Restore trust

Waldorf education throughout the world is based on trust. In China, trust completely broke down during the cultural revolution thirty years ago, and the recent plunge into commercialization is creating new challenges. More and more a small but growing generation of young educated Chinese are working to restore this trust in society. This lays behind the current impulse to bring Waldorf education to China in such a way that anthroposophy and the insights of ancient Chinese philosophy can bring light and consciousness into Chinese culture.

 

Cheng Du Training Center

Waldorf education has grown incredibly fast during the last 5 years in China. The Chengdu Waldorf School, in Sichuan province, was founded in September 2004 by Li Zhang and Harry Wong who had studied Waldorf education and anthroposophy in the United States, Thailand, and England. It now includes 5 kindergartens and 2 playgroups  with 110 children, a grade school up to 8th grade with 85 children, and an adult learning center. It acts as a center for the Waldorf movement in China; its teachers collaborate with other Waldorf initiatives all over the country. There are to date 24 such intitiatives, concentrating in 5 other areas beside Chengdu, each with a cluster of small kindergartens and in one case (Guangzhou) a grade school as well  - Guangzhou-Zhuhai, Beijing, Shanghai, Xi’an, and Hong Kong-Shenzhen.

After a year of preparation by Li Zhang, Harry Wong and Thanh Cherry, an Australian kindergarten teacher who has been an advisor for the Chengdu School since its inception, a three-year part-time early childhood training course started in August 2006.  80 people signed up, coming from all over Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

 

 

A time of healing

The first module took place under very difficult conditions and in very hot weather. It was the hottest summer in Chengdu since 1958; each day was over 36 degrees C !  Nonetheless, the participants greatly appreciated their experience and could not wait to come back for the next session. Many felt revived, refreshed and touched in their hearts. It had been a time of healing for them - even a new birth. The course ended in August 2009; the number of graduates is expected to come to about 40 once the students who joined late catch up with the requirements. The graduation certificate was endorsed by the International Association for Steiner-Waldorf Early Childhood Education and tutors came from many different countries of the world.

Upon request a second 3-year part-time training course was organised, following shortly after the graduation of Course I, in August 2009 with 140 participants. 2 modules were completed by the end of 2009 and graduation is scheduled to take place in April 2011. It is hoped that these courses will continue into the future in one form or another.

In-service training

Parallel with the training project is a mentoring project, supported by the International Association for Steiner/Waldorf Early childhood Education and the Freunde der Erziehungskunst Rudolf Steiner e.V., which tries to encourage experienced early childhood  teachers from other countries to come and give in-service training to new teachers in kindergartens all over China.

Project leaders are:

Thanh Cherry, Australia (cherrythanh@gmail.com)

Li Zhang and Harry Wong, Chengdu (waldorfcd@gmail.com) , together with the Chinese Committee for Early Childhood Education.