Dear colleagues in Waldorf and Rudolf Steiner schools and kindergartens around the world; dear friends! Here is the Christmas edition of the Pedagogical Section's Journal, this time only in electronic form. The situation for many schools and kindergartens is not easy at the moment. As small
encouragements you will find in this issue:
- On the theme of "mental equilibrium", an article by Albrecht Schad, who places this topic in the context of planetary evolution. Surprising moments of equilibrium have occurred again and again. - Two articles commemorate the former leader of the Pedagogical Section, Heinz Zimmermann, who died 10 years ago, and who was a master in an art that we must strive hard to achieve today: The
art of conversation. - Encouraging parents and teachers to do what feels right for them, and not mindlessly adopting whatever is demanded by the so-called "mainstream", or by any particular tradition, is the subject of contributions by Nana Göbel and Gilad Goldschmidt. - At the end you will find a greeting for the 50th birthday of the "Friends of Waldorf Education".
Balance, interest, warm-hearted commitment - these three gifts we wish all parents, educators and teachers at the turning of the year. From the staff of the
Pedagogical Section at the Goetheanum. Philipp Reubke
Uprightness and balance: a micaelic challenge
Day in, day out we struggle to find the strength for inner uprightness. Being in balance helps with this. If we are not balanced, we cannot find this uprightness. Read the article by Albrecht Schad
Heinz Zimmermann
"Conversation as the Original Form of the Modern Community" was the title Heinz Zimmermann gave to a chapter of his book Speaking, Listening, Understanding. He thus combined two of his concerns and attached prominent significance to conversation. Community is realized through tangible activities; only in this way can community be formed. Conversation in its many forms, which we can describe and study, fulfils this concrete
approach. Heinz Zimmermann saw in it a safe training ground for community building.
If it is true and we are oscillating between an ever more inadequate reality world and an ever more inane bubble world, then the question of the educational mission at the beginning of the second century of Waldorf education arises anew and in a manner that is sharp, urgent, uncomfortable and unbending.
What are the present and future challenges of Waldorf education and how should we face them? This article aims to try to understand our situation in the Waldorf movement, both currently and into the future; to look at the challenges we are facing and to try and draw some lines of action or some directions in which we can work to face those challenges.
