What does a healthy, successful school look like? Is it all about measurable outcomes, test scores, and pass/fail grades set by the government? Can learning be quantified in short-term measurements or does real learning take years to manifest in a career or biography? All seem to agree that a healthy school is also a community and that community depends on the quality of relationships—chiefly the relationships among students, teachers, and parents. This book features a comprehensive examination of the parent–teacher relationship in all its dimensions, from parent evenings and conferences to communication, conflict, and the life-cycle of parent involvement in their school. In between the chapters on practical advice are sections that consider the issues from a deeper, spiritual dimension. This book is intended to stimulate conversation, self-reflection, and relational practices that awaken community life in and around our schools.

This is a lively, colorful, and absorbing account of a class teacher's journey with his class, from first grade through the eighth grade in a Waldorf school. Straightforward and humorous, School as a Journey provides an excellent introduction to the daily activities of a Waldorf school classroom. Torin Finser --who is now Director of Waldorf Teacher Training at Antioch New England Graduate School --wrote this book especially for parents, prospective parents, and educators who are new to Waldorf education. Filled with pedagogical gems, tips, and resources, School as a Journey will also prove an invaluable resource for those who are currently Waldorf class teachers. For those who wish to delve more deeply into this revolutionary form of education, the author has also included extensive documentation, with references to the works of Rudolf Steiner and of others experienced in Waldorf education. Highly recommended for anyone interested in this revolutionary form of education.

School as a Journey is a lively, colorful, absorbing account of one Waldorf's teacher's journey with his class through the curriculum from first through eighth grades. A moving story, told in a straightforward, anecdotal, humorous style, it is and excellent introduction to what goes on inside the classroom of a Waldorf school. School as a journey was written with both parents and educators in mind. Filled with pedagogical gems, it will be an invaluable resource for understanding the practical implications of Rudolf Steiner's in sight into child development. Extensively documented, it can serve as a study text for anymone wishing to go deeper into the works of Rudolf Steiner and others experienced in Waldorf education.

This is a lively, colorful, and absorbing account of a class teacher's journey with his class, from first grade through the eighth grade in a Waldorf school. Straightforward and humorous, School as a Journey provides an excellent introduction to the daily activities of a Waldorf school classroom. Torin Finser --who is now Director of Waldorf Teacher Training at Antioch New England Graduate School --wrote this book especially for parents, prospective parents, and educators who are new to Waldorf education. Filled with pedagogical gems, tips, and resources, School as a Journey will also prove an invaluable resource for those who are currently Waldorf class teachers. For those who wish to delve more deeply into this revolutionary form of education, the author has also included extensive documentation, with references to the works of Rudolf Steiner and of others experienced in Waldorf education. Highly recommended for anyone interested in this revolutionary form of education.

The vocation of teaching has been under considerable pressure over the last several decades. Unions would push teachers to count hours and demand breaks and benefits, while every teacher's heart knows that students need attention that is difficult to count in hours or wages. Standardized tests and demands to prove their competence make teachers relinquish their own knowledge of the mysteries of child development and the need for compassion and grace. Torin Finser uses his decades of knowledge of teaching both children and aspiring teachers, and adults in many walks of life to describe full-heartedly how important the preparation of teachers is and how rich the possibilities for teachers to influence the coming generation. He thrills with the future teachers hold in potential through their teaching. This is a book worth reading and then considering, for everyone, not only for teachers or those wishing to become teachers. Our young carry the promise of the coming days, and how we speak to them, love them, teach them now, holds the future. Very few books deeply describe the importance of teacher preparation. This is a golden contribution to that library of insightful contemplation of this all important, and future-bearing calling - the call to teach!

First, one might ask: Why not just read the first three books? After all, Rudolf Steiner wrote them in such a way that the very act of reading them can awaken new faculties. Who could ever duplicate that? It might even seem presumptuous to select passages from books that were constructed by an initiate. To those who have these and other objections, I have the following response: My hope is that the pages in this book serve as an invitation, so that those who work with this material will then be motivated to go to the original texts and work with them more intensively. —Torin Finser