Spring/Summer 2020, Volume 25 #1
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Research Bulletin Research Research Bulletin Spring/Summer 2020 Volume XXV · Number 1 Volume XXV Volume • Number 1 Research Institute for Waldorf Education Waldorf for Institute Research RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATIONWaldorf Table of Contents • 1 Editor’s Introduction Ilan Safit . 2 The First Waldorf Teachers: Historical Vignettes Tomáš Zdražil . 4 Waldorf Education in the United States: Historical Overview Michael Holdrege . 9 A Collaborative Approach to Educational Freedom: AWSNA Lectures Elan Leibner . .12 Why Are Parent-Child Classes So Vital to the Health of a Waldorf School? Diana Marshall Mei . .29 Where Are the Families of Diversity? Jennifer Deathe . 35 The Image Problem II Arthur Auer . .47 The Evolution of Meaning Peter Lawton . 54 Computer Education in Waldorf Schools Charles Weems . 70 From Tending the Spark: Technology and Middle School Betty Staley . 76 Report from the Online Waldorf Library Marianne Alsop . 80 Report from the Research Institute for Waldorf Education and Waldorf Publications Patrice Maynard . 81 About the Research Institute for Waldorf Education . 83 Research Bulletin • Spring/Summer 2020 • Volume 25 • #1 2Editor’s • Editor’s Introduction Introduction Ilan Safit This issue of the Research Bulletin is being pro- and public Waldorf schools; the difficulties in sustaining duced during the global Coronavirus pandemic, after fully accredited, full-time teacher-training institutions; schools have already been shut and stores and res- and the growing gap in attitude even between progres- taurants closed. The direct and indirect impact of the sive public schools and the original impulse of Waldorf invisible virus is very visible in our worlds, a sobering education. reminder of the wider dimensions of reality beyond that which meets the eye. As the shape of daily life keeps We are very pleased to be able to publish here the lec- transforming from day to day, Waldorf schools, like all ture series delivered by Elan Leibner at the 2019 AWSNA other schools in the country and across the world, are summer conference in Philadelphia. Under the title grappling with modes of “distant learning” – a term that “A Collaborative Approach to Educational Freedom,” sounds so foreign to a Waldorf ear. The distance usually Leibner makes a cogent plea for a continued inspiration observed by Waldorf educators is that of time rather of Waldorf pedagogy by anthroposophical impulses than of space; that is, the distance between the sow- and research, while at the same time advocating for a ing of the seeds of learning in the classroom and their continued effort for innovation and change. Consistency coming to fruition later in life. A second current term in Waldorf education, Leibner claims in these lectures, invoking distance—“social distancing”—grinds even should be exercised in the quality of the teaching, not in harsher on the ear. If one thing has so far become clear the content of the curriculum, and innovation is espe- to any parent or educator, it is the child’s absolute need cially needed today to expand the inclusivity of Waldorf for socialization in a shared, un-mediated space. There communities, to meet the challenges of the time, and to will be many lessons to be learned from these strange improve the therapeutic efficacy of Waldorf education. days which are currently upon us, and we can only wish Leibner proceeds to offer guidelines, action plans, and that by the time you read this issue, the trial will have institutional structures that would assist schools seek- already passed and the learning of lessons begun. To ing to develop the art of Waldorf education. We recom- the issue, then. mend paying close attention to this lecture series not only for the important ideas and guidelines it sketches As we continue to mark Waldorf education’s centennial, out but also for the sketching itself, weaving America’s we open Volume XXV-1 with a selection of vignettes national ideals with the author’s personal experience depicting members of the team that launched the first and with the teachings of anthroposophical insight. Waldorf school in Stuttgart under Rudolf Steiner’s direc- tion. These vignettes, written by the Czech Waldorf edu- Coming from within the parent-child classrooms de- cator and scholar Tomáš Zdražil of the Freie Hochschule signed for babies, toddlers, and their parents, Diana Stuttgart – Seminar for Waldorf Pedagogy, were re- Marshall Mei of the San Francisco Waldorf School cently published in book form by Waldorf Publications. describes the importance of Waldorf early childhood We proceed with one more overview of the arrival activities and their capacity to prevent pedagogical and of Waldorf education in the United States, wherein other obstacles later in life. Jennifer Deathe follows suit Michael Holdrege traces the birth of the North American with a question that is coming to the forefront in many Waldorf movement to Carnegie Hall in 1910. There, in schools across the country: Why are so many Waldorf a seventh-floor studio, a group of musicians, who had schools not as diverse as we would like them to be, and encountered in their European travels the teachings what could be done about it? Applying several research of Rudolf Steiner, started meeting up as an anthropo- methods and focusing on the Ontario Waldorf school in sophical study group. Holdrege draws the general lines which she works, Deathe raises two questions: “Why that led from these anthroposophical seeds to the first is an independent school based on social justice and Waldorf school in New York City, in 1928, and the later democracy and located in the heart of one of Ontario’s sprouting of more schools throughout the country. This most multicultural cities not attracting and retaining review includes important reminders of the ongoing families of diversity?” and “Why do families of diversity challenges Waldorf education faces in this country: the choose Waldorf education despite the school’s lack of differences between fully independent Waldorf schools diversity?” Research Bulletin • Spring/Summer 2020 • Volume 25 • #1 Ilan Safit • 3 To answer these questions, Deathe conducted multiple Charles Weems, an experienced Waldorf teacher and observations and interviews, which could provide in- seasoned university professor of computer science, sight for other Waldorf schools across North America. follows up on his previous articles on technology in While each school community will need to explore its the Waldorf classroom, published both in the Research own solutions to increasing inclusivity, it would be help- Bulletinand Renewal, with a call for Waldorf teachers to ful to note Deathe’s conclusion: namely, that achieving be “masters of technology.” While Weems fully agrees true diversity and inclusion necessitates collaborative with resisting our times’ technological overload and efforts among all partners, including school leadership, withholding the teaching of “computational thinking” administration, faculty, parents, and students, along until adolescence, he does advocate—as did Steiner— with Waldorf teacher training programs. for teachers to understand the underlying nature of technology and its wide-reaching effects. This, Weems Turning to reflective investigation, we are pleased to argues, will allow Waldorf teachers to guide students publish here the second (yet not final) part of Arthur through a world wherein digital technology is now ubiq- Auer’s exploration into the nature of thought, a sequel uitous, “in a manner that actually reinforces their inner to his article, “The Image Problem,” published in last humanity.” spring’s issue of the Research Bulletin (Vol. XXIV No. 1, Spring 2019). While in his earlier essay Auer collected Staying with the question of technology in the class- a variety of philosophical, neurological, and psychiatric room, we conclude with a chapter from Betty Staley’s accounts of the visual aspects of conscious, that is, of most recent book, Tending the Spark: Lighting the Future thinking in images, here Auer follows a similar path while for the Middle School Student, published by Waldorf focusing on the mobile characteristics of consciousness Publications in 2019. Guided by decades of experience and thought. Does consciousness flow like a stream, as in Waldorf education, Staley writes on the supervised William James suggested at the very end of the 19th and unsupervised functions of technology and social century, or does it proceed through disjoined “rhythmic media in the life of the middle school student, with pulses” or collections of still images as some contempo- some helpful guidelines for parents. rary cognitive scientists suggest? Motivated by the char- acterization of consciousness found in Steiner’s work, As usual, our issue ends with reports from the Waldorf Auer gathers insights from anthroposophic scholars and Online Library and from an especially productive year scientists such as Theodor Schwenk and Rudolf Treichler for Waldorf Publications, which has recently issued Into and ventures further into the work of contemporary the World: How Waldorf Graduates Fare After High neuroscientists such as Antonio Damasio or the more School, an in-depth study of Waldorf alumni written and compassionate psychiatric observations and psycho- produced by members of the team that brings you the logical insights of Oliver Sacks. At the very least, Auer’s Research Bulletin, and further assisted by Connie Stokes exploration offers us an impressive, multi-disciplinary and Andrew Starzynski. We are convinced that