‘Reverence, ritual and rhythm’: Waldorf School celebrates 40 years on Whidbey

By KATE POSS

Special to The Record

Among the celebrations of its 40th year in operation the Whidbey Island Waldorf School — WIWS — is hosting a spring festival open to the greater community.

A Festival of Flowers is planned for 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on May 10 in the South Whidbey Community Center’s back field.

Events include games, a cake raffle, music, Maypole dancing, lemons with peppermint stick straws, a middle school bake sale and creation of flower crowns.

Celebrating seasons through festivals is a core component of Waldorf education, one of the largest independent school systems in the world and founded by Rudolf Steiner in 1919 in Stuttgart, Germany. Steiner’s philosophy is holistic and designed to cultivate a child’s physical, intellectual and spiritual wellbeing.

“At WIWS and in Waldorf schools across the world, the elements of festival — changing of the seasons, community in gratitude and celebration, song, story and sometimes silence — permeate the life at the school and help establish the cadence of the year,” notes the school’s website. “Throughout history and in all civilizations, there are rituals reflecting nature’s rhythms. For people today, festivals can help provide a real touchstone with the cycles of the earth and the soul nurturing they provide. Reverence, ritual and rhythm are three integrated aspects of Waldorf education.“

As someone “born into the Waldorf school culture,” Cordula Hetland currently teaches kindergarten at the school. Both of her parents were Waldorf teachers. Her father attended school in Stuttgart that was led by Rudolf Steiner himself.

“My dad switched from public school to the first Waldorf school in Stuttgart in fourth grade,” Hetland explained. “He thought it was boring, and gave his teacher the hardest time. Rudolf Steiner was the director of the school. My dad’s teacher said please come and observe. He came and observed. Took him five minutes. At the next faculty meeting he was moved up a grade.”

Hetland’s father went on to teach science and math for Waldorf high school students in Austria. Her mother taught elementary school students. Both published books on the education system.

“I grew up with all this, from when I was 3 in preschool to 12th grade graduation,” Hetland recalled. “The funniest thing — I had a kindergarten teacher who was unhappy and not kind. As a 6-year-old, I decided I should be a kindergarten teacher. By 9 the plan was fixed. I finished high school and signed up for becoming an early childhood teacher.”

Hetland taught her first early childhood classes in Vienna and now, decades later, after teaching at various schools in the greater Seattle area and waiting for 25 years, she has her own kindergarten class. She said early childhood teaching is critical in forming the foundation of our life.

“For me, being a teacher is not a job. It’s more a life choice I made,” Hetland said. “When I started teaching in Austria I had 24 to 27 children with an assistant. Now, I have 12 to 15. With sensory integration and ADHD and other challenges coming our way, we create a calm environment.”

The private school shares more than 100 acres of forest and meadow with the Whidbey Institute in Clinton. About 130 students from pre-school through grade 8 attend the school.

On April 16 at Bayview Hall, eighth graders hosted an open house based on six months of working on projects to demonstrate their interest and skills. The projects included displays on photography, animation, the beauty industry, clay art, baking, film making, vehicle maintenance, and the advertising and design industry.

A school farm is planned. On April 26, Waldorf parent Alissa Collins will host a class on biodynamic farming. The practice, founded by Rudolf Steiner, takes a holistic approach, and views the farm as a living organism, treating the soil, plants, animals and humans on the farm as interconnected parts of a larger system.

On Saturday, May 17, from 11 a.m. to noon at the Langley Library, Waldorf’s early childhood teachers present a puppet play, “Mashenka and the Bear.” The play is followed by a craft class in which children can make wool roving bees or butterflies.

Fifth graders will compete in an upcoming Olympiad, which includes other Waldorf schools participating in a Greek pentathlon of sports: discus throwing, javelin hurling, wrestling, relay and long jump.

An indigenous-inspired Coast Salish Cultural Sharing campout is planned for Waldorf fourth graders in May. It is led by Angela Lindstrom, Grades Pedagogical director of the Whidbey Island Waldorf School, who is of Native American descent; she is Ojibwe (Anishanabe) from the Great Lakes region on her mother’s side. Her father is part Eastern Band Cherokee.

Shawna Pinkston and her children, Ellis and River, joined the Waldorf community last September after moving to Whidbey from Portland, Oregon.

“It’s magic,” Ellis said. “I’m working on animal reports. We’re studied Norse mythology. We did a play — Idun and her golden apples. Now we’re official Waldorfians.”

River added, “I like to make gnomes. We colored eggs today.”

Kindergartners in Hetland’s class blew the insides out of raw eggs, using it to make German pancakes and coloring the egg shells to hang from a tree centerpiece in their classroom.

“My husband came for a retreat and said you have to see this place,” Shawna Pinkston said. “Living in Portland was hard on Ellis and we came here during the summer and thought it was a nature school. We walked the grounds, took our shoes off and walked in the meadow. We said this is it. Every morning we make a circle and I feel absolutely grateful we have our kids in such a wonderful environment. Miss Cordula is an angel from heaven.”

In addition to the upcoming spring festival and class events, the school hosts summer school programs. Visit wiws.org/summercamps for more information.

To learn more about the Whidbey Island Waldorf School, visit wiws.org.