Practice What You Teach

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Waldorf education is soul work. The teachers see their work as a spiritual calling. Their task, Rudolf Steiner said, was to "accept the children with reverence, educate them with love, and send them forth in freedom." Waldorf teachers ideally stay with their class from first grade all the way through eighth, a commitment that requires them to keep growing and learning right along with the class. In the early grades they teach art, music, and handicrafts, as well as reading, writing, and arithmetic. This year, I’ll be teaching the life of Leonardo da Vinci, human physiology, Western European geography, perspective drawing, chemistry, physics, astronomy, prealgebra, nutrition, English grammar, and creative writing, to name only some of the subjects.

Although I’ve been around Waldorf education for 25 years as a parent, I’m not certified to teach. The usual route to becoming a Waldorf teacher is a rigorous two-year training program. Others, like me, get their training on the job, while teaching, fitting formal instruction in on weekends and in summer intensives. After this summer, I will have completed seventh-grade teacher training courses at the Rudolf Steiner College in Fair Oaks, California, and Sunbridge College in Spring Valley, New York.

I feel like life has been preparing me to teach for years. One particular experience comes to mind. Twenty-five years ago, I was just finishing my studies in Chinese medicine when I visited Findhorn, a New Age spiritual community in northern Scotland. Shortly after arriving, I was asked to lecture the entire 120-member community about acupuncture. Normally shy in front of groups, I was emboldened by the positive interest everyone projected not only toward me and my subject, but toward each other as well. In the midst of my lecture I had a genuine epiphany. I realized that my disposition and orientation toward life was to notice and recognize what is wrong with people, whereas the people at Findhorn were learning to notice and encourage what is right with people.

Soon thereafter I abandoned acu-puncture and got involved in journalism and magazine publishing. My intent, inspired by Findhorn, was to offer an alternative to the negative, problem-oriented perspective of most mainstream media. I wanted to help people see a more complete picture of themselves and the world—not just what was breaking down, but also what’s breaking through.

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