“There is no greater joy than learning”: Memories of a Beautiful Education

Lim DaVid grew up on the rural east coast of peninsular Malaysia before beginning his professional life as an engineer. But a calling to Steiner-Waldorf education brought him to Australia where he trained at the Melbourne Rudolf Steiner Seminar over two years. There he was inspired by his teachers, who urged him to return to Malaysia. He was told: “There are children waiting for you!” There certainly were, and after founding a Kindergarten, the first class of the first Steiner school in the country came into being with DaVid as the teacher. Within a year he had handed over guidance of the school to a pioneering group of parents and other teachers while he stayed in the classroom. From a single house with eight students in Class 1, the school has now graduated three Class 12 cohorts, has 430 students plus over 40 staff, and Sasana International Waldorf School is an International Associate Member of Steiner Education Australia. DaVid’s philosophy has been one of saying ‘Yes to life”, and as he looks back on this remarkable journey, he reflects that it was all possible because he and his colleagues were prepared to “jump into the unknown”.

Charity Muli’s life as a Steiner or Waldorf teacher has taken her from Nairobi, Kenya, to Guatemala City, and now to Perth, WA where she is the Class 1 teacher at Helena River Waldorf School. After discovering Steiner education in Nairobi, she has taught three cycles of the early years of the class teacher period, taught Swahili as a second language, run an Inclusive extra lesson department and also been one of the founding teachers of a new school. Her experiences of Steiner education across three continents have affirmed her confidence in the curriculum and pedagogy where she feels safe and supported. Each school has felt like “another home”. A guiding light through this journey has been the foundational picture of the human being that underlies Steiner education, and the collaborative work by teachers to apply this vision in the classroom. Charity values the renewal that comes from this work, which gives her a sense of always evolving into a different human being.

Yasushi Hayashi began life on the outskirts of Tokyo and now lives on the outskirts of Geelong, near Melbourne as the Japanese teacher at Freshwater Creek Steiner school. His life journey in between has taken him around the world. After his first fascination with the English language at school as a teenager, and then hearing about Steiner education on Japanese radio, he has followed both these themes for the rest of his life. The journey has taken him to training at Emerson College in the UK, and teaching in Scotland and then three schools in Australia. Moving between cultures and countries has brought to him the very contemporary question of “Who am I?”: am I Japanese, am I Australian, am I a world citizen? The question goes to the heart of why languages are so important in Steinerschools. We can be all of these: the gift of another language and culture helps us experience a larger version of ourselves.

Five Steiner schools on three continents! Nishka Varghese is a multiple Steiner X, having attended five different Steiner schools across three continents in the course of her school journey. She is now studying Criminology, with plans to complete a degree in Law, at Melbourne University, and is enjoying a busy life style in theatre and music as well. Nishka has been a long term member of the Waldorf Wayfarers, the choral and performing troupe led by Judith Clingan AM which travels Australia and the world bringing original music to Steiner schools and communities. In this podcast Nishka reflects on the common, unifying threads that underlie all the Steiner schools she has attended, including the main lessons and outdoor education camps which particularly inspired her. Most of all, she remembers the beautiful place of story-telling in the early childhood years, a place of joy and wonder that continually inspires her even now, and has given her a foundation for life.

Lisa Devine wears many hats: psychologist, priest, eurythmist and youth worker. She is neither a teacher nor a parent yet she has been active in many Steiner schools as what she calls a “relational wellbeing counsellor”, working with relationships and community. In her wider community work, Lisa has spent 30 years working with young people and adults in trauma situations, some at the lowest points in their lives. Her journey has taken her through many painful moments where she has sat with those “on the threshold”. Yet she is still in awe of human beings: their resilience, their capacity to recover meaning in life, and to be there for each other. She is now working with Emergency Pedagogy, and she describes the profound impact its has had locally in the aftermath of both the Bondi terrorist attack and the Victorian bushfires. Her message is simple: relationship before outcome, and ultimately, everybody matters.