The Waldorf Difference
Dear Member of The Waldorf School of Santa Barbara Community,
It is with joy and humility that we thank all who gave to the Annual Campaign.
Our goal this year was $125,000. We raised over $305,000.
We thank in particular the Ragan O’Reilly and Alex Thomson family; the Danielle Michaan and Gabe Reyes family; and Joan Payden for their large financial gifts.
Your generosity enables us to better follow our lodestar, to dare to do our duty as we understand it: to provide a love-based education that honors the whole child.
Thank you again.
“No significant learning occurs,” says James Comer, professor of child psychiatry at Yale University, “without a significant relationship.”
Here at WSSB a significant relationship is nurtured between the teacher—who embodies a “loving authority” (emphasis on both words)—and your child. One way that significant relationship is forged is through the morning handshake, a notable Waldorf ritual.
Writes Waldorf teacher Phil Fertey: “As each student enters the classroom, teacher and student shake hands, look each other in the eye, and exchange greetings…the morning handshake, now a basic feature of Waldorf Education around the world, is an effective pedagogical diagnostic tool that teachers use to assess the physical, emotional, and mental state of each child on a given morning.”
Such a ritual, Mr. Fertey elaborates, allows the teacher to respond to a child’s individual needs; revise a lesson plan; and “collect” the children—extend to them a sheltering warmth, concern, and recognition. Mr. Fertey continues: “For proper development, the child needs a loving, external figure of authority, just as a plant needs the sun for proper growth. The teacher, who greets the child each morning hand in hand, eye to eye, provides that loving authority. According to Rudolf Steiner, a child who has not had the experience of genuine authority in the grade school years will have difficulty as an adult developing a natural respect and tolerance for his fellow human beings.”
Mr. Fertey also asserts that this ritual helps make for the Waldorf Difference. “Years before becoming a Waldorf class teacher,” Fertey writes, “I met Waldorf graduates and was struck by their confidence and self-assurance. They looked me squarely in the eye and spoke honestly and directly. That experience was striking and unforgettable. It was one of those initial observations that made our family, and no doubt many others, give Waldorf education a closer look.”
Important Dates:
Friday, April 18th and Monday, April 20th: No school (Spring Holiday Weekend)
Wednesday, April 23rd: Rising First Grade Preview Evening at 5:30 p.m.
Friday, April 25th: Professional Development Day: No school for students (except Grade 5 for the Pentathlon)
Thursday, May 1st: May Faire and Grandparents’/Special Friends’ Day (details forthcoming)
Friday, May 16th: Hike-a-Thon (details forthcoming)
In gratitude,
The Admin Team
PS The Thought of the Day is from Frederick Franck:
"It was only in my seventh decade that I realized that the question 'What does it mean to be human?' is the vital, the central, one to which all other questions and problems, spiritual, ethical, economic, and political are secondary. 'To be human or not be at all' is the question at this millennial shift.”