Touching Souls and Resolving Conflicts

As a teenager, it were the books written by Hermann Hesse that reconciled me with the idea that I, like all people, am mortal and showed me the surprising idea that death could also be something beautiful. The last sentence in Kafka's story An Imperial Message also made a lasting impression on me: «No one gets through here with the message of a dead man. – But you sit at your window and dream it up when evening comes», contained the consolation for me that some of the things I dreamed of might have happened after all, even if I never found out about them.

Stories come to us in very different ways. In conversations, we hear stories that have happened to others. In books, films or radio plays, we immerse ourselves in stories of various genres. It is not necessary for the story to be «true» for it to have an effect, but it must reflect a possibility. And in the best case, something resonates with us.

This issue of Erziehungskunst focuses on oral storytelling, which plays an important role in Waldorf education. Waldorf students are told German fairy tales, European fables, Germanic, Greek or Roman legends. Waldorf teacher Michaela Kfir told me how she uses self-invented stories to address conflicts and incidents in her class and uses them as a means of reconciliation and empathy. Three lecturers in Waldorf education describe how they teach storytelling to future Waldorf teachers. And in her article, Heidi Käfer discusses the question of whether fairy tales in which the storytellers give the protagonists the opposite gender meet today's demand for gender equality.

We have collected and written down many other beautiful stories from the wide world of Waldorf education for you in this Erziehungkunst. Jürgen Beckmerhagen describes how Waldorf students composed interstellar messages. Sebastian Schulke interviewed a school cook and talks to him about leftovers, French fries and pumpkin-sage sauces. Anne Brockmann presents a scientific study on Waldorf schools and the state exam in Hesse. We profile Alanus College in Alfter near Bonn. And last but not least, this issue launches a new series written by students who are active across Germany. Starting with Maya Ayarza Arisa.

I wish you an inspiring read and a September in late summer full of wonderful stories – whether you've experienced them yourself, invented them or heard them yourself!