In the middle of November, members of the «Hague Circle - International Council for Steiner Waldorf Education» met over a long weekend at the Goetheanum. Impressions from Trevor Mepham.
It was a warm and grateful gathering in the deepening gloom of a European autumn. The questions and topics under discussion ranged widely and deeply; from the human conflagrations in Ukraine and Israel-Palestine, to the existential planetary crises of climate change and environmental degradation. In the offices and hallways of the European Union the term permacrisis is now deployed as short-hand for the multiple systemic and local-regional-global challenges that we face today.
A presentation by Christopher Clouder began with one of D. H. Lawrence’s last poems, Walk Warily:
«Lo, we are in the midst of the Sunderers
the Cleavers, that cleave us forever apart from one another
and separate heart from heart, and cut away all caresses...»
Nana Goebel reflected upon the fact that the median age for people living in Africa is 19, whereas in Viet Nam only 5 per cent of the population is over age of 60. Meanwhile, there are 4,4 million refugees who have fled from Afghanistan into Pakistan, and 1,7 million of them have no passport – homeless and stateless. The social and educational consequences of these demographic changes and conflicts cannot be understated. In many situations, children and young people are growing into a chaotic and dangerous world, devoid of their heritage and cultural foundations.
However, it would be misleading to imagine that the weekend was an undiluted doom-fest. The meeting began with a talk: «The Earth – Ein Lebewesen» – by Albrecht Schad from Stuttgart. A tentative translation of Lebewesen indicates a living being which can feel things and moves freely. It was a presentation on a huge canvas, depicting a positive and hope-filled landscape, within which the human being lives and can act for the good and the truth of the world.
Albrecht challenged the prevailing narrative that we are hard-wired to destroy, unable to take another path. He proposed, instead, that all life and living beings are held within a delicate and vibrant net of interconnections and relationships. This is a sphere of reality that sweeps throughout the cosmos, on multiple levels. The notion that all living organisms, the earth and the first cells of a human embryo included, create an environment within which life takes place, is a picture to wonder at. And the finding that the abiding mystery of life is found in the very grain of the earth and the deepest depths of the oceans is both heartening and sobering.
Over the course of the weekend, we focused our attention on some practical fields of learning – the early childhood years, the domains of science, history and mathematics – in order to discuss and reflect on how, and in which ways, educators can express and enable children and young people to experience «the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible»1.
Alongside these important, essential deliberations, we also devoted some time to hearing about the day-to-day slings and arrows of outrageous fortune2, and the shafts of sunlight and achievement, with country and region reports from Japan, South Africa, Colombia, North America, France and Germany.
As the meeting drew to a close, there was a sense of fullness in our hearts. And perhaps the thoughts of William Morris – textile designer, poet, artist, fantasy writer, and socialist activist – capture something of the spirit of the meeting:
«The past is not dead, but is living in us, and will be alive in the future we are now helping to make.»3
Trevor Mepham
References
1: Thanks for this phrase to: Charles Eisenstein (2013), The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible, North Atlantic Books
2: And thanks to Shakespeare!
3: William Morris (1893), Preface to Medieval Lore by Robert Steele