Download the article: Adolescence

Originally published in The Cresset, Vol.16 No. 3 (Journal of the Camphill Movement, UK)

THE WORD adolescence derives from the Latin “adolescere” meaning ‘to grow into manhood”. The term pertains roughly to the period between the 14th and 21st years, which is the third seven-year period of life. The first period ending at the seventh year marks the end of infancy and young childhood, the second ending at 14 sees a child into puberty, and the third which ends at the 21st year marks the beginning of adulthood.

Download the article: Advent- Memories of a Waldorf School Teacher

Published in Anthroposophical News Sheet, Vol.7, 1939 (England)

For many of our contemporaries the year is nothing more than a sequence of 365 days. Every seventh day is a Sunday, when instead of going to the factory or to the office, one goes to a football-match and is provoked at the decision of umpire instead of at one's overseer. Furthermore there are certain times of year when one perspires, because it is very hot outside, and others when one grumbles over the size of the coal-bills. Otherwise one day is like another and the whole calendar is there merely in order that one may divide up the year for personal and business purposes.

For such people the seasons of the year have a purely outer significance only, and the festivals are a purely human device, the last remnants of a time of ancient superstition.

We encounter such signs of the impoverishment of the life of the human soul at every step. And we learn to estimate how difficult it really is today for so many to find access to the realities which seek to speak to us through the seasons and the festivals of the year.

Download the article: Agriculture: The Foundation of all Economy

Concerning Concrete Experiments
By Wilhelm Ernst Barkhoff
Translated from the German by Joseph Wetzl

First published in Biodynamics, Spring, 1980

All members of the Anthroposophical Society are concerned about economic processes being initiated and structured out of what we call the life of the spirit. Humanity as a whole — not only single individuals — should strive unitedly from spiritual impulses to change nature. Although it is extraordinarily difficult to imagine a society wherein this has become a habitual attitude, it is nevertheless true that people do appear before this members’ meeting to present their respective insights and deeds, and the rest of us try to follow it up. Thus an Anthroposophical Society can be created in which the interaction of spiritual life and economic life becomes possible. The attitude of our Society can become the foundation for a modern agriculture.

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The Nature Institute

Introduction

In the fall and winter of 2010/2011 I participated in the development of an environmental science curriculum for the middle school (grades 6 through 8) for the Detroit Waldorf School. The school’s question was: Could a curriculum be developed that weaves together a phenomenological approach to science, environmental and social justice awareness, and service learning opportunities. The school felt that such a curriculum—which could be modified for other learning settings, such as urban summer camps—would be “an essential contribution that we could make to our community, especially to demonstrate to our young people how they can be instrumental in understanding and acting upon locally significant environmental issues. The central approach is to study topics around which the students can become passionate and can also fit into their understanding of the world at their age.”