The Beauty

Dear Friend of the Waldorf School of Santa Barbara Community,

Today’s parents sometimes hear this rueful remark from older generations: “I’m so relieved I’m not raising children now. I honestly don’t know how you all do it. These days are crazier than anything we went through.” While such a sentiment can be painful to hear, it’s not necessarily surprising. We are indeed living in a time of prodigious change. The challenge this presents to parents and educators seems more formidable than ever.

Here at the Waldorf School of Santa Barbara we meet this moment by returning to the vision upon which we were founded. Our aim remains—to invoke our mission statement—“to not merely reflect society but help guide and shape it.” In other words, WSSB’s education is not expediential, not blindly affirming of the status quo. Many other schools seek to equip and position their students to get ahead within the rules of the prevailing system—however misguided that system may be. In contrast, our education seeks to redirect the system.

But how does an elementary school in Goleta, California redirect the system? And redirect it toward what? And how does it respond helpfully to prodigious, often overwhelming change?

One of the hallmarks of Waldorf education is to begin from the fundamental assertion that life is very beautiful. “Eden is,” said Joseph Campbell. “The Kingdom of God,” Jesus taught, “is in the midst of you.” “All things are strung on Him,” we read in the Bhagavad Gita, “like rows of gems upon a thread.” Down in the deep heart’s core, we sometimes quietly know this. But often we forget it. Far too often wherever we turn these days—in conversation, in the news—the notion that life is beautiful is under assault. And this assault is profoundly unsettling in light of the children. For they are here now. The children are here now, starting their journeys.

Nowhere is the affirmation of the beauty of life more apparent than when you take prospective parents on tours of our school. On these tours you have the opportunity to see WSSB through their eyes. You see lambs (tended by the third graders) in the orchard gamboling about on rickety legs. You see chickens (tended by the fourth and fifth graders) scratching in the coop. You see preschoolers picking kale; kindergartners saying a benedictory verse before a meal. You see violins and cellos; old-fashioned chalkboards; sewing machines; lab beakers; lengthy compositions written in cursive; fastidious drawings of volcanos. You see first and second graders walking on stilts; sixth graders intently spreading mulch; blushing eighth graders learning to waltz. You do not see a community chasing the latest trends. You see a community engaged in the loving nurturance of the whole human being. Prospective parents almost always marvel at the calmness of our school. They often appreciate the absence of screens. Many involuntarily confide: “I wish I could go here.”

Now and in the days to come, educating children so they can compete in the world economy, so they can adapt themselves to a system ill-aligned with a finite earth, will only scramble things more. That is decidedly not our mission. But, on the other hand, educating children in reactionary fear about the state of our challenged world won’t help either. The children will not be scared into caring. Their care will only flow from their own affection; from having fallen in love outward. Their care will be a natural response to their holistic intimacy with the beauty of things. So perhaps the educational reform most needed now, the nimblest way to redirect the system, lies in the fellowship of a beauty-attuned, holistic vision. A vision WSSB strives daily to embody.

Wherever you are in our beautiful world, please help us continue to provide this fellowship for our children. Our annual fund goal this year is $80,000. As our annual fund helps us cover our operating costs, we are deeply grateful for any financial help. No gift is too small.

https://waldorfsantabarbara.org/annual-giving-fund

In this oft-bewildering time we at WSSB find great meaning in providing a Waldorf education for the children of our area. In the face of the difficulties of this time we redouble our efforts and rededicate ourselves to a beauty-attuned, holistic vision. “Be joyful,” writes a poet, “though you have considered all the facts.” For the sake of the children, may it be so.

Sincerely,

The Admin Team
The Waldorf School of Santa Barbara

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