In a World Where you yan be Anything, be Loving

How she seemed to perceive more than what she could see and hear from our pubescent, unruly child – that triggered a great sense of gratitude. Later, in my experience of Waldorf education, I repeatedly encountered that love for the world, for people and everything that surrounds them is an essential foundation.

We are dedicating this issue to the topic of love – there are many variations and types of love and we are only picking out a few.

A mother describes her nine-year-old daughter's first time falling in love. Heidi Käfer categorizes the term in terms of cultural history up to post-capitalism. Anne Brockmann spoke to three teachers about how they manage the balance between closeness and professional distance in their everyday lives. Sophia Klipstein praises love for friends and talks about how she teaches relationship skills.

Angelika Schmitt, the new co-director of the Rudolf Steiner Archives in Dornach, traces Rudolf Steiner's concept of love. You will find many other texts worth reading in the rear section of Erziehungskunst. Gabriele Ebeling is a senior teacher at the Freie Waldorfschule Magdeburg. She made her ninth-grade class experience their hometown in a new way – with an ingenious trick: they walked through Magdeburg for seven hours, from 11 p.m. to half past six in the morning. Her text about exploring and crossing boundaries.

Jürgen Beckmerhagen describes how an entire school can work together to realize a special project. With a large yurt on the school grounds, the Heidenheim Waldorf School has created a space for encounters and listening with an open heart. In her short series on reform pedagogy, Fiona-Livia Bachmann describes Ivan Illich, whose call for free learning without schools continues to inspire educators to reflect. Susanne Bregenzer tells in her very funny and at the same time thought-provoking biographical text how surprise eggs with silly content can make children strong. Time and again, people send us texts about self-administration. Gerhard Herz, teacher and school co-founder in Lüneburg, suggests a compass for the successful self-organization of faculties.

There are Waldorf schools all over the world. Arefeh Rezvanmanesh co-founded a Waldorf school in Iran and describes how she got there.

I wish you an inspiring read and a lovely May.