An introduction from the
College of Teachers

“Here, my child, is the little gold I have earned with the sweat of my brow, toiling from early morning till late at night. Take it and use it so you may learn something in the High School that will set you further on the path of life than I have been able to reach.”

So said the poor woodcutter to his young and diligent son, in the Grimm’s Fairytale, ‘The Spirit in the Bottle’. And so the heart of every devoted parent and teacher rises to the sentiment expressed therein, when they retell this story, so full of higher wisdom to the children at their knee.

These parents are expressing a deep feeling arising from the mass unconsciousness of the human race that yearns for the evolution of the generations as we tread our way through earth and time. And for the individual there is the will to help the children to go a little further in that evolution – a little closer to perfection, than their forebears had.

When life was less complex, though not necessarily easier, this objective proceeded more or less instinctively from parent to child though the generations with the occasional deviation. Today life is more problematic and family life more varied than ever before. Nevertheless, the thread that joins us to the past and guides us into the future must be preserved. This is the intention of the College of Teachers: to contribute with all their will and might, to make possible for as many individuals who care to, the opportunity to partake in this effort. This is a challenge, a very exciting, awe-inspiring challenge. A challenge requiring self-examination, dedication, exploration, acceptance of failure and misunderstanding and above all, the will to endure no matter what. For when ideals that are immutable, as the spiritual verities behind this education are, then presentation in educative practices will be mutable and coloured according to the qualities, talents and temperaments of the practitioners, the times, the environment and the composition of the school. Here, then, you will find a strong endeavour to give the children a rich cultural experience (guided by the multi-talented, imaginative, artistic, musical, dramatic and literate teachers) and a solid foundation in the arts and sciences (from exposure to the classics to the rigor of accuracy, precision and objectivity in mathematics, again guided by teachers of a high calibre in these areas). And further, the development of the unmechanical will, consistent with and springing from the developing feelings, leads eventually to self-mastery as opposed to self-will (selfishness).

This is the very nourishment the young adult will be able to access when the age of discretion is reached: a time when decisions can be made for the future, out of freedom of thought fostered by an imaginative consciousness.

For parents new to this more universal way of thinking about education, there are bound to be some surprises even confusions along the way, but the teachers are always at hand to provide helpful explanations, advice and encouragement. Reciprocally, they are always willing to take a broad objective criticism and readily agree that the path of learning is continuously open to them. For we hold sacred the maxim of Goethe: that “The highest achievement of the human being as a thinking being is to have proved what is knowable, and quietly to revere what is unknowable.”

With this in mind the daily care and overall education of the children of the Newcastle Waldorf School come under the umbrella of the College of Teachers. This College consists of a core of dedicated teachers who have a commitment to the ongoing study of the work of Rudolf Steiner and the continuing life of the school, and other teachers both full and part-time who are interested in continuing the educational aspects of his work.

The College accepts the responsibility of overseeing that the curriculum of the school, while fulfilling the mandates of the Board of Studies, is interpreted by the class and subject teachers in a mode that offers the children the highest cultural and moral examples of human endeavour, creating an atmosphere of oneness or connectedness with all spheres of life – spiritual/cultural, emotional and practical, ensuring young children have space and time for play, which later converts to a wonderful storehouse of inspiration for life.

In addition the teachers share all the work of the school from the most menial tasks of cleaning and maintenance, through to gardening and administration, in order to demonstrate to the children the wholeness that can be life – the joy of work. Parents are also invited throughout the year to join the working bees or to help out in other capacities if useful or required.

Above all, the teachers of the school wish to provide examples, though not perfect in themselves, to show the children that individuals can fulfil their own potential and at the same time work consciously as a group for a better society.

The picture of the beehive in which all members are able to take on any task when required, and work out of a common wisdom, reveals to us imaginatively the higher choice human beings can make to become fulfilled individuals who consciously enhance the lot of the society they live in.