Thu, 02 Jul 2009

Keeping the inner fire of freedom alive: APAC-AWTC conference in Manila

By NNA correspondent Walter Siegfried Hahn

MANILA (NNA) – How can children in a society increasingly dominated by artificial and cognitive technologies still develop meaningful values, attitudes, skills and abilities? And how can Waldorf education contribute to protecting childhood and helping children cultivate the “inner fire of freedom”?

These were the themes for discussion at the week-long Asian Waldorf Teachers Conference (AWTC) and the Asia Pacific Anthroposophical Conference (APAC) held in May at the Seimeo Innotech centre in Quezon City in the Philippines.

The majority of participants came from the host country as well as China and Taiwan. As in the Philippines, a growing number of anthroposophical initiatives, above all Waldorf projects, can be observed in China and Taiwan where the transformation of the status quo in schools and other areas of society is being tackled with great enthusiasm.

But even if fewer people attended from countries such as Nepal, Vietnam, Malaysia or Indonesia, it became clear that in these places, too, there is great impetus to work with anthroposophy and the conference was an important event to connect with the sources.

That this was possible was due, not least, to the contributions from prominent speakers such as Hans Mulder from New Zealand and Paul Mackay, Cornelius Pietzner and Christof Wiechert from Dornach.

It was Wiechert who identified the spirit of new departure, which one participant compared to the years 1923/24 in Europe, and he accordingly spoke in his daily morning lectures about the beginning years of the Waldorf movement.

In his opening address, Raph Lazo from the Anthroposophical Group in the Philippines had already pointed to the special importance of the conference, something which was then elaborated in the many individual seminars and courses. In his own APAC workshop, “I am a TV baby”, Lazo tackled the central conference theme, as did many other seminar leaders: the current trends in technological development and their influence on the development of the child.

The topics discussed were probably familiar to most in the Waldorf environment but the message was no less uncompromising for that: the necessity of self-development by teachers and educators, intensification of relationships, as well as strengthening of the will from nutrition through the rhythmical structure of lessons to the intensification of sensory activities and movement.

Basic principles were discussed in contributions about ecology (Mulder), economics (Mackay) and community (Pietzner), since it was clearly assumed that the audience might be less well informed about these subjects.

Hans Mulder spoke about the way our images of the earth and its landscapes shape it. Paul Mackay dealt with the three qualities of money: purchase money, loan money and gift money, emphasised the necessity of gift money to support culture and spoke of the transition from slave labour to the labour market to the service economy. He left the question open how the respective qualities of money could be transformed.

Cornelius Pietzner spoke on the basis of his own experience of community, having grown up in a Camphill community. He too spoke about three pillars, this time related to community: the common idea is just as much a condition as constant and adequate communication and the diversity of opportunity.

At the teachers’ conference, Wiechert’s morning lectures were accompanied by workshops on the various classes and subjects. Many of them were led by participants from the Philippines, Taiwan and India. But there were also contributions from Singapore, Japan, New Zealand, Australia and Thailand.

Each day ended with an artistic performance. If the first day was concluded with indigenous music from the Philippines, the second ended with dance and music from PETA (Philippine Educational Theater) which has strong links with the Waldorf school movement and uses Waldorf elements in its workshops. Subsequent evenings showcased performances from the participating countries and the teachers’ colleges from the various Philippine schools.

When the participants departed at the end of the conference, they had many stimulating ideas to take back to their home countries.

The conference was supported by the Friends of Waldorf Education in Berlin, the Anthroposophical Group in the Philippines und the Manila Waldorf School.

Background: The first meeting of anthroposophical initiatives in the Asian region took place in 1996, also in Manila, with 25 participants. If at that time seven countries were represented (Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Philippines, Taiwan, USA), the number of countries had doubled by the time of this seventh meeting with participants also from China, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. They were joined by speakers and seminar leaders from Britain, Germany, Isræl and Switzerland.

The dates for the next conferences, which take place in a two-yearly rhythm, have been set for 29 April to 6 May 2011 in India. At the same time there was a lively discussion how the one-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of Rudolf Steiner’s birth might be appropriately celebrated in many different locations in Asia.

END/nna/wsh/cva

Item: 090702-01EN Date: 2 July 2009

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