West Coast Steiner School is committed to being a Child Safe Organisation, taking a preventative and participatory stance on child protection issues and promoting a child safe environment. West Coast Steiner School explicitly forbids the use of any form of child abuse, corporal punishment or other degrading punishment as defined in our Child Protection Policy.
Blog Layout
Holding the Question
By Vanessa Fountain
Recently I was asked if I could speak to the topic of ‘what it is to be Steiner’ as we often hear ‘that’s not Steiner ‘or ‘they are not Steiner enough’ and it can be confusing to parents and teachers alike. But first some key thoughts.
So, what is Steiner School?
• It is a school that works from the impulses and curriculum given by Rudolf Steiner.
• It has a spiritual, pedagogical, and social aspect which is held by the College of Teachers.
• It is informed by distinct developmental phases and an in-depth understanding of child development.
• It is staffed by teachers who are on a path of personal development, working with the indications of Rudolf Steiner, who are striving in their personal and professional lives to be the best they can be.
• A Steiner school is a sacred place of childhood where we do everything we can to
o Protect our students from adult content
o Protect our students from adult disputes
o Protect our students from politics
o Protect our students from consumerism
o Protect our students from social media and media generally
We work to
o Allow goodness, beauty and truth to permeate all we do.
o To foster a love and connection to the natural world.
o To foster the highest ideals of what it means to be human. A classical education in the truest sense.
What is the difference between studying Anthroposophy and teaching in a Steiner School?
• We teach the child in freedom. We teach over the twelve years the major faiths of the world and epochs of humanity – we do not teach Anthroposophy.
• We understand child development and the development of humankind in light of Anthroposophy. We let this inform us, but it is not taught to the children.
• Anthroposophy can be a spiritual/self-development path for the adult.
• Recently a parent said to me, ‘I love that you are able to connect with the imaginative world of the child’. I am clear about my role and the context. As a free adult I am aware of the world, its complexities, injustices and perils and I am an active participant in meeting that world, but when I am with the children I meet them where they are and I am tasked to guide them on their developmental journey to adulthood, free from the fetters of the thinking that has created the world in which we find ourselves. I hold both pictures but do not confuse them.
How can I support the school?
• Join in, become involved in positive and practical ways.
• Understand that we are not a community school, we are a Steiner school led by a College of Teachers.
• Support the teachers – model holding your teachers with awe and reverence. It is so confusing/damaging for children to hear disparaging comments about their school or teachers from their parents. Keep adult conversations away from the children.
• Do your spiritual work – have a daily spiritual practice. Work on your own personal development. The greatest gift we can give our children is as role models who are striving to become the best that they can be. Show them we are willing to work on ourselves.
If you want to study Anthroposophy:
• We highly encourage it – the school has a study group that meets weekly.
• Join the Anthroposophical Society if you are called to do so. The society here in Perth is very active, offering talks and courses throughout the year.
• Read, study, and immerse yourself in Steiner education. There are courses offered in Perth and online.
The Journey of the Teacher:
• We understand the coming together of the children and Class Teacher is not an accident but rather a sacred agreement. We trust that the teacher brings qualities that the children will need on their journey and vice versa.
• In our teacher training we study the story of Parzival written by Wolfram von Eschenbach in the early 1200s. It is a work that emphasises the importance of humility, compassion, sympathy, and the quest for spirituality. Within the story, Parzival fails to ask the wounded Fisher King ‘What ails thee?’ His failure to ask means that his quest is not over, and it won’t be until he does. We all have wounds that we fear will not heal. We all have that which we struggle to understand. Parzival teaches us to ask the question and to hold as a gesture of being, an openness to there being a question.
And so, to our quest or question, what is Steiner enough?
Well, every hero’s journey begins with a first step.
• Are you Steiner enough on that first magical day (as a parent or teacher) that you encounter the work of Rudolf Steiner and its implications to, everything. Or is it after one book, two books or three books? Is it your first reading of one of Steiner’s works or the twentieth? What is the magic number? Is that a secret? Is it your reading or your understanding? Your understanding or somebody else’s understanding? Is it when you’ve read it, or when you’ve lived it? Or do you need to have read it, lived it, and understood it in the same way that someone that lots of people admire understands it? And how many times?
• Are you Steiner enough in your teacher training, where your world is turned upside down and you see everything with new eyes. When you feel the weight of the spiritual undertaking and responsibility that you are embarking on?
• Or are you Steiner enough in your first year of teaching when you live, breathe, and give every second of your life to your class, forsaking sleep, your own health, and family life?
• Or are your Steiner enough after two years, five years, ten years, or thirty years of teaching?
At what point do you become Steiner enough?
One of the great joys of being a Steiner teacher is to create the sacred space in which to hold with reverence and awe, the unfolding of a young human being. We as parents and educators are tasked with removing hindrances but also to trust the sacred journey of each individual and their life purpose.
One of the great tragedies of being a Steiner teacher, and we hear it in every school, is the phrase - Such and such, or this or that person/parent/teacher is not Steiner. What does that mean? So many times, over my career I have seen talented, enthusiastic, dharma called teachers damaged by this. I have seen them in tears, and I have seen them leave. Some leave forever and some come back, years later, tougher, stronger, hardened by the experience but knowing deep down this is their calling.
How lovely it would be if we could hold with the same reverence and awe that we do the child, the unfolding of the teacher and their calling with their class.
In College, when we see or hear something in the school that invokes a question, you will never hear us say “that’s not Steiner”. Rather, you will hear us say "how can we help?"
• One member of College will speak to the person to better understand the situation, the impulse that the person carries and what stands behind it. The why – the question.
• We ask how and in what way can we support the person? Perhaps it is by supporting the impulse. Perhaps by mentoring. Or perhaps the person can mentor us on this wonderful initiative.
• What do they need?
• What do the parents need to support the teacher with this impulse?
I remember in my first year of class teaching, my mentor, a very experienced Waldorf teacher asked me about my Class 1 play. My first degree was in Jacobean Literature and Theatre Studies, so I was dying to bring my background into good use. I had grown accustomed to being asked ‘why’ about everything I did. My mentor wanted me to demonstrate my understanding of child development, the Waldorf curriculum, the specific needs of the children in front of me and what I brought to the picture, how it would serve the class and not my ego. I told my mentor how I wanted to use stage lights and how this would bring the magic that the children experienced with their introduction to letters and sounds to life for the audience. My mentor questioned the need. I must have convinced him or maybe it was my enthusiasm and determination - he let me run with it. He supported me in faculty. The play was good, the children wonderful. The stage lights - a distraction, a crutch for a new teacher. And the energy they brought; I will never forget that. My mentor let me learn in a framework of safety that fast tracked me to being an even better teacher for the children. If he had just said no, what was the learning…. especially for a choleric. I learnt so much from that experience.
I learnt in Class 1 to let my ego go. To trust the journey of the children and my role in it. I learnt to do the work, surrendering the efforts to the spiritual beings tasked with the care of my children and to step aside to let grace flow into the vessel I had helped to prepare. This experience planted a seed for a continuing life journey of simplifying and coming back to what really matters. A journey of identifying core values and how they are expressed in our lives. Our children need guides with lived experience who can say I’ve been there, maybe I can help.
On another occasion earlier in my career we had an Open Day, and many staff were unwell. I was a very green Early Childhood teacher at the time and one of the senior teachers approached me and asked if I would give the Early Childhood talk, right now. I was beside myself with nerves, but I did it, unprepared. Unfortunately, I reversed two key concepts in my anxiety. After, when I realised, I wanted to find a big rock and crawl under it. My mentor congratulated me on stepping up in a time of need, on my clarity of speech and projection and my striving as a teacher. ‘Perhaps in this week’s mentor session we could talk about’ ……yep! It took a couple of years before I felt like I could stand up and talk in front of parents again but when I did, I was well prepared. A few years on from that, I learnt to do the preparation, but then put it aside and speak from my heart to the hearts of those in front of me.
At what point was I Steiner enough? At the point where I stepped up to the task.
At the point where I accepted the responsibility for those in my care. At the point where I did the work. At the point where I let my mistakes inform but not define me. When you recognise your path and you are actively striving, I think you are Steiner enough. Ask a thirty-year teaching veteran, they will have more questions than answers and so much compassion for those on the journey.
Oh, but this is a Steiner School and, this or that school is ‘more’ Steiner.
• Just as every individual has a journey so does the being of a school.
• Just as everyone is at a different place on their journey, so are schools. There are developmental phases for schools – pioneering, establishment, maintenance and all the stages in-between. Each phase has its benefits and challenges, neither better than the other, just different.
• The history of the land and its people, the importance of place has an impact on the school.
• The demographics of the school inform its being.
• The country, politics and history all affect the expression of the school.
• The size of the school, the resources available
• The College, the parent body, the administration all informs the being of the school.
And yet, they are ALL Steiner schools. Probably a better question is what gifts do you bring? Do you bring the pioneering spirit, the gift of bringing form and roots, or the skills and vision of expansion, or would a more established school support you and your child better? What is the best expression of a Steiner school for you?
So, what is it to be Steiner?
• Working from the indications of Rudolf Steiner. Taking them, working with them, living them, making them personally relevant to the context, place and time, at whatever point in your journey with Steiner education or Anthroposophy that you are at.
• Working on yourself. Having a regular, disciplined spiritual/ meditative practice. Striving to be the best version of you – In your personal and professional life.
• Engaging with nature and the arts.
• Trusting that you are in the right place. Your journey thus far has prepared you for where you are now. It is less important what you do and more important who you are as a human being. What values, integrity, wisdom, and compassion have you garnered. How can you bring your experiences, positive and negative, to the service of humankind?
• Being reflective, flexible, and open to learning. Holding the question.
• Looking to your own path with integrity. Lifting others up wherever you can.
If I had to choose one answer for, what is it to be Steiner? I’d say, when we live out of the understanding that every member of humanity and our planet are sacred, interconnected spiritual beings. That through our spiritual practice and striving in our personal, local, and global healing initiatives, we invite into being the highest expression of self, humanity, and the earth. And finally, that we strive to hold each other with compassion, asking the question and being willing to be a part of the answer as we undertake our interconnected, but unique journeys.