A Healing Education
Dear Members of The Waldorf School of Santa Barbara Community,
Every morning at WSSB the teacher shakes each grade-student’s hand before the student enters the classroom. This is a Waldorf custom practiced around the world. Good morning, the teacher says, looking the child in the eyes, holding her hand warmly and firmly. Good morning, the child returns, looking (hopefully!) the teacher in the eyes, holding the teacher’s hand (hopefully!) warmly and firmly. Though this exchange might seem negligible, it is of primary importance -- it helps the child become a social being, a human.
Recently the head of a private school in Los Angeles told us of a breakdown in the social development of the children in his school because of our time. The social fabric of his school, he said, is in tatters. He’s noticed a regression in the students; many, he supposes, are two years behind where they should be socially. Last week he expressly told all faculty to forbear privileging academics until January -- instead the teachers will help the kids become socially able again; help them learn how to be with each other and in their own skin.
Fortunately, we don’t face such widespread breakdown here and do not feel the need to under-privilege the academic. While we do have struggles and conflicts (of course!), there is, in the main, a sense of genuine flourishing among the children, a sense of cohesion and intact-ness, a sense of an un-frayed social fabric. For here at WSSB -- to the best of our abilities, fallibly but effortfully -- we strive to maintain the right conditions for social growth, for becoming human. We know the importance -- for the child and the teacher -- of shaking hands, warmly and firmly, and looking each other right in the eyes.
"We can only educate rightly," said Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Waldorf education, "when education is seen as a healing process." What a statement. And how relevant to our time.
In gratitude,
The WSSB Admin Team
PS The thought of the week is by Charles Eisenstein:
"The more closely we participate in the affairs of earth, sky, soil, rocks, and so on, the easier it is to see the God in all things. This is not a perception exclusive to animistic cultures. David Whyte recounts a visit with a Scottish fisherman on a remote island, who lived the traditional ways. He said a prayer for every significant act of the day: a prayer for getting out of bed, a prayer for drawing the curtains, a prayer for breaking bread, a prayer for getting into his boat, a prayer for casting the net. His was a world thick with being. Something is always watching, always listening. He was never alone, because the whole world was alive."