Newsletter December 2024

Dear colleagues and friends of Pedagogical Section,

Children have learning abilities and energy that far exceeds the possibilities of us adults. But children cannot express, or can only express indirectly, or imperfectly, what they lack.
To tell us what they need to develop healthily and vigorously. Like it or not, they develop in the environment for living and learning that adults provide for them. War, hunger, elite schools, high-performance sports, intensive art training, global travel – what children get usually depends on the preferences and social-cultural choices of adults. How could it be otherwise?

But what if parents and teachers were to make a concerted effort to understand children and young people? To try and understand what the children themselves cannot express, or can only express imperfectly? Then education and schooling would no longer mean submission to the prevailing conditions, and adjustments to the wishes of adults. Rather, it would mean gradually working out what the emerging individual needs and wants.

Anthroposophical anthropology and psychology can be a means to better understand children and young people – in fact, all human beings! For people who have chosen Waldorf education, it is an essential tool – to forget for a moment their own wishes, their own style and to learn to hear better what the child wants to say almost inaudibly.

*
We wish you a Merry Christmas! And a big thank you for your support of the Pedagogical Section at the Goetheanum, and your commitment to early childhood centres and kindergartens, schools, and all areas of education.

*
Philipp Reubke – Constanza Kaliks – Dorothee Prange
Roxane Fabry – Jacinta Gorchs – Gloria Godoy

Our research project «Resilience and pedagogy» now on video

Childhood and adolescence are challenging developmental phases characterised by intense periods of growth. These make young people particularly susceptible to mood swings and psychological problems.

How and whether Waldorf education contributes to making young people strong for the challenges of the 21st century is the subject of our research project «Resilience and Education».

You can see the latest results of the study here in a video by the two study coordinators Belle Leung (pictured) and Jacinta Gorchs.

Click here for the video

Eurocentrism in Waldorf education?

Steiner/ Waldorf education has seen an increasing discussion regarding Eurocentrism, especially with regards to the so-called
theory of cultural epochs that can be found in anthroposophy.

The following paper is an attempt to present a complete review
of current research and
the various perspectives represented in it.
The framework is, roughly, postcolonial theory and its critique of Eurocentrism masking itself as universalizations as well as essentialisms.

Here you can read the work by Ruhi Tyson, Sweden

It is one of many scientific papers that you can now find
on our website «Waldorf Resources».