pedagogical section newsletter
Autumn 2023
Dear Colleagues and Friends of the Pedagogical Section:
In this issue we bring you news from several fronts:
* Updates on members and activities of the Pedagogical Section Council
*A new series of online workshops for this year and next
*Visits to schools by members of the Pedagogical Section Council
Updates on members and activities of the Pedagogical Section Council
In normal years, the Pedagogical Section Council meets in person at least three times a year. But this has been no normal year.
In our last newsletter, we reported at some length on our winter term meeting in mid-January at the home of Betty Staley in Fair Oaks, CA, including our ongoing study of sleep and its importance for education. Instead of our usual spring term meeting, we resorted to several briefer online gatherings, partly out of financial considerations and partly to make it possible for at least some of us to attend the World Teachers Conference during Easter week at the Goetheanum. (Some informal vignettes of this conference are offered at the end of this newsletter.) Our fall meeting, which was to have taken place in the glories of a late October weekend in New England, got switched at the last moment to Fair Oaks for practical reasons.
And then came Saturday 7 October 2023.
On that day, as part of a surprise assault, Hamas forces swept at dawn from Gaza across the Israeli Negev Desert and surrounded the Supernova Sukkot music festival, killing or capturing several hundred participants as they tried to flee. Among them was the stepson of Elan Leibner, Chair of the PSC and convener of our meetings. Elan and his wife Michal Halev (who between them ordinarily write and produce this newsletter) managed during the following days to fly separately from the U.S. to their native Israel, where they received the terrible news that Michal’s 20-year-old son La’or––his name means “to the light”––had been murdered by Hamas.
In the weeks that followed, as she and her family absorbed the indescribable loss of her only son, Michal offered an eloquent and highly charged video, ending with a poignant appeal for peace in war-torn parts of the world including Ukraine and the Middle East. “War is not the answer, war is not how you fix things,” she said. “In my name, I want no vengeance.”
Michal’s pleas for peace: “No vengeance in my name”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERjkto7g4U4
During a subsequent interview in Israel with the CNN news anchor Erin Burnett, Michal expressed solace at the news that La’or had recently fallen in love. “We need to raise children on love,” she said. “Rage leads to more violence, and I cannot bear any more violence.”
https://vimeo.com/877695312/6bdaffe211
Words fail in any attempt to plumb a mother’s anguish at the loss of her child. However, in a silent gesture of support, PSC members joined an initiative––begun days before any of us received news from Elan about his family––to offer a “Hallelujah” in eurythmy twice a day in mindfulness of those who had died and those who had survived.
In the meantime, a GoFundMe account has been established by a circle of friends and colleagues to help Elan and Michal with expenses resulting from this tragedy and allow them time to grieve.
Contributions can be made here:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/one-tragedy-in-israel-begin-to-heal
Launching a new series of online workshops for this year and next
Starting in December 2023, members of the Pedagogical Section Council will inaugurate a new series of free online workshops. Each workshop––held on Saturdays from noon to 1:15 p.m. EST––will
address an issue of current urgency.
The first of this series will be offered in December, followed by further sessions in February, March, and April 2024. The series will then resume in the fall term of the next school year.
Here is the line-up of topics and workshop leaders for this year’s series:
Here is the line-up of topics and workshop leaders for this year’s series:
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Saturday 2 December 2023
Biography and the Challenge of Meeting the Adolescent
with Betty Staley
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High school teaching entails a two-way communication between teacher and student.
Although adolescents are not always consciously aware of their style and tone, they may lookback on it decades later and ask: Why did I say that? Did I express myself clearly and respectfully?
Teachers at the receiving end of these communications may respond in different
ways, depending on their biography. In turn, they too may reflect on how they responded:
Did I become defensive? Was I curious, aggressive, empathetic? So much depends on the teacher’s temperament and stage in life.
During this presentation, we will share ways in which our biography plays into the
ways we meet adolescents, and participants will contribute their thoughts.
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Saturday 3 February 2024
The Social Imperative of Authentic Conversation
with Holly Koteen-Soule
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In which way is face-to-face conversation an antidote to the challenging consequences of our culture and times?
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Saturday 2 March 2024
Positive Discipline
with Vernon Dewey
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All discipline and so-called classroom management begin with the inner life of the teacher. Remembering that “discipline” stems from “disciple”, how do we create a worthy path for the students to follow? When are we unconsciously keeping them in a behavioral rut, and how can we lead them out onto a path of becoming?
During this presentation we will explore how the fourth of Rudolf Steiner’s “Basic
Exercises” can help us develop an effective form of positivity in discipline and classroom behavior.
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Saturday 6 April 2024
Collaborate Leadership
with Michael Holdrege
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In his opening address on the evening before the first teachers’ course, Rudolf Steiner spoke of the Waldorf School as a cultural deed that must be governed collegially without external supervision through a school board (or executive) from above. In a time when polarization rather than collaboration appears to be a growing tendency and where top-down decision making still prevails in most organizations, reaching the goal outlined by Rudolf Steiner for Waldorf education is not easy.
In this seminar I will offer various perspectives—based on my own experience and
those of others I know—that support the realization of such a living social form, and hope that these will be enriched by contributions from other participants based on their own successes and failures in this direction.
Online Workshops for 2024/25
The following members of the PSC will offer workshops during the next school:
Liz Beaven
Douglas Gerwin
Laura Radefeld
Victoria Reyes-Cheng
Frances Vig
Linda Williams
For further information, contact Frances Vig at francesvig@gmail.com
To register for these free workshops:
https://www.cognitoforms.com/WaldorfTeacherInstitute1/PSCFreeOnlineWorkshops202324
Visits to schools by members of the Pedagogical Section Council
As previously announced, members of the Pedagogical Section Council are available once again to visit schools at their invitation. As Chair of the Council, Elan Leibner has visited Waldorf schools across the continent of North America, in part with the help of a grant from the Waldorf Educational Foundation (WEF). Over the years, other Council members have also made themselves available for these school visits.
Possible topics for previous visits have included:
* Meditation exercises in the context of faculty or College meetings
* Formation and functioning of a College of Teachers
* Responsible innovation in the Waldorf school curriculum
* Study of the PSC’s seven core principles of Waldorf education
* The Christ Impulse in Waldorf education
* Restorative practices (e.g., sleep, conversation, meditation)
The host school is asked to be responsible for transport and local hospitality. Consultation fee is $750/day, with limited funds available from the WEF grant.
Content and the logistics of each visit are determined by consultation between the host school and the visiting member of the PSC. Schools wishing to invite a Council member should contact
Douglas Gerwin: Douglasgerwin@gmail.com
Informal Snapshots from the World Teachers Conference
The newsletter originally included a report from the International Teachers’ Conference in Dornach, including several photographs. Technical difficulties arising from the fact that Michal and Elan are out of the country meant that we could not upload the photos. That report will be forthcoming as soon as we can overcome these technicalities.
