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Newsletter 21: Sunday 25 May 2025Anthroposophy in Hawkes BayCalendar of Coming Events In the Rudolf Steiner Centre, 401 Whitehead Road, Hastings
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Festival for the DeadThis is an opportunity for us to remember people who have crossed the threshold of death.
You can find out more about the Norwegian mystic who slept through the thirteen days and holy nights of Christmas in: Olaf Asteson a 1914 lecture bt Rudolf Steiner.
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-- Regular Groups
The FOUNDATION STONE MeditationFrom Monday 7th July there will be four conversations on the Foundation Stone. This is a meditation released by Rudolf Steiner during the 1923 Christmas Foundation Meeting in Dornach, Switzerland. This meeting represents a sea-change in the development of the Anthroposophical Society. Rudolf Steiner himself became president of the General Anthroposophical Society and undertook its administration with the help of five colleagues who formed the first Executive Council. These five people, Marie Steiner, Ita Wegman, Albert Steffen, Elizabeth Vreede and Guenther Wachsmuth, were not at the time all well known in the Society. However they were chosen because Rudolf Steiner valued the way they related to the Society. In our conversations, we will take time to introduce these five people and try to offer some ideas as to why they were so valued by Rudolf Steiner. We will also look at some aspects of the meditation and why it is important in the story of the Society. The four conversatons will be in the Centre in Nelson Street on four consecutive Monday nights from 7pm. They wiil finish around 8pm. Anyone is welcome. The first Monday is Monday 7th July. Chris Bacchus ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ COMMUNITY NOTICEBOARD: Requests; Exchange; Wanted; For sale Flatmate wanted Sunny room available in Havelock North home, with seperate bathroom. ----- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Committee introduction – Robin BacchusCaveat—this is fairly long. When I was asked for a bio, this is what came forth. Instead of serialising it, I have sectioned it. You choose if and how much you read at any time. ~~~~~~~~~~ 0 In the beginning …I was the second of five children [bbbgb] brought up on a biodynamic dairy farm south of Thames and bordering the tidal Waihou River. I had been born in late summer in Dumfries, southern Scotland in the middle of WW2 – it was far away from the bombs dropping on London. My father, George, had had a job as a Biodynamic adviser in the UK. This job evaporated when the war started, but my parents were trapped in the UK because all ships back to NZ had been commandeered for the war effort, so they had to find employment until a year after the war ended, and the family of by then 3 boys could steam back to NZ. Our first home was briefly on my mother’s uncle’s orchard in Havelock North while my father looked for a farm to purchase. I remember the family travelling north to the new farm in an old car and a large army truck with a trailer load of furniture. A pumice-dusty, tiresome journey it was. On arriving at Paeroa to stay the night, we discovered the trailer had been lost on the way! Luckily it was found only ten miles back, not a hundred. The 100-hectare farm was very flat and prone to flooding, so huge drains had been dug – wide enough for canoes. It was a dairy farm with 80 cows to be milked morning and night from July through to April – quite a commitment! The milk was put into 40-gallon drums and taken by tractor and trailer to the local dairy factory a mile away to be made into cheese. This farm was to be home for a member of the family for the next 50 years. My mother, Nancy, whose Waldorf training was interrupted by the beginning of the war, home-schooled us until we were 7, when we were legally required to attend school, where I was 2 years older than the other new entrants! I only have a dreamy recollection of Hikutaia School. For my last 2 years, I abandoned the school bus and rode a pony the 8 km to school and back. For the summer school holidays we camped for weeks on the edge of Kuaotunu Beach, north of Whitianga, with cousins and family friends. When it came time for High School, my parents decided to send their boys to a boys’ boarding school that my father had attended after his father had been killed in WW1. This involved travelling overnight by train to get there. I was fortunate to be placed in the top academic stream, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The subjects were more biased towards STEM rather than the humanities. What I did not enjoy was going to chapel 6 times a week and twice on Sunday, the mass food, the bullying and the tradition of older boys whacking the younger boys on their backside with a long cane (corporal punishment) for trivial misdemeanours. I felt this to be an assault on our dignity. After 3 years, I convinced my parents that they were wasting their money sending me to such a place, and I transitioned to Paeroa College, near home. ~~~~~~~~~~ 17 Change of School.At Paeroa College, I felt much more in charge of my education. For Year 12, there were girls in the class, but before the final year they all went elsewhere for nursing, dental nursing or primary teacher training. That left us with 4 boys in Form 6a (= Year 13). This was great for cards and tennis. I really appreciated the enthusiasm of my teachers for their subjects as we prepared for Scholarship exams. In particular, our Physics teacher, Mr Reid – we could talk to him about anything! And he enabled me to get a top mark in the National Scholarship. The following year, I was off to Auckland University to study Civil Engineering - the final 3 years were at Ardmore (near Papakura) in the transformed hangars of the old airforce airfield and adjacent to Ardmore Teachers College. The engineering students were renowned for their April 1st pranks – but this is not the place for details. One of the University clubs I joined was the Ski Club, which gave rise to many enjoyable winter weekends skiing at Whakapapa on Mount Ruapehu. In 1962, I joined my mother in a week-long conference at Queenswood School, Hastings, where two of my cousins were pupils. The main speaker was Karl Ege, one of the last teachers to be appointed by Rudolf Steiner to the original Waldorf school in Stuttgart, Germany. At the end, he gave the school and staff his blessings and acknowledged Queenswood as a Waldorf School, so from that time its name became Queenswood Rudolf Steiner School. When I had graduated BE (Civil) I decided to continue with a research degree (PhD). I must say that I am glad that I was able to study without being a financial burden on my parents, or ending up with a huge student debt as did a later generation, due to the availability of scholarships and funding. The governments of that time did not see education just as a private benefit, but valued an educated workforce as making a positive contribution to the economy. Choosing a research topic is not easy. The rubric that goes: “One learns more and more about less and less until one knows everything about nothing!” has a certain truth about it. Anyway, in 1964, a major earthquake had struck Niigata in Japan, causing hundreds of apartments built on the river delta to sink or fall over and a bridge to collapse due to liquefaction of the soil (as happened in the Christchurch earthquake 14 years ago.) (see Wikipedia). My supervisor suggested I look into the effects of ground shaking on the strength and liquefaction of various soils [shingle, sand, silt and clay]. I choose to explore the effect on clay. A group of engineering and other graduates formed a new Ski Club (called 'Graduates') and we spent many summer weekends building a new lodge at Whakapapa. During my research, I shared a flat with a mate in Auckland near One Tree Hill. A flyer came advertising a local tennis club. I went along and there I met Diana. We married a few years later and decided to travel for overseas experience, prompted by a lecture we heard by Francis Edmunds to the Anthroposophical Society in Auckland. He spoke about Emerson College, (named after Ralph Waldo) which he had founded in Forest Row, Sussex, England. That enthused us and we decided that is where we would head (along with a number of other young NZers). We formally joined the Anthroposophical Society before we left. After a 5-week ocean cruise we arrived at Emerson College (then in its 7th year) along with 90 other young people from around the world to attend the Foundation Year – a truly transformative experience, meeting other young people and hearing many inspiring lecturers** (see below) and exploring a variety of crafts and arts. It brought alive for me Anthroposophy that my parents had studied for many years. At the end of the year, Emerson students were invited to join (and thus fill the bus) Michael Hall’s Class 12 students in a 2-week bus trip to northern Italy for a guided tour of famous Renaissance artworks led by William Mann, an experienced Waldorf teacher. Diana and I joined them. After such an experience, I decided not to continue with Engineering and we returned to take the Education Year with about 20 others. On the final day of the Education Year there was a farewell assembly when Francis Edmunds announced an emergency: The Physics teacher of Wynstones School (a Waldorf School near Gloucester) had just had a stroke and was thus not able to teach Grade 11 Physics on Monday – could anyone help? I looked at Diana – we had no specific, immediate plans – so I volunteered – Physics had been my favourite subject. So, we packed our car and set off for Wynstones 4 hours drive away. A teacher’s family put us up. Luckily, the Physics teacher had set up a wonderful laboratory and had created great notes. We stayed on for 4 years. I was asked to mentor a class of 30 teenagers for their 4 years journey through High [Upper] School. (We had a reunion of 7 of them, just before Covid struck! They were in their 60s.) The UK Waldorf schools took turns to host an annual Teachers’ Conference, so I was able to visit many of them during that time. ~~~~~~~~~ 34 Teaching at TaikuraIn my third year at Wynstones, I received a letter from Edwin Ayre, a mentor for the Queenswood Rudolf Steiner School, which was planning to start an Upper School – would I consider joining the founding team? So, we said goodbye to Wynstones and headed back to NZ’s bright skies. We arrived in mid-winter with a family of 2 boys, soon to become 4. The first task for the remainder of the year was to build a classroom for the new Upper School. Edwin Ayre, a former architect, had made a design involving two adjacent hexagons, with barely a right angle in sight. Good exercise for my geometric and surveying skills laying it out. Luckily, there was lots of parental help with the building in weekend working bees, in those times, before state funding integration became a reality. Teacher salaries were 2/3 of what state teachers received. When finished the building actually became the classrooms for Classes 1 and 2! While I was building, Lawrence Edwards, Maths teacher from the Edinburgh Steiner School visited NZ for about half a year's sabbatical for his research on the geometrical forms of pine cone and flower buds. He gave Hans Mulder and me a wonderful tour of his version of secondary Maths and Geometry – truly inspiring. Starting the Upper School was not plain sailing. After 3 years, the school bursar, an accountant who became a Class teacher, proposed that the Upper School should close – it was too expensive to run [salaries, special equipment, building teaching spaces, etc., and the enrolments at the beginning were low. The school’s resident mentor and teacher educator recommended that it not be closed so soon – that in the future it would be the element that would draw parents from all around the country to the school. Prophetic words. Other Steiner Schools were starting in Christchurch, Auckland and Wellington. Some could not accept that so there was a catastrophic split and 5 teachers left the school. A very delicate situation for several years until we had large group of talented students reach Class 12 and graduate. The work that they presented in various ways impressed everyone. It confirmed for many parents that this was the education that they wanted for their children, and they were prepared to support it. For myself, when I had been teaching Physics for 12 years, I wanted a change. After a sabbatical year, I returned as the next Class One teacher. So began a wonderful 8 years Journey with a group of 24 children. As a Class Teacher you revisit your own education and transform it radically in the light of of Rudolf Steiner's ideas. The children's reflections after these 8 years was that they most enjoyed the range of visits, camps and tramps (including climbing Mount Tarawera and skiing on the eastern slopes of Mount Ruapehu) and the dramatic productions (including Joan of Arc and Parsifal) that we undertook every year. As a family we ‘tested’ the tramps for the year ahead to check for challenges, including skiing. When I was teaching Class One, I was invited by Brian Butler to join the Council of the ASNZ which I did for 16 years. We had Council meetings in many cities around New Zealand. A part of the Council meeting was open for local members to share their interests and concerns. By the late 1980s, the Federation of Steiner Schools in New Zealand had a number of schools, all struggling financially. So, they began to seriously pursue the idea of becoming Integrated Schools and receive state funding and support for replacing the old converted housing with architecturally designed buildings. A long process that came to fruition in 1989. Proper salaries and some beautiful new buildings designed by Fiona Christeller emerged. In 1982, Carl Hoffmann returned to NZ after founding the Washington Waldorf School (USA) and started, with Edwin Ayre, at Taruna a Preparatory Course for Rudolf Steiner School Teachers. [PCRSST]. They specifically did not call it a ‘training’. They said you can train dogs and monkeys and soldiers but not teachers. Teachers had to prepare themselves (with help) for the task they had chosen. I was their school liaison and tutored Projective Geometry. When I was teaching Class 7, Carl announced that he was retiring, and the course would close. This caused considerable consternation among the teachers in the schools around NZ, who wished the course to continue. The outcome was that when I had completed Class 8, I would take over the role of coordinating the course. ~~~~~~~~~ 51 Taruna CollegeSo, after 17 years at the now newly named Taikura School, in February 1993, I started at Taruna. Luckily, many teacher colleagues could share the tutoring load. There was so much to learn. Meanwhile, the Government had set up the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA). This created a lot of work: 1. We had to Register Taruna College as a Learning Establishment with adequate facilities. 2. We had to get Course Approval for the various courses being offered at Taruna (Teachers, Biodynamics, Art Therapy) – how to describe what we were striving to achieve (before we had met the students enrolling) in a way that QA officials could understand. 3. Accreditation: Showing that each course had adequate qualified staff and resources to be able to teach the course! A huge amount of paperwork. As our family had virtually left home, Diana and I decided to downsize from our large home in Fitzroy Avenue, into a smaller home in Havelock North, near Taruna. We found a small section and asked Fiona Christeller to design a home for us. It was an exotic creation which I have enjoyed living in ever since. Another learning curve was the internet and email. From its early years the PCRSST had overseas students. This involved advertisements in magazines and periodicals and inquirer’s aerograms taking weeks between writing and receiving a response. I learnt how to create a findable website using programming language and created an email account. I made it my task to respond to every email on the day it was received and to ensure that the answer to the questions inquirers asked would feature on the website. Taruna College became the host to the regular Federation of Steiner Schools meetings which kept me in touch with what was happening in the schools. I thought of Steiner’s remark that ‘when you begin a task you don’t know what you need to know; it is only when you have finished that you know!’ After 17 years, I felt that it was time to retire. I had welcomed about 300 students to the PCRSST at Taruna College and I had learned a huge amount from my fellow tutors and the students. ~~~~~~~~~~ 68 Asian WaldorfAs my day of retirement was looming, I received an email from two former students from Taiwan. Diana and I had visited the Leichuan Waldorf School that they were part of in Taichung several times to speak to teachers and at their summer conference and in a Kolisko Conference. Leichuan was preparing to start a High School, and they asked: “would I help and mentor them?” This, they proposed, would involve 3 visits per year for 5 years. Now that I was retired, I would have the time! On my first visit to Leichuan, I ran a Seminar on science teaching to which teachers from the other 4 Waldorf schools in Taiwan were invited to participate. Afterwards, they asked if I could also visit their schools when I next came to Taiwan – so my time filled out. On my 3rd visit, I received invitations to 2 schools in China via another Taruna graduate. I can remember when I was younger and Mao Zedong was in his power, I had thought that China would be one place I would, never in my life, visit as it was too dangerous! This changed when two sons, Alex and Mike, toured on a tandem bicycle from Singapore to Golmud in central China on to Kathmandu in Nepal and they found they were very well treated wherever they went. Alex published a Kindle book about their adventures: “A Tandem Challenge” which allayed my concerns. The first Waldorf School in China was started in 2004 in Chengdu by a Chinese couple who had attended Emerson College. By 2010, there were around 30 schools had been founded in cities around China and many new ones were appearing. They rarely sent prospective teachers to Waldorf Education courses in western countries. It was much less of a financial burden to invite experienced Waldorf Teachers from Germany, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand to come to China to give courses coordinated by the China Waldorf Forum [CWF] in school holidays. I participated in several of these with 120 teachers attending and 5 or 6 tutors. But I also was invited to schools by myself to give week-long seminars and visit classrooms – challenging as I don’t speak Chinese, but I had a translator whispering in my ear – and there was, of course, body language and facial expression! What I offered in the seminars was a full day with a mix of morning circle activities such as beanbag activities, recorder playing, song and dance to introduce the 3-fold nature of music: Rhythm and beat in legs and feet; tone and melody in heart and hand; and lyrics,diction and meaning in head. This was followed by a review of the previous day and a Mainlesson on anthroposophical pedagogy. Practical lessons on Mathematics for all Grades, and Science (G4 The Human Being and the world of Animals; G5 The Plant between Sun and Earth; G6 Geology of the Earth’s Crust. Physics from G6 to G12 of the inanimate world below: earth, water, air and fire, and Astronomy as a science of the world above (Sun, stars and zodiac, moon and earth rhythms causing day/night, the moon cycle, the seasons, equinox and solstice, and the Platonic year). Form-drawing and artistic, descriptive and projective Geometry and clay modelling were presented as artistic activities. The end-of-day consisted of a thorough review of the day’s learning and questions arising from activities, which gave me clues for the next day’s content. That could make up a sequence of about 15 days, which I could present in a sequence of three seminars over several visits. I established a rhythm of four month-long trips each year. Many air-miles and many hours queuing in large airports. Overall, I made 44 trips to over 30 schools in Taiwan, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan and Kansas (USA) before it was all cut short by the outbreak of Covid in 2020. Trying to continue by using Zoom was an unsatisfactory experience of speaking to a computer screen of inanimate icons, so that soon came to an end. On reflection, I did not seek for jobs, it seems that they found me. Our four sons and seven grandchildren, who we like to visit and share their life journeys, are quite wideley spread - currently living in London. Takapuna, Onehunga, Lake Pukaki, Perth, and Christchurch. I joined the HB Branch Committee in 2022 and took over the role of Treasurer and manager of the website a year later. I feel the role of the Committee is to maintain the Centre as an "Oasis of Culture". It is a hundred years since Rudolf Steiner shared his insights with those around him. There is no one alive who heard him or met him personally. We need to find a new way of cultivating Anthroposophy today - creating places and spaces where those who have lived with anthroposophy in their hearts and minds can share their striving to understand and act effectively in our world now to those who may be interested. Robin ~~~~~~~~~~ Next week: Mike Caris Angela Hair introduced herself in News 20-25, John Jackson in News 19-25, Gerrit Raichle in News 18-25. ~~~~~ **Emerson College StaffI append this list as I know quite a few readers of this Newsletter also attended Emerson College and it will bring back many memories as it did for me as I compiled it. Francis Edmunds was a great gatherer of people: students, staff and visiting lecturers. Staff Francis & Elizabeth Edmunds, Visiting Lecturers Cecil Harwood,
Posted: Sat 24 May 2025 |
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