by David Barham, Executive Director

Greetings Dear Readers of Center & Periphery~

In many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, spring is unfolding in all of its joyful abundance. The human heart and soul can feel filled and delighted with the warm temperatures, colors, fragrances and endless sounds as winter recedes.

Simultaneously, our world is struggling with the impacts of war and the endless slings and arrows the world news throws at us. Cherry blossoms and robin songs on one hand,  reports of atrocities, racist attacks, and feelings of despair on the other. Welcome to Spring in 2026!

And what is the responsibility of educators choosing to align themselves with the developmental needs of their students? How to keep an all important sense of hope, love,  beauty, and care for all living beings alive in our students as they and we are barraged by  an outer reality that can feel overwhelming? How much to protect and how much to let in? How do we strengthen our students so they inwardly feel ready to meet the world in which they have chosen to incarnate? How to help them continuously strengthen their own powers of independent judgment and will for the future?

One of the glories of Waldorf education is that we realize there are different answers to these questions at each phase of child and adolescent development. As a high school educator, I am particularly focused on how to create brave spaces in my classrooms where hard subjects can be approached, and all of my students feel safe to take risks in furthering both their understanding and their compassion. The final presentation in our 2025-2026 Starlight Rays in Darkened Times seminar series was on this very topic: how do we overcome the fear of “being political” and support our students in making sense of their world? How do we do our inner work to ensure we are standing before and among our students aware of the power differential in the classroom, committed to educating  and not indoctrinating?

This is powerful work for educators. And working out of the Waldorf tradition, we have so many tools at our disposal. Rudolf Steiner speaks about our work as helping to unfold each student’s individuality, to support, “human being becoming.” This approach is what distinguishes Waldorf education, an educational art committed to helping each young person in front of us find inner meaning, context and connection in a world that sometimes seems mad and cruel. 

We hope you will spend some time deepening your understanding of Center for Anthroposophy’s many offerings, including Explorations Online; Building Bridges to Waldorf Teacher Training; Kairos Institute: Emergency Pedagogy Course;Mentor Training; Renewal Courses; Starlight Rays in Darkened Times: Seminars on Contemporary Topics; Waldorf High School Teacher Education; Waldorf Leadership & Community Development; and the Waldorf Elementary Teacher Education Program through our affiliation with Antioch University. More information about each of these rich offerings can be found on our website. 

Enjoy the rich articles in this Spring edition of Center & Periphery. We begin with an alum profile of Rachel Freierman, long- time dedicated and visionary outdoor educator at Northeast Woodland Public Charter School in Conway, New Hampshire. Bev Boyer offers us a review of Torin Finser’s latest book, Karmic Reconciliation: Clearing a Path for Destiny, and Douglas Gerwin shares a chapter from the most recent publication on sleep from the Pedagogical Section Council of North America, Drawbridge and Portcullis: Thresholds of Sleeping and Waking Consciousness. Two Starlight Rays presenters, Liz Beaven and  Nathan Wilcox offer forth articles on the powerful presentations they shared. 

The need for colleagueship in this hard but so important work feels stronger than ever. We wish to align ourselves with those doing the work to help the next generation find the way to themselves, and build and support the institutes where that can happen. Please stay in touch, reach out, let us know what’s happening in your work and how Center for Anthroposophy can be of help. 

Happy Spring and may we move through the world with the courage of the newborn baby birds.