Birth and Spirit
“For unto us a child is born”. Incarnation in a time of omnipresent screens
“For unto us a child is born” – those are the glad tidings of Christmas which give us a feeling of hope. In fact, something new and unique starts with the birth of every human being. For us parents and teachers, it is an ideal to create for this developing human being paths into their future while at the same time protecting them – as the Christmas story also tells – from everything that tries to harm the child. On the one hand protection, on the other hand creating developmental opportunities – this is what we want to give the newborn child as a gift. [more]
Birth and Spirit
Do machines have to teach us what it means to be human?
The year 2020, marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, led to major challenges and changes in the educational landscape. The primary task facing each school community after the lockdown was to implement the changing policies in such a way that teaching could resume. In order to achieve this goal, many changes were necessary, e.g. in timetables, groupings and forms of teaching, up to and including significantly increased home schooling and e-learning. [more]
Birth and Spirit
When Christmas really no longer exists
What to do when young people can no longer be bothered with Christmas trees, church and carol singing? [more]
Publisher's View, Birth and Spirit
The hamster wheel at rest
For centuries, life in our latitudes was shaped by the recurring change of the four seasons. [more]
Living lessons, Birth and Spirit
Does Joseph belong in the Nativity scene?
Every year at Advent, class teachers are faced with the challenge of creating a suitable Christmas blackboard drawing for their class. While younger children prefer to discover and name the contents of the picture, middle school pupils also want to comment on it and if possible even help to create it. If the Christmas blackboard drawing is created over several days in smaller work steps, many suggestions from pupils can be incorporated. This provides the class with opportunities for very personal conversations. Experience shows that these dialogues can touch on depths in children and young people that are otherwise not touched upon in any of the main lessons provided for in the curriculum. [more]
Birth and Spirit, Waldorf worldwide
A hospital turned Waldorf school. The Markgräflerland project in Portugal
It was a very special step for our “Olive Tree School” in Figueira on the Algarve: after careful consideration and planning, we decided to expand our school from classes 1 to 6 to classes 1 to 8. [more]
Series, Birth and Spirit
“Parent work” – from the class teacher’s perspective
What actually is “parent work”? How does it become apparent and what role does the teacher play in it? An overview of this essential task is given by a class teacher of 20 years’ standing. [more]
It sings and sounds
The inner dancer
Music as the mother tongue of human beings communicates beyond all conceptual languages – from the hearts of those who are singing directly to the hearts of those who listen and resonate with them. It is the mission of the musical life in upper school to let people experience something of this. Everyone should experience and try out how far their own musical wings can carry them, how far they are able to reach out and touch others emotionally – not verbally. [more]
It sings and sounds
On the way to the musical contemporary
Great minds of the past have sought to find out what binds the world together at its core. Should we not also seek to discover what moves the world at its core; what stimulates the human being and what would like to break fresh ground into the future? [more]
It sings and sounds
Singing in Waldorf schools in the time of coronavirus
Singing together is an ancient tradition among all peoples and on all continents. It forms part of rituals, religion and community. Today we are permanently surrounded by music. Yet despite the many amateur choirs and innumerable projects for children, there is less and less singing in our society. Even before the coronavirus outbreak, singing was in a difficult position. There is increasingly less music-making at home in the family, confidence in our own voice cannot be developed and so the self-assurance in leading and demonstrating a song is missing also among teachers. [more]
Bund der Freien Waldorfschulen e.V.