I have always loved learning. Out of graduate school I was looking for a teaching position. When I found Waldorf I found my destiny. It combined my love of learning with my spiritual practices. The only field I have expertise in is Buddhist Dharma, but I’ve always been a generalist and not a specialist. Teaching 1-8 has now become my expertise—I get to be an expert generalist.
I get to use a wide variety of talents: storytelling, lecturing, drawing, painting, musicing [sic], plus many more. I was attracted to teaching the grades for several reasons—I relate with 1st graders as easily as with 8th graders; I get to watch the children grow and develop over an eight year period; and I have to continually grow, change, study, and learn, so as to meet my students needs.
Becoming a class teacher allows me to know my students very intimately, becoming a central part of their lives as I take on the shared burden of their karma and their destinies. As a Buddhist I have taken a vow to be of benefit to all sentient beings, and I can think of no other profession that does this more than teaching. The word “doctor” comes from the Latin for teaching. I am not just a doctor to my students minds, but try, to the best of my abilities, to reach and minister to their hearts, souls, physicality and ultimately t o their spiritual nature.
In my current school year, teaching sixth graders, I look forward to shepherding them through the vicissitudes and painful experiences, as well as the joys and revelations of becoming a teenager. Personally I had very challenging middle school years, and I am able to relate viscerally to their struggles.
I feel very comfortable and at-home here at Kimberton. I have felt supported and encouraged by my fellow colleagues. I feel that Kimberton Waldorf School is doing an amazing job of balancing the teachings of Rudolf Steiner with the challenges of the post-modern world and new ways of thinking. I feel like the recognition of our ever-changing development and evolution of consciousness, in a broad way, lives very deeply at Kimberton.
