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Waldorf News

Rudolf Steiner School Mbagathi in Nairobi

July 13, 2020

As soon as you arrive at the Rudolf Steiner School in Mbagathi all the traffic noise from the suburbs of Nairobi is left behind. You enter a safe space, surrounded by trees and hedges planted many years ago. You hear birds singing and make your way along a giant football field, where the dairy cows graze between the children playing football. This scene was not always like this. When the school started in 1989, it faced a great many economic, social and environmental challenges. The farm is still the heart and center of the school. Its hard, black cotton soils have been cultivated organically from the start. In 2016 they converted to biodynamic practices. Composting, making and applying preparations, integrating trees and shrubs, and closing nutrient cycles are central elements of the production. In this way the soil is managed so that it produces most of the food for the children. More »

Creativity finds a way

June 22, 2020

Undaunted by the pandemic, students of Ashwood Waldorf School's oldest class take on their independent projects. Raising and butchering pigs, pinhole photography, primitive skills, building a wooden chess set — these are just a few of the independent student projects completed by Ashwood Waldorf School’s graduating class this spring. While the global pandemic forced a cancellation of the school’s annual project presentation night, students have compiled a project "look book" that highlights key aspects of each of the yearlong independent projects, including lessons learned, gratitude to mentors, quotes that inspired, and photographs of the students' learning process and final products. Each year the students of Ashwood's oldest class take on independent projects as the culmination of their educational experience. It is an opportunity for the students to have a truly self-determined learning experience based on their individual interests and aspirations. Students combine the academic, artistic, and intellectual capacities fostered by their Waldorf education to research, develop, and present a project of their choosing. The maturity and self-motivation required to accomplish such a project is a prerequisite for moving on to secondary school. The project requires the students to find a mentor, research their topic, complete the work, and share this experience with an audience. They spend many hours, above and beyond their regular academic school work, developing their independent projects. This year for the first time, students were asked to design, create and execute a project without the use of digital technology (with the exception of final photos or video). More »

Meeting Fear

May 11, 2020

There is no need to feel ashamed if you experience moments of fear. We are all in the human condition, and we are currently caught in a worldwide web of fear mongering. We can hardly help but resonate with our fellow human beings in that we are all connected to one another. It is worthwhile, however, and even essential that we take ourselves up and stand in the face of whatever it is that we fear. Otherwise, there could be a rough road ahead. One of the greatest lessons I ever learned when I was in my mid-thirties was to stand up to a dark and ominous energy that was overpowering my ability to function in the world and to state out loud, “I am no longer afraid of you. If you intend to continue to be around me, you will have to choose to become a part of my chosen path in life.” This invitation changed my life. And while I will not say I have never experienced fear since then, I will say that learning to take charge of it, rather than trying to hide from it, makes all the difference. More »

Getting Through a Pandemic With Old-Fashioned Crafts

May 4, 2020

I’ve turned to old-fashioned crafts in recent weeks to calm my anxieties, to hold something tangible in my hands and my thoughts while uncertainty swirls around me. I don’t know how long the pandemic will last; whether the food I’ve stocked is too much or too little; whether I’ll help my community more by stepping up or by simply staying home. In the long chain of actions and accidents that can lead to a stranger’s life or death, I don’t know where I fit or whether I’m doing the right thing. But I know how to do this; I know how to link one loop of thread into another. I know I can unravel my work and start over if I do it wrong. More »

COVID-19 and our existential crisis

March 18, 2020

Looking outside at 7:30 each morning, I no longer see the yellow school bus that has appeared regularly for years and years.  All local gatherings are cancelled, and many local stores have sold out on basic products. Thanks to various news outlets, we see images of Rome, Madrid and other cities around the world totally deserted. More than a “news event”, this is an existential crisis that begs a larger question:  What is going on? Waldorf high school students are taught to look beyond the presented information, and practice symptomatology.  The human spirit yearns for understanding that goes beyond what is incessantly presented in the news; we are in search of meaning as never before. More »

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