| Good Morning Mr. Mentor by Peter Mentor, Class of 2004 Eighteen faces look to the front of the room, waiting expectantly. How will Mr. Mentor sing my name today? It's roll call in the first grade at the Santa Cruz Waldorf School. I am standing in front of my class, a little over a month after graduating from the Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training. The abstract idea of becoming a teacher has become a reality that I live every day. Each morning, I wake up wondering why I am so lucky. I was not born a teacher nor did I study to be one in college. I was a sports writer/editor for 14 years. Much of the time I was around children, but not in a teaching role other than being a high school girls' soccer coach. When I began the teacher training program three years ago, I was intrigued by what Rudolf Steiner had to say about education, life and spirituality. It was difficult to know how this would prepare me to be a teacher, but with the little experience I have had, it is starting to come into focus. My knowledge of mankind, of how we come from the spiritual world as babies and work our way into the physical body, gives me an understanding of what the children are going through. The three-fold nature of the human being (thinking, feeling, and willing) enables me to teach through the will and feeling life of the child, so then thinking can be educated in a living way. The teacher training, and particularly the four-week summer session, awakened in me the ability to paint, draw, sing, play an instrument, sculpt, act and speak with confidence. Am I a master in any of those areas? No. But the program trained me enough to be able to teach the children in an artistic way. Taking on a grades class with all the responsibili-ties and planning was really an unknown. During the teacher training, I got a job as the aftercare director at the East Bay Waldorf School. That practical experience, plus the teacher training's three-week practicums in the second and third years, gave me enough confidence to take a class. It was a great help in my preparation for teaching, but this experience as an everyday teacher is really brand new. The hardest part was thinking about it all summer long after being chosen as a new teacher before graduation. Doing this job is a real challenge and I find great joy every day at school. The children are incredible. The teacher training program and the study of anthroposophy have allowed me to find stability in my thinking and my feeling life. This sense of inner clarity has brought forth a perspective allowing me to act out of what is truly best for each child. Steiner's words, "Imbue thyself with the power of imagination. Have courage for the truth. Sharpen thy feeling for responsibility of soul," ring true within me. I say them each day and try to live by them. |
|
|