In less than a week, we will gather as a community around deeper questions of our time. How we can tap into the healing potential of this time of year? How can we move forward into the future with strengthened hearts and minds?  Tune in this Friday, May 27 for a free event (donations gratefully accepted) with Lisa Romero. Click here or see below for more information and to register!
 
What: Preparing for the Future: The Healing Spirit of Whitsun with Lisa Romero 
When: Friday, May 27 at 1 pm Pacific / 4 pm Eastern
Other time zones: 9pm Greenwich Mean Time/ 10 pm Central Europe Time 

Where: Online through Zoom. This program will be recorded and shared with all registered. 

Contribution: FREE! Registration is required. Donations $5 and more are gratefully accepted. This program is open to all members and friends of the ASA. More ...

For the last 100 years, this newspaper has been published in German every week to offer reflections on spiritual life and contemporary issues. For the last 3 years, we have also published the newspaper online. We hope that offering Das Goetheanum both online and in English will create a larger community of readers, writers and editors to share and build a cosmopolitan anthroposophy that serves the development of humankind today. More ...

From The Guardian

I’ve been giving considerable thought recently to the way we teach science at school – and whether we have the balance right between catering for those children who will become the scientists and engineers of the future (and how would we be able to tell this anyway?), and those who don’t think they have a natural aptitude for science, or are simply more interested in other subjects.

The issue goes beyond which science topics we should be teaching, and in what depth. I’m more concerned by the obsession with making children memorise scientific “facts”, and whether this is what we should be focusing on so much. Perhaps spending more time learning how we “do” science – what’s called the scientific method – is more valuable than simply “knowing” stuff.

After all, science isn’t a collection of facts about the world. That’s just called “knowledge”. Rather, science is a process – a way of thinking and making sense of the world, which will then lead to new knowledge. This is a very important distinction. We’ve often heard it said that we should be teaching children not what to think but how to think. This is an admirable sentiment, but what would it mean in practice? Why spend so much of the school science curriculum loading up children’s brains with facts about the world that they can just look up anyway? Wouldn’t it be more useful teaching them how to find reliable scientific knowledge – which these days inevitably means online rather than in books – and how to assess and critically analyse and absorb that knowledge when needed?

I have no doubt that those who develop the school science curriculum, and probably a few teachers too, would balk at this idea. After all, I am not a professional educationist. They might argue that we still have to teach the scientific nuts and bolts – chemical formulas, the bones of the human body, Newton’s law of gravitation, electricity and magnetism, and so on – particularly to those who will end up studying their subject in greater depth at university and go on to take science up as a profession.

And what about the rest of society? Surely, everyone needs a basic scientific understanding. Just as everyone should have some understanding of, say, history or literature, we all need to know some science: facts about the world to help us make informed decisions in our everyday lives, from what precautions to take during a pandemic and the importance of vaccines, to the risks of vaping, the benefits of flossing or why recycling our waste is good for the planet. A scientifically literate society is one that can see the world more clearly, and can make more informed decisions about important issues that face us all. Yet what seems to be missing today is an understanding of the way we gain this scientific understanding of the world. And yes, you may be thinking: so what?

Adopting the scientific method could help us all become more tolerant and less polarised in our views – to disagree without being disagreeable – particularly online. No one can, hand on heart, deny that the internet is a wondrous invention, utterly transforming our lives over the past three decades. Even social media, that easiest of scapegoats for all of society’s ills, has played a vital role in disseminating and democratising information. That said, far too many people use it not as a useful tool, but as a medium for ill-informed, often toxic opinions, and for spreading disinformation. But the internet and social media have only really amplified societal problems that have always been with us. On top of this, our attention spans are inevitably getting shorter, and we don’t take the time to question our biases, or ask whether the information we are getting is reliable and trustworthy.

This is where thinking scientifically can help. I don’t mean being able to manipulate equations or interpret complex statistics, but rather adopting some of the ways that good science is practised, such as critically assessing what we believe and examining the trustworthiness of evidence; questioning our own biases before we attack views we don’t like; and being prepared to admit our mistakes and change our minds in the light of new evidence.

This is what we should be teaching more of in schools: better critical thinking skills, better information literacy (an understanding of data), how to cope with complexity, and how to assess uncertainty – to keep an open mind about information we only have partial knowledge about. All these skills are part of the scientific approach. This remarkable way of seeing, thinking and knowing, is one of humankind’s great riches and the birthright of everyone. And, most wonderfully, it only grows in quality and value the more widely it is shared.

To expect any kind of radical review or reassessment of what children are taught at school – given how disruptive and time-consuming even minor tinkering with the syllabus can be for many teachers – let alone asking wider society to adopt a more rational way of thinking, is probably too much to ask; but surely we have to do something. Humankind came up with the scientific method to make sense of a confusing physical universe. But even in our exceedingly more complex and confusing universe of human affairs, adopting some of the lessons from the way we progress in science can be empowering and liberating. Thinking scientifically is much more than just knowing stuff. It gives us a way to see the world beyond our limited senses, beyond our prejudices and biases, beyond our fears, insecurities, ignorance and weaknesses.

Jim Al-Khalili is a theoretical physicist, author and broadcaster. His new book, The Joy of Science, is out now. More ...

Engaging with infants and toddlers through respectful and peaceful care, July 16-22With Pikler® USA President Elsa Chahin, and WCI Faculty and Pikler® USA Scientific co-chair, Dr. Debbie Laurin

From WCI

The Birth to Three course explores a peaceful and respectful approach to caring for babies and toddlers inspired by the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, Dr. Emmi Pikler, and Ute Strub.

Participants will deepen their knowledge about infant-toddler care and education to provide peaceful and respectful care to babies and toddlers.

We will use a variety of experiential activities, as well as discussion and lecture. Infants’ and toddlers’, bodily care routines are typically the first experiences of learning to be cared for and of caring encounters. These experiences of ‘caring encounters’ between a child and caregiver invite the child’s participation.

Workshop participants will learn how the affective quality in the caregiver’s intonation, gestures, attitude, and movements influences how a child interprets the caring moment. Like partners in a dance, the caregiver and child engage in a process that requires the attention, action, and response of both participants. When viewed from this perspective, the child is no longer a passive recipient. Instead, the child becomes an active participant in a shared process; it is not a one size fits all approach.

Pleasurable encounters between a child and caregiver are motivated by their relationship where the caregiver sees the child in the context of their competence and vulnerability. Children explore, wonder, and play with their whole being and rely on the warm interest and slower pace of care from their caregivers. Adults can support this learning with a careful and caring approach that understands and respects the importance of children’s sensory-motor expression, motivation and volition for infant and toddler development.

Workshop participants will learn when a caregiver interacts with the child in an unhurried and gentle way, a powerful message conveys the caregiver enjoys being with the child positively influencing how a child begins to feel about their bodies and bodily functions. Crucially, sensitive care is associated with higher levels of child well-being, and lower levels of cortisol (stress hormone) compared to less sensitive caregiving practices with children.

Research from the Pikler® Institute in Budapest, Hungary suggests that young children thrive when they are seen as participants in their own care and initiators of their own explorations and play. We will explore how careful and attentive care of the foundational senses facilitates a child’s sense of competence, consent, and wellbeing.

Presented by the West Coast Institute, July 16 to 22 at Sunrise Waldorf School in Duncan on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

Visit our website for more information and to register: westcoastinstitute.org/courses/early-childhood-courses/

Key Note by Philipp Reubke: Simple Puppetry for Children under Six: Nurturing the Body Senses and Reality-Based Thinking

Workshop Leaders: Jennifer Aguirre, Oxana Chi and Layla Zami, Brian Hull, Nancy Mellon, Janene Ping, Marjorie Rehbach, Connie Manson, and Mindy Upton

Join us at Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School in upstate New York! We invite you to share in a rich exploration of our conference theme through the creation of a collaborative puppet play of the South African Tale — Enchanted Waters.

Participants will create a silk marionette, explore archetypal movement, and work with colored light imagery in this 3 day immersion that models puppetry for community outreach. The conference will also feature morning movement, theme presentation and discussion, and evening performances.

On-Line Collaborative Dimension: Enjoy a dimension of the conference from the comfort of your own home … On-line workshops will focus on traveling puppetry that can be taken to the park, hospital, or refugee center … included will be keynote presentations, morning movement with Oxana Chi and Layla Zami, workshops with Connie Manson and Mindy Upton, and evening puppetry performances streamed from the in-person conference.

Registration is now open. For more information visit: www.puppetryandstorytelling.org 

Free introduction to the World Association of Puppetry and Storytelling Arts Conference with workshop leaders Mindy Upton and Nancy Mellon on Saturday, April 9th at 11:00 am Eastern Time USA.

Introduction to the World Association of Puppetry and Storytelling Arts' Summer Conference that is happening on July 28th-31st, 2022: Wisdom, Wonder, and Enchantment. Create a lively hand puppet to enhance spring stories and songs! Beginning and longtime puppeteers are welcome! Register now.

The reason people do not usually speak about suprasensory worlds is simply because they do not understand the sensory and . . . do not even understand what once was known by spiritual human culture but has since been lost and has become outer convention: art.

Once we learn to understand art, we have real proof for human immortality and for the human being’s unbornness [pre-birth existence]. And this is what we need so that consciousness broadens beyond the horizon that is limited by birth and death, so that we relate what we have within ourselves in our physical earth life with the supra-physical life.

If we work to recognize the spiritual world, to imagine the spiritual world, to take it up into thinking, into feeling, into perception, and into willing, out of a knowledge that addresses it directly as spiritual science does, then there will be fertile ground for an art that combines, so to speak, what comes from pre-birth with what comes after death.

—Rudolf Steiner, “The Suprasensory Origin of Art,” lecture of September 12, 1920, in Art and Theory of Art: Foundations of a New Aesthetics 

More and more young adults are searching for ways to express themselves and offer their gifts on their own terms, rather than in the confines of corporate cubicles.

The origin of the word “entrepreneur” is “one who undertakes or manages.” Our modern world defines entrepreneurship as the management and risk assumption of a business or enterprise. When we add the “socio” to the concept of entrepreneurialism, we begin to consider how the enterprise benefits society as a whole.

Parzival Academy for young adults ages 18 to 28 believes that socio-entrepreneurialism goes beyond building businesses for the benefit of society, though that’s certainly a part of it. We look at:

• Progressive Leadership Skills
• Personal and Social Awareness
• Well-being
• Environmental Awareness
• Creativity
• Innovative thinking 

All of these qualities are required to contribute to the world through one’s vocation and relationships in the most effective way possible, while staying true to oneself. Each skill is needed to generate the capacity to truly “undertake and manage” oneself, one’s life, and one’s business or career in such a way that the whole of society benefits as much as the individual. There cannot be a healthy “I” without a healthy “We,” nor “We” without “I.” 
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Rising out of the global situation that did not permit us to gather as a world lyre community in the summer of 2021 as originally planned, our brave colleagues and friends in the Czech Republic have rescheduled their hosting of our international lyre conference for this summer of 2022.
The conference has been planned to take place in the stunningly beautiful town of Český Krumlov in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic from August 7–14, preceded by a Pedagogical Conference from August 5–7.
The theme that has been chosen is “The Presence of Spirit: Playing the Lyre as an Art of Presence.” During our musically rich days together, we will be able to experience the following:

• Meeting with lyre-builders and music publishers
• Workshops for all the levels of playing the lyre (for children and young players, for beginners and advanced players)
• Eurythmy, meditation work, open stages, concerts, lectures
• Rehearsals for the common public concert.

The full program will be published in March, but a number of lyrists from around the world have already submitted workshop offerings, including three from the United States. Some will address the conference theme and others will address more broadly-themed aspects of lyre playing. All of the workshop proposals sound intriguing and pertinent! For more detail, please see https://www.lyra-symposium.cz/en/symposium-2020/workshopy.