Brussels, 23 May 2018

Council meeting in Prague, May 2018
ECSWE representatives were invited by the Association of Waldorf Schools in the Czech Republic.

Pri­or to the meet­ing, a joint con­fer­ence was held on Thurs­day at Charles Uni­ver­si­ty on the top­ic Human­i­ty in the media world, chal­lenges of edu­ca­tion in the dig­i­tal age”. This event was organ­ised by the Czech asso­ci­a­tion of Wal­dorf Schools and of Wal­dorf kinder­gartens in coop­er­a­tion with three oth­er inter­na­tion­al asso­ci­a­tions: the Inter­na­tion­al Forum, IASWECE and ECSWE. It fea­tured speech­es by Clara Aerts (IASWECE), Dou­glas Ger­win (Cen­ter for Anthro­pos­o­phy), Richard Landl (ECSWE), Václav Mertin (a child psy­chol­o­gist) and Tomáš Zdražil (Inter­na­tion­al Forum). The speech­es were fol­lowed by a pan­el dis­cus­sion about school edu­ca­tion in a dig­i­talised world.

On Fri­day morn­ing, inter­est­ed ECSWE mem­bers were invit­ed to a sem­i­nar on the top­ic of lob­by­ing organ­ised by Georg Jür­gens. The mem­bers reflect­ed on what is lob­by­ing and the impor­tance of set­ting clear objec­tives and of estab­lish­ing SMART goals in such a work. They also had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to dis­cuss some nation­al issues they face in their advo­ca­cy work back in their home country.

ECSWE’s inter­nal work con­sist­ed of a review of the pre­vi­ous meet­ing in Cra­cow, domes­tic reports from Czech Repub­lic, Nor­way and Ukraine, a report about vol­un­tary ser­vices from two guests from Fre­unde, a peer-learn­ing ses­sion allow­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tives to present and dis­cuss nation­al chal­lenges, the annu­al AGM, and an advo­ca­cy update of the office’s work in Brus­sels. Oth­er top­ics cov­ered: news from the assess­ment work­ing group with Learn­ing for Well­be­ing, the ELIANT peti­tion for the right to screen-free day care insti­tu­tions, kinder­gartens and pri­ma­ry schools, nation­al approach­es to media edu­ca­tion in Fin­land and Den­mark and updates on the planned Wal­dorf 100 events and ECSWE’s new website.

Besides the work­ing ses­sions, a guid­ed walk­ing tour of the old town in the foot­steps of Rudolf Stein­er was organ­ised on Sat­ur­day after­noon. In the evening, it was fol­lowed by a love­ly joint con­cert of the Czech Wal­dorf lyceums of Prague and Ostra­va. On Sat­ur­day and Sun­day morn­ings we had the chance to learn some tra­di­tion­al Czech folk songs.

A question? Please don’t hesitate to contact us!

Georg Jürgens