iWaldorf

EUGENE SCHWARTZ [Continued] . . . . Werner and Rene gave Eugene the task of carrying Waldorf teacher training into the 21st century and urged him to help establish a center in Colorado, far from the bi-costal competition of their training centers. Their prognosis was correct; both Sunbridge and Steiner College declined after their founders died, and today few teachers are trained at either setting. Eugene could see that schools would be less able to cope with a broad range of new pedagogical and social issues and that an army of what he would term "Waldorfpreneurs," each a specialist in a narrow field, would begin to play an unprecedented role in the further development of Waldorf education.

At the same time, it became clear to Eugene that, regardless of who was at the helm, the golden age of the "brick and mortar" training center was coming to an end. He came to understand that taking Waldorf training into the future would mean making a connection to the computer, to the Internet, and in time to mobile devices and whatever else modern technology dreamed up. As the 21st century dawned Eugene focused on developing the skill set to create what are now the Online Conferences. Although his efforts were often dismissed or disparaged, virtually every Waldorf and anthroposophical endeavor today uses the Internet for publicity and/or pedagogy. In fact, you wouldn't be reading this right now if you didn't recognize the importance of what appears only in digitized form. One hundred years after the first Waldorf school's founding, Waldorf education is, however reluctantly, beginning to meet the future.