Personal and Organizational Renewal: From Survival to Success

Schools face many challenges today. If one “peels the onion” one finds that behind the external issues of deficits, low salaries, interpersonal conflict, and lack of support for leadership there is often an underlying need to rekindle the sources of inspiration and find a more collaborative approach. By bringing together the various groups represented in a typical school, this course attempts to model new ways of working together.

 

Our classrooms feature the magic of seeing the “whole child”; can our organizations learn to embrace whole-systems thinking? This course is for parents, teachers, administrators, and board members interested in school renewal. Some of the topics to be covered include: group dynamics, leadership styles, the wisdom of human physiology and the planets, working with conflict, communication, mediation, artistic practice, and finding the balance between personal and professional demands. These themes will be supported through exercises from Eurythmy in the Workplace. Participants will take up some of the current issues facing our schools and design strategies to work toward closer collaboration.

 

Suggested texts: School Renewal and Organizational Integrity, both by Torin Finser.

 

LEONORE RUSSELL, who has taught eurythmy and humanities for 30 years at the Waldorf School of Garden City, is Director of the Winkler Center for Adult Learning, as well as adjunct professor in the Art Education Department of Adelphi University and faculty member of the Waldorf High School Teacher Education Program at the Center for Anthroposophy. A member of the original AWSNA Pedagogical Advisors Seminar, Leonore works as a consultant and mentor to schools and organizations, using the arts as a catalyst for development.

 

TORIN M. FINSER is Chair of the Education Department at Antioch University New England. A former Waldorf class teacher and Director of the Waldorf Teacher Education Program at Antioch for 18 years, he also serves as General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in America. He is the author of five books, including his most recent publication: Organizational Integrity.