Our Collective Responsibility and Sacred Trust

Dear Members of The Waldorf School of Santa Barbara Community,

Throughout the school year the faculty performs class studies wherein a teacher shares about each child in her/his class. These occasions are approached with meticulous reverence: a candle is lighted, often surrounded by flowers, a verse is spoken aloud into the circle, and each member of the staff is asked to fully listen -- no talking, no use of gadgets, no futzing with one's bag or purse -- while the teacher, aided by written notes, shares about the beautiful uniquenesses of each child under her/his tutelage. To hear these thorough, minute, tender portraits of each student is a kind of sacrament -- afterwards, it's impossible not to feel filled up, moved and softened, and more loving toward the children -- each individual young human -- in WSSB's charge.

At the end of Torrin Finser's recent book Education for Nonviolence, he shares a "Bill of Rights for Children," in which he says, "All children on Earth are our Children, our collective responsibility and sacred trust; the adult community needs to protect and cherish every child." Relatedly, the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA) lists as its first principle the following: "The image of the human being as a spiritual being informs every aspect of the school." AWSNA elaborates on this by stating: "Waldorf education enlivens the physical, emotional, intellectual, social, artistic, and spiritual capacities of the human being as the individual moves through the phases of this life." By deepening our appreciation for and understanding of each child, the class studies at WSSB crucially help this enlivening.

With heartfelt gratitude,

The WSSB Admin Team

PS -- The poem of the day is by Ibn Arabi:

There Was a Time

There was a time I would reject those
Who were not my faith.
But now my heart has grown capable
Of taking on all forms.
It is a pasture for gazelles,
An abbey for monks,
A table for the Torah,
Kaaba for the pilgrim.
My religion is love.
Whichever the route love’s caravan shall take,
That shall be the path of my faith.

PPS The pensée of the day is by Jack Petrash:

"Because a Waldorf School endeavors to awaken and maintain a child's experience of the mysterious through awe and wonder, parents often ask if it is a religious school. This is a difficult question to answer because the term religious can be understood in so many different ways. Perhaps the most accurate answer would have to be both, 'No and Yes.' In the sense that a religious education is associated with a creed or a catechism that children are asked to memorize and accept on faith, the answer is decidedly 'no.' There are no tenets presented to Waldorf students that are intended to become their set of beliefs. Neither are Waldorf Schools sectarian and for that reason they can thrive equally in a Buddhist country like Japan, an Islamic country like Egypt, or on a kibbutz in Israel. But in the sense that a Waldorf education helps children remain open to the mysterious dimensions of life, to the complex web of meaning that connects human destiny with other individuals and events, to the over-riding sense that there is something present in life that is greater and wiser than we are, the answer is 'Yes.' In keeping with the origin of the word religious, derived from the Latin religare (to reconnect or bind together), it is the task of Waldorf Education to help children remain open and connected to this inexplicable aspect of human existence. For this reason it is appropriate to describe Waldorf in a broad way as a spiritually-based education."