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Dear Colleagues,
Warm greetings to all who will celebrate Diwali in the coming days; may its hope for the blessing and comfort of the light that guards against darkness be felt by all of us. Our Northern Hemisphere days are now rapidly shrinking and storms are reminding us that the season has turned. (I also track the seasons in the Southern Hemisphere, still “home” after many decades, and a great reminder of context and the impact of time and place!) The gathering darkness is punctuated by a series of festivals of light as we head steadily towards the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice. Festivals of light are found in most cultures, providing reassurance of the power of light, of strength of spirit, and of our need to gather in community. Surely, this year in times of great uncertainty and unpredictability, we need their reminders more than ever.
We are very much looking forward to gathering with many of you in January; we are eagerly preparing for our annual conference, coming up in January at Ocean Charter School in Los Angeles. Our planning group has picked up the threads from our 2025 conference, canceled due to the catastrophic fires that were raging at that time. We are reviewing, enlivening, and tweaking, asking what remains the same, what has changed in a year, and what is needed now. Our annual conference is core to our work; it goes back many years. The conference actually preceded the founding of the Alliance as a formal entity. To my knowledge, we have only missed two years; 2020, when we had plans for a large, national Waldorf conference in summer with our colleagues from early childhood and the independent schools, and last year. Like so much else that year, our 2020 conference was forced to move online, where it would stay for several years. We came together in person again at Golden Valley Charter in the Sacramento area in 2024; it was such a joy to see so many people in person and to share rich conversations about our work and ourselves. Our emphasis will be on meaningful content, heart-warmed connection, practical tools, and the nourishment that comes from our shared sense of mission. We know that budgets are tight and finances are uncertain, but we urge every member school to find a way to send a couple of representatives. The storytelling approach to this conference is unique and will move and inspire you!
As we focus on the essential role of storytelling in our teaching and learning, we recognize that our expanding network of schools continues to present new questions and invitations for innovation and creativity. One example is the intersection of Waldorf’s strong oral traditions and students who are English language learners. Here, some of our traditional Waldorf practices are under examination as we look at modern research, our practices, and the needs of our students. This will also receive attention in our conference through our keynotes and in workshops. We are all learning!
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