Warren Lee Cohen

We are fortunate at RSCT to be surrounded by a number of anthroposophical initiatives.  We share our campus with the Toronto Waldorf School, Arscura School of  Living Art, Hesperus Village Retirement Community, Pegasus anthroposophical medical practice, the Anthroposophical Society Library, My Child Myself and a Christian Community Church.  There are also a number of anthroposophical initives and Waldorf schools within easy reach of our centre: Waldorf Academy, Halton Waldorf School, Trillium Waldorf School, Mulberry Waldorf School and the London Waldorf School as well as others. This allows for a diverse community life and places us in daily contact with students of all ages in the rhythms of a fully-developed Waldorf school community.

Not all Waldorf schools are so fortunate. I am presently visiting Rio de Janeiro where there is one  small and growing Waldorf school, Jardin-Escola Michaelis. It has been a pleasure to work with the faculty, parents and board of this school as they have all grown over the past five years from a small kindergarten to a growing school that encompasses severeal multi-age kindergartens up to grade four. They have outgrown their first school house and are presently nearing capacity in their second. It is not easy to grow a spiritually minded community school in Rio, the capital of CARNIVAL, but these families are doing a remarkable job and with little support or recognition beyond those families who have found their way to this little school. It´s creation and conitnuing existence is a miracle whose value is most clearly visible in the faces of the happy children.

Parabems!

Here is a simple pentatonic song to open and close our bedtime storytelling and/or reading.  I composed it to introduce the lyre I made (posted below) for my two young daughters this Christmas.

Sun and moon and shining star
Gently guide my dreaming far
To the land of angels bright
Fill my heart your golden light.

The melody is D, E, G, A, B, D, E ascending
and then E, D, B, A, G, E, D descending.
This repeats twice with the lyrics.

It was such a treat to work creatively with Kuniko, Paul and Bree again, an honor to reunite with Emerson Foundation Year colleagues. Somehow we all seem to have all grown a bit older and wiser and more tender through the challenges we have each had to meet in our respective countries. Kuniko is now a trained and practicing Biographical Counselor in Japan – a wise woman who is ready to listen and selflessly reflect. Bree is teaching music and English and developing her beautiful voice. And Paul continues to delight students and writers around the world with his creative approach to “silly-seriousness.” His genius, all of their genii are contagious. I am grateful that we created another opportunity to work together and that they had an opportunity to meet my family in our home outside of Toronto where they effortlessly warmed their way into the hearts of my daughters.

These pictures are courtesy of Kuniko, who courageously came all the way from difficult circumstances in Japan to study  with us in our Encounters with Imagination: festival of arts and education.

May we find many more occasions to come together in our striving and in our desire to play artistically.

Encounters with Imagination: festival of arts and education was an inspiring success with over 50 people enrolling in 1 or more courses. The feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive with much encouragement to carry on with this initiative next summer. I thoroughly enjoyed bringing aspects of anthroposophy over the course of a week and felt well met by my students. What  a pleasure it was wrestling with ideas such as freedom and the journey beyond the threshold with intelligent and open minded individuals. We devoted the whole final day to looking at Rudolf Steiner’s large wood sculpture, The Representative of Humanity. We explored first the many contrasting elements of this piece and the dynamics between them before we ever tried to name them. Once we had fully characterized the forms and flow of these beings then it felt proper to share their names Christ, Lucifer, Ahriman and Humor and to explore our own understandings and relationships with them. It was a rich and evocative session.

In the second week I took part in Paul Matthew’s creative writing workshop and as ever was delighted by his creative genius and warmth. It was heartening to renew our friendship, which has only grown since our working together at Emerson and as well to see how my girls delighted in his presence. The highlights of the festival for me were the times we were all working together: singing and spacial dynamics in the mornings and evening events including pizza nights, poetry and story evening and a social art evening. this is where it really felt like a festival and I could sense the creative spirit of Emerson raying through our work. And now I look forward to a bit of a rest and then pulling together next summer’s festival.

Welcome parents, educators and artists interested in working with the imagination. The Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto has invited a team of internationally acclaimed artists and educators to offer a diverse selection of practical and artistic workshops. Each explores how the capacity for imagination can be cultivated to serve the arts and education and to enrich our lives. Enrol in one, two, three or four of these week-long workshops and savour your encounter with imagination.

The capacity for imagination is central to advances in all fields of human endeavour. Scientists, artists and educators alike rely upon creative capacities to forge new understanding and build healthy relationships. The cultivation of imagination is fundamental to Waldorf education, in which teachers and students alike are encouraged to perceive living interconnections between seemingly separate things. These reveal that individuals and objects are but a part of a whole meaning-filled world. Imagination lifts the veil of materialism and offers insights into how to work holistically in any endeavour.

Waldorf: Being a Teacher

I have been fortunate to be involved with Waldorf Education for the past 20 years. Not only is it a continuous source of inspiration for me, I have witnessed what a unique and wonderful approach to education it is. Children excell there in many faceted ways. Now that I have my own children, I could not imagine a more perfect school setting for them. Waldorf schools value childhood, protect their innocence, allow for creative play and foster the healthy development of imagination. They offer offer children opportunities to develop a broad range of skills, social/emotional maturity and conceptual depth that they will need for life. This truly is a broad based education rooted in the arts that  fosters balance, empathy, creativity and ultimately human freedom. It has been tested and refined over the past 90 years.

As a teacher, I feel that to be entrusted with professional task of looking after the well being of a group of students over a period of eight years. It is an awe inspiring responsibility and one for which I am eternally grateful. I could not now imagine a more satisfying or meaningful vocation than that of teaching in a ‘Waldorf school. As the director of teacher education at the Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto I do have a vested interest; nevertheless, these sentiments do come directly from my experience and from my heart. I welcome any inquiries and/or questions.

At my recent Waldorf Science Curriculum Presentation at the Trillium Waldorf school in Guelph, I invited the participants to use a Phenomenological, Goethean Scientific process to explore the content and complex relationships and ultimately message of this wonderful painting by Joseph Wright. That’s right, we used a scientific process to find out way to a deeper understanding of a work of art. An engaging 45 minute discussion ensued in which we progressively worked our way from what we saw in the painting (objective – earth mode), the relationships and movement we observed (water mode), what each of the characters are expressing (air mode) and lastly the essence, meaning or message of this work of art (fire mode). Two days later I received these poetic insights from one of the participants, a biodynamic farmer no less:

On my way home from the Trillium evening, the following word/play came my way… The bumper sticker for the bird in the jar painting we looked at might be something along these lines: “A vacuum abhors nature too…”

As a rhyming couplet, may be:
“Which one does, the other, more…
Nature or a Vacuum…abhor?”

How delicious it is when art and science play together so harmoniously.

Thank you Mark!

Here is a link to more on Phenomenology and Goethean Science.

Paulo Freire had a passion for education and its potential to educate towards freedom. He was responsible for a huge surge in literacy in 20th century Brazil. In particular he saw how cultivating critical thinking can lift people out of situations of oppression and give them the moral character and inner strength they need. Interestingly, Waldorf education, inspired by Rudolf Steiner has also been called an “education towards freedom” because it too fosters independent and essentially moral thinking for its students and encourages them not only to think out of the box but also to have the inner resouces to be able do what they set out to do. In this I am referring to the balanced development of thinking, feeling and willing, the head, heart and hands of Waldorf education.

While the methods these two educational pioneers vary, their aims clearly run in parallel streams and I have found it inspiring to read again their work. Here is a link to an excellent article about Paulo Freire entitled: Rethinking Education as the Practice of Freedom: Paulo Freire and the Promise of C. To find out more about Waldorf education please look at Why Waldorf Works

Advent, Channukah, Divali, Christmas and Kwanza

In the spirit of this wonderful stream of festivals of light , I have been setting my intentions for the coming year, which I hope will be filled with fruitful meetings, growth, play and a deepening sense of love filled work. My work educating Waldorf teachers at the Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto is proving dynamic and deeply engaging. I am fortunate to have also  been invited to offer a number of shorter workshops and presentations in Canada and Brazil. These help me to create a nice balance of work and play and allow me to cultivate my many disperate interests such as Waldorf Education, baking bread, building bread ovens, inner development and sculpture. Come join the fun.

I am fortunate to recieve a steady stream of interesting visitors at the Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto. Many individuals and as well groups of teachers  from the local colleges, from Japan and most recently from China. Invariably the visitors have been intrigued by the beauty and integrity of Waldorf Education and have been eager to learn more. Below is an article by my colleague Anna Gruda who teaches both at RSCT and at the Toronto Waldorf School.

Chinese art teachers visit TWS.

So Obama was in China recently and Harper is there now.

We thought we would do our part and invite the Chinese to see us! It was actually, Kathleen Schmalz who  approached me  She is a former parent and founding Board member of Trillium Waldorf School in Guelph. She was contracted by York University to organize activities for 23 art teachers visiting from China. The teachers are part of a collective called Sun On Art Teachers and most of them teach high school art.

Having them land at our school was quite an experience for me: I knew Kathleen would accompany them along with an interpreter yet what a challenge to introduce Waldorf education to 23 people through an interpreter!

The teachers arrived a little earlier than expected: I ran into them in the lobby, where there were 23 cameras clicking away! The first thing I had to say was “Sorry, no taking pictures!”

I had organized a tour route that startedin the forum.Clearly the guests had not heard me as the cameras came out again. I like to think that the beauty of the space overwhelmed them! While exiting down the high school staircase they encountered one of our Chinese students and had a bit of a conversation. Next we made a quick stop into the chemistry lab to see how art and the sciences co-exist. Then we looked at the curriculum frames in the stairwell and headed past the EcoWerks area on our way to the handwork room.

Once we settled in I gave a presentation about Waldorf education and showed examples of art from Grade 1 to Grade 12. Some teachers looked a little sleepy but I was assured by Kathleen that it was night time in China and it had nothing to do with my highly expert and entertaining lecture!

After looking at student work and making transparent paper stars, we headed to the Rudolf Steiner Centre. By this time our visitors started asking serious questions about Waldorf teaching. The brochures about the teacher training program flew off the shelves as Warren Cohen invited them to meet this year’s students. A visit to the bookstore overwhelmed the staff and suddenly block crayons were all the rage.  Wendy, the interpreter had glazed eyes seeing herself return to Chengdu, her hometown, as a Waldorf teacher.

A little background: there are three Waldorf schools in China, one each in Beijing, Hong Kong and Chengdu. A very dear friend of mine, Peter Von Zezschwitz, has been there to encourage and educate the teachers at the budding schools. Peter is a former TWS parent and long time supporter of Waldorf education. It is incredible how synchronistic life can be as last Saturday I shared a meal with Peter in a Chinese restaurant near Durham, listening to stories about his time in China and sharing his knowledge of Steiner’s work.

At the end of the tour I was presented with a beautiful banner written in Chinese characters: it said ‘friendship’. As I shook each hand and looked in the eyes of these people I just met a few hours ago, I had an over whelming feeling that indeed friendship can happen despite language and cultural barriers. Sharing a Waldorf experience was a solid bridge of human connection. The amazing thing is that less than half way through the visit; I think they forgot about their cameras.

That is what I call the Waldorf ‘effect’.

Anna Gruda, Art & After School Program teacher