Darkness needs Mindfulness

When, as an adult, I heard about the Rubicon in Waldorf pedagogy, I realized what had happened to me: I had left the comfortable childlike world, I had suddenly become aware that I was alone as a human being, an “isolated self”, as the educational scientist Prof. Dr. Axel Föller-Mancini describes it. In this issue of Erziehungskunst, he explains what the Rubicon is all about and why the big questions of life and death are part of it. People who are unable to see, live in the dark and can participate with the support of the seeing: Class tutor Anke Grohmann from Dresden talks about how Waldorf education has also worked for almost blind pupil Pauline. Our editor Anne Brockmann spoke to former religious education teacher Stefan Grosse and author Martin Schäuble about how teachers and parents can deal with the topics of death, dying and suicide. Class teacher Jessica Gube describes, among other things, what her class experienced in an exhibition that is completely in the dark.

November marks the end of the golden month of October. With All Saints' Day, All Souls' Day, Remembrance Day, Sunday of the Dead and the Day of Prayer and Repentance, it is the month in which the deceased are traditionally remembered in our part of the world. In Germany, around a quarter of the population suffers from winter blues when the days get shorter. This is mainly due to a lack of light or vitamin D. That's why it's particularly important now to take good care of ourselves and those around us. And to combat the blues, it can help to see this time as the beginning of the germination of seeds beneath the earth's surface.

In our centerpiece, 17-year-old Luise Bandtel describes in a touching text how she regained confidence in herself and in life after a period of sadness. Music teacher Tobias Gräff from Ravensburg talks about a very special project in which 21 Waldorf school students visited people and sang for them on their doorstep – giving them happiness. In Gröbenzell, students founded a company - project leaders Karl-Dieter Bodack and Katja Droste-Zigone report on this. In this issue, Miriam Rönn and Sonja Heumann report on how some schools found new teachers with the #everyhourcounts campaign on social media.

Wishing you a good read and despite fall's darkness bright and sunny days in November!