college faculty

the teachers who teach teachers

The following people are the dedicated instructors who have been eagerly, patiently, and expertly sharing their knowledge and insights with the students at Steiner College here in lovely Fair Oaks, CA. Their bios are from the Steiner College website, and are full-time faculty. Adjunct faculty are listed below. All are wonderful teachers who really care about their work and their students. A big thank you to all of them!

Patrick Wakeford-Evans

Academic Dean, Program Director

Rick: Patrick can illustrate the complex concepts of anthroposophy with clear words, humor, and a lively spirit.

After 17 years as a class teacher, Patrick joined Rudolf Steiner College as an adult educator in 1999. He has given lectures and mentored teachers in Mexico, Japan, England, and the United States. He has worked as a musician, actor, and playwright. His special interest is in science education and inner development. He has developed new programs at Rudolf Steiner College and is currently the Academic Dean.

Astrid Schmitt-Stegman, MA

Teacher Education

Rick: Astrid's love of Rudolf Steiner and Waldorf education is evident in her passionate lectures.

Astrid taught for many years in Waldorf schools in the United States and Germany. She served as a mentor for new teachers and began training teachers in the 1980s. In addition to heading the Waldorf Teacher Education Program at Rudolf Steiner College, she has taught in teacher training centers, lectured, and mentored Waldorf schools in the United States, Germany, Russia, Thailand and the Philippines. She is currently assisting Dr. Michaela Glöckler, Head of the Medical Section of the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland, with international support for the worldwide Waldorf movement. Astrid also teaches in Rudolf Steiner College programs, particularly in the summer and in our Community Learning Centers.

Theodore Mahle, MFA

Arts Faculty

Rick: Ted deftly combines being an artist and an instructor - not an easy task!

Ted has been teaching drawing, painting and art history in various Rudolf Steiner College programs for many years. He received a BS in Art Education from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. For seven years he worked as a graphic designer in New York City, and took evening art courses at the School of Visual Arts. After taking the Foundation Year in Anthroposophical Studies at Emerson College, England, he completed a three year painting training, according to Rudolf Steiner's methods, from Beppe Assenza at the Goetheanum Painting School, Dornach, Switzerland, in 1976 (ERES MFA Equivalent). He was a teaching assistant in the school from 1975 to 1978. Then he was employed as a painting therapist at Sonnhalde Schulheim Curative Home, Gempen, Switzerland. Returning to the U.S. he directed the Arts Program, a year-long morning course in drawing and painting at Rudolf Steiner College from 1982 to 2003. He taught art in the Davis Waldorf School from 2003 to 2005 and continues teaching at the Steiner College and around the country.

Eva Cranstoun

Music Instructor

Rick: Eva has an angelic voice, making a simple voice exercise a spiritual experience.

A native of Vienna, Austria, Eva has been singing since her youngest years. She has trained both with the Werbeck and the classical methods of singing, and has been a performer, vocal coach, and singing therapist. Private music and vocal studies in Vienna, Austria. Waldorf Teacher training (grades) diploma at RSC, 1998. Uncovering the Voice Vocal training with Christiaan Boele; Singing therapy diploma 2008. Music director at Stonebridge School (Waldorf Methods Charter) in Napa since 2004. Private vocal coach since 1999, performer.

Lauren Hickman
Head of the Early Childhood Program
Rick: Lauren showed us handwork crafts and told us a story with puppets - I felt like a little kid again!

A graduate of the University of California at Davis, Lauren has worked as a kindergarten teacher and has directed Pre-K and Tots and Parent programs. A Waldorf graduate herself, Lauren comes from a pioneering family in Waldorf Education and is knowledgeable about all facets of early childhood education.

Ina Jaehnig
Summer Teacher Education

Rick: Ina has been tremedously helpful in teaching the delivery of fairy tales, fables, and the legend of the saints.
(no picture)

Ina is a co-founder and long time teacher of the Denver Waldorf School, bringing decades of experience to her teaching in both elementary grades and high school. She earned her teaching Diploma from the Stuttgart. Academy of Arts. Her training in Waldorf teaching is from the Munich Waldorf School. In addition to serving as a core faculty member in the Summer Teacher Education Program at Rudolf Steiner College for many years, she has also been a guest teacher at the Teacher Training Program in Eugene, Oregon.

Adjuct Faculty:

Gerda Kramer (Handwork Around the World), Ruth Bucklin (Eurythmy), Antje Staub (Art of Main Lesson), Patricia Dickson (Clay Modeling), Laura Embrey-Stine (Form Drawing Grades 1-3), Brian Gray (Parzival), Bodo Langden (Wood Carving), Rosemary Glover (Biography)

painting stories

more wet method paintings

The following paintings represent the final three days of my experience with the wet-method technique as taught by Ted Mahle. I thank him for his expertise, and in just two weeks, I felt confident in the way of the wet! In the Waldorf classroom, stories, fables, legends, and Old Testament stories told to the students are often supplemented with art lessons. Depending on grade level, the wet method can be taught to the kids with simple strokes and subject matter or with a more complex and detailed style, and subject.

Parzival

assorted fables

a bible story: genesis

motive force

family and love of teaching

My wife and youngest visited me at Rudolf Steiner College for a picnic during lunch. They were about ten minutes early and I happened to be outside near a tree with an assignment I needed to complete for class. The instructor had asked us to reflect on theosophy and what we had gathered in the past week. I was closing my eyes, forming my thoughts, when a voice called out across the lawn, "Hi, Daddy!"

I opened my eyes and Wilson was running towards me. I bent down and we hugged and I gave him a kiss. Jennifer followed behind him with a picnic basket, and I told them that I still had ten minutes of class time left, and I needed to finish my assignment. So, Wilson and Jennifer strolled over to a nearby table where the handwork students were displaying dolls and felted shoes they had made.

I returned to my assignment, and I realized how synchronous it was that my son had called me just when I was reflecting on what I was learning about myself and the soul. It became evident to me what I needed to put down on paper. In theosophy I was learning that the human being is powered by both the elements of our physical world and the spirit world. Through conscious intention, by raising our sense awareness, by being open to the intuitive forces coming down from the spirit world, we become transformed and elevated as individuals. A higher consciousness leads to action that is meaningful for the self and for the world. But an important element is the motivating force that calls one to action. For me, it was my love of teaching and my family.

I wrote down that my consciousness was clearly aware that my family is at the heart of me, dwelling within me, inspiring my Spirit Self. I believe I can exist as Rick the human form, but I would not exist as Rick the soul force without the love of my family.

lolo victor

heart's adoration and inspiration

In our Summer Teacher Education program, courses in theosophy and anthroposophy give me a view about the core values and ideals of Waldorf education. The handwork class demonstrated the connection between textiles, geography, and the spirit forces. Wet-method painting and singing taught me practical techniques to share with the students. Eurythmy offered a new dimension of movement that will add health, balance, and a collective spirit to the Waldorf classroom.

One class called Inner Work has me looking inward to discover how I could become an amazing teacher outward. It makes perfectly good sense to me to spend some time focusing on oneself in order to devote one's day nurturing many children. Essential to the Waldorf teacher is to have someone in your consciousness soul to venerate, to adore, hold in high regard, respect, and admire. It is this person whom you will call upon when you need strength to push forward with your earthly tasks.

For me, that person is Lolo Victor. He is my maternal grandfather. Lolo is grandfather in Tagalog. My memory of him goes back to the Philippines when I was about 5 years old, and I had two younger brothers who were then 4 and 2. I picture Lolo Victor in a white T-shirt, slim and sinewy arms, tanned from the sun, with short-cropped graying hair. When we were in our family home in the provinces of Binangonan, he would spend time with us, a lot of time outside among the fruit trees in our yard, and the thick underbrush of the countryside. I see him with a machete in hand, chopping away bushes and bamboo, to carve a path for our many adventures. I see him plopping a chili pepper straight from a bush into his mouth and maintain a smiling face. He told stories. He helped my dad dig a well in the yard, and mechanize a hand pump to bring water to the surface. As children, I remember taking baths under that hand pump in a steel basin palced at ground level. We would splash around and the chickens would cluck, cluck, cluck and visit. He was also the one who gave me the confidence in my artistic and creative drawings, encouraging me to draw things I see in nature.

Mostly, the memories exist as feelings, as a spiritual connection to something more, which is why I hold him in veneration.

verse transformed

using soul-speak to interpret the verse

Without changing every word and line, I inserted the language of theosophy to perhaps get a new picture of the verse. It goes like this:

Surrendering to the senses’ revelation
My sentient soul washes me of my human desire
My intellectual soul vaporizes reason
Mystifies me, emptying my I of my spirit self
Now, cosmic intuition, through heightened awareness
Streams forth to fill my consciousness soul.

Essentially, through the three embodiments of the soul: the sentient soul (the feeling), the intellectual soul (the thinking), and the consciousness soul (the intuitive), we get a progression of how higher thought processes - intuitiveness - comes to us by modulating our sense perceptions and our logical thinking. In this way, we become more receptive to the intuitions as given from the spiritual world.

spiritual exercises

for your transformation

From Rudolf Steiner's Start Now! A Book of Soul and Spiritual Exercises, in the chapter called Living the Year Spiritually, Steiner offers passages for you to reflect on as a means of transforming your self to higher levels of consciousness. He has passages for each day of the week, for every week of the year, by zodiac sign, and by festivals.

This is the verse for the fourteenth week after Easter (July 7-13):

Surrendered to the senses' revelation,

I lost my own being's drive.

My thoughts became a dream.

Numbing me, they seemed to rob me of my self.

But cosmic thinking in the senses' glory

already approaches to awaken me.

Our theosophy class instructor asked us to ponder on it, and on Friday, we are to present some kind of image or a poem or reflective writing. I will sleep on it tonight and tomorrow, I will work on the passage, giving it some thought. As you read the short verse, develop your own thoughts, interpretations, and insights. If you find it meaningful in some way to your life, then I am glad to have shared it with you!

colour experience

expressing the spirit and soul through color

In my fifth painting, we continue to learn more about the wet method painting technique. I am becoming more confident in achieving the look I want as I am starting to understand the nature of the watercolors. In this painting, only four colors are modulated: green, peach-blossom, white, and black. These four colors create a cyclical interplay that has a deeper, soulful meaning.

They express themsleves in the following way:

Green represents the lifeless image of the living,

Peach-blossom represents the living image of the soul,

White or light represents the soul's image of the spirit,

Black represents the spiritual image of the lifeless.

friends forever

Rabbie and Navy in their new home

I thought I would share this adorable picture that I took this afternoon. We recently moved to a magical home in Fair Oaks - with tall oaks, camellias, Japanese maples, vines, wild grapes, a creek, and a bio-dynamic garden. For our friends Rabbie (the rabbit) and Navy (the tortoise), we created an enclosure nestled near a jasmine vine. The two have been living together for about five years now and are the best of friends.

the art of letting go

wet-method painting

Our instructor Ted Mahle can paint with his eyes closed. He has taught numerous students around the world this method of painting. Watercolor paper is soaked in water for about ten minutes, then is placed on a smooth board, the excess water is sponged off, and Stockmar paints are applied with a size 8, 10, or 12 Filbert brush. The brush is a hog's hair brush that is broad and with a tapered tip. Here in my Day One painting, we started with the three primary colors, blue, red, and yellow -- just masses placed on the page, then the colors are blended to form the secondary colors, purple, orange, and green. The middle is created by first pulling the paint off the paper by adding more water with the brush to lift the pigment, then a dry brush to wipe the paint off. Then we brought a bit of the color back, aiming for what Ted describes as a peach blossom color, signifying the soul. This technique relies on the ability to relinquish some level of control over the colors and masses, letting go, releasing the spirit into the paint.

On Day Two, we used primarily the color blue, and a bit of violet. The goal was to try and let the masses forming on the paper to guide the image, yet not be confined by it, to allow the developing shapes and movements define the space as water, or rolling hills.

This next one is my Day Three painting. I want to point out that Ted does not tell us what the image will or ought to be. By applying the paints in broad gestures first (he demonstrates on his paper the placement of the masses), each one of us will see something different to work with on the page. I felt I did not control the application too much, and I had better use of the techniques. I was happy with the way this one turned out - especially the modern house that emerged, and the bridge that I decided to add as a final thought.

Day Four, the final painting day of the week, I created this wonderful mythological scene. Ted was frantically having us apply the background colors, and we did not know where it was going to go. Apparently, the landscape was not as important as the subjects that were to later emerge. Even though initially I thought the scene would be disjointed, I was pleased with the outcome.

When we paint with our students, the time we spend, and the subject matter will be grade-appropriate. Ted says we do not have to be great artists as teachers, but we must demonstrate that we care to teach them with joyful hearts.

through the threshhold

week one of summer teacher education

I came into the program with an openness of spirit, no expectations, some preconceived notions. The word anthroposophy was largely foreign to me. Rudolf Steiner I knew only as the originator of Waldorf schools. And although I whole-heartedly supported the Waldorf pedagogy of an integrated arts, music, and science curriculum, I did not know the reasoning behind it.

In this first week of foundation studies, which included theosophy, wet-method painting, the biography of Steiner, the education of the child and adolescents, inner work, eurythmy, much was presented, and while scholars of Steiner spend years studying just one sentence of one paragraph of one book, we delved into such titles as Knowledge of Higher Worlds and Theosophy. We produced four paintings and a sketch of our early childhood memory. We performed eurythmic movements for early grades, to poems, to the Zodiac, the planets, and vowel and consonant sounds.

Clearly, one week of studying the philosophy of Steiner will give only a glimpse of the world of anthroposophy, of spiritual science, and of Waldorf education. But stepping in through the threshhold offered something immense, larger than may be fathomable, but certainly putting into motion the workings of my brain and my soul.

Entering the world of anthroposophy through doors opened by our passionate instructors made me feel welcome. I was invited in to sit and chat and listen to stories. And through their knowledege of Steiner and his philosophy, through their passion for teaching children, I was becoming attuned to the vibe of Waldorf education.

There is so much yet to learn. But I will have to say that the discussions on the soul has been exhilarating, fun, and actually, fairly clear if one were to allow the concepts to linger and just hang there in mid-air for you to observe from all sides. Then one can begin to take it in, the parts that resonate with your initial impressions first, then gradually allowing these ideas and thoughts to sit inside you, evenutally making them your own.

And while the ideas are absorbed gradually, truly I believe the touching of the consciousness, which resides in the sentient soul, is immediate. A soul spark turns something on, and even if you do not yet know where it will lead you, the engines of your thinking, feeling, and willing life is activated.

What will happen in Week Two? Well, it is the weekend, and I will use this time to give my spiritual muscles some time for rest, allowing it to rebuild. Like exercising, you strain and fatigue the muscles, and growth does not happen during exercise, it happens at rest.

So I will try not to think too much of Week Two, except for some homework. I took my kids this morning to the bike trails near the river to ride their bikes, and I kept watch over them. I want to spend time in the garden this weekend. I want to play some guitar with my daughter. Visit with my mom and dad. Spend a quiet evening with my wife.

The doors remain open and I freely move from one space of my being to another.

moving to a poem

the spirit likes to dress up
by Mary Oliver


The spirit
likes to dress up like this:
ten fingers
ten toes

shoulders, and all the rest
at night
in the black branches
in the morning

in the blue branches
of the world.
It could float of course
but would rather

plumb rough matter.
Airy and shapeless thing
it needs
the metaphor of the body

lime and appetite
the oceanic fluids
it needs the body's world
instinct

and imagination
and the dark hug of time
sweetness
and tangibility

to be understood
to be more than pure light
that burns
where no one is

so it enters us
in the morning
shines from brute comfort
like a stitch of lightning

and at night
lights up the deep and wondrous
drowning of the body
like a star.

Our eurythmist instructor Ruth Buckman gave us this poem and taught us the eurythmic movements that expressed its essence. Ruth had first met our class of Year One students on Monday of this week. There were thirteen of us in the spacious hall with wood floors and high clerestory windows. A Yamaha baby grand sat quietly in the corner. We waited just a bit, fiddling with our eurythmy shoes (mine are black and I referred to them as ninja shoes).

Then Ruth burst into the room with copper rods, breaking the silence. With a swift fluid motion she placed the rods in a corner, said she needed to retrieve more items in her car, and just seconds later, as if she had never left, returned with a Longaberger basket with wooden balls nestled inside. Speaking in a hushed tone, she introduced herself, and making eye contact with each of us, asked us our names: Vittoria, Ashley, Lauren, Raymond, Elizabeth, Jo, Susan, Julie, Leslie, Rebecca, Erica, Rick, and Chelsey. She reflected on each name just for a moment and repeated each of our names again. From then on, even in the middle of explaining a complex movement, as she drifted in and out from her spirit zone to ours, she directed us, she called us, never not knowing who we were, as if she knew us like friends from childhood, or from a life previous.

eternal truth

a thought-flow poem by me

The fact that it is 3 AM
And I am not yet in bed
Is evidence that
There will never be
Enough hours in the day.

And this is an Eternal Truth.

The fact that every human
Thus far as we know
Has to go
Much to our dismay
Back to pure mineral and decay.

And this is an Eternal Truth.

While the human being remains
On this earth to roam freely
With high cortical distinction
Yet progress unresponsibly
Without a drastic change
Head towards extinction.

And this is the Eternal Truth.

Atoms will always be around.
Organisms will propagate.
I will have an infinite stream of thought.
Love is boundless.
Truth will always be truth.

Eternity without quality will last forever.

measuring the soul

Just something to think about.

How does science expand our knowledge? Through our ability to measure.

A simple unit of measure such as a finger length allows us to define distances, grams show us weight, wavelengths determine color spectrums and the presence of X-rays and ultraviolet radiation. As our abilty to measure things become more sophisticated, we diminsh the mysteries of our world. The seasons are not the product of mythology, but by the measureable rotation of earth around the sun.

Our striving for knowledge then, can it be limited by our ability to design devices of measurement?

In philosophy, the articulation of language is so crucial. A wordsmith with the philosophical mind to give his words credence will reach an audience if he can choose the right words to explain his thoughts, his reasonings. Just as in science and measurement, philosophy without the right vocabulary to communicate with can end a path of discovery.

A brilliant mind like Steiner's, I would imagine, would have run into obstacles that deal with language and science. Language can be limiting, one has to recognize that language was created by man, and to fully explain something new and different, something outside of the box, such as spirituality, or spiritual science in particular, it would have been quite a task. So it is no wonder his contemporaries in Europe would have dismissed him: the meaning behind a limited language (any language) can become lost. On the science side, without something measureable, something that can offer quantitative proof, his concepts were also met with challenges. How do you measure the soul, or the spirit?

What unit of measure would you use to define the soul? Should science try to measure the soul? What do you know to be true without measuring it?

What about love?

I know love exists without measuring it. (I believe love is carried in the astral body.) Just for fun, what unit of measure can you devise to qualify/quantify love?

body and soul

This simple diagram illustrates my present understanding of the relationship of the planes of the body as offered by the teachings of Rudolf Steiner. In this two-dimensional medium, the true nature of the concept, the gestalt, is, apologetically, underrepresented. So I leave it to your imagination to visualize it in a way that makes sense for you!

Here, the area designated as the "physical body" represents the human being. You can imagine the physical body plane in the diagram as the top of the head, the scalp. Extrapolate the diagram to a three-dimensional figure of the human form, rotate the figure around in space, and see it from all sides. The physical body is the mineral, the matter, the form, structure, flesh and blood, cellular, carbon-based, anatomical and physiological human being.

The etheric body takes the shape of the physical body, and extends just beyond it, closely approximating the body's contours. The etheric body generates the phenomena of life, hence it is referred to as the vital force or life force. In other cultures, it may be akin to the chi. In Star Wars, it is probably similar to the "Force" that the Jedis often speak of. The etheric body is three dimensional in shape, having a volume of its own, occupying the same space as the physical body, yet emanating just beyond the human skin. The etheric body, in the diagram, I would describe as a membrane of a sort, having a thickness. Within this etheric body are two distinct layers, a "coarse" etheric and a "fine" etheric. The coarse side penetrates into the physical body, while the fine side emanates to coalesce with another plane of the body: the sentient body.

The sentient body is unique to the human being in comparison to other organisms on earth. The sentient body, or astral body, is what gives the human his or her consciousness of self and of the environment. The sentient body recognizes the existence of the physical and etheric bodies. To me, the sentient body, because of its gift of consciousness, is what gives us interconnectedness to others and the external environment. (I think in some ways, the chi, and OK, forgive my movie reference again, the Force, also share similarities to the sentient body because I think through the sentient body, we are capable of manipulating our environment, or at least impacting on it to some degree.) In the diagram, the sentient body is tethered to the etheric body via the finer projections of the etheric milieu. The sentient body is affected by the etheric and physical bodies as they determine and restrict the sentient body.

Another layer depicted in the diagram is the sentient soul. According to spiritual science, we undergo transformation as part of our nature, and through the I body (not depicted in the diagram), the sentient body transforms into the sentient soul. Because our lives are dynamic and the processes are dynamic, the sentient body continually gives off more material to the sentient soul as this transformation occurs over our lifetime.

Now remember, I am synthesizing my learning process and as I get further along in my studies, and I have a feeling more concepts will follow, my understanding of the work may change, maybe it will be confirmed or totally rejected. My astral body is thinking that Steiner has more up his sleeves and we are only at the edge of the forest in the journey through anthroposophy.