by small farmers, would work best.

Much more could be said about both these areas, including for instance about the environment, but they illustrate the tremendous damage done by purely profit-based free-market thinking.

The most basic economic values are created by human labour on what nature offers us. A legitimate price can thus be asked for the products of this work, and there is such a thing as a 'right price' which can be established by the associations.

Prices, in a service-based economy, would have a real relation to production costs. Money, today, however, has become disconnected from the real economy. A prime example is the stock market. The value of a stock is based not on the real value of the plant--the means of production-- but on its hypothetical expected value, usually several times the actual value, and it does not decline as the plant wears out.

Hence these shares, which may long ago have ceased to have any real relation to the creating of actual com¬modities, continue a kind of ghost-like existence, continuing to pay dividends and further fuel inflation. Individuals who amass enough shares can wield enormous power, but may have no real interest in the company. If the price is right, they may sell them in a moment.
Thus we have today the bizarre spectacle of thousands of investors all around the world nervously watching every twitch of the stock market, ready to leap into action to exploit it to their own advantage. But what are they watching? Simply how many stocks are sold, and the effect of that on prices.

Money should represent something, but it has become abstract'something in itself. Hence now money can make money, with no work or value involved, and the result is a kind of runaway cancer in the economy.

It is clearly seen in credit, which is regarded as the main problem at the moment. Nowadays, a bank is allowed to lend out ten times more money than it actually has'sometimes more. This loan money is created out of thin air as it were, and when it is repaid, it disappears again. The interest paid on it, however, does not. It is real money, so to speak, so the banker grows rich. Meanwhile you may have created something worthwhile, but you are left with no money, and will have also contributed a bit to inflation.

That interest money can then also be invested by the banker, the interest compounded and again money makes money. People are deliberately kept somewhat in the dark about how all this works, and so we have astronomical debts between countries that actually are largely a sort of fiction, and could all be cancelled without any effect on the real economy. That economy of real values is like a tiny point on which teeters an inverted pyramid of financial structures that now looks like it may collapse, the only question being when. The countries' huge debts hang there, static, as it were, while a constant river of interest payments flow into the financiers' pockets.

The system has become a kind of game, played by the few on top. As long as it is profitable, they keep the profits. When it goes into its cyclic recession, they get the government to bail them out. Such a system, so divorced from reality, cannot possibly sustain itself indefinitely.

At present we all live in fear that we will not have enough money. Hence the instinctive habit of greed, the constant scramble for profits, the intense competition, the over-production, the mistaken notion that constant growth is necessary to the economy, etc.

RIGHTS SPHERE: Government would be much simpler, and cheaper, if it restricted itself to universal human rights and justice. Parties might not be necessary.

If a military force is needed, that would be a government matter, as would police and a justice system. With the security of at least a basic wage behind one, a new self-respect and enthusiasm for work could awaken. If there are not enough jobs'perhaps because of improved technology--we could all work a little less and spread the jobs around. As a side-effect, all kinds of social problems would be alleviat¬ed, greatly reducing crime, and saving great expense on trials, prisons, mental hospitals, etc. Communism succeeded in doing this up to a point, but failed because it did not allow for a free cultural sphere, either inwardly or in terms of profit.

Also the urge to 'become more and more' could then be shifted away from physical possessions to the mental, cultural or spiritual sphere, where it belongs.

SOURCE: These general ideas stem from Rudolf Steiner, PhD, (1861-1925), the Austrian philosopher, scien¬tist and educator, whose genius gave new creative impulses in almost every sphere of life. Among the many practical activities based on his work worldwide are the nearly 2000 Waldorf schools for general education, the many biody¬namic farms, medical clinics, therapeutic communities, artistic, religious and scientific initiatives, and even banks. The above brief sketch of one aspect of his work gives little idea of the depth or breadth of that work, but perhaps suffices for the present purpose.
Although his attempt to introduce these ideas of social reform into the chaos of Germany after the First World War was apparently one of his few failures, he was not disheartened. He said the basis for the ideas is so inherent in human nature that people will have to come to them sooner or later.

Obviously these policies would have prevented the rise of Nazism, which he apparently foresaw. They could certainly have prevented the conflicts at present tearing apart many countries. There are groups all over the world quietly promoting them, although they are much better known in Europe than here.

These ideas for instance helped bring down the Berlin Wall, as one of the original members of the Reform Party in East Germany, lawyer Rolf Heinrich, wrote a book incorporating them, smuggled it out into West Germany to be published, and was expelled from the Communist Party for it. They also had a good deal to do with the founding and rise of the Green Party in West Germany (although their policies are not identical). More recently, Nicanor Perlas ran for President in the 2010 election in the Philippines with the aim of introducing these policies.

They also influenced E.F.(Small is Beautiful) Schumacher. Michael Novak put out somewhat similar ideas in Forbes magazine. Some groups are also living them to the extent possible in small communities, such as the Camphill communities for the mentally handicapped that I lived and worked in for 14 years, in dif¬ferent coun¬tries. And some Waldorf Schools pay teachers according to how many dependents they have. Steiner did not spell out all the details of how to carry out these ideas because various practical arrangements are possible, depending on the local circumstances. The important thing is to grasp the principles.

Opposition to these ideas is likely, but not on grounds of their unreasonableness. The most furious opposition will probably come from those with the most invested'literally'in the present system. Some will object through sheer inability to imagine such sweeping changes, i.e. through prejudice and inertia. Some will object to specific points, forgetting that other things would also have changed, nullifying that problem. Some cynics may think people are not idealistic enough to live this way, but they might be surprised, even if it takes some time to adjust.

It might not be possible to institute such changes unless there is a collapse of the present system, but that could happen. The world's economic systems, and many of its political systems, are in crisis. Thousands are protesting in dozens of cities, and millions more are sympathizing, even among the rich. Rudolf Steiner said these ideas must come someday.
Perhaps that time has come.

* * *
Bibliography;
Steiner, Rudolf: The Threefold Social Order, Anthroposophic Press, R.R.4, Hudson, N.Y. 12534; 2nd edit. 1966, 82 pp.
Steiner, Rudolf: The Renewal of the Social Organism, Anthroposophic Press,1985, 151 pp. Foreword by Joseph Weizenbaum
Steiner, Rudolf: The Social Future, Anthroposophic Press; 3rd edit. 1972, 151 pp.
Steiner, Rudolf: World Economy, Rudolf Steiner Press, 35 Park Road, London, NW1 6XT, U.K.; 3rd edit. 1972, 188 pp.
Alexandra, John: Mephistopheles' Anvil; Rose Harmony Publications, 338 pp. 1996, Spring Valley, N.Y.
Budd, Christopher Houghton, Rudolf Steiner, Economist, New Economy Publications, Canterbury, Kent, U.K. 1996
Budd, Christopher Houghton, Prelude in Economics, New Economy Publications, 1999
Large, Martin: Social Ecology--Exploring Post Industrial Society; Self-published,

Also: Virtually all of Rudolf Steiner's books and lectures are available for free downloading at the Rudolf Steiner Archive: www.rsarchive.org

We have compiled a photo album of images from the festival on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.450967421590243.108625.109553199065002&type=3

Please enjoy these, add comments and feel free to share them with others.

We hope to see you next summer.

The role of anthroposophy in helping us to understand the central importance of the Christ in human and earthly evolution is perhaps the most difficult aspect of anthropsophy (and Waldorf education) to explore let alone understand. No matter what your upbringing or current spiritual path, wrestling with the notion of the Christ Jesus pushes most everyone's buttons. It is hard work and forces one to challenge basic assumptions, prejudices and commonly held beliefs.

And yet, in order to understand an evolving picture of human consciousness and the essential elements that each culture has contributed to human development, one cannot help but confront the pivotal role that the high spiritual being Christ played. Far beyond belief or worship many aspects of the humans' view of self, nature and divinity fundamentally changed at this point in history.

Rudolf Steiner in his spiritual science gives us invaluable tools for helping us to not only understand, but to actively work with the reality that a high spiritual being incarnated, suffered a human experience, died and then ressurected back into the spiritual world. This truly was a turning point in time that changed human beings and the earth itself. This divine mystery stretches our capacities to remain calm in cognitive dissonance as we enter in realms of the mysterious about much can be learned through patient, opeminded research. Here is how Steiner describes the role of anthroposophy in approaching the true nature of the Christ:

' The aim of spiritual science, and of all that can be acquired as spirit-seed by spiritual teachings is to enable us to comprehend the Christ power. One can not say that Anthroposophy is Christianity, but it is right to say that what has been given to the earth and to man by the Christ Principle will gradually come to be understood by means of the tool of Anthroposophy. By being understood it will increasingly become spirit-seed and, more and more, that mighty impulse will be poured into earthly evolution. For man has need of it so that, having sunk into the depths of matter, he may tear himself free again and return to his spiritual home.'
- Rudolf Steiner from Universe, Earth and Man

By DAVID BROOKS
Published: March 22, 2012
The New York Times

Usually when you visit a school you walk down a quiet hallway and peer in the little windows in the classroom doors. You see one teacher talking to a bunch of students. Every 50 minutes or so a chime goes off and the students fill the hallway and march off to their next class, which is probably unrelated to the one they just left.

When you visit The New American Academy, an elementary school serving poor minority kids in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, you see big open rooms with 60 students and four teachers. The students are generally in three clumps in different areas working on different activities. The teachers, especially the master teacher who is floating between the clumps, are on the move, hovering over one student, then the next. It is less like a factory for learning and more like a postindustrial workshop, or even an extended family compound.

The teachers are not solitary. They are constantly interacting as an ensemble. Students can see them working together and learning from each other. The students are controlled less by uniform rules than by the constant informal nudges from the teachers all around.

The New American Academy is led by Shimon Waronker, who grew up speaking Spanish in South America, became a U.S. Army intelligence officer, became an increasingly observant Jew, studied at yeshiva, joined the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, became a public schoolteacher and then studied at the New York City Leadership Academy, which Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the former New York Schools chancellor, Joel Klein, founded to train promising school principal candidates.

Just another average rsum.

At first, he had trouble getting a principal's job because people weren't sure how a guy with a beard, kippa and a black suit would do in overwhelmingly minority schools. But he revitalized one of the most violent junior high schools in the South Bronx and with the strong backing of both Klein and Randi Weingarten, the president of the teachers' union, he was able to found his brainchild, The New American Academy.

He has a grand theory to transform American education, which he developed with others at the Harvard School of Education. The American education model, he says, was actually copied from the 18th-century Prussian model designed to create docile subjects and factory workers. He wants schools to operate more like the networked collaborative world of today.

He talks fervently like a guerrilla leader up in the mountains with plans to take over the whole country. For the grandly titled New American Academy, he didn't invent new approaches, as much as combine ones from a bunch of other schools.

Like the Waldorf schools, teachers move up with the same children year after year. Like Hogwarts, students are grouped into Houses. Like Phillips Exeter Academy, students are less likely to sit at individual desks than around big tables or areas for teacher-led discussions.

The students seem to do a lot more public speaking, with teachers working hard to get them to use full sentences and proper diction. The subjects in the early grades (the only ones that exist so far) are interdisciplinary, with a bias toward engineering: how flight, agriculture, transportation and communications systems work. The organizational structure of the school is flattened. Nearly everybody is pushed to the front lines, in the classroom, and salaries are higher (master teachers make $120,000 a year).

The New American Academy takes a different approach than the other exciting new education model, the 'No Excuses' schools like Kipp Academy. New American is less structured. That was a problem at first, but Waronker says the academy has learned to get better control over students, and, on the day I visited, the school was well disciplined through the use of a bunch of subtle tricks.

For example, even though students move from one open area to the next, they line up single file, walk through an imaginary doorway, and greet the teacher before entering her domain.

The New American Academy has two big advantages as a reform model. First, instead of running against the education establishment, it grows out of it and is being embraced by the teachers' unions and the education schools. If it works, it can spread faster.

Second, it does a tremendous job of nurturing relationships. Since people learn from people they love, education is fundamentally about the relationship between a teacher and student. By insisting on constant informal contact and by preserving that contact year after year, The New American Academy has the potential to create richer, mentorlike or even familylike relationships for students who are not rich in those things.

It's too soon to say if it will work, especially if it's tried without Waronker and the crme-de-la-crme teachers he has recruited, but The New American Academy is a great experiment, one of many now bubbling across the world of education.

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on March 23, 2012, on page A29 of the New York edition with the headline: The Relationship School

One participant described her week as:
'Inspiration! Invigoration! Preparing me for a new gesture (in my teaching).'

Please feel free to add your comments.

Thank you all!

Is it possible to value and actively work with spirituality in a non-sectarian school setting? And if so, how can balance be established between individual freedom on one hand and the desire for institutional cohesion on the other?

Independent Waldorf schools face this difficult challenge in every community in which they operate. Each school is born out of the unique efforts of local people to meet the educational needs of their children: body, mind and spirit. They have to carefully balance the essential respect all people desire for their religious and spiritual choices with the overarching needs to build a spirit-filled and unified school. Each community, geographic region and culture requires a unique spirit of education to serve the needs of its children and their families. A Waldorf school must respect the heritage and beliefs of its members and seek for ways to bridge differences between people.

It is a complex balancing act especially as Waldorf schools now exist in countries whose spiritual/religious outlooks include Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Animism, Judaism and Secular Humanism. Needless to say each school must adapt to its circumstances. While respecting individual freedoms they also need to build fellowship with in their communities as well as with other Waldorf schools. Finding this delicate balance between personal and universal aspects of spirituality strengthens Waldorf school communities. Members must necessarily take an interest in and learn about one another and will inevitably face conflicts. These cannot be avoided. In fact, conflicts are only made more intractable through avoidance. Developing and maintaining a spirit-filled educational community requires conscious effort and effective strategies for working through the challenges that arise.

To illuminate these ideas I would like to share a process I recently employed in working with the newly forming Saltwater School in Courtenay, BC. I was invited to help them identify and develop the pedagogy and unique spirit of their new school. Over the course of a week, I met with their faculty, board and broader community. Each member brought a personally unique worldview and yet had a strong desire to create an educational community that openly nurtures the whole human being: body, soul and spirit.

I spoke openly with them about potentially difficult and divisive issues connected with spirituality in Waldorf education. Experience has shown that it is best to try to work together through challenging differences. This supports peoples' ability to stay open, thus, withholding judgment and assisting their process of building a tolerant and creative learning community. No one has to agree with anything someone else says, but it is essential to talk openly about spirituality and to actively listen to one another. Tolerance alone for another's viewpoint is not enough; interest in others' ideas and beliefs and seeking for an overarching spirit for the school are essential to building a spirit-filled school community.

The founder of Waldorf education, Rudolf Steiner, spoke to the teachers of the first Waldorf school (Stuttgart, 1919) about the central spiritual role of 'the Christ' in the development of human consciousness. He did not mean the person Jesus, but rather the unique spiritual being and impulse that found its way into incarnation and entered (mostly unconsciously) all the world's peoples and the earth itself. He termed it variously the 'Christ Impulse', the 'Deed of Christ' or the 'Representative of Humanity.' He emphasised that this universal spirit represents that which is highest and best in all humanity and impacts all people regardless of their religious persuasion or belief. This spiritual being is our potential, our inspiration, a universal teacher in our striving to be human.

This notion is challenging for most people as it runs counter to aspects of what most religions teach. Therefore, it often stirs up a wide variety of difficult feelings. Nevertheless, Steiner asserted that the Christ, the spiritual potential of all humanity, is working at the core of Waldorf pedagogy. So, while being non-denominational and open to people of all persuasions, Waldorf school members have the difficult task of also finding their own relationship with the Christ. Rather than denying this fact or trying to avoid it, it has proven most fruitful to explore the potential significance of this spiritual/religious/cultural hot-topic with eyes wide open.

At the Saltwater School, the faculty members and I began our process by listening to one another's experiences concerning our spiritual and religious upbringing and beliefs. Each faculty member was given time to share her story. All were remarkably different, yet each contained universal elements of wanting to belong, wanting to find meaning, wanting to connect truthfully with the divine.... No interruptions or comments were permitted. When dealing with questions of spirit and peoples' personal relationship to spirit and religion, the principles of freedom, tolerance and interest are paramount. Having established this foundation of openness and trust with one another, we read some of what Steiner had to say about the Christ Impulse to the first Waldorf teachers and then paraphrased how we each understood those ideas. We then discussed our own responses to these thoughts. The conversations were rich, open and wide-ranging. We drew from our hopes and fears and successfully wove together the strands of our lives into a robust warp that could then serve the cloth of the whole school community.

We built a collegial vessel of trust by following a process of listening, speaking, studying and then discussing guiding thoughts, questions and concerns. As our work unfolded, the teachers felt more and more united, that they were all pulling in unison. They created a sound foundation of openness and trust. They then decided to work together to create their first school festival, the autumn celebration of Michaelmas, in a way that would both strengthen the unique spirit of the school and respect the spiritual faiths of their community. Coming to their newly found unity gave them the requisite courage and insight to design a festival appropriate for their school community.

These teachers stand at the core of their new school. They are both its founders and its guiding lights. The manner in which they choose to teach, govern the school and communicate about their work each day impacts the healthy development of their school. Their deeds individually and as a group either support or challenge this development. Their courage to take interest in one another's beliefs as well as their willingness to work towards an understanding of spirituality and Waldorf education has helped facilitate a healthy collegial atmosphere. Furthermore, their example lives as a guiding inspiration for the entire school community. The rigorous process they went through demonstrates that it is possible to work with spirituality in a non-sectarian school to foster trust, improved communication and colleagueship. Their honest quest for knowledge has strengthened not only their collegial work but the very heart of their school. Their living example inspires trust and communicates the courageous vision of their initiative to the wider world. The school community will in turn benefit not only from the care and guidance these professionals offer their children but also from their earnest human striving they have exemplified to understand and work through potentially contentious issues. These colleagues have demonstrated a way to balance the essential needs each individual has for freedom and respect with a community's need for cohesive vision and action. Their remarkable dedication to working through differences has strengthened their ability to nurture the unique spirit that guides their school.

Waldorf Education arose as an impulse for personal, cultural and spiritual renewal after the tragedy of the First World War. The school was founded in Stuttgart through the generosity of Emil Molt, a wealthy industrialist in collaboration with Rudolf Steiner, a scientist and philosopher. Their aim was to provide a well rounded, holistic education for the children of the workers at the Waldorf Astoria Cigarette Factory. This was not an elite private academy, but one founded for all children of workers and those from the surrounding community. Since the successful founding of this first school, Waldorf education has organically spread creating over 1600 independent Waldorf schools on five continents.

This article first appeared as Spirituality and Education: Personal and Universal Aspects of Spirituality in Education Forming a School- in the online journal 'Antistasis'

Warren Lee Cohen, M.Ed.
Director of Teacher Education at Rudolf Steiner Centre TorontoReferences
Astin, Alexander Why Spirituality Deserves a Central Place in Liberal Education,
Liberal Education, v90 n2 p34-41, 2004

Molt, Emil Emil Molt And the Beginnings of the Waldorf School Movement,
Floris Books, 2000

Steiner, Rudolf Foundations of Human Experience, Steiner Books, 1996

Wright, Andrew Spirituality and Education, Routledge-Falmer, 2000

This is both radical and relevant: Highschoolers' rap perspective on Waldorf education. Check it out it.

Lori Kran, An inspired Waldorf teacher speaks about what makes Waldorf education unique and uniquely suited to meet today's children.

Enjoy this compelling video from our friends at the Marin Waldorf School. Why would we want anything else for our children other than healthy imaginative childhoods. There will be plenty of time for all the rest that our modern world has to bring.

A father's love contributes as much ' and sometimes more ' to a child's development as does a mother's love. That is one of many findings in a new large-scale analysis of research about the power of parental rejection and acceptance in shaping our personalities as children and into adulthood.

'In our half-century of international research, we've not found any other class of experience that has as strong and consistent effect on personality and personality development as does the experience of rejection, especially by parents in childhood,' says Ronald Rohner of the University of Connecticut, co-authored the new study in Personality and Social Psychology Review. 'Children and adults everywhere ' regardless of differences in race, culture, and gender ' tend to respond in exactly the same way when they perceived themselves to be rejected by their caregivers and other attachment figures.'

Looking at 36 studies from around the world that together involved more than 10,000 participants, Rohner and co-author Abdul Khaleque found that in response to rejection by their parents, children tend to feel more anxious and insecure, as well as more hostile and aggressive toward others. The pain of rejection ' especially when it occurs over a period of time in childhood ' tends to linger into adulthood, making it more difficult for adults who were rejected as children to form secure and trusting relationships with their intimate partners. The studies are based on surveys of children and adults about their parents' degree of acceptance or rejection during their childhood, coupled with questions about their personality dispositions.

Moreover, Rohner says, emerging evidence from the past decade of research in psychology and neuroscience is revealing that the same parts of the brain are activated when people feel rejected as are activated when they experience physical pain. 'Unlike physical pain, however, people can psychologically re-live the emotional pain of rejection over and over for years,' Rohner says.

When it comes to the impact of a father's love versus that of a mother, results from more than 500 studies suggest that while children and adults often experience more or less the same level of acceptance or rejection from each parent, the influence of one parent's rejection ' oftentimes the father's ' can be much greater than the other's. A 13-nation team of psychologists working on the International Father Acceptance Rejection Project has developed at least one explanation for this difference: that children and young adults are likely to pay more attention to whichever parent they perceive to have higher interpersonal power or prestige. So if a child perceives her father as having higher prestige, he may be more influential in her life than the child's mother. Work is ongoing to better understand this potential relationship.

One important take-home message from all this research, Rohner says, is that fatherly love is critical to a person's development. The importance of a father's love should help motivate many men to become more involved in nurturing child care. Additionally, he says, widespread recognition of the influence of fathers on their children's personality development should help reduce the incidence of 'mother blaming' common in schools and clinical setting. 'The great emphasis on mothers and mothering in America has led to an inappropriate tendency to blame mothers for children's behavior problems and maladjustment when, in fact, fathers are often more implicated than mothers in the development of problems such as these.'

'Transnational Relations Between Perceived Parental Acceptance and Personality Dispositions of Children and Adults: A Meta-Analytic Review' was published in the May 2012 Personality and Social Psychology Review, a journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP).

In just two weeks we will mark the passage of our Grade 8s into the world of High School, and then the graduation of our Grade 12s into their post-secondary lives.

This week, there was another very important graduation to celebrate. The Rudolf Steiner Centre, the Waldorf teacher education program that leases space in our building, hosted their annual graduation of their full-time program. This year Jessica Carter, Sonya Frebold, Ja Woon Gu, Chika Halayko, Monica Peters and Lori Ann Scotchko graduated from their full-time 9 month program with a certificate in Waldorf Teacher Education. There were performances of all kinds, lovely tributes to each graduate, and even an Honorary certificate awarded to Merwin Lewis, one of the pioneers of Waldorf education in this country who is still teaching and mentoring at the London Waldorf School. The families of the graduates were beaming with pride, and the mood of celebration was palpable.

We are very lucky at TWS to have the Rudolf Steiner Centre program -- with the teacher education work, the continuing education for practicing Waldorf teachers and administrators, and all the other adult education programming they offer. Their work helps us bring a stronger connection to Waldorf education not only for our teachers and administrators, but for our parents and others interested in child development, Waldorf education and its roots. Each year the student teachers play a vital role in our classrooms, and our students, faculty and staff form special bonds with them. Many of our faculty and staff have the opportunity to teach elements of their program. Many of our current faculty are graduates of the RSC.

On behalf of everyone at TWS, I want to wish these six new Waldorf teachers many blessings as they pursue their passion. So far we know that four of these teachers will move on to Waldorf schools or initiatives in South Korea, Nova Scotia, Kingston, and Halton. These schools will no doubt be delighted to receive them, and we look forward to hearing of their adventures.

And for anyone reading this column for whom there is some sense of curiosity and interest about what it would be for you to become a Waldorf teacher, I would strongly encourage you to call Warren Cohen or Jan Patterson at the Rudolf Steiner Centre. This education needs people with an interest in the world, an interest in humanity, to join us in this most rewarding work. Find out more on their website.

Savouring the Excitement - Continued!

I have said many times to parents and others in the community that every day at TWS there is magic in the classrooms - moments of awe and wonder, huge accomplishments, tiny steps forward. These moments add up to nothing short of human transformations as the days string into weeks and months and school years. Last week in my column I gave a brief snippet of just some of the more visible elements of excitement in the Grades - particularly Grades 2 through 12. In Grade 1 today parents might say it was the most exciting day yet! Each year the Grade 1 Class Teacher hosts a 'Grade 1 Morning' when the parents join the class for a morning of lessons with their Class Teacher and all the specialist teachers. The students are always very proud to show their parents how they can play games or sing in French or German, play the recorder, do some math exercises, and their very fine eurythmy. Parents inevitably find themselves wishing they had been to a Waldorf school! I am sure that today's Grade 1 morning was as inspiring as all that have gone before.

And finally, a note of congratulations to our Grade 8 class, under the direction of their Class Teacher Eleonora Ebata, who presented two matinees and two evening performances of A Midsummer Nights Dream this week. The students embraced their roles - there were many delightful gems! The staging and costumes were beautiful. The whole event carried that familiar air of significance - the Grade 8 Play is a much-anticipated milestone in the life of a TWS student, and these students rose to the moment beautifully. As always, if you have any questions, suggestions or concerns please contact me.

Michle Andrews
Administrative Director

by Dawne McFarlane
RSCT Storytelling Department Chair

I didn't mean to join the revolution. I was just visiting Montreal on Tuesday May 24th, the 100th day of student protests against tuition increases, when 250,000 people flooded the streets. Women, men, young, old, silver hair, fashionable red streaks, mothers with babes in arms, strident youth, softened lined faces, all poured through the streets like the waves of humble worker ants that come to the aid of the hero/ine in distress in fairy tales to complete an impossible and unexpected task. They wore little red squares of fabric pinned to their t-shirts, red rain boots, red umbrellas, red shirts and hats to mark their membership. Even away from the main protest areas red articles of clothing appeared on people everywhere. No one was unaffected, walking towards or away from the protest, snarled in traffic- it was on everyone's lips and the chopper overhead loudly marked the progress of the crowds into the night.

The great number of people seemed to surprise everyone- 250,000 humble protesters successfully completed the impossible task of peacefully joining voices to say a clear 'no' to tuition increases and to legislative action that restricted their voices. Some violence and 113 arrests in the late night hours could not take the focus away from this larger statement.

The next day, lively debate filled the radio air waves, asking for 'expert' and 'lay' solutions to the conflict that began in 2004. How can all of these needs be met; rising costs of inflation and administering universities and public demand for low tuition fees? 'But tuition fees in Quebec are the lowest in North America- but universities are free in places in Europe- but they are mediocre and Europe is in economic crisis- but more loans and bursaries will be available-' and on and on.

There are many points of view and lots of history to be considered, yet here and now one thing is clear to this observer. There is a clear public demand for tuition costs to stay the same, and the policy maker in the greatest position of authority (Mr. Charest) says this is the one thing he will not discuss. Any teacher or parent knows that if a youth confronts you on an issue, no amount of dialogue on other issues will resolve the conflict. Not to assign roles of parent and youth here, just to expose the ineffectiveness of a patriarchal response. There is a philosophy professor in Montreal who understands this- he works in the place between administrators and students- and he literally places himself in between the students and the police during protests when tempers get hot- 'to be a buffer'- dressed in a panda suit! He says 'being vulnerable' is an important part of his response. This creative approach sometimes gets smiles from both sides and sometimes diffuses potential violence.

This is a wonderful opportunity for students and policy makers in Montreal to creatively meet the future of university education. There is the potential here, in this conflict, for new standards to be set for accessible quality education- standards that could inspire post-secondary education across North America and Europe. There are calls for students and policy makers to problem solve 'around the table.' There is no shortage of informed and passionate participants. I just hope the philosophy professor with the panda suit is one of the people at the table. Creativity may be the most important guest invited to this forum.

Graduation Speech given by Julie Folino
RSCT Class of 2011

The first week of our Waldorf Teacher Education Warren introduced us to the ideals of Truth, Beauty and Goodness and we were inspired. For the following 3 weeks Jan bathed us in the wonder and rhythm of early childhood and we were moved. We learned of the very first Waldorf School that opened in Stuttgart, Germany in 1919. We learnt that Rudolf Steiner met with the very first group of Waldorf teachers to give them an understanding of the growing human being in body, soul and spirit. We learnt that he did this in only 2 short weeks and we were amazed.

If Steiner could lay the foundation for the first group of Waldorf teachers in just 2 weeks - We thought that certainly one full year of teacher education would duly prepare us but we were humbled. We 'take our hats off' to those very first, very brave Waldorf Teachers.

As the year progressed and we immersed ourselves in music, painting, handwork, woodwork, drama, science, math, language and literature, form drawing and the like we came to the realization that a Waldorf Teacher must 'wear many hats'. When we entered the classroom for the first time we quickly learned that things can sometimes get crazy but you must always 'keep your hat on'.

We learned that when your lesson plan is not being received as you might have hoped you could try to 'pull a rabbit out of your hat'. Or, you could save that trick for the human and animal block in 4th grade. We learned of the sanctity of childhood - and to this - we 'held our hats to our hearts'. We learned that if we could nourish just one child's soul that our 'hats would be full' to carry us further on our journey. We learned that the fiscal reality of many Waldorf schools requires that you 'hold out your hat' to gather support.

As our practice teaching progressed and more demands were made of us as practicing teachers we learnt to prepare things at the 'drop of a hat'. We learned of how Waldorf teachers ideally stay with their classes from grades 1 through 8. It seemed to us a daunting task. And then we met Ms. Humphreys who is taking her 3rd class through to grade 8. Ladies and Gentlemen I believe that is called a Waldorf 'hat-trick'.

As a Waldorf Teacher with a reverence for the natural world we must be prepared with a 'hat for every season'. Throughout this year our many different teachers have shared their wisdom, experience and talent with us. Once again, we were humbled. With 'hat in hand' we thank you for your guidance, your generosity of spirit and your gifts.

Warren and Jan, thank you for taking us under your wings and leading us forth in order that we might in turn lead forth those children who call us into their service. We 'tip our hats' to you.

My fellow classmates - it has been my pleasure to share this experience with you all. As the students call you forth may you imbue yourselves with the power of imagination, may you have courage for the truth and may you sharpen your feeling for responsibility of soul. And, may wherever you lay your hat hold for you all the promise that you deserve.

Congratulations!

by Sebastian Bilbao

I have been drawn to explore Steiner's Social ideas because of the repeated
missed opportunities that humanity has had to introduce lasting harmonious
change in society. This essay will attempt to present how Steiner's threefold
social paradigm is timeless and universal and can be applied at any time,
especially at times of chaos.

The Three Spheres

There are many examples of works aiming at comparing structures found in
nature to those forming our society, yet these merely look for patterns that
make their physical manifestations similar. Instead, Steiner proposes that if
each individual learned to be aware of the forces that structure nature and
then used them to transform the world, society would structure itself in a
healthy way just as nature does.

Steiner points out that not a single organ, (entity, force, sphere, etc), in the
human body has complete authority over the rest. Furthermore, harmonious
life unfolds as a perpetual collaboration between these organs, their functions
and processes. For example, the brain might sense the need and decide to
relocate the body for a compelling external reason, yet the brain is not
consciously involved in either adapting the blood circulation or breathing for
the ensuing actions or controlling the motor actions needed to move the body.
This brief action would unfold by a decentralized cooperation between the
pertinent systems, each without interfering with the internal affairs of the
other. If one allowed the brain to control every single motor action to execute
this manoeuvre, one would notice how contrived the process becomes and
might even loose balance and fail to complete the action.

The core of effective threefoldness in healthy living organisms lies in the
absence of a single centralized controlling entity in the whole. From Steiner's
works one could generalize that the free flow of elemental forces through
individuals and their social bodies favours the healthy evolution of conditioned
existence. Attempts to centralize or control these forces result in imbalances,
which could threaten the existence of the living forms channeling these forces.

In his book, Riddles of the Soul, Steiner explains how the three soul forces -
thinking, feeling and willing - relate to the three systems of the human body -
head, rhythmic and metabolic - and in a later book, Towards Social Renewal,
he segues these concepts to also reveal the threefold structure in society. In
the attached schematic and following paragraphs are descriptions of the three
spheres, correlated between the human body and the social body.

1) Nervous & Sensory System relates to the Economic Sphere

This sphere's emphasis is on perceiving the external. With the nervous
system we sense our body and the offerings of the world and discriminate
how to react to them. Through the economy we perceive our needs and what
is available and determine if they are beneficial and attainable.

2) Rhythmic System relates to the Rights Sphere (Civil & Political Life)

Here the emphasis is on interfacing with the external or other. By breathing
air and circulating blood, the rhythmic system regulates how we integrate
external resources into our bodies. Similarly, the rights body establishes
social patterns for people to integrate each other into a society.

3) Metabolic System relates to the Cultural Sphere (Individual Talents)

Here the emphasis is on transforming the world. The metabolic system alters
the world via bodily processes such as digestion or kinaesthetic actions that
allow for physical participation in the world. Through this sphere individuals
deliver their unique transformative contributions to the social body, evolving
the physical world and human consciousness.

When these three spheres coexist in harmony then society can benefit from
formative life forces and freely develop each sphere and society as a whole to
its full potential.

The Social Body in Historical Context

Although these three spheres are inherent constants in humanity, they have
been active in a subconscious level. Steiner brings them to consciousness at
a time when humanity is gaining the potential to become collectively aware of
this social paradigm and benefit from the free cooperation of these spheres.

Just as in any developing organism, these spheres have gone through
developmental stages where a sphere would become dominant eclipsing the
others. When tracking the threefold paradigm along a Post-Atlantean
Development Chart we can observe how there have been periods where a
sphere has dominated the other two.

From the ancient Indian and Persian periods up to the Egyptian period, the
social body was dominated by the Cultural Sphere, producing societies that
revolved around the Gods, Nature and the sensing of these. The success of
Agriculture gave humanity the will to control nature and the focus on the Gods
began to fade. Hence the Cultural Sphere was freed from theocratic control
allowing new creative life forces to enter, through it, into the social body.

These new forces evolved the collective sentient and intellectual souls,
peaking in the Greco-Roman period where the Gods are made obsolete, and
thinking is advanced, producing: Logic, Algebra, Physics, Drama, Sculpture,
Architecture, etc. Social and individual awareness result, deriving democracy,
citizenship, and complex judicial systems; at this point the Rights Sphere
becomes dominant. The last impulses of these freed-Cultural-Sphere forces
bring us the Renaissance, Enlightenment and the US constitution.

Our modern economy arises during the above mentioned periods where
thinking and sensing develop a symbiotic relationship in which the intellectual
soul becomes devoted to satisfy the sentient soul, drawing the Ego away from
its spiritual connections and focusing its awareness in the physical. This

insatiable relationship escalates to our current paradigm where the Economic
Sphere dominates the whole social body and the Ego is dislocated into a
reactive entity fuelling the economy without much insight, unable to draw from
spiritual forces.

To this day, scientific thinking is still to be freed from the Economic Sphere to
deliver its spiritual contribution. Quantum physics, describing the physical
world as a probability or even an illusion, gives us a glimpse of what science
could offer when operating out of its own impulses; paradoxically, threatening
the symbiotic relationship between the intellectual and sentient souls which
could bring about the next shift in the social body.

Two important episodes catapult the Economic Sphere to dominate the whole
Social Body. First is the massive influx of Silver from the newly discovered
American continent allowing the European Economy to open vast markets
and evolve into a complex monetary system. Second is the Industrial
Revolution, which is still in an adolescent stage, and has deprived the social
body from developing freely and is poised to transform the world beyond
anything we can imagine today.

Steiner points out that, since the Industrial Revolution is derived from scientific
and materialistic thinking, spiritual forces would be lost with it. Hence the
Social question is born as a quest for the lost spirituality by those who operate
the machines. These workers, who used to have their lives relatively well
represented within all three social spheres, are now cut off from tapping into
forces inherent to the rights and cultural spheres. While all other members of
society retain some contact to the spiritual, the industrial worker is immersed
in an intellectual-machine world, this becoming his/her only reality of the
world. The industrial worker then turns very class conscious and only
responds to material circumstances. Pivotal is the fact that Capitalism
equates the worker as another commodity disregarding the identity of the
worker. So Socialism and Communism are then born as the first movements
purely based on thought aiming to exclusively control the world with the
intellect, and thus unable to perceive the spiritual components in art, religion,
morality, law and most other functions of society.

Another notable social movement is the French Revolution, which with its
paradigm of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity seems to approach the threefold
social order, yet Steiner points out that this movement failed because the
spheres are to remain independent of each other and no sphere should try to
develop aspects that should originate from others. Unfortunately, the French
revolutionaries envisioned the State as the provider of all three spheres.

Possibly only the Iroquois confederation of nations has been the most
successful deployment of the threefold social order. It maintained a
decentralized society where social, economic and warfare and other issues
where dealt by different chiefs administering different spheres of their society.

By the onset of WWI the Capitalist economy becomes global, fuelled by the
insatiable sentient soul and a new ego bearing entity: the corporation; which
in its infant stage, plunders the cultural and right spheres along with any other
worldly resource that could be marketed to humans.

Stagnant forces in the Economic Sphere compounded with the lack of free
participation of the other two spheres remains the main prognosis in our
current paradigm. Capital, representing the vehicle to advance society and
transform the world is kept from flowing properly. Below are some causes for
these blockages, and solutions for treating them to unleash a dynamic
threefold social body.

Issues & Solutions

Abolish nepotism: businesses to be handed down to most qualified
person chosen by the cultural sphere, not hereditary lines. Businesses
belong to the Cultural sphere's heritage.

Self-aware economy: modern economy is solely concerned with
generating profits via the production of goods, disregarding the whole
social body. It will be required to constantly find the best production
method for the type of consumption, best channels from producers to

consumers and best managers chosen from the Cultural sphere
preventing stagnant economic monopolies.

Inheritance:
Wealth should be redistributed into the cultural sphere to
maintain a fluid social body. Hereditary lines should receive
adequate funds stipulated by the Cultural sphere.

Property ownership should not be perpetuated without giving it
a purposeful use. Property needs to be administered to avoid
stagnation.

Evolving Laws: the rights sphere should refrain from both, creating
speculative laws and relying on precedent cases. Each case's unique
characteristics and context should be studied independently allowing
for a dynamic Rights Sphere.

Capital availability: better access to capital so that uncovered
products and services reach the Social Body where they belong. Fair
access to capital regulated by the Cultural Sphere (community) not the
Economic Sphere.

Currency Issuance: the state should pass the task of currency
issuance to the administrative bodies of the Economic Sphere. The
currency's value would be pegged to the conceived goods and services
and their inherent value.

The state at the helm of society: currently the state mandates the
exclusion of anything that does not have value to society or the
economy. This mandate will never exert the vitality or free will needed
to advance the social body. State education prepares humans to
become citizens of that moment's socio economic scenario, when in
fact education should unleash the human potential to advance society
beyond that current scenario.

Electoral System: society has been perceived as a single unit
offering poor electoral resolution. Each sphere needs to have its own
electoral system.

Remove Labour from Economic sphere: labour belongs to the Rights
Sphere and the product to the Economic Sphere. Removing labour from
the realm of economic commodities would restore the identity of the
worker and reconnect the worker with the produced goods or services
as a rightful partner. Wages are transformed into actual participation on
the returns of the worker and manager, taking the entire Social Body
into account in this new agreement.

Administering law: laws are to be created in the Rights sphere but
implemented by the Cultural sphere. Once terms are established
between parties there is no longer need to involve the rights sphere but
by member of the community.

Accounting:

A sensory organ to identify capital stagnation.

World Wide Balance Sheet: it is a single-finite planet; it should
be possible to balance all the accounting books in the planet.

Government Balance Sheets: require states to carry balance
sheets and operate within their budgets; avoid printing
themselves out of debt.

Right price: in which the real value of the company expenditures, raw
materials and livelihood of those involved in the production of goods or
services is accounted for. This is the only process to correct deficits
and excesses.

Spending taxation: prevent off shore tax evasion by collecting taxes
at the geographic location of capital spending.

Consolidate Systems: move towards a Global Central Bank, Global Currency, national rights and cosmopolitan culture in an attempt to
eliminate stagnating redundancies in all three spheres.

The Corporation will be an Ego bearing entity: Our collective
consciousness needs to become global to enable the creation a new
kind of legal persona for these new beings to incarnate an ego
properly. Currently corporations are transitioning through their Astral
developmental stage and soon will incarnate an ego. Corporations can
only operate if they feel globally, act nationally and transform
individually.

Media Consciousness: media still to deliver the power to
communicate and deliver individual culture to society. It is currently
unfolding from a passive collective consciousness platform into an
active emitter of forces. Social Transformation is ripe to happen via uncentralized
media as it has been demonstrated by Obama's election
and regime changes in the Muslim World.

Legal focus on economic: most illegal actions are prosecuted when
economic spheres are threatened. If a vagabond disturbs a retailer, he
is kicked out but if he also steals then he is thrown to jail.

The Year of Social Threefolding; 1919

During the interim months from the end of WWI and the signing of the
Versailles Peace Treaty we find central Europe in limbo and great social
unrest. This situation was a call for social evolution from the dominant
influences of communism and capitalism. And so in the midst this disrepair,
Steiner prolifically revealed a social paradigm with the hopes of influencing
the restructuring of Europe after WWI.

The urgency of those crucial moths prompted one of the most active moments
Anthroposophy has ever seen, with several attempts to implement its principles into society. Expectedly, Steiner introduced Social Threefolding in
a threefold manner by evenly addressing all three spheres of society. The
below time line shows how Steiner surged to deploy change through this
narrow window of opportunity.

1917 Riddles of the Soul, by R. Steiner, where the threefold nature of
the human being is first presented, i.e., thinking = nerve/sense, feeling
= rhythmic and willing =metabolic/limb.

1917 Count Otto Lerchenfeld, Cabinet Minister of the government of
Bavaria asks Steiner for ideas to commence WWI peace negotiations.

1917 Steiner gains a small audience of Austrian and German officials
and talks to Wilsonians about individual self-determinism instead of
national self-determinism.

Jan & Oct 1918 Prince Max von Baden, last chancellor of Imperial
Germany engages Steiner on Social Three Folding conversations.

11 November 1918 World War I cease-fire. Germany experiences the
proclamation of several Wilsonian and Communist regions and city
states, all abolished by German army.

January 1919 Emil Molt, Roman Boos and Hans Kühn from Stuttgart
approach Steiner to implement Social Threefolding practices to their
industrial holding company.

Feb 2nd, 1919 Year of Social Three Folding is proclaimed and started.
Steiner lectures on the subject based on the threefold nature of the
human being resulting in book The Threefold Commonwealth.

March 1919 Steiner prints and disseminates the appeal To the German
People and the Civilized World, which is then endorsed by leading
personalities from the German cultural world.

April 1919 An association of commercial organizations springs up
attempting to implement the social three folding practices.

23 April 1919 preparations for a school at Emil Molt's Cigarette
company start; the school opens on September 7th that same year.

Spring 1919 Steiner prepares the Memoirs of General Hemuth von
Moltke, Chief of German General Staff at the outbreak of WWI, to avert
Germany taking solely all the blame for the war as the Versailles Peace
Conference demanded. This was an attempt to avoid Germany from
further disenfranchising and falling into extreme nationalism. The
initiative was blocked by the then current General Staff.

June 28, 1919 Versailles Peace Treaty is signed along Wilsonian
national self-determination terms, effectively fracturing central Europe
into several new states.

Fall 1919 All social initiatives started this year fade; only the Waldorf
School survives to the present day.

Although Steiner developed these concepts with a specific time period in
mind, he intentionally gave little detail on how to implement them so they
could remain timeless and universal. Unfortunately, this deliberate action has
gained threefoldedness a permanent utopian connotation with those who
have not gained a spiritual understanding of the world. Nevertheless as
human consciousness evolves, opportunities continue to arise to deploy a
healthy conscious social organism.

by Sebastian Bilbao
s_bilbao@hotmail.com

References

Paul Hodgkins and Wendy Brown
Foundation Studies in Anthroposophy 2010-11
Rudolf Steiner Center Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Rudolf Steiner, Basic Issues of the Social Question (aka: The Threefold Commonwealth, The Threefold Social Order, Towards Social Renewal, 1923).
Riddles of the Soul ,1919.

Christopher Houghton Budd, PhD Banking; BA Economic History
Lectures to the Spanish Anthroposophical Society,
'The Ego and the Economy' Barcelona, 2007 http://www.christopherhoughtonbudd.com

The Waldorf School Grade 5 Olympiad was an incredible event to witness: from the opening ceremony to the presentation of the laurels and the exchanges of congratulations among teachers and students, I was moved every step of the way. The displays of commitment, perseverance, form, grace, mental and physical strength, will, respect and support were nothing short of awe-inspiring.

The children have been training all year and this was the culmination of their preparation and hard work. The conditions were certainly not ideal - it was a cold, dark, rainy day, the field was muddy and unforgiving - but that did not dampen the spirits of the children.

There were countless touching moments, but one poignant moment for me came at the end of the day during the last run. The children were tired, cold, wet, and hungry and facing a degraded runway of water and mud, but none of that mattered. They were all totally immersed in the spirit of the event; they were truly present and living it. A boy running in the middle lane caught my attention. He demonstrated power, determination, form, and grace. In short, he displayed beauty in its most basic and purest form. He was striving to achieve his full potential. At that moment, he was the embodiment of the Olympic spirit. We all want to win. However, being successful at the Olympiad isn't about jumping, throwing the javelin or the discus the farthest, running the fastest, or dominating your opponent in the wrestling ring. The most important aspect of the Olympiad is the display through your body and mind of the beauty of the human form and will.
Another noteworthy moment came as teachers placed medals around the necks of the children. They had guided these children every step of the way, observed every moment and relished every achievement. As they presented each medal, they spoke to each Olympian. I could see the love and dedication of the teachers as their faces beamed with pride. At that moment, as they looked into their eyes and saw the soul of that child, the immediate surroundings melted away. Their undivided attention served to give each child the reverence that they quite deserved. Each one had battled the elements honourably and gracefully. In the eyes of the teachers, all the children were champions.
I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to witness the beauty of mankind. Surely the Greek gods were pleased and were beaming with pride just as the teachers and spectators were.

Denise Gianna, parent
Toronto Waldorf School newsletter, June 3, 2011

'You may not believe this, but a bear caught his fur on the door latch as he was going out of the house, and... momentarily... the golden glow of the hidden prince that he truly was gleamed through.'

This happened in the festival storytelling course that I attended in the afternoons led by Dawne McFarlane. But, it happened all the time, really. I certainly experienced it in the 'Bringing Language to Life' course that I offered in the mornings - hatching the beauties hidden in the words we use and, as we attended to one another in the circle, catching glimpses of the gold in each one of us.

Much more than a school of instruction where knowledge is merely added, this 'festival' multiplied inside us. And not just in the classroom. The 'encounters with imagination' that we had signed up for moved out into the corridors of the Rudolf Steiner Centre and into our human encounters in snack times and mealtimes, into the pizza feast that Warren delighted us with in the garden, into the evening when we gathered to savour song and poetry and story. We laughed a lot during these weeks, cried a little, as the weather with its shining and thundering conspired to accompany us. So strong was the heat, in fact, that never in recorded history had Toronto experienced the like. It made the fire alarm go off at a crucial point in one of our afternoon stories.

What's more, all the traffic lights in the neighbourhood revolted and nobody knew for a while whether it was time to go or stop or maybe... Such is the power of imagination - to discombobulate you sometimes, turning princes into bears, bears into princes. There is no maybe about it, though, that go we did at the end of our time together, out into the world, encouraged and inspired for our lives and work and relationships, and most grateful to those who arranged these festive encounters for us.
- Paul Matthews

Click here for more information on this summer's
Festival of Arts and Education
Making Space for the Mysterious
July 9 to 20

' The child's soul has an overpowering need to let fairy tale substance flow through itself,- just as the human body needs to let food substance circulate through it.' Rudolf Steiner (from 'Fairy Tale Hunger,' Von Kugelgen)

As you can nourish your children's growing bodies, so you can nourish their imaginations with stories. Fairy/folk tales are rich nourishment for the listener and the teller. There are rhythms and rhymes, patterns and repetition that appeal to children and guide the teller in remembering the sequences of the story. There are archetypal characters that symbolize goodness, evil, kindness, selfishness, loyalty, betrayal, light and dark. Goodness is always rewarded, and evil is always punished. Archetypal characters portray the human condition, providing noble examples to follow, evil ones to beware, and much more.

'A true fairy tale speaks pictorially of transformation, enchantment, release, telling over and over in this way the secrets of human existence. Man's spiritual origin, his challenges, his victories and deliverances, all are described in child-language for a childlike humanity.' Helmut VonKugelgen, 'Fairy Tale Hunger'

Children, in their innocence, still encounter darkness and light within their own character, and stories provide a safe and contained place for these emotions and sentiments to play out.

'Folktales are records of emotions carried through the centuries- part of a child's rehearsals for adult life.' Bruno Bettleheim

There is no need to explain who is good, bad, selfish, or kind in the stories. It is clear to the children in ways that adults may not be aware of. The British storyteller Peter Chand recalls telling the story of 'The Three Little Pigs' to a classroom of young children. When the wolf blew down the little pig's house, one child cried out 'the bastard!' Later the teacher explained that it was unusual behaviour for that child to speak out like that, but the landlord was evicting his family from their home.

Stories can be selected to address issues the children are dealing with. When my oldest son was around 4 years old, he started having temper tantrums of great dimensions, usually in very public places while my arms were full with my youngest son. I tried carrying protein rich snacks at all times to ward off such moments, balancing our activities more mindfully, and other tactics I thought would solve the problem, but the temper tantrums continued and my patience wore thin. I read Dan Yashinsky's account of using storytelling to distract children from difficult moments and help move through them. So the next time it happened, I started telling 'Rumpelstiltskin,' who has a big temper tantrum at the end of the story and pulls himself in two. Of course I didn't mean to frighten my child, and yet I thought there might be something cathartic about it for him. It distracted him and his brother, allowed me to breathe, and helped me to be a better parent in a precarious moment. I brought out that same story years later while they were arguing in the back of the car while I was driving on a long journey, and spun it out in 'pre-teen' lingo for 2 hours, and their tempers cooled. It all sounds very calm now in recollection, but of course it wasn't at the time and I wasn't as mindful about it all in the moment as I can be looking back on it. It did illuminate to me that telling stories can be healing for listeners and tellers, and can help transform a difficult moment into a magical one. That doesn't mean when they start hitting each other you launch into a story! It just means that in addition to instruction, 'we don't hit each other,' a story can help transmit lessons of good and bad behaviour in picture images to young children that they can receive readily.

'We're hard wired for stories. If you want to tell somebody something...and really get the point across, you're much more likely to be able to do it, in an emotionally affecting way, through a story.' Margaret Atwood, Oct. 17/11 CBC radio interview

When children are older, you can talk more about the meaning of the story with them. My sons got really tired of the story 'The Blind Men and the Elephant,' where each man thinks that the whole elephant is just like the ears, tusks, tail, or whatever section they can touch. However, it did help us to talk about all of the different points of view of the conflict at hand. The older the child or young adult, the more you can talk about the meaning of the story. And yet, there is always ancient wisdom that remains mysterious, lying just beyond our consciousness, working within us in ways we may realize years later. I worked with the story of 'Snow White and Rose Red' for years before I noticed that there were two girls but only one guardian angel, and began to wonder what that might symbolize. And that's the magic of story- there is so much to discover.

'The folk tale is the primer of the picture language of the soul.' Joseph Campbell, from the Commentary in the Grimm's collection

There is a wholeness in fairy/folk tales that is important for young children. The kingdoms of nature, animals, and people live in harmony. Magic and wonder can be found everywhere. Young children perceive the world in this way, and fairy tales make sense to them. Nourishing them with picture images of wholeness and harmony gives them the capacity to imagine wholeness and harmony. It seems to me the more children are nourished by images of goodness and beauty, the more they will be able to face the darkness in the world when they are older, and imagine how the damage they encounter may be restored to wholeness and beauty. And therein lies our hope for the future.

Come andwork withDawne McFarlane at her summer workshop:

The Wisdom of the Fool
Storytelling

Monday July 9 through Friday July 13
Summer Festival of Arts and Education
Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto.

I have just returned from Brazil where the public schools are so under-resourced that anyone who can afford it sends their children to private schools. These offer a ticket to opportunity and a better life. Waldorf schools are a small but growing part of this sector. They offer a real alternative to the overly academic, test driven education that is on offer elsewhere. Waldorf schools, whose work is grounded in the arts, not only offer holistic education, they create opportunities for whole communities to wrestle with the ideals of human development: body, mind and spirit. Such idealistic striving sets them apart from the others and it clearly meets a deep longing these children, their teachers and parents have for a meaningful, active and artistic education. Waldorf schools actively encourage parents and teachers to engagement with one another in practical, conscious spirit-life. Waldorf education offers a unique space, a space for the mysterious, where universal spirit unites with human endeavor in the service of educating children. Furthermore, Waldorf schools are places where people striving together to offer the best for their children and to build hope for the future. Seeing the struggles that educators face the world over, it is ever clearer that Waldorf schools are oases in the desert of 21st century materialism. They secure and nurture seeds for the continuing development of humanity.

Making Space for the Mysterious is the theme for our Summer Festival of Arts and Education. We have invited an inspiring roster of workshop leaders whose aim is to work through their uniquely cultivated specialty to create a fertile, creative space to foster professional and personal development for all participants. Please consider joining us this July.

Not all Waldorf schools are so fortunate. I am presently visiting Rio de Janeiro where there is one small and growing Waldorf school, Jardin-Escola Michaelis. It has been a pleasure to work with the faculty, parents and board of this school as they have all grown over the past five years from a small kindergarten to a growing school that encompasses severeal multi-age kindergartens up to grade four. They have outgrown their first school house and are presently nearing capacity in their second. It is not easy to grow a spiritually minded community school in Rio, the capital of CARNIVAL, but these families are doing a remarkable job. Without any outside help, they have managed to create a thriving Waldorf school right in the heart of this vibrant city. Its creation and conitnuing existence is a miracle whose value is most clearly visible in the faces of the happy children.

Parabems! (Congratulations!)