Book Review: See the Child, Love the Child, Know Yourself: Now Teach June 30 2019
See the Child, Love the Child, Know Yourself: Now Teach
Elan Leibner
For the six years that the Research Institute for Waldorf Education (RIWE) was fortunate enough to have Elan Leibner as the editor of the Research Bulletin, a striking confluence of practices and consciousness from both the Pedagogical Section Council of North America, (PSC) and that of more standard research ideals was possible. Elan was and is the chair of the PSC and has stimulated attention and effective practices in spiritual research out of his own Waldorf teaching experiences, and out of his research. “Responsible innovation” as Elan Leibner has named and encouraged it, along with colleagueship through earnest study practices, are among the fruits of this unusual combination of tasks. They offer the shedding of bright and nourishing light onto the efforts of Waldorf teachers, and all teachers.
Collected here are the essays he wrote for the Research Bulletin over six years of this fruitful convergence of RIWE with PSC. Contemplative practice and its place in Waldorf education and spiritual research, study practices toward deeper community building, mindful incorporation of meditative approaches in faculty meetings, authenticity in teaching, and pursuit of self-knowledge of our highest and lowest selves as teachers, are some of the pictures and ideas Elan Leibner offers in this gathering of essays and lectures. Reading along through these essays, you will discern that his descriptions of innovative approaches to study and colleagueship were developed while identifying cutting-edge research for the Research Bulletin that supports the approach of Waldorf education.
It is a satisfying opportunity to be able to publish these articles collected in one book that offers inspiration and vision. It has been a delight and a privilege to read them again to prepare this manuscript. The articles were excellent in the issues of the Research Bulletin where they first appeared and are even better as the book they have become. The urgency of the need to weave spiritual truth into all that we do as human beings, to incorporate this practice into everyday life, especially as teachers, and the brute counter-force that materialism presents as we strive to do so, make a book like this a relief and a quiet, mighty support. That we never give up is, perhaps, the most important building block of our teaching efforts — the book assists in this most important, difficult, and ineffable goal.