PSC FREE ONLINE SEMINARS

 The Arc of Becoming: Medical and Pedagogical Collaboration in Support of

The Young Child

Presenters:  Heather Church and Frances Vig

In August a group of people from around the world gathered at the Threefold Community

Spring Valley to inaugurate the first Care conference in North America. The Care conferences

in Europe focus on different aspects of collaboration between teachers and medical

professionals. Jointly hosted by the Pedagogical and Medical Sections in Dornach, this

collaborative effort shone light on riches gleaned from working together, sharing insights and

expertise in service to children and youth. While the focus was pregnancy, birth and early

childhood, the content serves those who teach in the grade school, high school and teacher

preparation programs.

In this hour and a half we will share aspects of the co-working we found to be particularly

stimulating, some resulting initiatives arising and research material that you may be able to

access in the coming weeks.

Online Zoom Event: 11am-12:30pm CT

Matter is never without spirit, spirit is never without matter

Presenter:  Liz Beaven

Steiner asked us to keep in mind that the practical and the spiritual walk hand in

hand: both are essential in our lives and work. How do we balance practical needs and

concerns in our classrooms and schools without becoming numb to the spiritual impulse of

Waldorf education? How do we selflessly apply the “light of the spirit” while we work with the

practical matters of school life? How do we hold both, breathing between what can appear as

opposite poles?

As we move from apparent polarities pf spirit and practice, we seek to find rhythm and

harmony in both. Through this interplay, the principles of spirit and practical material life

provides a useful lens for our understanding of breathing, which Steiner identified as the

primary task of the teacher.

Join Liz Beaven to explore these apparent polarities and the lessons they offer, with examples

drawn from our schools’ mission and purpose, and our work with colleagues, students and

parents.

Online Zoom Event: 11am-12:30pm CT

 Art as Spiritual Pedagogy

Presenter:  Victoria Reyes

Join me in exploring how Rudolf Steiner’s aesthetic rigor has come to shape Waldorf practice

from the foundations of color theory and its deep connection with Steiner’s human

development model, tp how this translates in diverse cultural world views. We will explore how

art can create a living path of growth and transformation.

Online Zoom Event: 11am-12:30pm CT

 Laughing and crying

Presenter:  Douglas Gerwin

Laugh long and hard enough and you may find yourself inexplicably weeping. And the reverse

may happen, even in moments of tragedy. Both involve an interrupted flow of breathing,

whether on the outbreath of exuberant merriment or the inbreath of uncontrolled sobbing. Why

does this happen? And why does Rudolf Steiner stress the importance in every lesson of

stirring these two complementary styles of breathing––albeit in modified form––as a

precondition for the health of both children and their teachers?

Online Zoom Event: 11am-12:30pm CT

 Working with The Two Teacher’s Meditations

Presenters:  Holly Koteen-Soule and Frances Vig

Rudolf Steiner gave these two verses for teachers to use as a practical support to lesson

planning and review. In our time together Holly will share experiences using the first meditation

and Frances will focus on the second followed by an open conversation.

Online Zoom Event: 11am-12:30pm CT