Utopia of Fair Education

However, it is important that we frequently visualize utopias, such as what educational equality could look like in the ideal, in order to at least come closer to our goals. Educational equality means that every child has the same opportunities in life, regardless of their background or gender or their parents' income or educational qualifications. And that every person can participate in education, work and culture and thus lead a happy life with dignity.

It is not fair if everyone gets the same amount, but that everyone gets what they need. Applied to Waldorf education, this would mean that not only the children of parents who know and understand Waldorf education are allowed to attend Waldorf schools, but also those for whom our special concept without selection and subject hierarchy, with orientation towards the child's talents, with community and learning with all the senses, is particularly beneficial. In this issue, people have their say for whom this is a particular concern – in the Emil Molt Academy in Berlin, in intercultural Waldorf schools or in general (article by Frodo Ostkämper). The editor Nele Auschra deals with the topic of «simple language» in her Publisher's View.

In this issue, you will also find a portrait of a Waldorf teacher who found his way to Germany from Brazil. He wants to pass on to his students «the recognition and appreciation of the fleeting moments of happiness that music can awaken in us”. In her article, Dorit Binder describes how the CO2ero project has developed in the meantime. My colleague Heidi Käfer portrays the former Waldorf student Katja Weitzenböck, now a popular actress. In her article, Silke Bender explains how a Waldorf school provided the stimulus for starting GLS Bank, which has now been in existence for 50 years. She quotes the founding board member Wilhelm Ernst Barkhoff: “We can only overcome the fear of a future that we fear by creating images of a future that we want.»

With this in mind, I wish us all a May full of images and visions of a future that we want!