Santa Fe Waldorf Community Magazine Summer 2020

COM M U NIT Y MAGA ZINE

Inspiration

|

Summer 2020

in the face of challenge and change

ALUMNI MAGAZINE Volume 4, No. 2 - Summer 2020 Cynthia Shore Editor Janine Pearson Graphic Designer BOARD OF TRUSTEES Melissa Coleman, President Andy Smith, Vice President Janine Pearson, Secretary Cheryl Slover-Linett, Treasurer Danelle Aragon Adam Clark Pam Colgate Fletcher Lathrop Micky Leach Cita Riley Ex-officio Gerson Perez, School Administrator Carole Cressman, Campus Manager Karl Johnson, Pedagogical Chair Thomas Keppel, Business Manager Jennifer Warren, Admissions Director The Santa Fe Waldorf School is an independent, nonprofit organization with accreditation through the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA) and the National Council for Private School Accreditation (NCPSA).

Additionally, our school is a full member of the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America (WECAN) and the New Mexico Athletics Association (NMAA). We welcome and serve students from a variety of social, economic, ethnic, cultural, and international backgrounds.

The faculty and staff of the Santa Fe Waldorf School would like to express their deep gratitude to the New York Community Trust for their generous contribution to the publication of this magazine.

Although we couldn't celebrate Mayfaire together this year, we enjoyed memories from years past.

As I reflect on this unprecedented school year, with our community temporarily deprived of its “physical body” during an 11-week campus closure, I wonder: what is the real essence of our school?

It is often said that Waldorf education is based on relationships; the creation of a solid web of the elements of knowledge that give children the capacity to have an integrated understanding of the world around them.

Waldorf education is also based on soul-nurturing, heart-centered human relationships between teachers, students, parents, our community, and Waldorf schools across the nation and abroad that make us part of a worldwide movement. All of these relationships are severely affected by the pandemic. In this issue of the magazine, we report on our community response, on our alumni inspired to make a concrete difference around the world, and on the global action undertaken by the larger Waldorf community.

Here at the Santa Fe Waldorf School, I can confidently report that we made impressive efforts to keep the integrity of the learning process, using the resources at hand and learning new skills on the fly (see page 2). We learned that our relationships are solid and we are profoundly grateful for the infinite expressions of compassion and support from our community.

I must note the extraordinary work of our Board and specifically of Melissa Coleman, our board president, who is finishing her second and last year of leadership, after serving 6 years as board member. (see page 9 for Coleman’s reflections as an SFWS parent). Melissa committed to consolidate the long term viability of the school, fortifying its finances, organizational structure, and renewing the strategic planning process. We are immensely appreciative of all the passion, time, and effort that she gave to our community.

I must also congratulate our high school seniors, who faced the unusual circumstances at the end of their school year with poise and grace. (see page 4).

I am proud of who they have shown themselves to be and know they will make important contributions to our changing world.

What have we learned? That our school shines bright. The power of imagination living in our souls found a way to manifest even through the curtain of technology. At the core of what keeps us together, there is “The Being” of the school; that spiritual substance made of our shared values, our shared vision of the path to healthy human development, and our shared hope for a world ruled by free human beings “who are able of themselves to impart purpose and direction to their lives,” to cite Dr. Steiner’s words.

The preparation work for next school year will be intense, and uncertainty is still the tag attached to all of our decisions. But having gone through these difficult times together, in the way we did, gives us the strength and inspiration we need to move forward.

Blessings to all of you and your families,

D

Gerson Pérez

Photo by Dham Khalsa Photography

Dear Community,

SFWS TODAY: Waldorf's Response to COVID-19 GLOBAL COMMUNITY ANSWERS THE CALL FOR SUPPORT

IN THIS ISSUE

By Cynthia Marshall Shore

SFWS TODAY

Response to COVID-19 Distance Learning Class of 2020 Grades 8 & 12 Class Projects News Highlights Alumni News

ALUMNI PROFILES Keifer Nace

1 2 4 6 8 21 12

High School Class of 2015

Emma Warren Grade 9 Class of 2009

16

Tom McPartlon High School Class of 2007

18

WALDORF CURRICULUM

Form Drawing 14 Eurythmy 20

STAFF & FACULTY PROFILES Daniel Wendland

Carole Cressman

13 19

PARENT PERSPECTIVE

Melissa Coleman

9

To view a digital version of this magazine and past issues, please visit issuu.com/santafewaldorfschool.

We need your support!

We are committed to preserving the "head, heart, and hands" of the Waldorf curriculum for all of our students, no matter what form it takes!

As we adjust to the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic, we know that many of our families are facing new financial situations. At the same time, we are adjusting our curriculum, grounds, and procedures to keep our students and staff safe.

As the COVID-19 pandemic developed this spring, the global Waldorf community swung right into action, reaching out to provide schools with the resources needed to meet the ongoing challenge.

The national response has been innovative and effective, says Beverly Amico, director of advancement for the Association of Waldorf Schools in North America (AWSNA). “With the power of imagination, a deep well of courage, a sense of responsibility to community, and with an extraordinary leap of faith, our schools have risen to the distance learning challenge and are finding ways to enliven Waldorf education from afar,” she notes.

The AWSNA website, waldorfeducation.org, immediately gathered resources and shared protocols related to COVID-19. The site’s Community Hub has been brimming with everything from emotional support ideas and distance learning blogs, to May Day crown tutorials and school development strategies during closures.

Despite Waldorf education not having technology at its curricular center, Amico notes that, “in fact, recognizing the irony, we find that many of our schools are acting as leaders in distance learning because they understand what it means to keep the human being at the center of their work.”

The AWSNA site pointed readers to Becca Lane, early childhood teacher at the Little Round Schoolhouse in Asheville, NC, who produced a storytime and a puppet show on Facebook each day. The Waldorf School of Philadelphia posted resources for how parents can discuss COVID-19 with their children, and Kim Allsup, a former teacher with the Waldorf School of Cape Cod, used her blog to offer entries on “Stories for Children in Times of Trouble.”

“ I N FACT, RECOGNIZING THE IRONY, WE FIND THAT MANY OF OUR SCHOOLS ARE ACTING AS LEADERS IN DISTANCE LEARNING BECAUSE THEY UNDERSTAND WHAT IT MEANS TO KEEP THE HUMAN BEING AT THE CENTER OF THEIR WORK.” AWSNA is now focusing on next fall, offering a Returning to School Scenario Planning Series on reopening strategies for the 2020-2021 school year.

We need YOUR help to meet these challenges so we can continue to prepare the next generation's leaders for a world that needs them!

Unsurprisingly, the internet was also at the core of the global Waldorf response. On the Pedagogical Section of the School of Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum, an international center for anthroposophical learning, a Dutch

Visit santafewaldorf.org/donate today.

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SFWS TODAY: Distance Learning During COVID-19 TAKING THE CLASSROOM ONLINE AND INTO HOMES

By Cynthia Marshall Shore

You would think it would be a tall order for a Waldorf school to turn to technology and computers as teaching tools for our hands-on, multi-sensory, student-based curriculum.

But the Santa Fe Waldorf School has not only met this challenge, it did so with expertise and excellence. Pedagogical Chair Karl Johnson notes “The SFWS faculty pulled off a herculean task pivoting into the distance learning modality in March.”

And SFWS executed that pivot before most area schools.

Anticipating the possibility of a school closure because of the COVID-19 pandemic, SFWS faculty began developing creative ways to teach online and stay in touch with students even before the school closure on March 16 and well before the New Mexico Public Education Department ordered the state’s public schools to start distance learning on March 27.

Using Google Classrooms as a base, the school developed a comprehensive approach for the new reality. Across all sections, the teachers came up with creative ideas and engaging lessons and assignments to move the educational program online, notes Johnson. “They not only kept the program going through the end of the school year, they also made efforts to really stay connected with students and families throughout the process,” he says.

For Early Childhood educators, the challenge was particularly acute because the curriculum does not use technology at all.

Instead, teachers kept in touch with parents via telephone, Zoom meetings, email, and curricular packets—including seeds to plant— left in bins for pick up at the school.

Natalie Buschbom, parent to rising first grader Logan Buschbom, and rising kindergarteners Taylor and Paige Buschbom, said that her children’s instructors supported her family well, emailing “great activities including circle time songs and movements, recipes for the class meals the children have been 2

ZOOM meeting with seniors, their parents and their teachers. craving, homemade playdough, and much more!” The family also built a Waldorf-inspired shelter (see image bottom left) and later an herb spiral so the children can tend plants for use in cooking.

Kindergarten teacher Karleen Whitcomb admits it was challenging to meet the needs of the early childhood families while holding to the principles of Waldorf education. She notes, “I think the most successful thing we have done is to record stories in 10 to 20 minute segments for the families to listen to daily. Some parents have said how nice it is to have our voices in their homes.”

Whitcomb also made little woolly eggs and chicks as spring gifts for each student and organized weekly “Zoom parades” for students to show off their home activities. “It was very sweet for everyone to see each other,” says Whitcomb.

Grade school students worked in their main lesson books at their home desks studying early civilizations, math, science and writing. Grade 2 teacher Micayla Durán recorded guides for students to listen to as they drew, while Grade 7 teacher Kate Pavuk had students make self-styled masks of protection similar to those of the indigenous Boruca peoples of Costa Rica during their Latin American block.

Ninth graders continued their English studies by reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon and drawing their visualizations of the main character Christopher Boone (see page 10), while 10th graders studied

A PARENT’S REFLECTION ON THE PANDEMIC With COVID-19 permeating our coverage of the school this issue, we chose to include community member Kyce Bello’s poem The Thin Line, which so perfectly reflects the position many of us find ourselves in right now.

Homer's Odyssey. Seniors prepared their year-end projects (see page 7) and turned their minds to the future after receiving their college acceptances (see page 5).

Handwork teacher Danelle Aragon opened online classrooms in knitting, crocheting, and sewing, and organized a schoolwide mask-sewing project, sending out videos and instructions for masks to be made for the local domestic abuse agency, La Esperanza. Parent & Child teacher Erin O’Neill wrote blog posts for her families outlining resources to create resilience for homebound students.

For their music studies, students uploaded instructional videos and recordings on a weekly basis, notes Lee Harvey, director of the high school and middle school orchestras. She reports she was proud of her students’ adaptability: “Though we were no longer able to come together to play, many were still opening their cases, practicing, taking online lessons and regularly putting in the elbow grease it takes to learn an instrument.”

A version of this poem first appeared in the Santa Fe New Mexican on April. 17.

Bello’s debut poetry collection Refugia (University of Nevada Press, 2019) was winner of the inaugural Test Site Poetry Prize. She holds an MFA in poetry from the Institute of American Indian Arts, and works as a Registered Nurse in Santa Fe. Bello is the founding teacher of SFWS’ Parent & Childclasses, is married to Elliot Ryan, high school humanities teacher, and their two daughters, rising 4th and 7th graders, have attended SFWS since preschool. Visit kycebello.com for more information about her work.

The Thin Line

By Kyce Bello Stock trading halted by noon. Airplanes grounded soon after. In an encampment in the forest,

She also sees some silver linings in the situation. “The distance learning platform has forced the students to use the knowledge they have gleaned from their teachers to make sense of the music in a more independent manner,” Harvey says. Grades 5 through 12 put together a virtual performance to be aired in June.

a hunter knapping arrowheads

To end the school year on a positive note, and to offset family fatigue after months of isolation and online learning, the school ended the year a week early on May 29th and offered a range of class art projects to be done at home. Teachers also created a giant chalk mandala on the basketball court for school families to fill in with artwork as a year-end project (see back cover).

My daughter hears it won’t be children

Overall, SFWS' response to the pandemic crisis has helped keep our community connected. Says Johnson, the staff's "hard work and dedication is to be commended."

Top images L to R : Teagan Goorley (Grade 2) drawing at home listening to recorded prompts by his teacher Micayla Durán; Bella Conwell (Grade 1) created a spiral as her Outdoor Activity assignment; Django Russell (Grade 4) studies his music; Morning Circle at home with teacher Daniel Wendland and his children Arjun (Kindergarten) and Ayesha (Preschool); Xia Durán y Jennings (Grade 3) illustrating the story of Joseph in Egypt; Jackson Cole (Grade 9) creating art Jackson Pollack style; and senior Story Coleman on a Zoom meeting at home.

says, There is a hole where elders used to be.

The thin line of honking birds overhead could be geese, but are Sandhill Cranes. I now gauge whom to trust by who can tell the difference. who die. She grows quiet, then asks So, kids will be the doctors?

Kids will be the teachers? and in the pause between her question and No, no, of course not, that future lifts its head to gaze at me.

At their compound in the woods, the hunters sleep under bark and pine boughs.

They don’t have guns or zippers. They say that needing each other and being needed is better even than a grocery store. They hold hands and look at the stars and think how once, each one was named, and how now, or sometime soon enough, when we’ve forgotten what to call them, they can be named again.

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SFWS TODAY: Class of 2020

Class of 2020: Story Coleman, Yeva Reinikainen, Bri Yellowhorse, Koray Gates, Nicoya Dant, Kyle Diaz, Luca Vera Ramirez, Leila Midgette, and Parker Willmore.

Class of 2020 with their class sponsor Enrique Otero.

Photos by Dham Khalsa Photography (Fall 2019)

PRESENTING THE CLASS OF 2020 “OUR CARING CIRCLE OF TEACHERS HAVE HELD US AND TAUGHT US WITH PASSION AND KINDNESS...

THEIR VALUABLE INSIGHTS AND TEACHINGS WILL CONTINUE TO PROVIDE GUIDANCE IN OUR DECISIONS AND IN OUR LIVES AS WE MOVE ON TO A NEW CHAPTER. ”

Our impressive seniors have continued the tradition of SFWS excellence. Accepted by a total of 21 institutions, eight of the nine seniors were admitted to their first-choice college and the class has been awarded $1.8 million in scholarships and merit awards!

It hasn’t been easy. “Like the majority of students graduating this year, the Santa Fe Waldorf School Class of 2020 experienced the frustration, uncertainty, anger, and sadness that has permeated a season that is supposed to be enveloped in exactly the opposite,” says class sponsor Enrique Otero.

However, despite going without prom, a year-end trip, or an in-person graduation, SFWS seniors are still celebrating their achievements. Says Otero, “As the progressive, independent thinkers they are, the class accepted the situation and worked alongside the faculty to design a series of original events in order to make their graduation, given the circumstances, the memorable event they unquestionably deserve.”

Student Council President Koray Gates reports that despite COVID-19 and closures, “The class will celebrate – both individually and together – this turning point in our lives, though it may be different from what we expected or hoped for.” He adds, “Luckily, years of friendships and memories, which bond a Waldorf class, will not crumble because of the lack of these traditional events. I feel confident that I speak for my whole class in expressing our gratitude for the amazing opportunities and experiences that our loving faculty and the Waldorf community have provided us over the years. This caring circle of teachers has helped shape who we are today. Their passion, kindness, insights, and teachings will continue to guide our decisions and lives as we move on to a new chapter.”

In an intimate, outdoor ceremony on campus the seniors were presented their diplomas

by Otero, Board President Melissa Coleman, and School Administrator Gerson Perez.

The ceremonies were filmed and compiled into a video by Board Secretary Andy Smith.

To view, please visit youtube.com/santafewaldorfschool and click on Playlists.

Congratulations to all!

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SFWS TODAY: College Essay Class Valedictorian Bri Yellowhorse has been accepted into UNM's prestigious BA/MD program with a full scholarhip through medical school. She is the recipient of a $10,000 Leadership Scholarship from the Los Alamos National Lab Foundation. She also received a Super Scholar Award, sponsored

by Century Bank, given to Santa Fe seniors who score highly in testing and are among the top 10% of their class.

College Choices The Class of 2020 will attend the following colleges and plan on majoring in the following areas: Story Coleman - Ursinus College Collegeville, PA, English and History Nicoya Dant - Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, undecided Leila Midgette - Earlham College, Richmond, IN, Anthropology and Spanish Parker Willmore - University of New Mexico, Psychology and Film, after a gap year Koray Gates - Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO, undecided Kyle Diaz - New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, NM, undecided Luca Vera Ramirez - Lindenwood University, St Charles, MO, Music Yeva Reinikainen - Academy of Arts University, San Francisco, CA, Fashion

Additional College Acceptances Bard College Fort Lewis College Goucher College Hope College Juniata College Montana State University Quest University Sarah Lawrence College Saint Edward’s University University of Puget Sound University of Utah Whitman College

WORKING HANDS

by Bri Yellowhorse

Scratches. Extremely short nails.

Too much skin around the knuckles.

Strong and thick. Black lines on my fingertips. You can tell who I am by looking at my hands.

One time, I was in Farmington, New Mexico, near the reservation, and I went out to eat. I noticed my server’s hands, and they looked like a Native model’s hands: dignified, scarred and strong.

Sometimes I stop what I’m doing and stare at my hands. My hands are pristine, free of scars, so different from the hands I saw in Farmington. Do I fit in with the Natives or am I an outsider once again? I keep trying to find elements in my hands that look Native so I can convince myself that I am a real Native even though I don’t live on the reservation and my mom is Colombian. Whenever I paint my nails, my hands look different, and I feel as if I have betrayed my Native heritage because they no longer look like a Navajo’s hands that are used to herding sheep all day. When I decide to keep the paint on my nails, I feel as though, in that moment, I belong more to my Colombian heritage, and I would not want to travel to the reservation for fear of people calling me an apple. An apple because it is red on the outside…. I never keep nail polish on my nails for long.

I used to ask my Native father all the time if my hands looked nicked and scratched up enough to be considered “rez” hands. His answer would always be the same, “No, there would be red dirt under the fingernails that you don’t have.” I have accepted the fact that my hands will never have the red dirt from the mesas and the four sacred Navajo mountains under my nails, or grease stains from taking apart and putting cars back together. Yet my hands will always be Native even though sometimes I can’t see it. I will always have a part of me that is Native no matter where I go.

I always get made fun of for my short fingernails, and my dad adds that when he tells me I have no dirt under my nails. I have to keep them short or else I will not be able to play the violin properly. And if I cannot play the violin, then I “won’t be able to bring joy to people’s hearts with my violin,” according to my dad. My dad always tells me whenever I do something with my hands that I need to be extra careful because if I hurt my hands then my musical gift will be gone. This depresses me, and yet I take heed of his warnings.

Sometimes after I finish practicing for the day, my fingertips will be black and have lines on them. When I see these markings, it makes me proud because I know that I worked hard and am closer to my goal to be the best violinist I can be. When my fingertips are in their normal state, calloused and without nails, I feel content, as though I am truly myself, even though I would like them to also have red dirt under them. My calloused fingertips minus the red dirt make me who I am: a Native violin player who doesn’t live on the reservation. I call myself a modern Navajo.

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SFWS TODAY: Class Projects GRADE 8 AND SENIORS CHOOSE INNOVATION TO COMPLETE THEIR YEAR-LONG STUDENT PROJECTS Perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of the school’s closure due to the global pandemic was faced by SFWS 8th and 12th graders. They spent the entire school year working hard on in-depth school projects they traditionally would have presented in person before the greater school community. “I think it's safe to say that this year's projects were unlike any that ever came before in 100 years of Waldorf education,” says Grade 8 teacher Daisy Barnard.

However, SFWS students turned challenge into invention, as they not only researched and created projects on their chosen topics, but they had to use non-traditional tools (for Waldorf at least) and create videos so they could safely present their projects online on the SFWS YouTube channel.

Barnard notes that students and their families had very little experience in cinematography or film editing, which added new layers of stress to an already demanding project. However, she adds, “our families accepted this crazy idea, buckled down, watched some tutorials, and mastered their respective programs.”

In making their final video presentation, there were a few hiccups and false starts as students navigated their home screens and devices, but all produced detailed and extensive explorations of their topics. Enrique Otero, the sponsor for the high school’s senior class, comments “The Class of 2020 elegantly overcame the challenges imposed by the current pandemic and delivered nine remarkable senior projects. The class showed how well they adapted to the new format, and virtually presented their work relying on visual aids and their charm, making the audience forget that they were looking at a screen.”

Topics tackled by seniors included everything from the construction of an electric guitar, the creation and illustration of a comic, the Diné tradition of fancy shawl dancing, and a satchel created from deerskin, starting with the skin on the deer. Watchers also learned about the history and future of plastics and recycling, the challenges of creating an eco-friendly home, animal rights, the history of corn agriculture, and fashion design (see page 7 for project details).

A sample of Grade 8 projects: Ayla Humphrey's chocolates, a digital photograph by Serenity Fuentes, Mikaela Crazyhorse Rodriguez presenting about Diné culture, Rowan Midgette training her dog, and the cover of Jackson Blose's cookbook.

The eighth-grade class projects were no less ambitious, ranging from learning to fly a plane and stop motion animation, to cooking, drumming, dog training and the history of Apollo 11. Some focused on physical activities, including snowboarding, Aikido, skateboarding, and lifeguard training, while others explored the arts, covering fiction writing, digital photography, the process of darkroom development, portraiture, and watercolor painting.

One student, researching the art of storytelling, decided to reflect the current moment by creating and starring in the film “Care Bear in Quarantine.” The audience for Ayla Humphrey’s project “The Art of the Chocolatier” and Jackson Blose's "Culinary Arts" may have suffered the most from social distancing because while their work was beautifully researched and produced, the audience was unable to sample the results of their hard work!

To see the Grade 8 and senior presentations, go to youtube.com/santafewaldorfschool and click on Playlists.

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SENIOR PROJECTS In search of an entirely new practical skill to learn, Kyle worked with his mentor to prepare and tan the hide of a Rocky Mountain mule deer, ultimately turning it into a beautiful satchel.

Fueled by a lifelong dream to participate as a dancer in a Powwow, Bri created the head-to-toe regalia of a Fancy Shawl Dancer, learned how to listen to and read the rhythms of traditional Powwow music and how to perform different styles of dance.

An avid and passionate reader, Story decided to delve into the process of making her own comic book, Sam Hain, inspired by ghost stories, The Wizard of Oz, and the Samhain Gaelic harvest festival, or, Halloween.

Luca flexed his musical muscles in a new way by learning all about and making a version of his favorite electric guitar: the Gibson Les Paul.

Inspired by her dream to become a high fashion designer, Yeva learned to make her own skirt, satin shirt, and a dress from Vogue and her own creativity.

Koray explored the environmental and social problem of plastics by tracing the life cycle of this material from petroleum and plant-based oils to the dump and to recycling.

Nicoya explored her architectural interests by creating a model of her dream home: a clean and modern, glass walled and eco-friendly, breathtaking home to be built someday in Sedona, AZ. Inspired by her travels to Costa Rica, Leila researched the importance of corn in the mythology, traditions, and diet of indigenous peoples in that country as well as in Mexico and New Mexico.

Parker learned about the connection between human emotional health and domestic animal abuse in her impassioned plea to bring awareness to the welfare of all animals.

GLOBAL COMMUNITY

continued from page 1

school shared stories of hope for teachers to bring to their students during times of fear.

Zewu Li, teacher at the Chengdu Waldorf School in China, shared how his school immediately sent out community emails on positive family dynamics and activities. As distance-learning classes got up and running, Li reports that teachers’ struggles to master Zoom made everyone laugh, but that eventually, working rhythms were established and learning progressed. Tintin Ongpin-Montes of the Manila Waldorf School in the Philippines, wrote humorously about how happy her high school students initially were to not get up early in the morning and to spend even more time on the internet.

Besides offering pedagogical support, the Waldorf community faced hard realities.

The international Friends of Waldorf website reported on the negative effects of school closures around the world, including institutions in India, Kyrgyzstan, and Hungary that need economic support. Pointing out that distance learning doesn’t work where there is not a reliable internet connection, the site highlighted the Rudolf Steiner School Mbagathi in Kenya where 80 percent of students come from families in need without smartphones and computers. At the Zanzibar Steiner School, teachers hand-delivered pedagogical packets to their students that included soap and eggs to support families that may not have enough food or hygienic supplies to weather the crisis.

Anticipating several years before the pandemic is over, Friends of Waldorf recognized the need for emergency pedagogical resources. It is working in 34 countries, creating emergency hotlines, videos and internet sites that offer psychological help for those in crisis, especially for families in crowded slums.

Despite all the upheaval, educators are also noting unexpected silver linings. Ongpin-Montes found that the crisis and the experience of learning online was creating something deeper and more serious in her students. She noted with gratitude that one day, “somehow, the class started talking about how challenging it is to be true to oneself, especially in these days where one feels most isolated and disconnected from the world. And how, in trying to connect to one’s Self, one would also find their way to connect to others, and how this is what the world needs most now.”

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SFWS TODAY: News Highlights Music Violinists Bri Yellowhorse (senior) and Lily Clark (sophomore) were chosen to perform in the All-State Music Festival and Conference in January 2020. The 76-year-old event, hosted by the New Mexico Music Educators Association, highlights the State’s most gifted music students. Applicants must pass complex auditions in a musical area such as orchestra, jazz band, or chorus, to be accepted to three days of workshops and rehearsals, ending in a full day of performances for the general public.

Waldorf Community

Grade 8 Donates Trip Funds for COVID Support Denied their year-end trip because of the pandemic, the eighth grade decided instead to help others. The class agreed to use $2,800 of the money they had raised for the trip to meet the growing COVID-19 emergency in the Navajo Nation. Grade 8 mom Jess Falkenhagen writes that in late May, she and her eldest daughter Indie (rising Grade 12), "drove a big Budget passenger van loaded to the brim with supplies to Window Rock, AZ. We purchased large quantities of non-perishable food, toiletries, paper products, school supplies, pet food, thermometers, handmade masks and 60 gallons of drinking water." This story of generosity was covered by national news services including the Good News Network, ABC, Microsoft News, CNN, among others.

SFWS and Lakota Waldorf The Santa Fe Waldorf School continued to support the Lakota Waldorf School on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota as part of a program by the Association of Waldorf Schools in North America. In March, Administraor Gerson Pérez and Grade 8 teacher Daisy Barnard traveled to South Dakota to work with the administration and upper grades faculty.

Barnard writes “We were excited to begin our partnership and were able to get quite a bit done in two days. Then, as fate would have it, COVID-19 shutdowns expanded across the country.

During our final hours with the Lakota Waldorf School, we found ourselves involved in helping teachers and staff plan for the

upcoming closures. Their needs and capabilities are very different from our own, and it was an eye-opening conversation. For example, LWS provides two meals a day to their students, so this service would have to transform into mobile food delivery. Most households in Pine Ridge are not able to support online learning, so this was another factor the school has to work around."

Barnard continues, “Since our visit, Pine Ridge Reservation has been seriously affected by the pandemic in numerous ways. The school has continued to provide support to dozens of families throughout the quarantine. Like other schools across the country, they are unsure what their 20/21 school year will look like, but one thing is certain: LWS will continue to serve its students and their families in whatever ways it can.”

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The RainDropWonderShop Indie Russell, a SFWS rising senior, launched an Etsy shop, the RainDropWonderShop, in November to display her handmade Waldorf-inspired toys and crafts (shown above), which she describes as “immediately successful.” Russell also sold her products at December's Holiday Faire. She offers seasonal and holiday gifts and found that her website experienced a surge in business around Easter due to quarantined shoppers looking for handmade gifts. Russell also started making masks, including those donated to the Navajo Nation (see above) but found she could not balance skyrocketing demand and her school work.

She hopes to expand her product line in the summer.

Applying Wilderness Wisdom to the Current Pandemic Karl Johnson, the SFWS Pedagogical Chair, had a timely and relevant article, titled "When In Wilderness—Applying Wilderness Wisdom to Navigating the Current Pandemic" published on Waldorf Today. Read the article here: karljohnsoneducator.com/blog.

Johnson has been part of the SFWS community for over 25 years and helped found and led the school's Wilderness Education Program—now a hallmark program of SFWS.

Board of Trustees

The Board is pleased to welcome back Micky Leach as our newest member. Leach served on the SFWS board from 2000 to 2006 and is a member of the Western Regional Council for the Anthroposophical Society in America. Her two grandchildren currently attend SFWS.

Parent Perspective Faculty and Staff: Hellos and Goodbyes

We welcome next year's grade one class teacher, Emma Maruska.

She was the practical arts and upper grades support teacher for the last four years at the Cedarwood Waldorf School in Portland, Oregon. Maruska completed her Waldorf teacher training with the West Coast Institute in Vancouver, BC. Grade 6 will be saying goodbye to Molly MacKinnon and will be welcoming Sonya Onyx as their new teacher. She will be joining us with her husband Greg Sammis and her two children from the Ithaca Waldorf School in New York. Onyx and Sammis are currently completing their Waldorf teacher training at Sunbridge Institute, and Sammis will take the aftercare lead role and will help with substitution and some high school blocks.

Ruby Montoya will be joining us this fall as our new Grades 1-6 Spanish teacher. She is coming from Sedona, Arizona, where she has been a grades teacher at Running River Waldorf School.

We are also happy to announce Flavia Purpura-Pontoniere as our new Middle School and High School Office Coordinator for next year. Flavia is a graduate of St. John's College. She has been home schooled with a Waldorf curriculum, is a certified climbing-wall instructor, and a registered behavioral technician.

She is thrilled to become part of our community.

Susanna Green will be departing her position of Middle School and High School Office Coordinator at the close of 2020 school year. Her incredible skills in leadership, organization, communication, and efficiency, as well as her caring attitude and willingness to help out in any and every possible situation, have made her an essential support person for the daily running of the school for the last six years. Her wide-ranging job responsibilities have included everything from office management and scheduling to assisting with wilderness trips, art classes, publications, and the sports program.

Green’s dog, Zissou, also played an important role at SFWS. When not snoozing under Green’s desk, Zissou served as an animal “therapist” for students and staff alike, visiting the first grade on a weekly basis (pictured left) and serving as a wilderness trip chaperone. He has been called down to the lower school office to comfort students, and one student regularly came to sit, hug, and sometimes even brush him. As one student put it, “It’s so much calmer here with Zissou around; it just feels better in the school.”

WE WOULD DO IT ALL AGAIN

By SFWS Parent and Board President Melissa Coleman

Now, when I am asked if I would do this all over again—the answer is resoundingly, "Yes!". My daughter Story’s teacher, Michael Oellig, was and is the best teacher I have ever known.

Reflecting back over her eight years at Waldorf, I see that Story’s education has filled her mind with knowledge, curiosity, and confidence.

This is an uncertain time, and our school year has been cut short by an unforeseeable and unimaginable event. For Story and her fellow Santa Fe Waldorf seniors, it is an especially poignant and sad time. Their educational journey has been disrupted, the rhythm of the classroom has faded, and the final ceremonies and traditions that mark the transition to young adulthood have been altered. However, I believe strongly, given this adversity, that the class of 2020 has been given the tools that will sustain their creative, strong, independent, and resilient nature through the years.

This exceptional class of seniors has climbed the tallest peaks in New Mexico, backpacked in the wilds of Southern Utah Canyons (twice), and hiked and paddled hundreds of wilderness miles. These incredible outdoor adventures are just a part of what makes them strong and independent young adults.

The school’s academic rigor and creative expectations have given Story and her class a solid foundation of critical thinking skills and compassion to help build a better world. This group is academically and mentally prepared for college, or wherever their passions may take them. Their curiosity for the world around them will make them life-long learners.

The Santa Fe Waldorf School was the best educational choice for Story. And it has filled her heart with wonder, joy, and gratitude. Story and her classmates have all the tools to begin the next journey and beyond. They are ready.

Story Coleman, HS Class of 2020, in 4th grade (L) and at the 11th grade camping trip to Vallecitos, NM (R).

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SFWS TODAY: Student Work During Quarantine

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Row 1: Grade 5, Greek Mythology & Grade 6, Middle Ages, Row 2: Grade 7, Masks of Latin America and Geography, Row 3: Grade 8, English class illustrations created from the book "The Boys Who Challenged Hitler", Row 4: Grade 9, English class illustrations created from the book "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time," Row 5: Grade 10 renderings of Achilles' shield while studying the Illiad.

School Photos Class Plays

Grade 7 performs Alice in Wonderland

Grade 8 performs Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

Class of 2020

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ALUMNI PROFILE Keifer Nace

High School Class of 2015 BA, Geology and Environmental Studies, Whitman College, 2019

HEALING THE ENVIRONMENT THROUGH TEACHING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT What and how was your academic experience after leaving Waldorf, both personally and academically?

After Waldorf, I attended Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA, majoring in geology and environmental studies. I think my diverse Waldorf education inspired me to choose this major because it is an interdisciplinary field.

My class subjects ranged widely, combining geology, chemistry, calculus, and computer science with environmental writing, history, sociology, and politics.

Waldorf gave me a love for learning, and it prepared me extremely well in writing, Spanish, creative thinking, and communication.

How did you choose your current occupation?

For two summers in college I had the opportunity to work in geology research, with one project turning into my senior honors thesis. During the summer of 2017, I worked at Western Washington University for the National Science Foundation’s Research Experience for Undergraduates. For this project, I researched the forest fire history of three different landslide-dammed lakes in the Oregon Coast Range.

In the summer of 2018, I worked with the Keck Geology Consortium for a project on paleoclimatology. This research became my thesis, focusing on the impacts of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (a climate change event which occurred 56 million years ago and is considered our best proxy for today’s climate change) on plant and river systems.

“WALDORF TAUGHT ME TO BE CURIOUS AND IT MADE ME UNAFRAID TO TRY NEW AND DIFFICULT THINGS. ”

After graduating from college, I wanted to explore while also using my degree.

The Peace Corps became a very fitting opportunity, and I remembered hearing many incredible stories from mentors and peers of mine about their service, including [SFWS High School Math and Physical Sciences Teacher] Mr. Burritt.

I ended up applying to serve in Mexico as an environmental educator, which perfectly matched my interests in wanting to work for the environment as well as wanting to improve my Spanish, all while having the opportunity to intimately learn about Mexican culture. I started in August, 2019, but unfortunately, due to COVID-19, the Peace Corps suspended all programs worldwide and I was abruptly evacuated from Mexico on March 17. I am currently weighing my options for my future occupation, whether that will be going to graduate school or working for the environment in the private or public sector.

Looking back, how does your Waldorf education benefit your life today?

I am extremely grateful for my Waldorf education, and I truly believe I would not be the same person I am today had I not attended Waldorf. Waldorf taught me to be curious, and it made me unafraid to try new and difficult things.

Being challenged to create main lesson books, to carve wooden stools, to sew dolls, to read Faust or Walden, to write poetry, to play the saxophone, to backpack in the desert wilderness, or to complete a senior project exposed me to so many different ways of thinking and moving in this world, which are invaluable to my life today.

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Nace (center) with her counterparts and Peace Corps managers in Totolac, Mexico

Please describe your daily life.

Due to COVID-19 and my evacuation, I have been staying home and practicing

TEACHER PROFILE

Nace teaching a decomposition timeline with middle schoolers in Totolac, Mexico social distancing. However, when I was in Mexico, I lived in a small town called San Juan Totolac, located in the state of Tlaxcala, just two hours away from Mexico City. As an environmental educator, I worked directly with the municipality’s ecology department and waste management team, developing communitywide projects for reforestation and trash management.

I also worked in the elementary, middle, and high schools, teaching lessons on trash management and working with garden clubs.

When I wasn’t working, I spent time with my host family, learning how to cook tamales, pozole, and mole from my host mom, playing basketball with my host dad, or sharing music with my host brother.

Every week in Totolac, there was something to celebrate, and, about once a week, I would find myself at a quinceañera, baptism, birthday party, or fiesta patronal, which always had plenty of delicious food and lots of cumbia dancing.

What is the best part of what you do now?

The best part of serving in the Peace Corps was getting to learn so deeply about a different culture. In Mexico, mi casa es tu casa is not just a saying, it is a reality, a way of life. I am incredibly grateful to have gotten to know so many families in Mexico, all accepting me with open and warm hearts. I loved learning something every single day, whether it was going on trash routes with my counterpart Josue, learning to cook rajas con crema with my host mom, or dancing in the parade during Carnival. The atmosphere in Mexico was always filled with so much love for family and community, as well as love for enjoying the life we’re given.

What do you do for fun?

For fun, I love being in nature, whether that is going on hikes, riding my bike, or just sitting on a patch of grass.

In Mexico, I was lucky to be surrounded by three volcanoes (one of which was excitingly active) as well as many hills, so it was very easy to find places to recreate. I still enjoy playing sports, which was often soccer or basketball in Mexico, reading, watching a good movie, and cooking. Of course, I also love spending time and going on adventures with friends and loved ones.

Contact Keifer at keifer.nace@gmail.com

Athletic Director Movement Teacher High School Class Sponsor

Photo by Dham Khalsa Photography

Daniel Wendland

When Daniel Wendland started at SFWS 16 years ago, he was enthusiastic, but didn’t really know what to expect. He had grown up in the California public school system, and his professional experience included working as a PE teacher, a JV football and baseball coach, and as an athletic director at both public and private schools in California and Morocco. Waldorf was an entirely new system. Fortunately, it was a good fit. “Are you kidding me, it’s incredible! I love it here,” Wendland says.

Daniel was born and raised in Davis, CA, where he reveled in sports.

At Davis High School, Wendland was a varsity baseball pitcher and outfielder, and through a friend, became a baseball coach at age 17 for a Little League baseball team of 8- and 9-year olds.

“I learned right then and there that I liked working with kids and that I wanted to coach,” Wendland says. He became the first in his family to go to college, ending up with a BS in Kinesiology from Humboldt State University in Arcata, CA, in 2001.

In 2002, Wendland and his then-wife moved to Morocco where he became the athletic director (AD) for the K-12 Al Akhawayn School of Ifrane, teaching Moroccan students in the all-English curriculum. He found it fascinating, but after two years, “my wife was done being a woman in a Muslim country,” Wendland notes. In Santa Fe, Wendland found an SFWS posting for a movement teacher/AD to originate the school’s athletic and movement program. Although Wendland was unfamiliar with Waldorf, he was encouraged by his former wife and mother-inlaw, who had been a Waldorf student and teacher respectively. Offered a job after a telephone interview, Wendland started here in 2004.

Part of what intrigued him about Waldorf was its flexible curriculum.

Not only did Wendland create multiple competitive team programs from scratch, but he also learned to train students for unique Waldorf events like the Pentathlon. Wendland was also able to create innovative blocks such as social dance and circus arts. “I didn’t know how to juggle. I’d never been on a unicycle, I didn’t play with bean bags...

I had to be a jack of all trades,” he notes.

Now married to Jayita Sahni, an architect with the State of New Mexico, the couple's two children go to SFWS: Ayesha, three, attends the preschool, and Arjun, six, will start first grade next year. To have his children go to Waldorf brings Wendland's professional and personal life full circle. He was new to Waldorf early childhood education and is inspired by what he has seen so far: “I find it so beautiful to observe what happens in early education. Our faculty is doing such incredible work with every child who is experiencing our unique Waldorf education.” 13

CURRICULUM: Form Drawing DEVELOPING THE MIND AND BODY THROUGH THE ESSENTIALS OF FORM

By Kathleen Taylor

Crown above, earth below, desk before, I am ready to go.

Paper held, pencil in hand, I am ready to draw Straight lines and curves with my steadiest hand.

Waldorf Form Drawing Verse

Johannes Kepler (1571-1680) said: “...God in His ineffable resolve chose straightness and roundness in order to endow the world with the signature of the Divine. Thus, the All-wise originated the world of form, the total essence of which is encompassed in the contrasts of the straight and rounded line.”

When I began my journey as a teacher, I was working as an assistant in a second-grade class. The class was struggling in many ways. One of my tasks was to take a boy out of the classroom for a portion of the morning as he was not able to be in the room without causing huge disruptions. So, what was I to do with him? I had no idea. Luckily, a more experienced colleague suggested that I work with him in form drawing. Every morning, he and I would go into an empty room together and work on creating symmetrical forms. This boy, who could single-handedly throw off an entire lesson, would sit and focus easily for 20 minutes on form drawing. He would get into the work and then begin to tell me all the things that were going on for him at home, including a contentious divorce between his parents.

Waldorf education was new to me. I was still learning its subtle powers, but I knew something was changing for this boy as he worked on these simple forms. The work settled him and centered him. Afterward, he was able to rejoin the class. He was not suddenly an easy student but was able to be in the room with his peers and learn. I will never know if what helped was time to

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share his feelings and thoughts in a quiet space, or the practice of the drawing. Most likely, a combination. However, I have also found that if I need centering, practicing these balanced and harmonious forms works.

The founder of Waldorf education, Rudolf Steiner, introduced form drawing in 1919 as a new subject for curriculum. It is drawing that is non-representational; it is not a picture of a “something.” Form drawing was intended to address the need for movement, exercise manual skills, and help develop a sense of form. Steiner also saw it as preparation for writing for those just beginning their journey through the grades.

Every teacher prepares for many hours for that wonderful first day of first grade. The first lesson is a form-drawing lesson. It is the only lesson for which we are given a clear description of what should be taught. We teach the holding of the crayon, and the drawing of the straight line and the curve. From this very first lesson, all our drawing, writing, and later, geometry, flow. This is the beginning of creating something on a page with a crayon or a pencil, and later a pen.

In many places, Rudolf Steiner expresses the need to develop the intellect through the artistic. He writes, “It is meant, that especially in the very young child, that the intellect, the intelligence which works isolated in the soul, ought not yet to be developed. How-

ever, all thinking ought to be developed by means of the visual, the pictorial.” As teachers, we work with this idea throughout the education. We are always asking ourselves, “How can I bring this lesson alive through the imagination?” Form drawing is one avenue that develops through the grades.

In Grade 1, the teacher leads the students in creating shapes and running forms that may be acted out in class and then put onto paper. For example, the form may develop out of the swirling brook followed by a fairy tale character in a story. Working with these forms helps increase an awareness of different directions in space.

In Grade 2, the forms take on a new dimension: symmetry. Now the forms are created on one side of a midline and a mirror image is created on the other side. Soon reflections in all four quadrants of a page are drawn. This requires flexibility in thinking. One must be able to move the picture in one’s mind first, then draw it on the page. Steiner described form drawing as the means by which inner seeing can be cultivated in such a way that thinking can emerge without having to be drawn down into the intellect.

FORM DRAWING HELPS STUDENTS BECOME SKILLFUL IN IMAGINATIVE AND PICTORIAL THINKING. Once students have mastered symmetrical drawings, they are ready to work with asymmetrical forms. Now the students must complete a form to create balance and harmony. This requires more independence and imaginative mobility. Giving one side of a drawing and allowing the student to complete the drawing “arouses in them a feeling for form that will help the children to experience symmetry and harmony… Through the balancing out of forms, the child will develop observation that is permeated with thought, and thinking that is permeated with imaginative observation. All of the child’s thinking will become imagery,” writes Steiner in the Kingdom of Childhood. In this way, form drawing helps students become skillful in imaginative and pictorial thinking.

What, specifically, is pictorial thinking and what is the use for it?

I once talked with a Waldorf alumni who was in college. He was taking history courses at the time and was marveling over how many of his classmates were struggling to remember the events and consequences that they needed to recall for the class. They asked this alum how he was able to remember it all. He replied simply that he formed pictures and could see it all as images and stories and did not find the need to try to memorize the material.

Later he applied the same to his medical school courses. Rudolf Steiner shared this about memory in A Modern Art of Education: “Here are the golden rules for the development of memory; the perceptibly artistic builds it up; activities of will strengthen it and make it firm.”

Form drawing continues to develop imaginative thinking through Grades 4 and 5. Fractions and ratios can be worked creatively to help students develop a feeling for them. In science, we look at the many forms of crystal growth. This supports their later intellectual understanding of math and sciences.

Cultural groups throughout the world also have forms to which they are deeply connected. When we see Celtic knot work, we recognize it as connected to the Celtic people. When we see Inca designs, we feel something different than we do when we see knot work. Working with the artistic forms of a culture can help us develop a feeling for the soul of a people or culture. As Waldorf students study the Ancient cultures of India, Persia, Mesopotamia, and Greece in fifth grade, they compare them through a feeling found in working with the forms that each of these cultures developed.

By Grade 6 and onward, form drawing becomes the study of geometry, using tools and precision the students already have, to learn about the relationships between forms as well as their beauty and harmony. Geometry comes alive when we work with the geometrical forms of nature. The student who has been honing an eye for form and balance can readily pick out these natural phenomena, and the golden ratio means more than simply numbers. Van James, a longtime Waldorf teacher shares in The Secret Language of Form: Visual Meaning in Art and Nature, “Even if they do not become artists, architects, engineers, or designers, such a grasp of the language of linear form will translate into a rich and beneficial experience of the relationships and patterns that exist among all things in the world.”

Taylor is the Grade 7 teacher at the Santa Fe Waldorf School

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ALUMNI PROFILE

STUDYING GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE What and how was your academic experience after leaving Waldorf, both personally and academically?

I went to the Santa Fe Waldorf School from first to ninth grade until 2009. I then went to the Verde Valley International Baccalaureate School in Sedona, AZ, and graduated in 2012. Even though I loved ninth grade at SFWS, it was always my dream to go to Verde Valley, which was founded by my grandparents. The school had 100 students from 17 countries. Going from the Waldorf grading style to a more rigorous and academic grading system was an adjustment, but it took me only a semester to adapt. I really enjoyed my entire experience.

Emma Warren

Grade 9, 2009

BA, Environment Science and Sociology, minor, Art and Art History St. Lawrence University, 2016 Joint International MS in Sustainable Development Universities of Graz and Basel, planning to complete in October 2020

“ART AND CARE AND THOUGHTFULNESS WERE PUT INTO OUR LESSON BOOKS, AND THAT HAS AFFECTED HOW I THINK AND ACT IN LIFE.” Warren, fourth from the right, with a team of Nepalese local workers, volunteers and business partners

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Then I decided that I was meant to be on the East Coast. I’m not really sure why, but I applied early decision to St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY. I fell in love with St. Lawrence primarily because I had visited in the summer and I didn’t realize how cold it got in winter. So, freshman year was very rough.

It was -20° F for a month, and I was constantly frozen and missed the Santa Fe sunshine. But once I decided on my major, I felt more comfortable because I was taking courses that I had chosen and that I was interested in. I also studied abroad in New Zealand, and I had an internship in Costa Rica so I got a lot out of my experience (despite the terrible winters).

How did you choose your profession?

I took two years off before going for my masters. I thought maybe I wanted to work in environmental law, so I came home to Santa Fe and did an internship at the New Mexico Environmental Law Center. It was a good experience, but it ended up not being what I wanted to do. I also worked at the Cowgirl Cafe, which I really loved—they are amazing people.

Lucy, my little sister (SFWS Grade 4, 2009) and I had been planning to travel together since I was about 12. We opened a joint bank account, and both lived at home and worked three jobs. She skipped eighth grade and graduated from Verde Valley School at age 17, so it worked out that we graduated the same year even though we are five years apart. On September 1, 2016, we took off with a one-way ticket to South America and went to eight different countries, going where the wind carried us and following the advice of locals and other travelers. After that, we came home for Christmas for 10 days, and in the beginning of 2017, I went with my best friend to Iceland, the Netherlands, and England.

Lucy went to Vietnam and Myanmar.

In February, we met up in Kathmandu, Nepal, where we worked at the Maitreya Pathshala Waldorf school in Pokhara. The people were so lovely and I really fell in love with Nepal. We worked and trekked, and I actually met my partner Julian Hungerbuehler there, whom I’m living with now. He is from Zurich, Switzerland. In April, I flew home to help open our family coffee shop, the Coffee Wheel. I painted, organized all the equipment, and learned so much about how to get deals, make partnerships and source local products.

After that, in September 2017, I started traveling again to Asia with Julian and ended up back in Nepal where we stayed for 10 months building a sustainable rammed earth building on an organic farm.

I went to source supplies for the Coffee Wheel but ended up becoming the volunteer coordinator. I did budgeting, fundraising, helped manage the farm, and bought materials. We lived in tents for eight months on the farm that was a 15-minute walk from

the nearest tiny village and ate food from the farm that was just outside of our tents.

It was really special.

What is your current work today?

Originally, I was going to get my master’s a year after college, but Nepal delayed that. In 2018, I was accepted into a joint international master’s in sustainable development, where I spent one semester at the University of Graz in Austria, and then the second and third semester at University of Basel in Switzerland. All the courses and papers are in English. I’m now in my fourth semester, which is basically just my thesis, doing that full time. I was applying for jobs here, but COVID-19 disrupted that. Now I’m waiting for everything to calm down before I try again.

COVID-19 hasn’t disrupted my schooling because now everything is just self-learning.

The teaching style in Europe is so different than in the US; there’s more self-learning than I expected or anticipated. In Austria, they really only have class once a month and the rest of the time you self-organize and decide how much work you want to put into these assignments. I will finish in October, so I’m working on my thesis for the next seven months.

How did you choose this profession?

I have always been interested in environmental issues. It began in high school when I was part of the Green Club, and then traveling reaffirmed my interest because I was constantly aware of my carbon footprint, which I always had guilt about. Also, I saw how other countries deal with waste, agriculture, travel, and how they get their energy. My thesis in college was about vertical farming, so I’m also interested in the technical side of things. Sustainable development is so interesting because it takes the environment, economics, and social and makes it very evident how these three are related—how everything is connected and how one person or company can’t do anything without the help of others.

Lucy and Emma looking over Machu Picchu

Looking back, how does your Waldorf education benefit your life today?

This master’s degree is trans-disciplinary, and requires me to look at things from different angles and to have a creative outlook. I credit Waldorf for being able to think creatively and think outside the box. In morning lessons, we’d have a different block every month, and we had the ability to immerse ourselves in one topic but were then able to change to a new topic. Later, we’d compare everything when we assembled a huge main lesson book. Art and care and thoughtfulness were put into our lessons books, and that has affected how I think and act in life.

Please describe your daily life?

Daily life is very strange right now. I moved recently and haven’t found a routine yet. I am in Chur, Switzerland, living with Julian. My daily life is I work on my thesis about five hours each day, doing research, my proposal and a literature review. I study German for an hour each day and enjoy the spring weather outside.

Emma in the Maitreya Pathshala Waldorf school's garden

What is the best part of what you do now?

The best part is that I have a lot of freedom to go after my passions and hobbies because I don’t have a nine-to-five job. I’m really grateful I’ve had these four years since college to explore everything and to be comfortable with the uncomfortable. I’ve had to adapt to being away from home, to living in a new country, and to learning about this new country, all of which can be very challenging at times. But it has been a really good chance for me to push myself out of my comfort zone, so I’m really grateful that I’ve had that opportunity.

What do you do for fun?

I cook. That’s my biggest passion right now, so that’s a big happy moment. I live basically plant-based/vegan and I like creating meals that aren’t focused around meat proteins. With my degree I became very aware of supply chains and management, and how bad some of the industries are. But I definitely cheat because Swiss cheese is delicious! I also paint. I’ve been doing painting Skype dates with Kyri Johnson (SFWS HS, 2008). We are best friends, so we’re trying to keep each other company during these weird times. And we’re in the same time zone, because she lives in the UK, which is really nice. We are working on a cactus painting because we are missing the desert.

Emma and friend on the “almost” complete farm house in Nepal 17

ALUMNI PROFILE USING TECHNOLOGY TO ADVOCATE FOR THE HOMELESS What and how was your academic experience after leaving Waldorf, both personally and academically?

I went to Eugene Lang College for Liberal Arts at the New School, which was a (mostly) seamless transition academically. The class sizes were small, and most classes were writing heavy. I had planned on majoring in English but had an excellent ecology professor who steered me towards environmental science.

New York City was a lot different from Santa Fe, though the New School did an excellent job introducing students to the city. I took several electives that took me from the northernmost part of the Bronx to the southern tip of Staten Island and everywhere in between, including the oldest subway tunnel in the world, the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel. We had to climb down a manhole in the middle of Atlantic Avenue to get there.

How did you choose your profession?

I've always loved computers and enjoy working with my hands. I started as an entry-level internet technology (IT) support person for a small tech recruitment agency, which allowed me to take classes online and learn a lot on the job. That afforded me the ability to apply for the position I have currently. As IT Coordinator, I do a little less support work, but still get to take computers apart from time to time.

Where have you worked and what is your current work today?

Tom McPartlon High School Class of 2007

BA, Environmental Studies, concentration in Urban Ecosystems Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, The New School, 2011 CURRENT WORK: IT Coordinator, Homeless Action Center, Oakland, CA

I continue to wear several hats. In high school, I worked construction and at a video rental store. In college I was a research assistant for a botanist/ecologist.

After college, I got an internship at the Gowanus Canal Conservancy, a nonprofit in Brooklyn, NY, that focused on cleaning and planting areas surrounding the Gowanus Canal, which at the time had just been designated a Superfund site. I also worked three other part-time jobs at the same time doing administrative work. I left for the West Coast about a year after college.

When I moved to Los Angeles, I got a job as a landscaper/forklift operator for about a year until I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. Since moving to Oakland, I have been a babysitter, cannabis clone propagator, and tech support specialist.

I currently hold the title IT Coordinator at the Homeless Action Center. HAC's mission, quoted here, is as follows: HAC provides no-cost, barrier-free, culturally sensitive legal representation that makes it possible for homeless men and women to access the maze of social safety-net programs that provide a pathway out of homelessness. Through HAC’s

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“OVERALL, WALDORF PROVIDED ME WITH A SOLID FOUNDATION TO BUILD MY EDUCATION AFTER HIGH SCHOOL. NOT TOO MANY CAN SAY THEY HAD A CLASS DEDICATED TO GOETHE'S FAUST OR DANTE'S INFERNO. ”

STAFF PROFILE Carole Cressman

During COVID-19, HAC has severely reduced our in-office staff, so I am currently working from home. There are still thousands of folks who are currently un-housed, and the state's priority right now seems to be focused on housing for those who are currently symptomatic. One of the biggest worries we have for clients, at this time, is whether or not many of them will receive some portion of the stimulus package, as most rely on General Assistance or SSI and had no measurable income from last year. The indication we've received from the federal government has not been exactly clear at this time.

Looking back, how does your Waldorf education benefit your life today?

I'm grateful that as a child I was given the opportunity to just be a child, and not worry about homework or grades or tests. A lot of pressure is put on children, especially now, but Waldorf managed to keep that pressure at bay, or at least make it manageable.

Overall, Waldorf provided me with a solid foundation to build my education after high school.

Not too many can say they had a class dedicated to Goethe's Faust or Dante's Inferno; though most folks also have a lot more elective freedom in high school. I've built upon that foundation in some places, and blown it up in others.

Please describe your daily life.

I cook a lot. When I am not working, I'm planning my next meal.

What is the best part of what you do now?

Problem solving. I earnestly enjoy helping people work out the tech issues they are experiencing.

What do you do for fun?

My wife Emma and I love to travel. We were fortunate enough to go to Greece for our honeymoon last October. It was truly incredible.

We like to take our dog Finn on a lot of hikes and to the beach. In my spare time, I like to make art, read, and photograph street art.

Campus Manager It took a little while for Carole Cressman to come around to the idea of putting her two young daughters in the Santa Fe Waldorf School, but in a way, it was already a done deal.

Photo by Dham Khalsa Photography

legal assistance, clients obtain health care, housing, a sustainable income, and restored dignity.

In her years of studying education and working with kids and the outdoors, Cressman realized that she was looking for an educational system flexible enough to meet an individual student’s needs. Multiple friends, after visiting her in El Pueblo, NM, noticed that her home reflected a creative, nature-based environment much like the Waldorf curriculum, and urged her to seriously consider the Santa Fe school. After the third friend brought it up, Cressman gave in and went for a visit. “When I came to the campus in 2000, I fell in love with it,” she notes. In 2002 Cressman began working in early childhood and substitute teaching throughout the grades.

By 2006, she was hired full time.

A native of northern Ontario, Canada, Cressman has worked everywhere from the TransCanada pipeline to Sony Canada Limited where in six months, she jumped from mailroom manager to national sales coordinator for the firm’s professional video and audio division. Realizing she wasn’t happy working in the corporate world, Cressman searched for something more fulfilling, settling on managing a retreat center for corporations, and being a group facilitator and a ropes course instructor. During her training, Cressman first saw her future husband Dan in a video in which he carried a woman with multiple sclerosis on his shoulders up a 30’ pole to give her a zip line experience. Not long after, in 1986, Carole and Dan married and took off on a three-week honeymoon to the US on an old BMW motorcycle.

Riding up the Pecos Canyon, the Cressmans happened to visit Brush Ranch, a boarding school for adolescents with learning differences. “They offered us work immediately and we decided to stay in New Mexico,” she notes. Over the following years, the Cressmans purchased land on the Pecos River and she became an organic farmer, while also working on her bachelors degree, managing a state university community program for the special education population, and then, becoming a mom.

Once a Waldorf family, the Cressmans were committed. Both children started in kindergarten. Daniella, (Grade 11, 2012) now 24, graduated university with a BA, and works as a freelance writer and English tutor. Amia (HS 2018 class valedictorian), now 20, is a junior studying neuropsychology at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

When the Cressman girls left Santa Fe Waldorf, many expected Cressman would quickly move on to other work. For the moment, however, her commitment to the school is solid. “After 20 years, my heart connection to this school is strong. I stay because I believe in the Waldorf curriculum and the incredible potential of this little school community.”

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CURRICULUM: Eurythmy SUPPORTING BODY, SOUL AND SPIRIT THROUGH MOVEMENT

by Anne-Meike Gassmeyer

Since the very beginning of Waldorf Education, eurythmy has been a central part of the curriculum. Yet to this very day, it seems as if it is still very unknown; eurythmy is an art of movement that speaks to the three elements that make up the whole human being: Thinking, Feeling and Willing.

Eurythmy first and foremost came into being as a performing art in the early 20th century through Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual-scientific awareness of the human being. The goal was to make visible the movements that lie underneath our speech and song, of which our natural gestures that accompany our daily speech are a faint remnant. Thus, eurythmy makes visible what otherwise remains unseen and is therefore so often unrecognized: the living soul and spirit within the human body.

If we look at any living thing, be it a plant or the tiniest animal, or be it a human being, we recognize that it appears in a very particular form and shape. Something not only lets it grow into this very form, but also keeps it from falling apart, keeps it from dying. Any rock or stone does not partake in this process, there is no living and no dying. But for the living world, certain forces literally shape and form the organism and keep it alive and healthy until the moment of death, when the organism begins to fall apart.

This artistic form of eurythmy carries a health-giving aspect to it. If one directs movements more towards the body, rather than shaping and forming the space on stage, this is where eurythmy has a healing power and is successfully used as a way to cure disease.

“ E URYTHMY MAKES VISIBLE WHAT OTHERWISE REMAINS UNSEEN AND IS THEREFORE SO OFTEN UNRECOGNIZED: THE LIVING SOUL AND SPIRIT WITHIN THE HUMAN BODY. ” In the curriculum, we bring eurythmy to the children beginning at the age of three. The classes are very short and happen only once a week. We attempt to gently lift their whole being—body, soul and spirit—in imaginative ways to unite it with those forces of the living world. As we enliven students’ being in this way, we allow their soul and spirit to incarnate into their bodies more harmoniously.

Eurythmic movements are very gentle but still have strength and intensity. Since the movements are always done out of imagination, they involve soul and spirit as much as the body. So, as easy as eurythmy seems, it is very demanding and asks a lot of inner activity rather unconsciously in the young child.

These very life, or etheric, forces, we find again transformed in the human speech or song. They stand, or rather, “move”, so to speak, invisibly behind every audible sound with a particular force and quality to bring about word or song. And it is these movements that we make visible in eurythmy. Thus whenever we do eurythmy, we consciously lift ourselves out of the more physical realm into the realm of these unseen life forces.

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In Grades 1 through 3, the class time lengthens to 30 or 45 minutes. As children grow older and awaken out of the realm of imagination, at about their ninth year in Grade 4, more consciousness enters how eurythmy works, too. The classes now happen twice a week for a full period. The gestures of the different sounds are taught consciously now, and poetry or music are incorporated in the choreography. This brings the child to a whole other element of orientation in space and especially orientation in space among other human beings.

Because eurythmy is a way of asking us to take hold of our own being, it also has a very social aspect. It is not enough to imagine, feel, and then do a form or gesture. It almost always has to be accomplished together with other people. This asks a good amount of awareness and discipline of the student.

ALUMNI NEWS Arizona Muse, Grade 10, 2005, an international fashion model, has appeared in numerous magazines in the last six months including the cover stories for the April 2020 editions of Spanish Vogue and the UK publication Stella. Muse uses these platforms and social media to continue her activism on behalf of biodynamic farming and sustainable fashion and beauty. She lives in London with her husband and two children.

Brooke Reiche, HS Class of 2015, graduated from

Classes are done with live music, usually piano, to support the student to first train qualities within their soul, and then have the body be guided by this inner activity. Improvisation is used in the earlier grades, mostly with pentatonic music.

In the older grades when we attempt to make the music “visible”, we use compositions, mostly from classical composers. The students are posed with these challenges: Can I hear the rising and falling of a melody, can I sing it with my limbs? Can I hear a motif or a phrase, when it repeats, when it changes, and can I align myself with it while moving the choreography? Can I go from quick to slow or the other way around without stopping, falling, losing the rhythm? Can I grow confident and caring to lead a group of fellow students without “losing” them? Or can I follow and feel my way into how someone else might lead? Can I hear where I need to be at a certain moment? Can I hear this moment coming?

As students grow and incorporate all these challenges, eurythmy helps them bring, at the right time, the appropriate amount of consciousness to the three aspects of their being, and to support and grow a flexibility and balance as those elements weave together.

Eurythmy calls forth grace, refinement, uprightness, and balance in children's bodies. It allows pupils to fill each action with feeling and meaning, and to enliven their thinking through imagination to think and know others, and lastly, to awaken to the rich world around us.

Thus, the striving in eurythmy is primarily a human one, to come to know and balance one's own being, so that one may grow strong, and more and more free within oneself amidst and with and for one’s fellow human.

Anne-Meike Gassmeyer (pictured left) is the SFWS Eurythmy Teacher

Austin College in spring of 2019, and is now based in Santa Fe, where she works as an illustrator and designer. She has also published two volumes of her graphic novel Moonbones, which she sells on her website, brookereiche.com, along with linocut prints and cards.

Teissia Treynet, Grade 8 1998, reports that she married Todd Putnam on February 8, 2020, just outside of Park City, UT. She writes: “Lots of Waldorf friends were there with us! Rowan Finnegan who is my best friend from SFWS kindergarten is actually the person that introduced me and Todd.

“Tara Kohn (Grade 8, 1997) stood up with me during the wedding, and her brother and parents were there as well. Adam Herling (Grade 8, 1998), Simran McKenna (non-graduating member of class), and Matt Crouse’s (Grade 8, 1998) family were also there.

Matt couldn’t make it because he just had a baby! (Class of 1998 teacher) Michael Oellig was in attendance as well! He blew the conch shell as soon as we were married. That was always how he called us in from recess, and he blew it at our high school graduation as well. What a great guy! Also, my first grader, Charlotte Casey, (Grade 8, 2005) made the trip out to celebrate with us! We’re still very close. And Sadie Munson (HS Class of 2007)who is my other best friend’s little sister, was there as well!

So many Waldorf folk! It was so magical!!”

Treynet, owner of Firefly Events, lives with her husband in Laguna Beach and adds that “Todd and I are both still employed and healthy. All you can ask for these days!”

We Want to Hear From Our Alumni

Visit santafewaldorf.org/alumni and send us an update!

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26 Puesta Del Sol, Santa Fe, NM 87508 santafewaldorf.org

As a year-end community project, teachers created a "mandala" form drawing in chalk on the school basketball court. Families came onto the campus in 30-minute intervals over the course of a week and filled a section with their own artwork.

Cover photo: Tau Durรกn y Jennings, Grade 5, works in his main lesson book at home this past spring. SFWS teachers and students all worked hard to adapt to the use of technology during quarantine, while also continuing with the traditional cores of art and handwriting.

Photo by SFWS Grades teacher Micayla Durรกn

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