Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,300 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 55 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Christmas is one of the most recognized festivals in the year. It is so recognized that even a number of non-Christian countries declare bank holidays on Christmas day. It is a wonderful day for children who receive presents, and a day of continuing misery for many who have nothing.

Christmas means many things and this is reflected in the numerous variations of Christmas stories that exist. It is almost as if each one wishes to express Christmas in their own very personal and unique way. Perhaps, this very variation is in fact a search for the meaning of Christmas, a meaning that every year is under greater and greater challenge as the world continues to struggle with a growing separation from the deeper meaning of Christmas.

Christmas, what could it mean? If one takes it apart, two words come to fore: Christ and Mass. It is the Mass of Christ. We all nod our heads knowingly in agreement and figure that we fully understand the meaning of this. After all, many of us have experienced a mass and we do know what that means. What if, however, the meaning of “Mass” was not quite what we expect? Long ago, the service that we refer to as the “Mass” was probably called something else. We may never know what it was originally called but think of the possibility that it was called something else. Over time, as its adherents grew, and Latin became more and more the language of the growing Church, “Mass” became more defined and meaningful as a word. One possibility is that the word “Mass” comes from the Latin “missa” or dismissal. The idea would come from the ending words of the Mass : Ite, missa est or “Go (the prayer) has been sent.” Should the word “Mass” find its origins in this idea, then a mass is a dismissal, a letting go or releasing.

Let us continue with this imagination for a little more. Should this be the case, then Christmas may also be understood as “Christ letting go or releasing.” When one reflects on this, a deeper meaning of Christmas begins to reveal itself. Christmas is about Christ letting go, letting go of His non-physical being that He may become physical in nature. If Christ is willing to let go of His spiritual nature to become man, should not man let go of his material nature to become spirit? It is an intriguing question.

Bound as humanity is to its very material nature, the thought of letting go of this material nature, to “free our spirit” so to speak generally will lead us to a topic of death or other  “out of body” like events and experiences. And yet, as beings that are both spiritual and material, how do we reconcile our existence with these seemingly polar conditions. Could it be that humanity, by its very nature, is bi-polar?

Let us just imagine for a moment that humanity is truly both spiritual and physical in nature. Then we should be able, with the correct preparation to let go of our material side to be able to release our spiritual. After all, we do this every night when we sleep; we are just not conscious of this. The Greeks have long “documented” this regular out of body phenomena in their myths. And perhaps, this idea is carried through to Christmas, an event that occurs at night.

Christmas then could be a great meeting time; a great meeting time of a great spiritual being that is slowly shedding its spiritual nature to become human. A great meeting time for humans, to pause in their material existence to release their spiritual beings to meet this Great Spirit that is descending.  Understandably this boggles our imagination; but perhaps, this is what a real Christmas even needs: imagination.

In some respects, the imaginative gesture of Christmas has gone into more material expressions: the brightest, gaudiest Christmas decoration; the most creative, expensive, impressive gift that will atone for our lack of love throughout the year.

We could use the imagination of Christmas to light up our inner beings, our spirits so to speak, that our inner hearths be aflame with warmth, a welcoming sign for a visitor approaching from the furthest reaches of the heavens. Christmas is a dark and cold time of the year, to remind us of the great and lonely journey any spirit makes from the warmth of its spiritual home in the heavens to the relative cold of its material home on earth. And like any new home, the warmth with which a visitor or new neighbor is met is a sign of how welcoming the neighborhood may be.

Hence let us prepare this Christmas with the understanding that we are released from our mundane routines that we may meet this great spiritual being on His way to earth.

The day began with some Christmas carols sung by the students, and then Mr. EJ and Ms. Camille gave a brief rundown of the many activities and attractions being offered for the day.

View more photos here.

Four weeks before Christmas is the start of a festival that we all know as Advent. Perhaps this is what we know most about Advent: it is the festival that ends with Christmas. Christmas is very much a global festival these days, alluring many with its bright lights and promise of cheer. Advent, on the other hand, is like a very subdued sibling of Christmas; an event – even a mood perhaps – that precedes the joyous outpouring known as Christmas. Yet Advent must have a meaning other than four weeks in the calendar.

We know it is about preparation and the preparation for Christmas. Some of us may even understand it as four levels of preparation for Christmas. Children see it as a time to be good in preparation for Christmas. However it may be seen, there remains much beneath the meaning of Advent. How could I look at Advent, a festival that is often on everyone’s lips yet perhaps not as understood as Christmas? How do we prepare to receive the greatest visitor humanity has ever known? Perhaps in this question is a path to understanding Advent.

Let us imagine the arrival of this great and special guest. We now need to prepare for His coming. We are giving sufficient advance notice: four weeks. We gather our family together and plan this preparation. There is a lot to do so we need to be fully organized. We break down our activity into four weeks, each with a very specific objective in mind: to prepare for this visit.

The first week of Advent, we decide to concentrate on our house. We want to be sure that our guest is comfortable and there is no reason to complain. We not only make sure the house is clean and the windows polished. We make sure the roof doesn’t leak, the locks work, doors open and close silently. In our rooms, we make sure that everything is properly packed away when not needed. Everything must be in proper order. At the end of this week, we have a house that is humble but tidy, old but in working order.

The second week of Advent, we decide to concentrate on our garden. No matter how big or small our garden is it must be in order. We trim the grass and water the plants. Indoors we put fresh flowers and make sure the flower vases are clean. We sweep the leaves and dispose of them – neatly of course. Our gardens must be in order too. We heard that our special guest likes plants a lot so we need to be sure that we have something simple yet attractive for Him.

The third week of Advent, we decide to concentrate on our pets. From the smallest goldfish to the biggest dog, we make sure that all is in order for them. We feed them regularly, change the water in the fishbowl, wash and groom the dogs, tidy the sleeping areas of our pets. Our pets seem just as excited by all this preparation. Of course, some of the pets are more expressive then others. We also heard that our guest likes animals. Perhaps He may even arrive riding on one, we don’t know.

For the fourth week, what else can we prepare?  The house is ready, the garden is ready, the pets are ready. After all this work, we now need to prepare ourselves. We take a shower. We find our nice clothes and practice our good manners. We must know how to behave in front of our guest. We need to be polite yet warm. A warm welcome after a long journey is what He needs. He must feel this warmth as it streams from us. We are happy He is coming. And we are happy we are ready. When all is set and done, we light a small lantern, perhaps shaped like a star, and hang it in our window. This will let our guest know, our house is ready to receive Him. Yes, we can say, there is room in the inn.

With this imagination of preparation, we hope to build in each of us a picture of Advent. It is a picture of what preparation means. Our homes, our gardens, our pets, and ourselves, must shine with the brilliance of a diamond following this preparation. The preparation is as much an internal activity as it is an external one. We must realize, however, that this preparation is not just for Christmas. It is a preparation of a lifetime that will allow us to meet the future, the resurrected Christ, the resurrected human being. Advent is a model of how we may all choose to prepare whatever we do in life, both materially and spiritually.

We have four weeks. We need not rush. We plan our four weeks and feel the anticipation build as we accomplish our preparations per week. We can achieve this and make Advent a significant festival of preparation.

About the author: Raph Lazo, and his wife Lormie, have been active Waldorf parents for the longest time. Their eldest, Veronica, graduated with the pioneer MWS high school class in 2008. Their other daughter, Amanda, is in 8th grade at MWS Timberland Heights. Raph is also a steward of the Manila Waldorf School.

***

We welcome all forms of contributions (photos, an article, news, etc.) to this blog. Kindly email to everythingwaldorf@gmail.com 

As we eagerly anticipate the coming of Christmas, we continue our tradition of celebrating  the season with the annual Advent Fair — an occasion for the MWS community to come together and share the blessings of the year just passed.

This year’s fair will be held on Saturday, December 3, from 9am – 5pm  at the MWS campus in Timberland Heights.

Come and experience the fun-filled activities, games and shows that interweave with the themes of the lessons taught in each grade level (K – 12).

Advent time is always a joyous time of anticipation and excitement in a Waldorf school. It is also the time to bring out the childlike joy within us.

We look forward to celebrating this meaningful event with you and your children!

“The gift of the light we shall thankfully take

But it shall not be alone for our sake,

The more we give light,

 The one to the other

It grows and gives light

And shines even farther

Until every heart

By love set aflame

In every place great joy shall proclaim

Not long shall continue the darkness of year

The Christ draws near”

Class 9 students Alon and Ysabelle shared with us their thoughts on this festival:

Martinmas for me is not just the time for making lanterns, parading them around and standing around the bonfire singing songs, there’s something more to it.

The school day went on as usual and when it ended, that gave those who hadn’t finished making their lanterns free time to cram on them.

I’m always amazed at how, in the end, the creativity of my schoolmates are in display, so much that they put my own lantern to shame. But in the end it doesn’t really matter. In the night when the flame is given and shared, little by little the whole place fills with light and that, to me, just seems so magical. And even more so when we begin walking around the campus, the light leading the way and guiding the path.

It’s just a sight that no one can really understand unless they’ve seen it with their own eyes. Events like this are what make Waldorf so special to me and I hope this tradition won’t ever end and that we continue to appreciate these things. – Alon Garcia

Martinmas. An event for making lanterns and parading them, that’s what comes to my mind. A night when students of our school make lanterns and walk with it.

As the lanterns were lighted one by one, you could see wonderful shapes of shadows, the forms of which the lantern was, and the road being lighted and illuminated with brightness. It is a night that makes me appreciate and remember how just a few sticks and paper could create a wonderful lantern with different forms and shapes.

Looking at lanterns in the dark is like looking at stars in the night sky, an image I wish everyone would see and experience. - Ysabelle Sollestre

Gabriele onstage

During her visit, she conducted a workshop on conflict management, giving teachers an insight on how to handle a collegial body. Gabriele also sat-in in lower school classes to give feedback on how the new teachers are doing.

Ms. Niemann has been teaching in Steiner schools for 33 years, having taken three classes from grades one to eight. She is currently in her fourth 8-year cycle, teaching sixth grade at Siegen Waldorf School in Germany.

One of the highlights of her visit was her talk during a public orientation on Waldorf Education on November 12. The orientation was held at the Alfonso T. Yuchengco Auditorium, Bantayog ng mga Bayani Memorial Center in Quezon City and was attended by the Waldorf community, students and other interested groups.

Gabriele’s talk consisted of an introduction to Waldorf education and themes that concerned today’s parents, such as the use of computers at home and at school, and the effects of television viewing on young children.

She gave insights on how the Steiner approach works. While each school may be located in very different surroundings, amid a different set of cultural, economic or sociological norms, one will always see that all Steiner schools are laid out similarly: the same wooden toys, the same classroom layout, the same shades of color on the walls.

Some highlights of her talk (her quotes in italics):

She explained why Steiner does not encourage television viewing for young children, and recommended the limited use of electronic devices, such as a computer, until much later:

“Creativity of building an image is fantasy, an inner power. This power leads us to freedom. When this power goes down, we have children who cannot listen anymore.”

“Creativity comes from things you never thought (of). In social life, you want to change the world. You have to create something that is not known. Creativity is for the future, and not from any source. Each step in the future is a risk. People don’t want to be free because they don’t want to take a risk. The world will only change out of something new. And this is also freedom.”

The visual images we see on TV may have long-lasting, and often subsconscious effects. We take this for granted, but it is ingrained deep within ourselves, such that we never hesitate to relate our life experiences with the situations and events that we’ve seen on TV and the movies. These days, parents need to be careful about this, and it is essential that young children do not get exposed to this if we want them to develop their minds to think of new ideas.

“Images from outside is branded in your soul. Violence becomes a funny thing, especially in cartoons.”

It appears funny, and some programs even emphasize the humor in physical comedy. But little children who can’t distinguish right from wrong yet will think that this is accepted behavior in society.

This controversial issue was further discussed in the open forum where someone in the audience asked how we can protect young children from the negative influences found in external sources like popular media:

“Protection is not isolation. You cannot shelter the child from all the influences. But it is necessary to know what your child is doing. This is already the protection.”

Simply put, parents need to be aware of what their children are doing and what they’re engaging in. This helps children become mindful of their actions, yet confident that they have an adult who can guide them to the proper path.

On why Waldorf schools do not have a Principal:

“Education must be run without any egoistical influences. That is why Waldorf schools don’t have a principal. There is a collegial body. Decision-making processes are much more difficult so the aim is (to do) what is really willful. Only those who are teaching can say how the administration should be for teachers. Parents and teachers should run the school as a community, as a joint undertaking. Our main business is to serve the children.”

On doing things out of freedom:

“When I want to do something for other people, I can only do it out of a free will. Nobody can force you to do it. It’s something that has to be brought out of freedom.”

On why it’s not always good to reward a child with material things for doing homework, or achieving high grades:

“Children must learn to take responsibility for their work and that they learn the worth of their work. This is freedom in education.”

Gabriele with (left to right): Tintin Montes, upper school teacher; Jelena Sebastian, member of the pioneer class of MWS; Cherry Mapa, upper school teacher.

After the verse, a lantern walk and singing to be led by the choir will follow. Songs are simple and will be repeated, so  family members can learn them as the festival progresses.

St. Martin’s Festival is a reminder for us to carry our own light as we journey deeper into the colder months of the year when the days get longer and the nights tend to be colder and darker.

Families may gather in the gym while waiting for darkness to come in while schoolchildren will assemble in their classrooms. A simple potluck will follow. This is a quiet, introspective event. Please ensure that your family members, specially the younger ones, are aware of the reverent mood of the evening. Please be prompt. We look forward to your participation.

School bus riders will have the same arrangement. The bus will leave at 7:30 P.M.

By Amanda Lazo, Class 8

Michaelmas for me, is one of the most exciting times of the year. I look forward to many things, and one of them is the obstacle course. It is the time for every child with a brave heart to run the course of spiders, tunnels, riddles and everything else, from sticky goo to creatures like no other. A time for them to pick up a sword and tame the dragon. A time to bring out St. Michael in each and every one of them.

Going back to my lower school years, when I used to run in the obstacle course, I know how much I enjoyed it. There were some things that I even learned from it — like being flexible enough to go through a spider web and not ring a single bell, or how to swing across the monkey bars. They were all great experiences. Experiences that I hoped the younger kids would have. This year, our class was tasked to plan the obstacle course. It was not an easy job. After the story was written, the logistics team had to make the obstacles in the story a reality. Perhaps not exactly like how it was written, but we had to make it clear enough for the child to imagine from which part of the story the obstacle was.

So the first thing we had to do was plan the trail. It had to be long enough for the obstacles to fit on it, but not too long that the child would end up just walking. Finally, we settled with one that began at our woodwork classroom and ended just after the forest trail.

The next was planning what the obstacles would look like. We all had some sort of vision in our heads but we had to make it possible. We couldn’t make it too challenging enough for the younger kids, but it had to be challenging enough for the older kids.

Building the obstacle course however, was easier than planning it. The ropes, the maze, the tunnel, everything! It was a challenge for us as well.

For the out door part of the obstacle course (which was most of it) our biggest enemy was the wind. It was hard to put things together when every once in a while, the wind would blow and knock everything down. Boards and boxes fell, the cloth for the tunnel was being blown away and when we put them all back.

Everything we made, we tested and they all turned out to be fun!

The younger grades went through the course carefully, but every once in a while, there was that child who ran through the course with such enthusiasm and spirit. As the middle graders came, they  picked up speed and soon the course became a wild burst of splashes and screams!

The excitement of everyone filled the air. I loved running the obstacle course when I was young, but the joy of seeing each and every smiling face of a muddy, sticky and dripping wet child is just priceless.

I enjoyed both planning and manning the obstacle course and I am looking forward to the next year full of new faces and new challenges.

***

From Rosetta Lucente, Class 5:

Michaelmas commemorates St. Michael, who represents courage and bravery. Every year, we have an obstacle course to tame the dragon. The Michaelmas season also reminds us to tame our own dragon within. The dragon is your fear, and it must be tamed.

The obstacle course is always fun and exciting (I’ve never experienced a boring one), and I doubt anyone else in our school has. Every year, the eighth graders organize our obstacle course.

I think this year had the best obstacle course even though it was the shortest I’ve tried.  My favourite part was when we had to walk across a rope stretching from one bench to the other. I liked it best because it was easy to imagine that you were walking over a volcano, which made it very exciting.