Connection of School and Farming

While we tapped and patiently twisted bottle caps, my daughter jumped around the farm, scratched the soft ears of calves and helped Elisabeth Birkmeier with the pre-milking. When she was in third grade, she trudged through dark furrows with her classmates and pulled the plow on the Birkmeier family's small school field, which is tilled year after year by the third grade of the Augsburg Waldorf School. Even today, my daughter knows how difficult milking by hand is and how special warm, freshly milked milk tastes.

Many Waldorf schools organize joint activities with Demeter farms. In Augsburg, the school and local Demeter farms celebrate the annual harvest festival with a farmers' market, and many ninth grade classes travel to a Demeter farm for their agricultural internship. A few years ago, the Demeter Association and the Bund der Freien Waldorfschulen reached a general agreement defining the internship and providing guidance for farms, students and parents. This year, the Demeter Association is celebrating the centenary of biodynamic agriculture and we are dedicating our issue to this topic.

We also have a number of other interesting articles in this issue: Susanne Bregenzer, a writing mother at the Waldorf School in Überlingen, reflects on how to educate children for peace today. In Flensburg, Waldorf students have created a memorial for Sinti and Roma murdered by the National Socialists. In Dietzenbach, there is a very special superintendent who, in addition to her technical tasks, also educates students. And because there will be a legal entitlement to all-day care for primary school children in Germany from 2026, the Bund der Freien Waldorfschulen, together with the Waldorf Kindergarten Association, is offering a special training course to ensure that education is successful throughout the day.

I hope you can enjoy June between school and nature - perhaps take a trip to a Demeter farm in your area?