News

The last few years have brought unprecedented challenges to schools, especially to our teachers and administrators. Layered over long-standing issues of low pay, long hours, helicopter parents, shared governance (and confusion over roles and authority), schools have had to navigate a third year of covid while enhancing their DEI activities and working with new financial constraints, to name but a few issues.

This is the season of light. Which is a paradoxical way to describe––at least here in the northern hemisphere––the darkest time of the year. So, what does it mean to refer to this time as the season of light?

To use an example you all will know: you enter a dark room, light a match or click the flashlight button on your phone, and suddenly the room is illuminated. The light overcomes, in other words, the darkness.

In this issue, we entertain some inspiring solutions––both in-person and online––to the deepening crisis in education. We ask: What’s wrong? What’s needed? What’s coming? Along the way, we outline some novel approaches to traditional forms of educating adults and explore new approaches to educating youth and those responsible for teaching them.

CfA’s Online Newsletter Center & Periphery Spring 2022 From the Editor’s Notepad From the Editor’s Notepad Douglas Gerwin, Ph.D. Executive Director, CfA Dear Friends, After two years of being mostly online, Center for Anthroposophy (CfA) and its affiliated Waldorf Teacher Education Program at Antioch University New England are resuming in-person classes this summer. In all, a record 11 cohorts will be meeting in Wilton, New Hampshire, on the campus of High Mowing School: Two groups for Waldorf high school teacher training Three groups for Waldorf elementary teacher education Two groups for Antioch’s advanced transdisciplinary studies in healing education One group inaugurating CfA’s Kairos Institute with a program in “Emergency Pedagogy” with Bernd Ruf One group for Waldorf administrators and leadership training One group of Antioch students launching their doctoral studies in Waldorf education One-week Renewal Courses in professional development Add to this growing line-up CfA’s Explorations program in foundational studies and its regional Building Bridges satellite program for Waldorf teacher training, both of which meet during the school year, and you have the complete palette of courses on offer this year. Each of these programs is featured below, along with news of further fresh initiatives and developments on the move at CfA. Douglas GerwinExecutive DirectorCenter for Anthroposophy Dear Friends, After two years of being mostly online, Center for Anthroposophy (CfA) and its affiliated Waldorf Teacher Education Program at Antioch University New England are resuming in-person classes this summer. In all, a record 11 cohorts will be meeting in Wilton, New Hampshire, on the campus of High Mowing School: Two groups for Waldorf high school teacher training Three groups for Waldorf elementary teacher education Two groups for Antioch’s advanced transdisciplinary studies in healing education One group inaugurating CfA’s Kairos Institute with a program in “Emergency Pedagogy” with Bernd Ruf One group for Waldorf administrators and leadership training One group of Antioch students launching their doctoral studies in Waldorf education One-week Renewal Courses in professional development Add to this growing line-up CfA’s Explorations program in foundational studies and its regional Building Bridges satellite program for Waldorf teacher training, both of which meet during the school year, and you have the complete palette of courses on offer this year. Each of these programs is featured below, along with news of further fresh initiatives and developments on the move at CfA. Douglas GerwinExecutive DirectorCenter for Anthroposophy Douglas Gerwin, Ph.D. Executive Director of CfA Back in Person! As of June 2022, all of CfA’s summer programs are scheduled once again to be held “in person” on its summertime home base in Southern New Hampshire. “Discover Your Destiny – Practice Your Passion” A new banner greets visitors to CfA’s completely redesigned website and archived resources. At the same time, fresh images and ads depicting CfA programs have appeared across print and online media. Even the CfA logo is a little different, if you look carefully. To Be a Successful High School Teacher Apart from demonstrating a firm footing in one or more subjects, a high school teacher needs to be versed in the ways of three “PC’s” in order to succeed with teenagers. Be “Inspired” and “In Community” with Renewal Courses 2022 “Inspirations!” and “Return to Community!” represent the two overarching thematic banners of this year’s Renewal Courses –– the first week online, the second week once again in person. Kairos: Healing in a World of Need through Visual and Performing Arts Starting with Bernd Ruf’s course on “Emergency Pedagogy,” CfA’s Kairos Institute is launching the first of a multi-unit training this summer intended to treat and prevent trauma through the healing modalities of the arts. Explorations Online –– and Now International Thanks to its “live” online format, CfA’s Explorations Program in foundational studies now draws participants from across five continents. Homecoming Party for CfA and Antioch Alumni CfA/Antioch Alumni Association is hosting a Homecoming and Birthday Party this summer. Waldorf Leadership Program Graduates Its First Cohort The inaugural group of CfA’s new Waldorf Leadership Development completes its year-long program with a festive celebration. Building Bridges Both East and West After a year-long hiatus, CfA resumed its “Building Bridges” program this past September with a vibrant group of faculty and staff from the Northeast Woodland School in Conway, New Hampshire. Sign up to receive our Center & Periphery Newsletter! Name First Last Email By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive information from: Center for Anthroposophy, 233 Cannongate III Nashua, NH 03063. To revoke your consent, simply click on the  SafeUnsubscribe® link.Emails are serviced by Constant Contact. CAPTCHAPhoneThis field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. You’ll receive the newsletter via email.

Chris’ courses at CfA were prophetic and deeply stirred the lives of participants; his introductions to countless publications at SteinerBooks were inspirational.  Apart from being himself a prolific author, Chris “commissioned” Torin Finser’s School as a Journey in 1990, wrote the introduction to Douglas Gerwin’s For the Love of Literature, and encouraged numerous other authors over decades with his confidence, vision, and unconditional generosity of spirit.    Christopher Bamford, longtime faculty member of our Renewal Courses, former editor-in-chief of SteinerBooks, and friend and colleague to many at CfA, crossed the threshold on the morning of Friday 13 May 2022.  

Supplied with pencils, paper, paints, and brushes, Karine Munk Finser, Director of CfA’s newly founded Kairos Institute, flew to Scandinavia in mid-March to welcome Ukrainian refugees into her parents’ empty cottage on the Danish island of Bornholm and to begin administering a program of acute healing therapy to mothers and their young children. A licensed art therapist in the U.S., Karine was following up on her mother’s initiative to open her summer home to Ukrainian families seeking refuge on this Baltic island. Beyond housing and basic needs, Karine is offering them a therapeutic program based on “Emergency Pedagogy” pioneered by Bernd Ruf from the Parzival Zentrum in Germany. This program is designed to bring healing artistic elements of Waldorf education to traumatized children and their parents whose lives have been upended by war or natural catastrophes. A seven-year-old girl captured her feeling of release after fleeing her native Ukraine in a drawing she called, “Girl Crossing the Border”. Karine writes, “Notice the darkened sun, the dying flowers on the left, the empty darkness, the deep sorrowful world where everything weeps. The transition is beautifully marked with the dark clouds changing to white clouds and the sun’s return. The rainbow, eternal expression of hope and belonging. The greens, life returning. Most importantly, notice how the girl in the drawing stands and sadly watches the darkness but then, as she crosses the border, she begins to lighten.” Karine, who is also Director of Transdisciplinary Studies in Healing Education at Antioch University New England, will spend the rest of this month with Ukrainian mothers and their children on Bornholm, a remote island located east of Denmark in the Baltic Sea between Poland and the southern coast of Sweden. Bernd Ruf is scheduled to bring his multi-year training in “Emergency Pedagogy” for teachers and art therapists to CfA’s Kairos Institute in Wilton, New Hampshire, starting this summer as part of the Institute’s new program of Waldorf pedagogy through the healing arts. Details of this program can be found here. Those wishing to help Waldorf schools and their families in Ukraine can make donations directly to the Friends of Waldorf Education (Freunde der Erziehungskunst), which has already mobilized a worldwide network of financial and logistic support via its secure website here.