AHE Educational Support Program Cycle 13

Our 13th cycle of our three-year Educational Support Program will be held starting in October 2021 at the Hartsbrook School in Hadley, MA. Consider joining our cohort to learn how to serve children in today’s classrooms and group settings, and how to help parents support their children.

This is an in-depth, three year, part time training program that provides certification in Waldorf Educational Support work, enabling teachers and education consultants to address learning challenges such as comprehension and memory weaknesses, social challenges, and neuro-developmental hindrances that impact vision, auditory processing, executive function and motor skills. Learn strategies for the classroom to maximize students’ learning efficiency. AHE graduates work as teachers in the grades, early childhood, high school or as educational support/Extra Lesson teachers and education consultants in private practice.

Dates in year 1: Oct.7-10, 2021, April 20-24, 2022, July 11-22, 2022 
(Plus online sessions in between)
Location: Hartsbrook School, Hadley, MA

Themes throughout the training include sharpening our observation skills, the causes of challenging behaviors, bringing games and activities to strengthen the developmental path, and pedagogy to help children overcome obstacles in order to reach their full potential.

Alongside reviewing content in Waldorf Education from Dr. Rudolf Steiner and Dr. Karl König, we will experience the Extra Lesson, created by Waldorf teacher Audrey McAllen. In her work, based on her study of several key lectures from Rudolf Steiner, we find a deep exploration of why children struggle to be at home in their body, and how we can help them in classrooms, small groups and individual settings. These concepts are complemented by current neurological research on the developing child’s body/brain connection. 

Choose one or two years for teacher development or a three year program to be a certified specialist. 

For information about fees and registration, visit our website www.healingeducation.org or email Connie Helms at registrar@healingeducation.org

The Earthship Academy is a complete program where you will have classes in the morning (theory) and practice (hands on) on Earthship construction sites in the afternoon. During 4 weeks, you will get trained with the Michael Reynolds’ crew and amazing instructors on how to build Earthships and live self sufficiently. We do not require previous experience and we are open to everyone that wishes to learn.

We still have available spots for the September and October 2021 sessions, and we just opened 2022 registration!

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This program is a part-time training, and an opportunity to dive more deeply into Eurythmy. With our multi-faceted curriculum, we will lay a broad foundation for this art form. To enhance and deepen our experience of Eurythmy, our guest teachers will cover the basics in anatomy, painting, music theory, creative speech and geometric form. After completing this first level course, you will be eligible to continue your training in a full-time accredited program.
By recognizing the need for Eurythmy and eurythmists in the world, this new initiative exists to provide a way for people to embark on a path of Eurythmy. Pacific Eurythmy will lay a broad foundation focusing on the guidelines created by the Section of the Performing Arts in Dornach, Switzerland. 

Students may seamlessly move on to the final years of training once they are ready. The multi-faceted curriculum brings various subjects in addition to music and speech Eurythmy with guest teachers in subjects such as anatomy and embryology, painting, music theory, creative speech and projective geometry. We will bring this by teaching with warmth, integrity and a commitment to collaboration between our students and teachers.

Learn more at pacificeurythmy.com

The paper titled Anthroposophy and Racism (see below) addresses accusations of racism aimed at Rudolf Steiner and anthroposophy. Gerald Häfner, Constanza Kaliks, Peter Selg and Justus Wittich provide an outline of the anthroposophical position during the emergence and implementation of National Socialism in Germany. There were vehement journalistic and even actual attacks on Rudolf Steiner from “nationalist, right-wing, racist and anti-Semitic groups”. After the war, the accusations came from the political left and focused on “converging content and ideology” (key word: eco-fascism) and alleged cooperation with the Nazis. The paper rejects these allegations: they do not arise from an interest in knowledge because existing statements and monographs on the question were not consulted. The conclusion the paper arrives at is that of the “strategic management of opinions and indignation”.

Individual autonomy and self-efficacy
While Rudolf Steiner mentioned biological, ethnic and cultural influences on humanity, his main concern was with “the individuality’s autonomy and self-efficacy” and its capacity to “transcend and transform biological, cultural and social premises and conditions”. In 2000, a commission around the human rights expert Ted van Baarda (NL) identified individual passages in Rudolf Steiner’s work that are considered racist today, but did not find any evidence of racist disparagement of others or of systemic racism.

The authors of the paper also look critically at the Anthroposophical Society and at where it appears very inward-oriented. They also honour the not to be underestimated achievement of members in the face of “challenging circumstances and immense opposition”. The practice of anthroposophy is based on cosmopolitan and social commitment.


Anthroposophy and Racism

​The question of how Rudolf Steiner, anthroposophists and anthroposophical institutions deal with issues of racism and racial discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance is a very legitimate one following a ‘genocidal’ century and in view of the extreme inequalities in the world today. Racism, racial discrimination, disrespect and moreover, the exploitation and destruction of livelihoods and lives of others are huge challenges of our present time. It is therefore important and right to question what position anthroposophists take on this.

Nevertheless, it cannot be overlooked that the question of the anthroposophical position has been raised in public for many decades – and increasingly so recently – not out of an interest in knowledge. It is often part of polemic discourse, a defamation of Rudolf Steiner, anthroposophical institutions and Anthroposophy itself. That the accusation of racism is asserted as a ‘morally irrefutable argument’ (Ballard) has long been recognized. By associating Rudolf Steiner, Anthroposophy or anthroposophical initiatives with it, they become socially stigmatized and marginalized. Differentiated position statements and a variety of carefully prepared articles, studies and books from the anthroposophical perspective have not changed this situation to date, nor do they gain nearly the same publicity and dissemination as the sweeping accusations do.

All this has caused considerable frustration, even among people who are in principle interested in or sympathetic to anthroposophical activities, as well as among the members of the Anthroposophical Society itself. In view of this situation, we decided to write a contribution that seeks to address the overall question – substantiating both content and strategy. In the following discourse, we develop in sketch form, historical and ideological contexts, which seem to us to be of importance for the individual assessment of the accusations made. Moreover, we outline the tasks and challenges of the Anthroposophical Society and anthroposophical institutions in a world marked by injustice and discrimination. Resolute rejection of untruthful statements and insinuations within the journalistic debate is both meaningful and necessary; however, the self-critical scrutinization of our own attitude to the extent of injustice in the world – as well as our own contribution to the overcoming of it – seems to us to be of equal importance. In our view, only through both can a development towards the future emerge, within the anthroposophical context as well.

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If you are not already a member of the World Association of Puppetry, now is a great time to join! Our fees are on a sliding scale so you can pay what you can (if anything). 

• Membership to the World Association of Puppetry & Storytelling Arts benefits include: 
• Access to ALL conference and workshop recordings from the Summer Conference
• Great education events like our annual summer conference
• Video archives
• Ongoing research
• Annual journals
• Networking possibilities with other puppeteers and storytellers from around the world
• Discounts for annual conferences and festivals
• A calendar of events, etc.
• And much more! 

Árbol de Vida opened its doors in August of 2012, giving continuity to the first Waldorf project, which was founded in 1998 in San Miguel de Allende, in the heart of Mexico.

Hand Puppets have been vital in expressing one’s heart and soul with others.  Now more than ever we are challenged to bring forth this important diplomat of humanity, the hand puppet, to connect and share the goodness of the world.  In this workshop we will learn how to create, enliven and share the art and beauty of the hand puppet using simple materials and sewing and felting techniques.

Let’s explore the heart and soul of the hand puppet and discover it’s vital role in the classroom and beyond.

After enrolling in this course students will be provided with the hand puppet pattern to prepare for the class (a sewing machine isn’t necessary). Students will be expected to gather materials from the material list provided before the beginning of the course. 

About the Workshop Leader: Mindy Upton has been a mother, grandmother and kindergarten teacher for the past 44 years. After college, where she majored in early childhood and movement theory, she began her studies in Waldorf education and started a preschool/kindergarten Blue Sky Kindergarten in Boulder Colorado; where she continues to teach 2-7 year olds, Parent Education, puppetry classes and Parent/child groups. She has been studying puppetry with talented Puppeteers and teachers for many years and continues to be inspired to learn more about the vast world of this ancient art. She has been leading groups of children and adults in creating, writing and performing puppet shows using string, rod and hand puppets.

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This program is for people looking to build resilience and better life-ways grounded in community oriented practical skills. While it is open to all adults, it is catered to young adults 18-25ish searching for alternative ways forward in these uncharted times, who are interested in the relationship of human, land, and community stewardship.

Includes free room & board plus monthly stipend.

Areas of Focus:
Care Training
Learn hands on elder and end of life care, the heart of our community! This training, matched with experience, will last a lifetime and ready you for future jobs if ever interested.

Kitchen
Learn all that goes into readying a 100 person meal, incorporating fresh foods from our farm and gardens and access to a beautiful herb garden right outside the kitchen windows.

Herd Management
Help manage a herd of around 10 milking cows with calves being born each spring, from pasture rotation on 30 acres, animal health, to milking and other daily chores. More ...

Join us at the World Association of Puppetry and Storytelling Arts  virtual  Summer Conference Periphery Within Center!

Featured Workshop: Making Knotted Characters and Animals for Storytelling with Malou Medrano

Children find great delight watching adults make things from “nothing” into “something”.  This interest supports the healthy development of the imagination particularly in the early years of childhood.  Materials which have an “open-ended” quality afford the child the freedom to create out of their own imagination laying the foundation for critical thinking in the later years.   Knotted dolls have this quality which makes it an ideal toy for the very young child.  Later on the child discovers the wonder in making this favorite toy with their own hands.  When such an activity is employed in puppetry, the same wonder and delight can be experienced by the children as they watch the story unfold with characters formed by the storyteller’s hands.  In this workshop, we will learn how to make story characters using cloth/fabric, knotting them to create different characters and animals for storytelling puppetry. More ... 

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