Waldorf 100
From 5 to 11 May the conference Deepening the Understanding of the Foundations of Waldorf Education took place in Bangkok (TH). 200 people attended it.
«Consciousness breathes. It breathes between the past and the future, between memory and will, between the concept and the imagination of life, nature and the world around us.» With these profound thoughts from Rudolf Steiner’s First Teachers’ Course (GA 293, published as The Foundations of Human Experience or The Study of Man) Claus-Peter Roh, co-leader of Education Section at the Goetheanum, opened the Waldorf Conference in Bangkok. And a beautiful blackboard drawing emerged illustrating the secret of Waldorf teachers: understanding the importance of feeling as the bridge between the polarities of thinking and will in the developing child.
The beginnings of the first Waldorf School were described by Christof Wiechert, the former leader of the Education Section, who pointed out that Rudolf Steiner did not have a preconceived or fixed conceptual framework for the school but worked weekly with the teachers to develop the school, shaping the curriculum together with them.
The conference lecturers emphasized that the core pedagogical ideas of Waldorf education are still relevant. Steiner’s original vision is actually just beginning to be fully realized. Technology, the worldwide web, virtual reality, ai and cyber-consciousness do not have anything to offer to redefine childhood and human development. It is Waldorf education and the Waldorf school movement that can guide and protect the young adult from this world by learning to think for themselves, helping them to become «stronger, brighter, deeper» and hopefully preparing them for the challenges that lie ahead.
Based on a report by John Chalmers, Bangkok (TH), made available by Pacifica Journal