May 19, 2008
Dear Colleagues, Parents and Friends of Waldorf Education,
As you know, one week ago today, a powerful and devastating earthquake struck in Szechuan Province in the area around Chengdu, home of the first Waldorf School in China. I am writing to you today to ask for your support in the aftermath of the earthquake for the teachers, parents and children of the Chengdu Waldorf School.
I returned from China on the day of the earthquake after teaching in the Waldorf kindergarten training program hosted by the Chengdu Waldorf School. My husband Michael and I taught the nearly 100 kindergarten teachers from all over China - mostly from Chengdu, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Xi'an - who are enrolled in the part-time Waldorf training. Then after a few days of holiday in the karst mountains near Yangshuo, we flew to Beijing to meet with kindergarten teachers and parents in Waldorf initiative groups and to visit several bio-dynamic farms north of Beijing near the Great Wall.
Waldorf education has awakened tremendous interest in China in the past year or two and things are developing very quickly. We were deeply, deeply impressed by the spirit of the Chengdu Waldorf School - the brotherhood/sisterhood among the teachers and families and children there, and the intrepid efforts to incarnate a Waldorf school physically, soul-wise and spiritually in a country that is in the process of re-inventing itself in an amazingly intense way.
Now, post-earthquake, we are deeply concerned with the situation in Szechuan Province. Two weeks ago we visited the city of Dujiangyan, 60 km west of Chengdu, en route to hiking among the Taoist temples at Qincheng Mountain. Dujiangyan is one of two epicenters of the earthquake, and we are struggling to bring together two sets of images - one the lovely, pleasant green city at the edge of the mountains close to the Tibet border, away from the pollution of Chengdu, and the other the site of collapsed hospitals, factories and a middle school where many children perished - children who, with the One Child Policy, were their parents' beloved only child and who now are gone. We can hardly bear to think of the grieving taking place now, and the chaos of homelessness that has ensued.
Of course, most of all, we are carrying in our hearts the situation of our friends and colleagues and the families at the Waldorf School. From what we have heard from Li Zhang there, no one was hurt. However, the buildings where the school is housed – a former tea house/summer retreat that was quite dilapidated when the school moved in – have been damaged.
During our visit, we were deeply touched by how the grounds and buildings had been lovingly ensouled - a small bamboo "forest" garden planted where rubble had been, a pond created over an old debris-filled wetland, and home-made lazured walls painted with love and care, filling the old concrete buildings with life and color. The Waldorf School has become a lovely bustling community, filled with activity, where teachers and parents and children all carry one another and the school's mission as they try to transform the physical environment and to incarnate Waldorf education under less than easy circumstances.
Since the earthquake, teachers, parents and children have been living in tents and under canopies at the school, as the rains pour down. Several kindergartens and the offices have now been declared uninhabitable, and the school will need to either rebuild or relocate. For the moment, the teachers and staff are busy with immediate concerns such as sterilizing contaminated water, offering support and consolation to those most in need, helping with the relief effort- especially with the children in outlying areas devastated by the earthquake, and offering prayers.
We carry in our hearts the question of how we can offer support in this catastrophic situation. Soul-spiritually, we can carry our Chinese friends and colleagues in our hearts, in our thoughts and in our prayers. The teachers have expressed how supported they feel by their friends around the world. Financially, we can also offer much-needed support. We ask you to share with your colleagues and the families at your school the news about the situation, and ask them to join us in sending donations to the Chengdu Waldorf School. Checks made payable to “WECAN” and marked with a note “for Chengdu” can be sent to WECAN (Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America), 285 Hungry Hollow Road, Spring Valley, New York. Donations are tax-deductible and will be forwarded to the Chengdu Waldorf School.
The phoenix bird, Fenghuang, is ubiquitous in China, a picture of high power, virtue and grace sent from heaven. We hope that like the phoenix, the life of Waldorf education will arise and fly forth out of the current devastation into the future, in part through support and care sent by others from distant lands who nonetheless feel very close to the Chinese people and to what they are trying to bring to birth.
Many thanks for your support.
