Category: Anthroposophy
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Brain Hemispheres in Education
In this post, I’d like to explore the brain hemispheres and their relationship to education. Modern neuroscience and Waldorf pedagogical science are finally coming together in some exciting ways. We can use those insights to help us in our teaching and thereby bring more balance to our children. Are you right brained or left brained?…
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Self Care for Teachers (and Homeschoolers)
In this post, I’m going to discuss one simple, yet profoundly important, practice of self care for teachers and homeschoolers. Teaching can be and is deeply rewarding. At the same time, it calls us to live a high ideal. As Indian saint Shrii Shrii Anandamurtii, founder of spiritual movement Ananda Marga and Neohumanist Education says,…
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What is Waldorf Homeschooling? A Beginner’s Guide
We’ve all heard of it: Waldorf Education. Some of us have even experienced it. Many more are curious but don’t know where to begin. It often sounds overwhelming, and Waldorf teachers can seem like wizards, composing lessons like symphonies. Yet, the question, “What is Waldorf homeschooling?” need not have a complex answer. Let’s break it…
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Mentors for Teens
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by
Today, we will turn to the age old conundrum that has no doubt plagued parents for centuries. It goes something like this, “Why doesn’t my teen listen to me anymore?” We’ll unpack this all-too-common challenge and propose a solution that has to do with finding mentors for teens. The Need to Rebel It’s true. Adolescents…
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Nature and Learning
In this post, I’d like to discuss nature and learning. That is to say, specifically the seasonal cycle and how it affects students’ ability to learn. Perhaps it’s because in the spring, students seems to just fall off their seats laughing for no apparently good reason. Or, perhaps it’s because it takes us fifteen minutes…
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Therapeutic Education (The Four Temperaments in Education, Part II)
In this second of two posts, we will discuss the four temperaments and how to work skillfully with them. This understanding is necessary to provide a therapeutic education to our students. One of the unique insights of Rudolf Steiner, creator of Waldorf Education, was that studetns are different and need different treatments from one another.…
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The Four Temperaments in Education, Part I
In this first of two posts, we will examine the four temperaments in education. For Part I, we will characterize each of the four temperaments. In Part II next week, we will look at how to work skillfully with them. To begin, what is a temperament and where does it come from? To answer that,…
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Teen Mental Health
The world has never experienced a mental dis-ease epidemic like the meaning crisis we currently face. There are many reasons for this, materialism being the most pernicious. Like a deeply rooted weed, it infests the garden of society’s soul. We have grown accustomed to looking at everything from the outside in and trying to remedy…
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Homeschool Vs. Public School
In this post, we will discuss the common question of homeschool vs. public school. A recent article reported a number of studies indicating that on average, homeschoolers outperform public schoolers on common assessments like the SAT and ACT. Critics suggested this was due to more favorable demographics like parents’ income, marriage status, and level of…
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The New Economics
Last night, I went to a lecture by Jac Hielema of Economy Transformers on the new economics. It was life changing even for me who have been studying this for several years now. Extraordinarily, Jac and his colleagues in the Netherlands have managed to put this into tangible practice. I’d like to tell you a…