Information Literacy, Spotlight
The M-word in the classroom
We are all called upon daily to listen sensitively into ourselves as to whether we feel or think in a racist way. And whether the language we use might be racist, even if we do not actually want it to be. This also applies to Waldorf education, where teachers are called upon to explain loaded terms in their historical context. This text by a Waldorf father is about the word “blackamoor” [German: “Mohr”], which is written out here only once and subsequently called the “M-word”. [more]
Information Literacy, Spotlight
School in freedom
The worldwide increase of autocratic governments, including in Europe, shows once more that we have to actively defend democracy, social solidarity and freedom as core elements of civil society if we do not want them to be snatched out of our hands. Freedom is neither a natural given nor a matter of course, but has to be repeatedly won and stewarded. This applies in particular to freedom in the cultural and educational sectors, without which there can be no freedom at all. [more]
Spotlight, Self-administration at Waldorf schools
The power of images and the Waldorf Peace Network
War in Europe. This was unimaginable for most of us until Russia's attack on Ukraine. Just as the war of aggression in Europe has shaken us adults, it has also made the pupils, children and young people pause in their everyday lives. [more]
Ecology & Sustainability, Spotlight
Questions on the current situation of Waldorf schools
We asked Nele Auschra and Hans Hutzel, members of the executive council of the German Association of Waldorf Schools. [more]
Spotlight, Educate for peace
School autonomy. Education between self-organisation and external control
School autonomy – this former motto of school reform seems to have turned into a simple concept of control and heteronomy. While the original idea was to give schools freedom of choice, e.g. in the use of financial resources as a basis for productive educational action, something quite different can be observed today: schools have been forced to submit “autonomously” to the paradigm of standardisation, evaluation and accountability. This development is increasingly spreading to independent schools. [more]
Spotlight, Rethinking curriculum
Online grooming
Online grooming is increasingly entering the public consciousness but the term doesn’t always mean a great deal to a lot of people. [more]
Spotlight, Generations
The technological Sphinx
There are enviable strokes of luck in publishing: the comprehensive and very readable book by the Stuttgart media teacher Edwin Hübner – Menschlicher Geist und Künstliche Intelligenz. Die Entwicklung des Humanen inmitten einer digitalen Welt (Stuttgart 2020) – was published just in time for the outbreak of the pandemic, even though it is the fruit of decades of reflection. [more]
Spotlight, Rhythm of life
I in the digital sphere?
I encounter a fellow human being. I perceive them as an other, a foreign self, but also equally as a being endowed with a self as much I am. This elementary perception of the foreign I happens instantly and goes beyond gestures, sounds, words, images and thoughts. Without this happening, an encounter would not be human in the true sense of the word. [more]
Spotlight
No life in freedom and dignity without risks
Interview with Michaela Glöckler, paediatrician and former head of the Medical Section at the Goetheanum. [more]
Bund der Freien Waldorfschulen e.V.