By Torin M Finser
From earliest times, humans have built bridges to connect with each other. Starting with simple rope bridges, human ingenuity has invented modern suspension bridges, some of them stretching for miles across rocky and watery expanses all over the world.
More than ever, we need each other on this earth, and bridges help us connect. From its inception, CfA’s Building Bridges Program was designed to link parents, public school teachers, and aspiring Waldorf educators pursue a process of self-development in the context of a lively cohort of adult learners.
Initially launched with a group in Anchorage, this program has now served cohorts in Denver, Folsom and Grass Valley in the Sacramento area, and now in Atlantic Beach, Florida. Many participants have had previous experience in public education and Waldorf schools but are now seeking a pathway to an AWSNA-recognized certificate as well the possible option of an M.Ed. degree from Antioch University New England. Others simply want a year of enrichment so they can better serve their school as administrators, board members, or parent volunteers; for them, there is no obligation to continue beyond the initial set of workshops.
For more complete information and a sample outline of course offerings, please visit our CfA website and select the link for Building Bridges. Click here.
In 2024, we hope to offer this program in the Baltimore/Washington area, and then later possibly at the Waldorf School of the Peninsula in California. Those participating in these face-to-face onsite workshops are asked first to enroll in our Explorations Online Program or document their previous experience in foundational studies. Upon completion of Building Bridges, participants who enroll in the Waldorf Teacher Education Program at Antioch can receive advanced standing credits, thereby shortening their participation in this degree program while still graduating with a fully accredited university diploma.
Finally, we know that for self-aware, inspired teaching, traditional “horizontal” bridges need to be complemented by “vertical” bridges that forge links with the spiritual world. When these pathways are opened to aspiring educators, we can see a brighter future for the teaching profession.
For those who will to work
with those who guide
the future of humankind:
Bring forth spirit potentials
in yourself –
And so achieve
the power to awaken dormant faculties
in others.
Cultivate the seed points,
Foster forces of growth.
Recognize future becoming.
––– Rudolf Steiner
