Dearest friends, colleagues, family members, and parents, welcome! I’m glad you’re here. Thank you for giving us your attention today as we celebrate the achievement of graduating from the eighth grade.
I am one of many teachers that has taught this class, yet because I am the class teacher, the one who has taught nearly all of the morning lessons for the last eight years, it is my special privilege to speak to you this evening.
I’d like to begin with gratitude: So many people have helped us come to this night. Some are here. Some are far away. Some are even in heaven. All of us have special ones that have loved us into being. Would you take, along with me, ten seconds, to think of the people who have helped you become who you are? Ten seconds. I’ll watch the time. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 I would like to thank you for encouraging me. Allowing me, for all these years, to be your class teacher.
I have, maybe, given you opportunities to learn new things. But I would not be completely honest if I did not admit that YOU have been MY teacher. You have helped me learn to take things less seriously. You have helped me to see that learning to love each other and show kindness far outweighs any math or history lesson I might have planned. You have shown me my limits, and challenged me to try harder, to grow. You have hungered for learning in a way that has sometimes startled me. You have demanded excellence and continual striving. You have, thankfully, laughed at my jokes and given me some of the funnest and funniest moments of my life. Thank you for the ways you have patiently guided me towards doing more and doing better. I will reflect on our time together as a class family for the rest of my life – It has been my greatest honor to receive the gifts that you continue to give to me.
And this evening you are giving me one last opportunity to say something. So, I decided I’m going to give you your very last lesson. And this lesson is to tell you what all your other lessons were really about, because at the Waldorf School we really only have one lesson, and we keep giving that same lesson over and over and over again.
You may have heard that in the Waldorf School we educate the will. This is the most beautiful thing, and I love to hear it. From a certain perspective, educating the will is really the only thing that I can say that I have done, it is the only gift I can honestly say that I gave to you. I can say, Yes! You have received the full Waldorf curriculum and together we have done a very good job at educating your will. But what exactly does that mean? Please allow me to attempt an explanation.
In the first grade you encountered form drawing for the first time. A form drawing is a simple line drawing, beginning with running forms or simple spirals in the first grade and gradually growing in complexity until we are drawing difficult celtic knots in fourth grade. In the first grade the form drawing was drawn on the chalk board, then demonstrated on paper, and then we would walk the form on the field, or perhaps use a long piece of string to outline the form on our desks, or draw it on our neighbor’s back with our finger. Then we used our hands to find the right place to draw on the page, and after we drew we looked for symmetry and observed when we successfully marked the right places. Sometimes we would note what areas needed improvement. These were important moments.
Form drawing was one of our first experiences of looking at something outside of us, taking in the shape through our eyes, then “doing something” with it inwardly, assimilating it so that the next step would be to use our hands to successfully recreate the form drawing on paper. But the moment of observing our work was key: learning to recognize where something wasn’t right – this was the most important step in educating the will.
Why? Because identifying the thing that triggers you and calls for change is the first step in finding success. Stay with me here…
We practiced form drawing over and over again, drawing new forms each week. But the same thing has been true for singing: you would hear a melody and then you would do something inwardly so that you could then repeat the song back to your teacher. We do the same thing in Spanish, the same thing in handwork, in games class, in eurythmy, in math and in language arts, and in every other subject you have learned in school. You are presented with some task and then you have to assimilate it and then you have to do it.
This is a very simplified way of looking at the education of the will.
In painting, we would observe the painting created in the painting lesson and look at the samples put on the board, and then we would look at your own painting that you had painted. Together we would look at your painting and I would ask you two questions, “What do you see?” and “What do you feel?”
Each of you at different points in time would be able to point at some specific part of your painting (or your form drawing, or your writing composition) and declare, “That doesn’t feel right.” We would look at the area that didn’t feel right, and ask, “What’s not right about it?” And together we would identify the hook and come to the conclusion that something needed to be fixed. We did this in first grade, second grade and so on, all the way up through 8th grade, repeating the same experience: something’s not right, identify what needs to be changed, use our hands to fix it. Over time (sometimes with your teacher’s reminder) you inherently knew, “I have the capacity to be able to fix that.”
This simplified way of looking at the will may seem at first like, “Of course, that is what school is after all.” And for some, that’s true, that’s what school is. But for most, school is about what you know, not about what you can do. And certainly hardly ever is school about what you feel.
That moment of feeling something and allowing that feeling to motivate you to do something is a moment of recognizing your inner voice, and then seeing and validating your inner self… that is what will put you on the path of meeting your destiny. That moment is your homecoming.
Now, there is a lot of awesomeness in the world and so much goodness and love waiting to enrich the many varied experiences you will each have. There are so many moments to live for: falling in love, traveling around the world, learning cool new things, going to college, your first job, your first paycheck, discovering the passions that really get you fired up, maybe even getting married, having kids, and eventually taking your children to your local Waldorf School for their first day of school.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. I know many of you are actually pretty nervous about the future. You have shared your trepidation and anxiety about the pressures of adult life and said that you would prefer not to grow up.
But take heart! Because based on what I’ve seen, I know you will go into high school and go into the world, and you will find yourself in situations that don’t feel right, and you will work to change things and make them okay again. You have already practiced this hundreds and hundreds of times, and you know what to do in this circumstance. You will be able to recognize the familiar feeling and say to yourself, “This doesn’t feel right.” And you know, without knowing that you know, that you can use your hands to fix it.
Yes, you are going to encounter lots of problems in your life. (Some of which you yourself have created!) You are going to encounter situations that are less clear, that are muddy, without a clearly defined path towards right or wrong. And with your experience, you will be able to say, “Hey, that doesn’t feel right.” And then you are going to do something about it.
So look at me for a minute, because I want you to really hear this: (And dear parents and colleagues, if you agree with me here, this is a good time to nod your heads.) This world needs you. I need you. You have everything you need to be able to face the challenges that you are going to face in your life, in your world. And now I want you to look at the faces of your parents, teachers and friends sitting in the audience, because they are thinking the exact same thing I am: We need you.
And in the face of insecurity and the unknown take courage! Because you have exactly what you need to find your way in the world. And you will find your way and do what you are meant to do in the world – whether or not you stress out about it, or pressure yourself. Whether or not you worry or just relax and enjoy the gifts and wonders of living this human life! Be easy. Take your time. You’re coming home to yourself.