Anthroposophy Arizona
Arizona Council for Waldorf Education
Dear Colleagues and Friends of Public Waldorf Education,
From Liz Beaven – Executive Director, The Alliance For Public Waldorf Education
October 8,2024
As a study in contrast, heat has gripped the western part of the country for an extended period. Not content with atypical heat in San Francisco, I spent a few days in Arizona last week, where it was seriously hot, visiting a couple of schools and attending a meeting of the Arizona Council for Waldorf Education. This was my fourth trip to Arizona in the past few years, and I have been fortunate to travel most of the length of this remarkable state and to visit most of our schools. The diversity of geography and climate is striking, from pine-forests and mountains in the north to great saguaro cacti marching across the landscape, to unforgiving desert and sharp, craggy mountains in the south (where, the locals told me, they can go sledding in the winter, which was a challenge for the imagination in the searing heat and bright light of summer). One has the sense that resourcefulness, courage, and a pioneering spirit is called on here, plus, in order to truly thrive, willingness to work in harmony with the land as the Indigenous people have done for at least 15,000 years. It is a remarkable place.
Perhaps it is this striking combination of human culture and geography that gave rise to unique conditions for Waldorf education in this state. There is a long tradition, first of anthroposophical study groups, then an organization, then schools. The Arizona Council for Waldorf Education (ACWE) was founded in September 1991 with a stated intention of providing an umbrella and support for bringing Waldorf education to the children of the state. Notably, it stated that this would be in independent and public schools – a farsighted goal at that time when Public Waldorf was largely an idea and an ideal, a goal that ACWE has continued to actively support to this day, carried by dedicated volunteers.
Schools were founded in quick succession: Tucson Waldorf School in 1993, followed by Desert Marigold, Pine Forest, Mountain Oak, Desert Sky, Desert Star, and the newest addition, Desert Sage High School. Several started as independent schools, then migrated to charters. Several additional independent schools opened including Running River and Flower Farm. There is now a micro-school in Phoenix, reflecting a trend we are seeing across the country. Representatives of these schools come together twice a year for ACWE meetings where they engage in professional development and sharing; the school reports give a fascinating picture of shared goals and work and unique strengths and challenges. Like many, our Arizona Alliance schools also went through a “right to exist” phase that addressed service mark consideration and questions of what Waldorf education is and is not. To some extent, this remains a lively discussion today.
A couple of other notable characteristics of Arizona Waldorf: there is a history of teacher education out of an early recognition that this distinctive state would need something local. This has taken various forms; the latest is the Saguaro Center for Teacher Renewal, sponsored by ACWE, based at Desert Marigold in Phoenix, and working hard to more clearly identify what teachers who are new to Waldorf really need. Arizona is also home to two of our seven high schools, both with the ubiquitous desert in their names! Desert Marigold offers K-12 education; Desert Sage, in Tucson, is a new stand-alone high school serving a diverse population of students and building a school culture and interpretation of Waldorf from the ground up. This is but a brief glimpse of the state of Waldorf in the state of Arizona – varied, rich, with features common to all of us and many that are unique to the state or to each individual school.
Liz Beaven Executive Director