| Our First Three Years by Chris Lind-White, President of the Board Ed. As the Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training graduates the first class of students who spent all three years of their training in its program, Chris Lind-White pauses to reflect on the beginnings of the program, its journey and its mission for the future. The inspiration for the Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training emerged from a small group of students who, almost four years ago, made a courageous decision to take responsibility for shaping their own destinies. The Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training was conceived in that moment, but its birth would be a more arduous process. You can only imagine what it takes to create an educational institution that is fully recognized by the State of California and that is recognized as a developing institution by the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America. In a five month period, a handful of students, inspired by the tireless efforts and leadership of a small group of second -year students, had accomplished this task. Not only had they created a first class teacher training program, but they had inspired twenty-five new students to join them in this exciting new venture. Dorit Winter, who had directed the San Francisco Waldorf Teacher Training program of Rudolf Steiner College for twelve years, agreed to join with the students that she had inspired with her clarity and her vision. Over the past three and a half years the teacher training program has gone through the same exciting process of transformation as our students. Like our students, we began with high ideals and enthusiasm, not really knowing how we were going to make it work. We were bursting with new ideas, sometimes losing our focus, but always guided by a clear vision of an education that is capable of changing the world by transforming the individual. The Rudolf Steiner Foundation expressed their generous support with a loan that sustained us in our first years. Most importantly, we were carried by the enduring support of friends and benefactors who shared our enthusiasm and our vision. The initial excitement of embarking on a journey is sometimes overcome by the realization of the hard work ahead. Our students come to realize that transformation is a process requiring sustained commitment and true striving. The teacher training program had to realize that developing an organization requires more than maintaining its initial vision. We were quickly confronted with the realities of running an office, developing policies, coordinating schedules, and balancing a budget. We have addressed these challenges through the help and guidance of an entire community of talented and inspiring individuals that make up our faculty, our staff, and our board. While realizing that it is our feet and hands that move us forward, we have never forgotten that it is our heart that gives them life. The students will always be the heart of our program. When we feel the need for inspiration, we need only reflect on what our students have been able to accomplish. In three short years of training, students become empowered to take hold of their destinies with renewed clarity and purpose. The transformation is especially palpable when they speak publicly and when they perform music or eurythmy. Many students in the graduating classes of 2003 and 2004 have gone on to teach in Waldorf classrooms throughout the Bay Area and beyond, taking up their destinies to mentor the children that will shape our future. Those who chose not to teach will carry the fruits of their hard work into every aspect of their lives as parents, friends, and citizens of the world and remember their years in the teacher training program as a preparation for the work of transforming our world. Our alumni carry with them the knowledge that they have formed a permanent community of like-minded souls. Having graduated the class of 2004, the Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training is now moving out into the world with the confidence of an established organization. We have brought together an international faculty and solidified our base of support. Our vision is clear. Children need Waldorf education now more than ever before in order to become the leaders of a new and dynamic future. They need strong mentors to guide them in their task and to nurture the spirit that will carry them onward. They need Waldorf teachers. Our task is to inspire individuals toward this quest for meaning and action in the world. The children are calling us to fulfill our vision. |
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