March 2018
Dear Colleagues and Friends,   

This issue contains mostly questions to you:  

Which of the proposals for the celebration of 100 years of Waldorf Education would you like to take up - or would you like to take on a completely different project?
 
Did you note the date and theme of the next World Early Childhood Educators Conference in Dornach? Could you start preparing for the conference in one way or another?

And: two reports from Africa and reports on activities of interest outside the Waldorf world complete this newsletter.

In the hope that you, like our colleagues in Zimbabwe, will also have many "courageous dreams",
I send you warm wishes on behalf of the IASWECE Coordinating Group.

Philipp Reubke
News from IASWECE
 
 World Early Childhood Conference  
 Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland
April 15-19, 2019

"Inner Freedom - Social Responsibility:
Finding Ways to a Human Future"  

Prepared by the IASWECE Council in collaboration with the Pedagogical Section at the Goetheanum

...and the baby is growing!  News from the IASWECE Birth to Three Group
Lourdes Tormes Granados

 
 

Waldorf 100
What would you or your kindergarten like to do to celebrate 100 years of Waldorf education?
 

Waldorf Early Childhood Education Worldwide
Parents were amazed by their children: Work with parents and educators in the townships of Cape Town  
Nomathemba Tindlini

 
C ourageous Dreams in Zimbabwe
Florence Hibbeler 
Collaboration with Other Organizations
"Place the Human Being in the Center of our Society Again"

"Commercial Free Childhood"

We would like to draw your attention to the publications and activities of this organization which has the mission "to support parents' efforts to raise healthy families by limiting commercial access to children and ending the exploitive practice of child-targeted marketing. In working for the rights of children to grow up-and the freedom for parents to raise them-without being undermined by corporate interests, CCFC promotes a more democratic and sustainable world."

And perhaps your kindergarten would like to promote   "Screen Free Week" from April 30 to 
May 6!  This would help parents notice that Steiner/Waldorf colleagues and parents are not the only ones with questions concerning the effects of screen use on small children.
 
Conferences
 
Whitsun Conference in Germany: 

"First Impressions Shape the Child Forever. A Living Awareness in Raising the Child - a Requirement in Today's World"

with Claus Peter Röh, Michaela Glöckler, Marcel de Leuw, Rainer Patzlaff and others. 
Conference languages: German and English, French, Russian and others. 
Click here for the p rogram and registration.


Please contact us at [email protected] if you would like to announce a conference in our Newsletter or on our website.   

Links to Research and News Reports
Below are the most recent articles posted on the IASWECE website in the section: "Links to Research and News Reports". 
There you can find many other articles in the categories "Free Play", "Digital Media and Early Childhood", "School readiness", and "the Role of Imitation in Early Childhood."
 

Why adults have to stop trying so darn hard to control how children play.
This article in the Washington Post by Valerie Strauss which explains why free play is important: "If children truly got hours of free play with friends every day both during school and outside of school, they would learn the essential skills of negotiation, trading, conflict-resolution, empathy, kindness, sharing, compassion, and so much more. All we need to do is stop trying so darn hard to control every outcome of every interaction between children. It is time we step back and let the children play - for this is how they'll learn to cope in the real world."

Have Children Lost their Ability to Play? 
Education expert Rae Pica notes that teachers often tell her that children don't know to play anymore. In this 10 minute podcast episode of Studentcentricity, Pica interviews early childhood expert Nancy Carlsson-Paige on how to promote unstructured play in early childhood. Pica and Carlsson-Paige discuss the value of play and comment on how societal factors like media and academic pressure in the early years are impeding children's natural inclinations to play.

The Power of Human Touch 
Article by David Brooks in the New York Times, 19.1.2018 : "It seems that the smarter we get about technology, the dumber we get about relationships. We live in a society in which loneliness, depression and suicide are on the rise. We seem to be treating each other worse. The guiding moral principle here is not complicated: Try to treat other people as if they possessed precious hearts and infinite souls. Everything else will follow."

The Right Brain Develops first - Why Play is the Foundation of Academic Learning.  
Article by Vince Gowmon published in January 2018 : "Pushing literacy and numeracy on children before age seven may just be harmful to their little, developing brains. Without the capacity to use their academic minds in the ways that are being asked can cause children to gain what's called "learned stupidity." They believe themselves to be incapable and lose their natural desire to learn." 
 
How You Can Help
I ASWECE provides financial and pedagogical support to projects in order to develop and foster the quality of Waldorf early childhood education all over the world. 

 
Sponsors

Contact
The IASWECE Newsletter is published on behalf of the IASWECE Council by Philipp Reubke, with support from Clara Aerts, Susan Howard and Lara Radysh. 

Country Projects, Partnerships and Support:  
Clara Aerts, Belgium 
Tel 0032 498 223 281
 
Membership, Working Groups, and World List:  
Susan Howard, USA   
Tel 001 413 549 593                                                             
             
Conferences, Country Projects, Newsletter  
Philipp Reubke, France  
Tel 0033 977 197 137