From Susan Howard, WECAN Coordinator
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Greetings from WECAN!
As this very unusual school year comes to a close, we can certainly say that
despite the suffering, disruption and uncertainty caused by the pandemic, we have never been so actively engaged with one another as we are at the moment. Through the active conversations and resources shared on the WECAN Community Hub at Groups io and the many zoom calls that WECAN has hosted in the past three months, our collaborative work with one another is stronger than ever before.
Our WECAN staff, board members, regional representatives and task force groups have been supporting our WECAN organizational and individual members and reaching out to engage with colleagues in AWSNA, the Alliance for Public Waldorf Education, and LifeWays during this time of crisis, as well as continuing to carry our usual responsibilities. Our News Updates, which we send out each fall, winter and spring, are opportunities for us to share the ongoing work of WECAN with you.
If you are an early childhood or administrative contact person for WECAN in your school or early childhood center, please forward this News Update to all your early childhood colleagues, so that they are also informed of our activities and upcoming events - thank you!
We do not know what the future will bring, but we do know that we have the privilege of working with an amazing group of people who are devoted to the care of young children on this continent, and for this we are very grateful and filled with hope for the future!
With warm wishes to all on behalf of the WECAN Board and Staff,
Susan Howard
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WECAN Board
Leticia Gutierrez (Mexico liaison), Heather Church, Ruth Ker, Adrienne Doucette, Sarah Arnold, Magdalena Toran, Nancy Blanning, Susan Howard, Laura Mason (Membership Coordinator). Not present: Louise deForest and Holly Koteen-Soulé
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Report from the WECAN Board
Louise deForest, Board Chair
Along with everyone else, the WECAN Board has been finding new ways of working and responding to the present COVID-19 situation and the restrictions that we are all experiencing. The Board met remotely this year, and instead of our usual 3 - 4 day, in-person meeting, we have had several shorter zoom meetings over the last month and will continue to do so over the next several months as the future reveals itself.
We remain firm in our commitment to our Envisioning process, started almost 2 years ago, and to our work with Diversity and Social Justice (
see our Diversity Statement in this update). To that end, we continued trying to define and articulate a WECAN Values statement, knowing that our values are a way of manifesting our mission. We spent time looking at our committee work as an active expression of these values. To accompany this process we continue to study the article,
White Supremacy Culture, by Tema Okun, asking ourselves how the characteristics of this culture live in us, individually and in our organization, and we are working actively to uproot any attitude or way of working that hinders all human freedom.
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Inclusion, Diversity, Access and Equity (IDEA)
Magdalena Toran for the IDEA Group and the WECAN Board
The WECAN Board had intended to continue our collaboration with social justice consultant, Rebecca Ossorio, using the Prospect Center’s Descriptive Processes of Collaborative Inquiry to better understand IDEA issues in our board and movement, but were unable to meet with her due to the homestay order. Instead we continued our inquiry with a resource shared by Rebecca, Tema Okun's article,
White Supremacy Culture
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Looking at ourselves, our organization and our early childhood movement through the characteristics of White supremacy culture is a powerful tool for transformation. It is also timely for our board's envisioning activity to be seeing our work through this lens. We are looking forward to meeting with Rebecca in the fall and continued work wit
h the Okun article.
The IDEA Committee completed the final draft and the board has approved WECAN's new diversity statement below. The IDEA Committee has also drafted a proposal for a WECAN IDEA Advisory Circle. This working group would serve to bring together a diversity of voices, creating a space for inquiry, reflection and action in bringing the work of inclusion, diversity, equity and inclusion forward in Waldorf early childhood education. We look forward to inviting letters from those who are interested in supporting WECAN's work on inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility later this summer.
WECAN Diversity Statement
In our work with young children from pre-birth to age seven, WECAN is committed to the ideals upon which Waldorf/Steiner education was founded. These include respect for the dignity of each individual child and family in honoring diverse race, culture, religion, national origin, socio-economic situation, gender identity and sexual orientation, family composition, and individual ability which form the backgrounds of their lives. Waldorf early childhood education is committed to supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion as a pathway to social justice and to rectify the explicit and implicit biases that undermine creation of healthy social life in our society.
Waldorf education was founded in 1919 upon the insights of Rudolf Steiner, whose indications provide the foundations for a truly humanized education that recognizes the individuality of each person and the universal spirit living within every human being. WECAN affirms this educational and social truth. Any statements attributed to Rudolf Steiner which imply or suggest discrimination or judgment toward any race, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexuality, or socio-economic group, are rejected. Such attitudes are contradictory and undermining to the goals of this education.
Working toward these goals requires committed inner work from the adults who care for our children. Teacher preparation and professional deepening call for each educator to engage in self-reflection that will ennoble inner attitudes to support diversity, inclusion, and equity. Recognizing and celebrating the differences that make us uniquely individual fosters healing and creation of new social life. We strive to create conscious, collaborative communities of parents, teachers, and children which strengthen the children in our care to meet future challenges with optimism, confidence, resilience, and tolerance and experience their lives as filled with purpose and meaning.
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A Healing Mood for Us All
Holly Koteen Soule and members of the NEW WECAN Early Childhood Research Group
A new WECAN Early Childhood Research Group was formed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The goal of the group is to serve as an organ that can observe and help distill what early childhood educators are learning as we try to navigate the unusual circumstances in which we find ourselves. Members of the group include Stephanie Hoelscher, Rihana Rutledge, Rachel Turner, Nancy Blanning, Laurie Clark and Holly Koteen-Soule.
In our recent conversations, we recognized that as the crisis continues and schools began to plan for a likely resurgence in the late fall or winter, we are all - children, parents and teachers - suffering to some degree from the effects of the ongoing uncertainty in our lives. We naturally began to focus on how to support the children and their families in their healing and quickly realized that we also need to check in with ourselves. We realized that we need to acknowledge the spectrum of feelings that we have experienced and to rebuild our inner forces, in order to be able to be fully present for the children and their families when we meet them again in the fall.
Week by week, it has become increasingly clear that we will not be returning to the old normal. What began as a health crisis has also become, in the United States, a full-blown racial and social justice crisis, that is echoing in cities around the globe. In our communities we are facing a trial of the soul as well as of the body. In Waldorf education, as in other realms of life, we are not able to rely on our old assumptions. We are being asked to dig deep into our individual and collective resources, watch and listen with new awareness to the phenomena that we are witnessing, and bring new impulses into our work and movement.
We invite you to join us in self-reflection, asking: what are we learning from this current situation? What of our ways of being and working will we leave behind as we go forward? What will we want to keep as essential?
In this News Update we would like to share three articles on a theme we are calling A Healing Mood for Us All.
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Connecting with WECAN and with Each Other
There are many ways to connect with WECAN and with one another!
One way to connect is by visiting our website, Instagram and Facebook pages, reading WECAN Books, or attending a WECAN conference.
A second and more active way of connecting is to join the WECAN Community Hub at Groups io. On the main group of this new platform you can post and read messages, have access to files with resources, post photos, etc. You can also join subgroups such as Birth to Three, Parent Child, Home Programs, or one of our regional subgroups, according to your interest. If you are working in a WECAN Member School, you can also join the subgroup for Organizational WECAN Members (a closed group only for colleagues in WECAN Member schools).
To subscribe, contact WECANCommunity+subscribe@wecan.groups.io.
We look forward to having you as an active member of our Community!
There is also another way to connect with WECAN, by taking the step to join as an Individual Member. Individual Membership offers our Association much needed moral and financial support, and in return, Individual Members receive benefits described in the Individual Membership section below. Individual Membership costs $50 a year, and is also available at group discount rates to colleagues at WECAN Member schools and students enrolled in WECAN Member Institutes.
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From the Membership Office
Laura Mason, Membership Coordinator
Membership Activity
We are pleased to welcome Rowan Tree Children’s School in Peterborough, Ontario; Mojave Springs School in Las Vegas, Nevada; and Eastside Community School in Bellevue, Washington as new Associate Members of WECAN. We are so glad to have them all working in association with us!
In addition, Wishing Well Children’s School in Los Osos, California and Nevada Sage Waldorf School in Reno, Nevada have moved from Associate Member to Full Member status. These schools now stand alongside our other Full Member programs as representatives of the worldwide Waldorf Early Childhood Education movement. Congratulations!
We also welcome Comunidad Educativa Elhilar in Huxquilucan and Casa Umai in Monterrey as new Registered Initiative affiliate programs in Mexico.
We currently have a total of 177 Associate and Full Member early childhood programs and 20 Registered Initiatives, as well as 12 Member Institutes. 14 of our member programs completed renewals this school year. Membership renewal deadlines have been extended for one full year for all WECAN member programs in light of the challenges we are all facing related to the pandemic. We very much look forward to engaging in membership renewals again as soon as it is safe and reasonable to do so.
And finally, we honor two member schools that are closing this summer for reasons unrelated to the pandemic. White Mountain Waldorf School in Conway, New Hampshire, founded in 1985 and Comox Valley Waldorf School in Courtenay, British Columbia, founded in 2011. Thank you for your service to children for so many years. We wish your community members the very best on your journeys, wherever they may take you.
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Nevada Sage Waldorf School in Reno, NV
- New Full Member
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Regional Rep Update
Laura Mason, Membership Coordinator
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We now have 21 Regional Representatives, many of whom have stepped forward to provide extra support to programs through facilitating regional WECAN Community Hub groups and remote meetings. Please join me in thanking the Regional Reps for being tremedously flexible in their work this year!
Heather Church has been serving Ontario and Western New York for several years now and is stepping out of the role this summer. Thank you, Heather. We are deeply grateful for your leadership as a Regional Rep in the Great Lakes I region.
Laurie Harper-Burgess, has been selected to fill the role into the future. Laurie is a graduate of the Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto and Lifeways trainings and has worked as an early childhood educator at London Waldorf School, Halton Waldorf School and in two family-style home childcare programs. She also started Lifeways Ontario and has provided teacher education there. Most recently, she has been weaving the lives of elders and children in her home care program in a retirement village. Welcome Laurie!
I am also very happy to announce that longtime board member, Nancy Blanning, will be joining Laurie Clark and Betty Jane Enno as a Regional Rep in the Texas/Southwest/ Rockies region this summer. In addition to her work on the WECAN Board, Nancy has been on the faculty of the Denver Waldorf School since 1985. She is also the editor of Gateways magazine and has contributed to numerous WECAN publications as a writer and editor. Please join me in welcoming Nancy as a Regional Rep!
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Birth to Three Working Group
Heather Church
This year our spring has brought all of us a new way of being. The plans we had in mind for the spring have dramatically changed and during this time, every one of our Birth to Three Taskforce members has stepped up and into supporting roles within and outside of our WECAN community. Some have written articles, others offered Zoom sharing sessions and webinars, all have shared their wisdom. I would like to thank each and everyone, Karen Weyler, Debbie Lauren, Vanessa Kohlhaas, Katherine Scharff, Magdalena Toran, Adrienne Doucette, Trice Atchison, Liz Hagerman and Pia Doegl. I also want to thank others in our movement who stepped up to share their expertise and experience during these unique times by hosting Zoom conversations. A silver lining of COVID-19 is that it has created many opportunities for our birth to three communities to connect to each other no matter where we live in North America. For this I am grateful. I hope that we will continue to connect over the miles virtually and in-person in the years to come as we grow and strengthen the birth to three work in North America.
This fall we are intending to continue on with our annual Birth to Three Conference, October 2 - 4, 2020, even though there remains uncertainty around gathering and the freedom to travel within and across borders. We would like to encourage you to save these dates for the conference which will take place at Sophia’s Hearth if gatherings are allowed. We may consider going to an online version if at all possible. We will confirm on August 15.
We would like to wish you a wonderful summer, and best wishes for your reopening.
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Public Policy
Sarah Arnold, Public Policy Coordinator
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Public Policy and Outreach has shortened its name to Public Policy, as most of the work the Public Policy and Outreach Board Committee has engaged in over the last several years is focused on Public Policy. Since the last update, I have been working on building a Public Policy working group. Our initial work will focus on creating a short document that describes the essential aspects of Waldorf Early Childhood education for non-Waldorf audiences, like state policy makers and potential funders. In addition to myself, our fledgling group includes Stephanie Hoelscher, Rachel Turner, and Helena Mitchell.
Here is a link (include the description of Waldorf EC Teacher Trainings) to a new resource, which describes Waldorf Early Childhood Teacher Training. This tool can be used to present to state licensing officials to start a conversation about the comprehensive nature of our teacher trainings.
Washington State is the second state WECAN is working with to gain official recognition of Waldorf Early Childhood Teacher Training. Last summer Oregon officially recognized Waldorf Early Childhood Teacher Training.
Work has been ongoing with the Ideal Learning Round Table and remaining in conversation with the NAEYC. All conferences and meetings planned for this summer with various Early Childhood organizations have been cancelled due to the Pandemic.
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International Association of Steiner Waldorf Early Childhood Education
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The Corona pandemic affects us all in different ways, but for some it has become a matter of survival or shutting down. In many places all over the world Waldorf Kindergartens are working without any state subsidies and only can function further through additional donations from parents and educators. The current Corona Pandemic has led some of them into an existential crisis through which they are now threatened with closure.
IASWECE is participating with the Friends of Waldorf Education and other partners in an emergency fund to ensure their survival. Help us to help these kindergartens by donating!
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IASWECE: IBAN: DE83 6012 0500 0007 7076 00 - BIC: BFSWDE33STG
Memo:
Corona Support
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Originally published in German, this volume clearly and succinctly outlines the anthroposophical view of child development from birth through age three, and makes concrete suggestions of how to support children's physical, emotional, and spiritual growth in an out-of-home care setting. This English-language edition is intended to inform birth-to-three programs, as well as being a resource for parents, therapists, and anyone with an interest in this special period of human life. The second edition includes a new introduction by editor Susan Howard, new material from author Claudia Grah-Wittich, and an updated list of resources available in English.
$18
Available after June 30
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By Helle Heckmann
Five Golden Keys
celebrates families embracing life with the child under 7 years. Sleep, movement, mealtimes, rhythm, and care: with these five golden keys, Helle Heckmann offers a simple and practical approach that addresses the young child’s needs in the best possible way.
Helle Heckmann, founder and director of Nøkken Kindergarten in Denmark, has worked with parents and children in over 50 countries.
$24
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By
Angelika Wiehl and Wolfgang-M. Auer
Understanding Child Developmen
t is the result of the editors’ many years of experience as Waldorf educators and leaders in teacher training. Translated from Angelika Wiehl and Wolfgang-M. Auer’s
Kindheit,
this is a selection of Rudolf Steiner’s source texts on childhood, scholarly commentary, supplemental essays on sensory development and imitation, suggestions for studying the texts, and a discussion of the future of childhood. Steiner’s selected source texts on early childhood are here collected in English for the first time.
$22
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Originally published in both German and English,
Transitions in Childhood from Birth to 14 Years
collects lectures given from May 30 to April 3, 2015 at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland, where 550 people from 46 countries, including Waldorf educators, scholars, and professionals in a wide range of fields, came together to work on the title theme. A main intention was to work together on current educational questions and thus deepen our understanding of child and human development.
Claus-Peter Röh of the Pedagogical Section at the Goetheanum summarized the mood at the end of the conference: "We have tried, with great intensity and candor, to create a community of awareness around various areas of education. The desire to always keep the idea of a whole in mind while discerning the individual was clearly apparent . . . Now we stand before the challenge of further developing our collective work and newly gained insights into the future."
We hope that these texts can serve as a basis for further study activity and can contribute to a greater collaborative activity in the Waldorf kindergarten and school movement.
$15
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Editor Louise deForest
A second collection of stories gathered from Waldorf early childhood teachers all over the country longing to share what they love with those who love children. Because it is in the sharing—the telling—that a story comes alive, the more you tell stories, the more you will hear, “Tell me another story.”
$25
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By Sherrie Gionet
Created by Sherri Gionet to support the Waldorf early childhood curriculum, these art prints offer new visions of the traditional mother-child tableau. Rich images celebrate inclusiveness and reverence to complement the mood of the Waldorf early childhood classroom or the home.
Offered in a standard 11 x 17 inch format, full-color and suitable for framing.
"Mother and Child" features gold and earthen tones that suggest a dry climate, the autumn season, or the seasonal festivals celebrating light.
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"In the Garden" features a vibrant palette that suggests a warmer climate or the growing seasons.
$10 each or p
urchase a set of 2 prints for $18
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Join WECAN by becoming an Individual Member!
Membership benefits include:
- A subscription to the Gateways Newsletter (includes the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 issues)
- WECAN News Updates
- A 10% discount on WECAN book sales
- Discounts on registration fees at the East Coast and Pacific Northwest WECAN Conferences
- Regular email messages that include research digests and reports on activities, conferences, and events within WECAN and IASWECE (the International Association of Waldorf/Steiner Waldorf Early Childhood Education).
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Summer 2020 Courses and Workshops for Waldorf Early Childhood Educators
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SECOND ANNUAL WECAN BIRTH TO THREE CONFERENCE
October 2- 4, 2020
Keene, NH or online - TBA in late August.
FEBRUARY WECAN EARLY CHILDHOOD CONFERENCES - EAST COAST AND PACIFIC NORTHWEST
February 2021
Keynote Speaker: Lisa Romero
Working Title: Gender and Sexuality: How diversity and inclusion support resilience and health.
We are exploring whether these two conferences will take place separately or join together as one online conference. Further details will follow.
For information contact conference@waldorfearlychildhood.org
WALDORF100 PLUS ONE CONFERENCE
Learn to Change the World
June 22 - 25, 2021
Chicago Waldorf School, Chicago, IL or online. TBA.
AWSNA, WECAN and the Alliance for Public Waldorf Education invite you and your colleagues to join us in celebrating our past and planning for the future.
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