Salzburg International Conference

SALZBURG, OCT 2005 Yvonne Herring Bruwer

In October 2005, as the representative from South Africa, I was privileged to attend this Conference, the title of which was “Wie Kinder Lernen” - How children Learn, and was organized by the International Alliance and ‘Mit Kinder Wachsen’ (Growing with Children), a child-focused organization based in Germany. I stayed in the Kindergarten of the Salzburg Waldorf school, which was no doubt the home of many fairies, gnomes and angels, as well as a place where many local children spend some hours each day.  The Aftercare facilities, also in this building, were the quaintest dormitory imaginable, a place where the little ones nap each in their own curtained bunk bed. In the afternoon, I expected to find Snow white cleaning up and the dwarves appearing behind the curtains at each little bed! I felt welcomed by the beings present. It was Fall in Europe, and the conference setting in the Salzburg forest idyllic.  Some 200 delegates from all over the world attended the conference, where we were fed delicious organic food. The opening address took us directly into American culture.  Bill Crain, professor of Education at New York University, exposed the myth of “goals” for children as being clearly ‘our’ goals for children.  The present teaching mode robbed children of their natural motivation to do tasks that are satisfying to them, and are forced to do more and more academic work, playing ever less from a very early age. He urged us to put aside our obsession with ‘the future’ and ‘goals’ for the child, and to attend to the following areas;

1. The Arts.  Give opportunities for creativity to free individual self-expression.

2. Play, where imagination develops; Give time for imaginary play, imaginary friends and make-believe/fantasy play.

3. Exploration of the Natural world.  Enable children to patiently observe and be in nature; to give them time and opportunity to be with animals. He reminded that up until the age of 7-8 years, children dream more about animals than anything else.

4. Language.  He called each child a ‘linguistic genius’.  By the age of 5-6, the young child has mastered vocabulary as well as syntax.  Development and experimentation with language is severely stunted in a highly automated technical world, where children are no longer spoken to. We should also remember that the development of intelligence is much in the listening and retaining; much more than the ‘smart brat retort’ that media  portrays, much of what children learn is silently received, to emerge much later, after the child has made it his/her own inwardly.  Children do not verbalize everything they experience or see, but may nevertheless retain rich treasure within, expressed later in life, verbally or non- verbally.

Further contributions from Magda Gerber, Joan Almon, Cathy Nutbrown, Frithjof Bergmann, and others were thought provoking and inspiring.

‘The Intelligence of Play’ was a most profound workshop run by U S documentary film- maker Michael Mendizza (see article pg. 2)  Focusing on the words INTELLIGENCE and PLAY, he noted how often they are depicted as opposites.  You are either playing (i.e. enjoying yourself), or being intelligent (learning or working – without much enjoyment) - a misconception of both words.   In short, both intelligence and play are possible ONLY in the HERE-and-NOW and have to do with alertness and being in the present moment.  Children are born into a state of both play and intelligence, and that in order for them to model us, they need us to be in this state as much as possible.

Another firm favourite at this conference was Fred Donaldson, international ‘playmate’ from the USA, well-known to many. He once again took as his topic ‘Playing from the Heart.’ Having participated in workshops and heard Fred many times before, he always surprises - offering ever more on the subject of PLAY.  I would say the he has penetrated this work on play and the human psyche unlike anyone else I know, perhaps as no other person currently living on earth.  His ‘project’ he calls the Sanctuary Model, recruiting participants for a journey as wide as the earth and as deep as the heart.  He says that the more we play, the more sacred our journey becomes.  The prime objective of his model is to create relationships between children and adults – as they do not yet exist on earth.  The adults are to create safe spaces, giving only two messages:

• you’re lovable and
• there is nothing to be afraid of.

He is adamant that we would then create a different kind of human being, one where conflict is obsolete.  He calls children the Bearers of Promise.  Even if a child behaves negatively, he says that we must give love –even at the point of attack, no matter what. His message, as that of Michael Mendizza, was universal- the same as Christ Jesus, Buddha, Gandhi, Mother Theresa:  Go look to the children. One of Fred’s workshops took place out into the forest, where we worked in a group and in pairs to focus on issues of trust, touch and each participant’s inner experiences.   For the umpteenth time, he astounded me, and I left his workshop humbled, highly motivated and hopefully a freer individual member of his Sanctuary.

The conference ended with Christopher Clouder from the UK branch of the Alliance. His address carefully, creatively and thoughtfully focused on Childhood and Imagination. His imagery from English and French literature was rich and beautiful.  One of his messages was like the picture from the bible of ‘Mary pondering all these things in her heart’; Adults need time and space to be still, he said, exactly that quality which culture robs from the contemporary child. Only then could we face the monsters within and overcome these and be freely available for our children. Christopher described the Alliance as a state of mind; to help each other in modesty and humility, remains at the core of our work, as we work at protecting childhood and at counteracting the ravages of modern civilization.  In the form of international networking, current research and collegial support, the value of attending a conference like this cannot be underestimated.

Yvonne currently runs the Sophia Family Centre of Lifeways in Cape Town, works as school counsellor for Constantia Waldorf School and Michael Oak and teaches Life Skills at the Constantia Waldorf School.