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Gala Celebration by Paolo Carini, Third Year, and the Editors of the Golden Gate The Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training began in the minds of fourteen students who wanted to complete the studies they had begun.Then came the technicalities: recognition from the appropriate California state agencies, obtaining non-profit status, and looking for a home. At the end of July, Dorit Winter was engaged as Director. One student, Lisa Anderson, recounted the process: "Ten days before our opening assembly we still did not know where we would be gathering. We had 16 first year students registered, but we thought there was an outside chance we could have 22 sign up. The Community Church of Mill Valley had agreed to host our program. A week before classes began, we went over the logistics of meeting places to house each class and realized we could not seat more than 18 and we might have more than that enrolled in the first year class. So we went for a walk around the block, to the Church of Our Savior, and they agreed to let us use a meeting room. Opening night was beautiful. When I saw the first year class stand all together I thought, 'We made it. We actually did this. We are a teacher training program." On October 5th the Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training held its Opening Night, with 26 enrolled first year students, 12 second year and 11 third year students. Michael Holdrege, current administrator and former high school math and life sciences teacher at the Chicago Waldorf High School, flew in from the Windy City to address our festive inaugural evening. He spoke about finding a balance between the old spiritual sense of nature and the modern scientific understanding. Using a comparison made by Fritz Julius, Michael explained that the modern scientist is like someone going to a theater to see a play, who becomes more interested in backstage events than in the play itself. To show us how a modern scientific approach can be enriched, Michael literally stepped on the stage and, with great warmth and humor began describing the character of his play: Nitrogen. Backstage, this chemical element appears as a molecule of given weight, electronic structure, and so on. On the stage, however, its properties reveal striking new qualities, especially in interaction with other characters. Nitrogen is dynamic, tasteless. Being invisible, and therefore open to the light, it lets all else be seen through it. That is its selflessness. Being gaseous, it lets us move through it, in contrast to the solid earth below, which presents a boundary and a foundation. Nitrogen makes space by filling space. Through its pressure it controls evaporation, and tempers oxygen in fire. As Michael went on describing the manifold roles of his character, we wished we could go and see that play. And in fact, the play is all around us, and it is free. We only need to widen our perceptions to be able to notice it. Opening Night concluded with all the students from each class ascending the stage and briefly introducing themselves. In the pages that follow a photograph and brief biography of each student appears. An additional celebration took place on November 3rd. Students, teachers and friends of the Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training gathered once again in celebration, this time at the Palm Room on the grounds of the Presidio in San Francisco. Following a musical program featuring many members of our faculty, current students, and friends, most of them professional musicians, we gathered in small groups over dessert and marveled at our progress. The evening had a glow about it. Fellowship and a palpable sense of "Our Teacher Training" permeated the room. Somehow the impossible had been possible; we had seen an opening of inestimable value to us, and we had taken it. This then is our Golden Gate! |
 
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