Table of Contents From the Editor Ilan Safit . 2 Waldorf Education in the US and Canada 1928-1979: Part 1 Nana Göbel . 4 The Rudolf Steiner School at 90: Personal Reflections Carol Ann Bärtges . .11 Collegial Collaboration: Becoming Receptive to an Emerging Future Michael Holdrege . 16 Gilles Deleuze’s Philosophy of Freedom Fred Amrine . .23 The Image Problem: Mystery and Debate Arthur Auer . .27 Extra Support with Music: Singing and Recorder David Gable . .33 Waldorf Misunderstandings on Art Van James . 39 Report from the Research Institute Patrice Maynard . 44 Report from the Online Waldorf Library Marianne Alsop . 45 About the Research Institute for Waldorf Education . 46 Research Bulletin • Spring/Summer 2019 • Volume 24 • #1 2Editor’s • Editor’s Introduction Introduction Ilan Safit The Waldorf universe is abuzz with the approach- memories of one of its graduates, who became a high ing one hundredth anniversary of the opening of the school teacher, a class teacher, a school parent, and an first Waldorf school, and so are we at the Research administrator at the Rudolf Steiner School in New York Institute. Work is currently in progress to analyze and City. On the occasion of the school’s 90th anniversary, present data and insights collected from the latest Carol Bärtges recounts personal and collective memo- Survey of Waldorf Graduates, which will be reported ries from the early days of the school. Her account and in a self-standing, book-length volume coinciding with reflections, at times overlapping with moments from 100 years of Waldorf education. the wider history told by Nana Göbel, conclude with a view for the future of the school and of Waldorf educa- In the meanwhile, the current issue of our Research tion in America as a whole. Referring to AWSNA’s first Bulletin opens with a chapter from a much-anticipated Core Principle, Bärtges states, “We will stand at the history of Waldorf education worldwide, composed by forefront of innovative initiative only if we can keep Nana Göbel, the co-founder and executive leader of the alive the idea that ‘The image of the human being as Friends of Waldorf Education (known as Freunde der a spiritual being informs every aspect of the school.’” Erziehungskunst Rudolf Steiners), an organization that has been supporting hundreds of Waldorf initiatives If these first two articles trace the metamorphosis of throughout the world since 1976. anthroposophical insight and the Waldorf impulse into a specifically American practice, the piece that Göbel’s book, Die Waldorfschule und ihre Menschen follows, written by Michael Holdrege from the Chicago Weltweit (The Waldorf School and Its People Waldorf School, tracks down another meeting point Worldwide), is a three-volume tome, soon to be pub- of Anthroposophy and the American Spirit. In his lished by Verlag Freies Geistesleben, and is in the pro- article, “Collegiate Collaboration,” Holdrege quickly cess of being translated into English by Jan Kees Saltet surveys the historical features of American common- of the Hartsbrook School in Massachusetts. The chapter ality and community. He finds an affinity between an we present here, in two installments, reviews the first American impulse of collaboration, dating back to the 50 years of Waldorf education in North America, from original colonies and the spirit of the Constitution, and the first school founded in New York City in 1928 to a Steiner’s designation of collegial, collaborative leader- “change of guards” in Waldorf leadership taking place ship for the Waldorf school. Holdrege’s multifaceted around 1979. exploration taps into some contemporary models of management, some of them Steiner-inspired (for Göbel’s history reviews the main figures, organizations, example, Otto Scharmer’s Theory U and Leading from and events that led to the foundation of school after the Emerging Future), to offer an interpretation of the school, from New York to New England to Pennsylvania kind of Waldorf leadership suggested by Rudolf Steiner. to the West Coast, and finally to the Midwest and “I think the future of Waldorf education in America,” Canada, giving rise to a network of independent yet Holdrege concludes, “will depend greatly on Waldorf collaborative schools and eventually to the Association faculties developing the capacity to dialogue in a new of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA). While way, in such a way that they become sensitive to ‘an moving quickly between events, names, and times, emerging future.’” Göbel’s chapter resonates with the drama of influence and identity, as the Germanic origins of Waldorf educa- Turning from history to philosophy, this issue continues tion, often arriving on this side of the Atlantic through with an article by anthroposophist Fred Amrine, pro- the efforts of pioneering visitors and emigrants, slowly fessor of literature at the University of Michigan, who takes on a unique American form. sketches out with great excitement some parallels between the thought of the iconoclastic, late-20th century We offer a closer look at a segment of this unique nar- French philosopher, Gilles Deleuze, and that of Rudolf rative by tapping into the institutional history of the Steiner. In this article, reprinted from the anthropo- first Waldorf school in North America and the personal sophical journal, being human, Amrine draws a broader Research Bulletin • Spring/Summer 2019 • Volume 24 • #1 Ilan Safi t • 3 map, or a longer legacy, if you will, that leads from the would demonstrate to students their ability to hear late 18th century works of Schiller and Fichte to Steiner tones and discriminate pitch to detailed instructi on on to Deleuze. A central claim in Amrine’s piece, beyond how to bring less confi dent students into the musical the synopti c overview of similariti es between Deleuze fold of their peers. and Steiner, is that the philosophical breakthroughs of the thinkers surveyed always came in response to The goal of musical instructi on in the Waldorf class- failed social revoluti ons. With this conclusion, Amrine room, Gable emphasizes, is not the training of perfect emphasizes a connecti on between major social interac- musicians as much as “the engagement, the acti vity, ti ons and historical breakthrough moments advancing and the collaborati on with peers” in the shared music- our modes of thinking. making eff ort, an eff ort to rise to a plane where dif- ferences are overcome by listening to each other and A second philosophical explorati on is off ered in Arthur striving to harmonize. Auer’s essay, “The Image Problem.” Auer, former Director of the Waldorf Teacher Educati on Program at Finally, Van James, an arti st and seasoned art educator Anti och University, New England, matches a millennia- with over three and a half decades in various Waldorf old philosophical questi on with recent psychological classrooms, recalls the term “Waldorf misunderstand- and physiological research, asking: How can we char- ings” and puts it to criti cal use in his fi eld. The term, acterize mental images and what role do they hold originally coined by Christof Wiechert, refers to en- in the processes of consciousness? Auer begins with trenched practi ces in Waldorf educati on based on Rudolf Steiner’s indicati on that teachers must help misunderstandings of Steiner’s initi al instructi ons and children develop the capacity for mental picturing. the wider developmental picture it draws. Rather than Steiner makes this suggesti on to the newly-appointed admonishing teachers for straying from authoritati ve faculty of the very fi rst Waldorf school in the second of law, James shows the pedagogical futi lity of certain fourteen lectures later published as Study of Man, and visual practi ces, such as excluding black from the paint follows up this idea with a detailed analysis of mental box off ered to children, or presenti ng students, during images. Quoti ng heavily from recent psychological and main lessons, for example, with fi nished visual pictures, neurological studies, Auer demonstrates how contem- rather than a set of daily developing renditi ons. As a re- porary thinking on mental images is coming closer to sult, James’ arti cle bears important lessons not only for the perspecti ve advocated by Steiner, and that a re- its own fi eld of art instructi on but also for other aspects understanding of mental images lies at the heart of a of Waldorf educati on that may have become subject to new understanding of consciousness itself. He further unchecked orthodoxy. suggests that Waldorf educati on, in which mental imag- ing is culti vated and nurtured, might just be a seed for Given that our Research Bulleti n is dedicated to – if such a transformati on. not avoiding then at least growing from – new understanding of Waldorf misunderstandings, we fi nd this a One of the questi ons that Auer explores concerns peo- good point to conclude the arti cle secti ons of the is- ple who lack the capacity to create internal sense-imag- sue before moving to the regular reports from recent es, whether these are qualifi ed as visual, aural, tacti le, Research Insti tute initi ati ves and the world of Waldorf or other. David Gable, a musician and Waldorf teacher, Publicati ons, both online and in the physical world. takes a similar starti ng point in his arti cle, “Extra Support with Music.” Gable, who has been teaching music and We hope you will fi nd interest and support for your main lessons at the Waldorf School of Cape Cod for work in this springti me selecti on. over thirty years, begins his practi cal arti cle with the conditi on of tone-deafness: the inability to discriminate pitch and tell notes apart from each other. This would mean, according to the terms explored in Auer’s arti cle, an inability to produce a sensory image of sound inter- nally, where an observing consciousness could discern, discriminate, and operate on, for example, by singing or playing music in tune.

Load more