This year we are concentrating on our bi-weekly newsletter, Connection. For the latest news at SWS, please check the Community Site on our website for current and past issues. You will also find news and ways to connect on our Facebook page and we encourage you to become a friend.
Graduation Speech given by parent Nancy Gilbert at the 8th Grade graduation on June 12, 2010.
My journey as a parent in the Seattle Waldorf Community, over the past decade, has been much like yours. Parents, grandparents, teachers, we have walked side by side, hand in hand, with the same hopes and dreams for these 8th grade students (now 9th graders). We have asked the same questions, abated the same doubts, and basked in the same pride and joy over the fruits of their labors.
Today, we celebrate the wonderful journey these children have been on, and the successes they have experienced along the way. Congratulations, class of 2014, on this incredible milestone.
While we all know today is all for our children, I want to remind us that it is also our day. I’d like to take these next few minutes to focus on “us”, the parents.
When we first signed on the dotted line, we didn’t realize that we, the parents, were really signing up for the education of a lifetime. We would be learning, right alongside our children. For many of us, we committed our children and our families to a different way of life. We trusted that this school, this curriculum, these teachers were just what our children needed, and deserved; and just what we deserved. I don’t have enough fingers to count how often I heard a parent say, “I wish I’d gone to a school like this”.
- Early on, we checked out “Waldorf” on the web (kind of ironic that the first thing you do as a Waldorf parent is surf the web).
- We read magazine articles and books, and we dutifully attended parent education evenings.
- Many of us explored anthroposophy. I recall many long winded discussions on the playground about what anthroposophy was and how that all tied into the education, and who this Rudolf Steiner guy was. You know, the person that our children would, several years later, affectionately name their soccer team after? (Go, Rudies!)
Our main role as parents, was to do our part to make sure our children were getting the full benefit of the Waldorf curriculum and programs. We didn’t know exactly how to do this, so we took the lead from our kindergarten and early grade teachers.
- Step 1, move the television to the basement, or closet
- We flipped over magazines with violent images on the cover
- We stopped listening to the news (at least during breakfast and school carpools)
- We stretched our brains to create the all-inclusive Waldorf-appropriate birthday parties, searching out fairies and gem stone treasures, rather than the ready-made Cinderella and Batman motifs.
- We bought rain boots, and raincoats, and hats, and gloves and snugglies.
- We joined hands and sang “For the golden corn” or “Johnny Appleseed” before every meal. (At least, until our teens started rolling their eyes).
The curriculum in the grade school really piqued our interest. The more we learned, the more “simple” and brilliant it seemed. Do, feel, think. Then sleep on it.
Though we weren’t in the classroom day in and day out, we received the benefit of the lessons, vicariously.
- We assisted with times tables to the point of being able to say them forwards, backwards and sideways, while tossing bean bags to the person on our left (skills we parents never dreamed we would ever learn, or need to learn)
- Our children came home and told us about Odin, Hercules, Galileo, Michelangelo, with wonder in their eyes; We’d watch over them as they drew amazing sketches of these gods, scientists and artists.
- We found ourselves reading every book our children were reading. Percy Jackson, Inkheart, Peter & the Star Catchers, all 12 of the Cat books. Harry Potter was a treat. And then there was the Twilight series; and you know, where that led. (I think that’s when most of us decided we didn’t have to read every book our children were reading.)
- This past month we welcomed the short story block. It was like going back in time. I always love short stories. To Build a Fire, Jack London. The Lottery Ticket by Anton Chekhov, House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe.
But as we all know, Waldorf education is so much more than what happens in the classroom. We joined in celebration with our children in a rich Festival of Life. Together we walked with our lanterns (up and down and thru the town). We walked the advent spiral. We sang and danced around the May Pole. We triumphed over the dragon of winter darkness.
And if we were really lucky, (really, really lucky), we had the privilege of joining with our children on their special ceremonies and outings like: the Potlatch, the Olympiad, biking Lopez Island, hiking the lava caves of Mt St Helens, the annual class camping trips; or standing on the sidelines at an Ultimate Frisbee game. These are our most treasured moments. Not only did they mark certain observable milestones in our children’s development, but they allowed us a window into just who each of these individuals was becoming, and what power there was in this constellation of children.
It was here that we learned that:
- The music of the 60s & 70s is not dead.
- Just being together with friends is enough to keep a person entertained for hours on end.
- Working through a challenge together, brings trust and respect for one another.
We learned that,
- the weather has absolutely no bearing on the amount of fun one can have outdoors, (especially if there are lots of tarps and rope at hand)
- We learned that there is a place for everyone in the circle, always.
For the past 8 years, every encounter with every teacher, every fellow parent, and every child in this class has brought us a new understanding of the value of relationship and community. Each “good morning”, each “thank you”, each knowing look shared along the back wall of Huckleberry Hall has breathed life into Steiner’s verse.
The healthy social life is found,
When, in the mirror of each human soul,
the whole community finds its reflection;
And when, in the community,
The virtue of each one is living.
Thank you, everyone who has been a part of our children’s education, our family’s education, our education. It is with joy, and sadness, and a whole lot of gratitude, that today we say “farewell” to the red school house in the valley; and walk hand in hand with our 8th grade graduates, with one heck of an education in our pocket and the virtue of a whole community in our souls. We’re ready for the sequel.
Nancy Gilbert
On behalf of the Parents of the Class of 2014
On Sunday, May 23rd, I was standing around in the theater at Nathan Hale, minding my own business so to speak, catching my breath after doing a bit of running around as a helper, and watching last minute adjustments being made to the set-up of chairs and music stands on the stage.
“Can you move the curtain?” I slowly became aware that the question had been directed at me. “No!”
What I meant was that I had never done it, and I didn’t know how. A little more of my consciousness returned to me, and I realized that I was asked to help, to be the person who pulls on the rope…. aha!
My first thought was “I don’t want to not be able to see the performance!!”, my second “What if I mess up??”
Well, I am a bit of a pushover and I quickly agreed anyway. Linda Povinelli (during the week she teaches Euryhtmy at the high school) acted as the stage manager for the concert, and she marked up a program for me with ‘curtain open’ and ‘curtain closed’, and we worked out a simple ‘thumbs up’ communications system which we planned use to make sure I would get it right.
Linda was positioned all the way across, on the other side of the stage, and also behind the curtain. We waved and smiled at each other as we waited to for the first time I would have to pull the curtain. Of course, Linda had a couple of other things on her mind, such as shepherding large groups of students to the right place at the right time very quickly, but MY whole world consisted of the the two fat ropes in front of me, one of which I would have to pull on, hard, in a moment. Which one was it again? No, not this one…., oops, yes, the first one, I just didn’t pull hard enough on the first go. Pull pull pull, watching the curtain move across the stage is not what we are here for, pull faster…
It was enough to work up a sweat. Gratefully, I sat down next to the rope, relieved I had done it, for a short rest.
Then, the most wonderful thing happened.
From my spot behind the curtain, I could not only see the students on stage (what a pleasant surprise!), I could also see Patricia Kim, as she faced the students to conduct them.
Patricia did, of course, use her hands to indicate tempo and dynamics etc. for our student musicians, but I quickly became mesmerized by Patricia’s eloquent face. I watched Patricia speak, whisper, shout to the students with her facial expressions, encouraging them, urging them on, congratulating them. The sight and sound of music became my new world.
I had the best seat in the house.
If you missed your chance to participate in the Art & Experience Auction on May 7, or even if you attended but came away wanting more, now is your chance to support SWS! Partnering with Missionfish, eBay’s charity portal, SWS is holding an online auction. The last bids close nine days from now, visit the site, bookmark it and let the bidding begin! 100% of the proceeds benefit SWS.
Visit the online auction here.
Spread the word to family and friends 
Portland Waldorf School forwarded us information about a movie showing at the Seattle Film Festival this weekend. Queen of The Sun draws attention to the wisdom of Rudolf Steiner who foresaw the coming bee crisis as early as the 1920′s, and reveals forward thinkers such as Gunther Hauk, a world-renowned biodynamic beekeeper who created the world’s first bee sanctuary, Spikenard Farm. Without bees, Albert Einstein said, “man would only have four years of life left.” From The Director on The Real Dirt on Farmer John comes a profound, alternative look at the tragic global bee crisis. Juxtaposing their catastrophic disappearance by the fascinating world of bees, Queen of the Sun weaves a unusual and dramatic story of the heart-felt struggles of beekeepers, scientists and philosophers from around the world. Together, they reveal the problems and solutions in renewing a culture in balance with nature.
SEATTLE FILM FESTIVAL
WHERE: HARVARD EXIT THEATER
807 East Roy at Harvard
Seattle Washington
Tickets: 206-781-5755
WHEN: Saturday, May 22 at 4:30 PM
Sunday, May 23 at 11AM.
