By Jon McAlice
It has only been three months since the first cases of respiratory illness caused by what has since proven to be a new strain of coronavirus were treated in Wuhan, China. Since then the virus has travelled around the world infecting some 740,000 people. To date, 35,000 people have died. In a mere 90 days, the spread of this virus has brought travel and much of the social interaction we are accustomed to to a standstill. Millions of people worldwide are living in various forms of isolation. Schools and businesses are closed; we are all wrestling with what has suddenly become the new reality.
As the outer structures shift and fall away, more existential questions of meaning move into the foreground. What does this moment in time ask of us?
This question is perhaps most pressing for teachers. Much of our work rests on the experienced presence of the students, the intangible nature of the space of warmth and interest that develops in a classroom, a studio or a practice room. It is difficult to find this through a digital interface. Is it possible to inhabit this virtual space in a way that our students can find their own source of inner warmth and interest?
The challenge of helping students engage in their own learning is not new. It lies at the heart of the Waldorf educational impulse. The platforms we are now being required to use merely heighten the poignancy of the question. What can I as a teacher do to enhance students’ capacity to learn, to help them be caught up by the magic of learning, to feel the excitement of discovery and the thrill of understanding?
One aspect of meeting this challenge lies in our deepening our own understandings of learning, especially within the context of the anthropological approach that lies at the heart of Waldorf education. In marking the hundredth anniversary of the founding of the first Waldorf school, colleagues around the world are reconsidering the first teachers’ course. Is there anything in these explorations that speaks to the reality of today’s children and young people? Or, in other words, are there aspects of Steiner’s presentations that seem to anticipate the challenges we are facing today?
Coming blogs will focus on aspects of the first teachers’ course that appear especially relevant in this time of having to re-think what teaching means.