The Anthroposophical study courses of the Foundation Year explore the intimate relationship of self-knowledge and world knowledge. It is an introduction to the basic works of Rudolf Steiner and the results of his spiritual research, embracing every facet of human life and endeavors.
The Foundation Year courses include:
The Foundation Year also includes extensive artistic activities such as music, singing, painting, modeling, drawing, speech formation, and Eurythmy.
This program is designed for working people. It requires twelve class hours per week including Saturday mornings.
The Foundation Year is part of the full two-year Teacher Training, but students may enroll for the Foundation Year only.
The second Teacher Training year offers guidance in a comprehensive study of Waldorf education, based on Rudolf Steiner's profound insight in human nature and educational needs of the growing child.
Methodology and curriculum studies, in relationship to child development, form the core of the course work, alongside the arts of Eurythmy, music, singing, painting, drawing, and clay modeling.
The curriculum work includes the teaching of language arts, literature, mathematics, history, geography, and the sciences.
In the third trimester individual students expand into special subject projects, such as foreign language teaching, woodwork, handwork, and gymnastics or games.
A major portion of the year is devoted to observations in the classrooms and practice teaching. This is made possible by the fact that the training takes place within the Eugene Waldorf School, which allows the students to interact frequently with teachers and children. Practice teaching is also arranged in other Waldorf schools.
Those who successfully complete the Education Year may apply for a teaching position at any Waldorf School.
Applicants will be asked to a personal interview after receipt of a completed application form and the payment of a $25 registration fee. the courses run from mid-September to mid-June.
For further information and application forms, please write to:
Registrar, Waldorf Teacher Training
1350-McLean Blvd.
Eugene, OR 97405
E-mail to: ewaldorf@efn.org
Or, call: (541) 683-6951.
Other teacher training centers in the west are: Rudolf Steiner College in Sacramento and San Francisco (916) 961-8727; Waldorf Institute of Southern California in Los Angeles (818) 349-1394.
The Waldorf Schools began in 1919 out of the recognition that only a spiritual renewal in education would bring about a renewal in cultural and social life. In the meantime the Waldorf movement, with more than 500 schools worldwide, had become the largest independent, non-denominational education movement in the world. There are some 70 Waldorf Schools in the United States of America. Although each school is completely autonomous, they are linked together by a shared striving in realizing and developing Rudolf Steiner's educational aims. Opportunities for this sharing are offered in worldwide Teachers' Conferences where new impulses are given to continuous learning.
Rudolf Steiner's writings and lectures are today available in some 325 volumes on a wide range of subjects. His universal genius gave and continues to give rejuvenating impulses in all fields of knowledge and endeavors of life. Besides education, we look to the practical work done in the medical realm, in biodynamic farming, in architecture, in banking, in social issues, and in the arts and sciences. All these endeavors stem from Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophical Spiritual Science.