Backpacks and Conversations...

: Photo: Silvia Zuur

I would like to be bold and suggest that you do not have the answer, I would like to quickly add that I am quite sure that I do not have the answer either. So where do the answers exist? It may be that the answer, or at least the next question to ask, is in the conversation we are just about to have.

The Backpackers Workshop (meet the participants below!) will culminate in a final weekend where everyone is invited to Come into Conversation and to be part of the YouthSection Weekend. We also see this weekend as a time for planting seeds for the future, especially for Focus: International Initiative Forum and HeartChord Music Festival.

We are viewing ‘Coming into Conversation’ and the YouthSection Weekend as a whole, but it is also possible to attend one part or the other. The YouthSection’s involvement in Coming into Conversation will run until the evening of Saturday, November 28, at which time the official YouthSection weekend activities begin with supper and a welcome.

Coming into Conversation (a joint initiative between the Section for Social Sciences and the YouthSection) begins on Friday, November 27 at 5pm. The YouthSection Weekend finishes on the Sunday evening of November 29. There will also be a Connectivity meeting on Monday November 30 from 9am–noon; for more information on this, see the program.

If you would like to join us for this weekend it is important to let me know by emailing me at: katie(at)youthsection.org

What will take place during the weekend?

The program is still in movement and we’re sure it will change and grow because new ideas are being brought into it continually! – and also because, most importantly, everyone is invited to be a contributor/active participant.

Click here to view the program, as well as accommodation and payment information.

Coming into Conversation and the YouthSection Weekend have been created out of dialogues between many different individuals, groups and initiatives. We are very excited to hear from several of these individuals in this issue of the eNews.

This event will be in German and English. Unfortunately this text is not yet available in German, but if you have a friend who only speaks German please tell them about it!

So here are some burning themes from a few of the contributor/participants of Coming into Conversation and the YouthSection Weekend...

Moving Possibilities Towards Probabilities

: Reinoud

By Reinoud Meijer

This is a draft, nothing but a draft, so help me…

Any names in this document are placeholders. They are the pointing fingers, not what they are pointing at. It’s to kick-start your thoughts and imagination to be followed by a conversation I would love to start as soon as we find the time for it.

How about a global network of natural and legal persons connected through the genuine will and commitment to find ways to understand the common principles and forces that are active in shaping both the natural- and supernatural world; in order that the activities, directed out of such a more integral knowledge and understanding, may be for the benefit of a comprehensive sustainable development of humanity and the world we are given to cultivate?

An Alliance for Comprehensive Sustainable Development. A global network that takes the initiative to establish numerous campuses on which to connect. Next to being a meeting-hub for anyone from the network, these campuses combine education, research and permanent exhibitions of practical projects and results of applied social, cultural and scientific applications from the collective genius of the network. Silicon Valleys for comprehensive sustainable development.

Campuses that host and showcase what is developed in the local and international community that is aligned with it. Community Campuses.

Fundamentally each Community Campus would be committed to provide a safe, nurturing and creative ‘home’ for the exploration of deep human questions – any question – and without having a role in imposing a framework of any kind.

It is one of the unique traits of our period in history that, just at the point when the human species has created very serious challenges to the future of humanity, the same humanity has uncovered very powerful cognitive frameworks and practical approaches such as, but not limited to, anthroposophy, that have the power to move humanity to a new, more profound level of evolution.

Community Campus, by its very nature and striving, seeks to connect to these diverse streams of genuine efforts in humanity.

It is the intention to give Community Campus an identity that is mindful of, and pays tribute to, the diverse expressions which exist and are emerging in our time; identities that are moving in a similar direction, but use very different sets of languages. Community Campus acknowledges that the different identities of the world access the common reality of humanity in different ways. It is open to all comprehensive/integral or even specialised views of the world that authentically strive to advance human civilisation.

The initiative sees people’s views, understanding and knowledge as forming the cognitive basis/framework from which they direct their actions. Community Campus understands the development caused by those actions to be as sustainable, humane and comprehensive as the views, understanding and knowledge of oneself, humanity, and the world in which they live.

To ensure the broadest possible basis/framework, Community Campus intends to freely connect to many complementary wisdoms and experiences from the different philosophical, cultural and spiritual traditions of the world; 'freely' in this case meaning without conditioning these engagements with an endorsement of the views of either part(s) of such connection.

Community Campus is committed to a wide-ranging exploration of important issues affecting the human condition and the future of mankind and society.

What is Community Campus?

Community Campus wants to be a platform, inviting parties from all sectors of society, to share a common space. As they share a common space it allows each, but especially the witnesses/participants of such a gathering, to expand their view and understanding beyond what they already carry and represent.

In the centre is an educational ‘market square’ with all the bits and pieces the different individuals and/or organisations can offer. A bank might offer a course in financing, a farmer in how to grow vegetables, an artist a course in nature observation and painting. Each part alone does not make for a fulltime education, but given enough pieces it becomes possible for people to put together their own curriculum. Having numerous Campuses around the globe, it would even be possible to put a curriculum together that would involve moving internationally.

The curriculum is nothing we know today. It’s all ‘real life.’

The mission of Community Campus is to empower people through imparting the knowledge, values, attitudes and skills needed to bring about the changes required to achieve comprehensive sustainability.

It will accomplish its mission through leading by example and in particular through, but not limited to: providing educational programs and talks, forums and workshops; publishing articles and advertisements; coordinating and cooperating with business, government and community organisations; conducting and collaborating on studies; serving as a resource for maintaining and disseminating relevant data and information; and promoting, planning and coordinating ecologically intelligent products and services.

The residential community hosting the Community Campus enters a collaborative effort towards a permanent exhibition of self-sufficiency, local resilience and comprehensive sustainable development within a specific geographical area, and as a ‘best practice’ example.

: Photo: Rosa Henderson

Something I'm Passionate about Right Now!

: Seth

By Seth Jordan

Innovation is happening in society at an amazing speed. Many of these new social forms are healthy: BALLE, B-Corps, Theory U, Free Columbia, Transition Towns, etc...but we still desperately need more. We need to find the living, flexible forms that can sustain us today and replace all those that are in danger of collapse. To do so, we must have the courage and insight to create organisations and social dynamics that have a true relationship to the human being – forms that recognise and empower us to bring forth our spiritual nature in freedom.

Luckily, Steiner gave an incredible body of teachings that can help us in this task. Unluckily, most anthroposophists know nothing about them, or even worse, think of them as an old utopian blueprint that failed. I'm speaking of Social Threefolding. I believe there is so little interest in these ideas because I think they have been sorely misunderstood. They are not a blueprint! Instead, they describe a way of seeing that can be cultivated in order to truly perceive the health and sickness in all our relationships. Every human being – whatever their profession – is a social being. Many have taken up their own inner development with great consciousness...now the times are asking us to take up our collective social development with the same determination!

Threefolding in Today’s Society

: Nathan

By Nathan Heller

I have begun reading the remarkable book by Nicanor Perlas, Shaping Globalization – Civil Society, Cultural Power and Threefolding. It is a thick read – I am on page 22 and it feels like I have been reading it for weeks. But it seems the repetitious chewing and re-digestion of information is very necessary to translate the deeper levels of ideas carried in the thought-provoking material. In fact it provokes much more than thought – it provokes a sense of feeling about the state of the world and what seems to be required from us in order to consciously manifest a healthier society.

The practice of threefolding as described by Nicanor Perlas deals with three levels of society – namely, polity, economy and culture, and it identifies the need to recognise the latter as having a much bigger stature than we currently give it. It implies that culture is inherent in all that we do, and that we need to pay heed to the cultural aspects of our global society as an equal role-player to the political and economic aspects of how we manage ourselves on this planet. The cultural realm represents much more than regular ‘cultural activities’ – such as all of what is known to be ‘civil society.’ To understand this further, the example of education is put forward…If we begin to realise that the education of our children is by all logical deductions a cultural aspect of our society, why do we insist that the structures surrounding the management of education are to be continuously defined by the considerations of business (economy) and government (polity), without giving any thought to the sheer influence that culture truly has on our education as human beings? Perhaps it is because we see education as something that should serve the realms of polity and economics? Is this a fair idea? Does this support the freedom of being human?

I am very intrigued by this question and I cannot begin to go as in-depth here as my mind does when I read further, so I am going to stop here and read on. I hope you can buy the book and do the same. I hope I have more time to reflect on it here, or in my blog, when I finish the book.

In the meanwhile, take a look around and ask yourself: Is the world not changing at the most rapid rate ever visible in human history? And what part of that change (or resistance to it) do you want to be?

If you need some more food for thought, listen to this lecture from Nicanor’s course at YIP last year…

Anti-consumerism. Sustainable Life.

: Amanda

By Amanda Huircan-Martinez

I do not believe in having a sustainable lifestyle. I believe in living sustainably. One of the bigger parts that I take into my life is anti-consumerism. ‘Over consumption’ is in many ways the source of many larger issues in society because we are over consuming everything possible today. Not only are the things we consume unsustainable in terms of the materials used and the manner in which they are produced, but they are also produced at the expense of human life and human rights. Sure, buy organic stuff, but above all start by reviewing your own consumption. How much of what you consume do you really, really need? Reviewing my habits of consumption was the first step I took to call the life I lead sustainable.

Only consume that which is of utmost necessity.

So when it comes to clothing for example, I decided to not only cut down on my own consumption, but then also take this even further so that once I do have to buy something I put in the extra effort to only purchase organic clothing, or second-hand.

On the Edge of Conversation

: Caitlin

By Caitlin Balmer

Conversations...they’re signs of creativity, of vision, of certainty. Creativity, vision, and certainty frighten people. They might be pushed from their comfort zones to an edge they don’t want to face.

It must be that there are limits to what’s appropriate. You know, I don’t want to sit down next to just anyone and spill the beans. But we need movement in this world. We need pushing and pulling; some of us, at least, need to walk up to that edge, need to find out what’s just on the other side. There are people who take that to an extreme – they cross over a border that makes it hard to come back. But it is, isn’t it, just on this border, right at the periphery, that the exciting things happen. Imagine looking at a white surface. How do you know that it’s white or that it has shape until that surface has an edge? Imagine meeting a person without being there yourself...it’s not until ‘you’ meets ‘me’ that we can start to guess where ‘you’ ends and ‘me’ begins.

There must be shadows as well. And overlaps. Places where part of ‘me’ is part of ‘you,’ always mixed in with the other people who are also part of me and also part of you. How do we know where to stop before we’re invading? And how far can we retreat without being a traitor? How much of me do you need in order to be you? Do we need conversation? Sometimes I need to be part of someone else’s conversation – their story, their path with markers along the way. I’m curious about those stories, our stories, our conversations.

"We Are the Revolution" (Joseph Beuys).

: Ulrich

By Ulrich Rösch

With his multiples “La rivoluzzione siamo noi“ (“We are the Revolution”), Joseph Beuys points out that real transformation must evolve from the human being. Only man can be the source for transformation in the human dimension. It is important to recognise that Beuys uses “we” – an agreement with others. In modern times the individual being has to connect with others in agreement. Such an evolution would be the solid base for a healthy way of living together.

Our social life has come into a deep crisis. The financial crisis is only an outside phenomenon. Everything calls for change. However, in the world today it is hard to act quickly, and as they saying goes, people are more comfortable with 'the devil they know.' Where are the models for the future? We first need to find new imaginations of what our future could look like. We need visions – new imaginations and visions that arise from clear, deepened thinking; thinking that also requires our will; thinking that is an activity; thinking that touches upon the true essence of what we are searching for.

The aim will not be to create a new paradise, but to heal the illnesses of our modern society so that the social organism can follow its inner being and laws and develop in a healthy way. All people who are collaborating in this task are partners in creating this social sculpture. In this way, “We are the Revolution!”

Joseph Beuys on Social Sculpture

“My objects are to be seen as stimulants for the transformation of the idea of sculpture, or art in general. They should provoke thoughts about what sculpture can be and how the concept of sculpting can be extended to the invisible materials used by everyone:

Thinking forms – how we mould our thoughts or

Spoken forms – how we shape our thoughts into words or

SOCIAL SCULPTURE – how we mould and shape the world in which we live: sculpture as an evolutionary process; everyone as an artist.”

(In "Cencrastus – Joseph Beuys in Scotland," ed. Raymond Ross. Edinburgh: Scottish Arts Council, 2005, p 25.)

Meet the Backpackers...

The Backpackers is a six-week ‘workshop’ with the YouthSection in Dornach, October 19 – November 30. It asks the questions: What is my question? How can I become the captain of my own ship? – the ‘master’ of my own schooling? Can learning be experienced as the space that lives between people?

During these six weeks we will come together to support one another’s study questions and striving, as well as engage in practical initiatives. The Backpackers Workshop will culminate in Coming into Conversation and the YouthSection Weekend. Meet the participants below...

Caitlin Balmer

I have a pretty heavy backpack on! I’m trying to sort out what to take and what to leave, what to wear and what to save for next year. Is it hiking boots time? Maybe high heels would be better…I want to take this time to continue exploring my study, which is really a search for who I am, what I am, what I do in this world. I like to walk on the borders between things, so I will spend some time in Basel at the Mitte working with Idem, and some time in Dornach at the YouthSection. I want to figure out how to specify my study of urban planning so that I have something to follow. That’s what I am working on now, and hopefully soon I’ll figure it out and be able to move on to following that path! Time to organise my backpack!

Silas Beardslee

I went to Waldorf School through and through and almost always loved it, even within the brief conflicts that inevitably arose. I graduated class 12 in 2006 and travelled to Zimbabwe, Africa, on the wings of a spontaneous meeting a few months after school finished. After leaving home I had the urge to travel and explore, and did so for about a year in Scotland, England, Canada, Mexico and the United States, before moving to California to work as a 5th and 6th grade outdoor science teacher. I continued to explore all over the south western corner of the United States, and let the natural beauty of the world in which we live envelope my life to the utmost extent. I have now finished up a year of studies in Sweden with the International Youth Initiative Program by putting on a conference that I helped to create.

I am interested in finding my own path in life, while maintaining the ability to fulfill my wishes and respect all that is brought to my door. I play the guitar and write songs, and hope to one day record an album. I also consider myself to be a writer, and I just recently finished a book that I am hoping to get published in the next year. Life is an adventure and I love it.

I feel as though Backpackers may help me to process many of the questions that have been lingering in my mind. I think each and every day changes us, even if it’s just a little bit. But sometimes we awake to the change and it can be scary. But I believe that it’s possible to be conscious enough and awake enough to flow with the changes and simply ‘be.’

Guy Collins

Born near Cape Town. Private school, state school, Waldorf high school. Some Waldorf teacher training. One year eurythmy school. Rock and blues musician. Cowboy. Farmer. Drama teacher. Life. Music. Horses. Nature. People. Metamorphosis. Change. Movement. Words. Walking. Animals. Milking cows.

I hope that the people who come together can work towards forming the community of individuals that the future needs so she can be born with a body of hope and clarity. The play of light and shadows that is the conversation between human hearts. The warmth of crystal thought. The strength. I hope I am up to the task.

Jessica Collins

I feel that, in a lot of ways, I started my backpackers course a long time ago. When I heard about this course it rang very true because I felt (and still feel) that I was already on a quest – a quest of my life, my biography and my meeting of experiences and stories of others. Living with realness and always beginning again, always at a different point. Working with the past in the present towards the future. Every day for me is a backpacker’s day, no matter where I am. Vi ses!

Katie Dobb

How can we create a space where we can learn with and from each other? How can we weave our individual strengths, talents and interests together to create a real learning community? How can we support one another? How can we sculpt with warmth?

Freja Elnerud

I have just finished school, and I am very interested in most forms of art, especially theatre and poetry. Language is also a passion of mine. At the moment I am working with cleaning at one of the royal castles in Stockholm.

I was part of Connect Conference this year, and it gave me a lot to discuss about the future with people from around the world. For Backpackers Workshop I hope to find inspiration to create my future; how to do what I want, how to change the world...and of course, the joy of meeting people from other countries.

I am excited and I feel quite blank; I don’t know how it would be like. I hope this will help me to find some kind of direction, or just inspiration.

Matthew Hardie

I had an amazing life growing up in Australia, and have traveled far and wide in this beautiful world. I completed an international business degree on a scholarship in Melbourne, and I undertook an internship for Ernst & Young as a consultant, but declined an offer to go back after finishing my degree. I also learned Spanish at university, and took electives in philosophy and entrepreneurship. On turning down the offer to go the corporate path, I committed to living the dream.

Since university I worked by the beach, and have since come to Europe. I have an idea for an enterprise (an idea that’s been growing exponentially ever since leaving the land of Oz) that I would like to explore further.

I’m interested in life. I love music, silence, socialising, open space, breathing, surfing, eating, traveling, philosophy, wise tales and inspiring people, art, poetry, kung fu, guitar, meeting people, sleeping on islands, eating mangoes, festivities, talking, listening, laughing, diving deep and swimming far.

This workshop provides the opportunity for us to be creative and design and co-create our learning experience in an environment that fully supports this – what reason have I not to come?! I feel more inspired each day to commit fully to my life and be all that I can for the world. This workshop and the community environment would be a space that I believe would nurture this inspiration and the inspiration of others, and allow everybody to grow.

Rosa Scarlette Henderson

I am a farm girl (biodynamic since 1980), love the land, light, stars, colour and people. I have a love of immense empty landscapes and I am addicted to colour. I am into photographing social documentary – capturing culture, expression, life, and especially the lives of tribal people and the nomadic life. I work with the YouthSection in New Zealand, which is inspiring, challenging, and motivates me to connect more with people and work in community. Very much looking forward to being back in Dornach.

Selina Horn

Attained BA 1st honours for sociology and race relations degree in 2005. Lived and volunteered in Nepal and came across the Tashi Waldorf school there. Came back to England and started to work for a local kindergarten for three years. Attended the anthroposophy study group and made many (older) friends. I have completed the first year of Waldorf kindergarten training. I paint, sing, play various instruments and teach piano.

I have felt so enlivened by working with anthroposophy in the kindergarten and from the few talks that have been held in the area...but they weren't often enough! It would be wonderful to be so immersed in all the activities for a while. I wish to meet young anthroposophists because my study group are all over 45 years of age! I have a deep interest in the Christ element of anthroposophy and wish to intensify this. I have a love for eurythmy and all the creative processes I have come across, and wish to further explore these. I will so enjoy it and hope to bring a bright and creative contribution to the group.

Rather than asking lots of questions from an intellectual place, I am interested in how to continue cultivating a ‘thinking’ heart. How does the study touch and strengthen my heart? How does it bring me closer to myself, to others and closer to spirit?

Katharina Ludwig

Waldorf education in Steiner schools, project education through working in Idem and YouthSection since December 2005, travel education in South Africa, California, Brazil, England, Switzerland, Sweden…

My reason for coming is that I want to make time in my life for focused studying, and need to find a good method to do so in my everyday life. I see the Backpackers as a first practice. Soon after, I might want to begin a long distance study course and need to practice my discipline. I intend to focus on a few main questions of mine in the mornings. Another reason is that I am longing to be a participant in something meaningful with other people such as Yippies and YouSec people. I want to dive into a common experience and try out some new stuff…looking forward to some good and fun experiences, and some controversial discussions!

Adina Mazer

I’ve just moved back to Switzerland after growing up my whole life in the States. Travel and cultural exploration have always been a big part of my life. In college I studied broadcast journalism and Spanish, but I most enjoy working on creative endeavors – I make jewelry and art out of recycled/ found materials. Also, I love dancing and body movement (yoga, etc.). I’m interested in learning how to live a more conscious and spiritual life.

Since graduating from university in May and moving to Switzerland with my family this summer, I’ve been trying to get a new perspective on my life and future. I spent the last few years feeling very disillusioned by my educational experience, and am now hoping to immerse myself in an environment that is spiritually nurturing, creative, and curious. I’m very interested in the philosophies and ideas flowing through the Goetheanum, and am eager to meet people along their path towards higher awareness...

Laila Mazer

I am an artist and humanitarian – a painter and portrait artist using mixed (often found/recycled) media – with a sincere passion for learning through, and participating in, life as a creative being. I am deeply passionate about wanting to expand my knowledge of how to become a sustainable participant in the world. I love to work with others in a creative and open way, laughing and respecting one another. I would like to learn more about sustainability – especially regarding food production, products, building and art-making. I am open to creativity and ingenuity!

I have always had a fascination with the Goetheanum and anthroposophical art practices – and after moving back to the area after living in the States for over 20 years I am very much interested in beginning to build a creative community. I am very much on a path of inner and outer questioning, and am working towards integration of my knowing and feeling and being – and would love to be able to collectively work on this process as well. The workshop seems to be a very special opportunity to question life and existence in the company of other deep-thinking beings.

Natalija Shklarova

In summer 2008 I finished Waldorf school in Latvia. Straight after, I applied to the International Youth Initiative Program (YIP), which I have now finished. I worked with my friends on the conference we organised called “360º Exploring Community.” I am now also reflection on my personal project (I organised a concert tour for my Waldorf school orchestra, choir and dancers called, “Here comes Latvia!”), as well as collecting and selecting photos from the YIP year for a common CD.

YIP has given me a wide overview of the world at this point, and it has brought up many questions. In a way, it would be a YIP continuation, where I (as I see for now) would have the space to bring my question(s) and consciously work on them, as well as explore my own pathway, which I see as being outside university studies.

Christianne Sinoo

I was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. I have two brothers, one sister and my lovely Waldorf teacher parents. After spending the first six years of my life in Rotterdam, we moved to the south of France, where I lived for four years. After that we moved back to the Netherlands, where I finished high school. In 2007 I started with my study of education (pedagogic) and finished my first year. I didn't continue this study because in the way they taught us the theory, there was no space for questioning or creative thinking. I am still really interested in education and the development of the individual in our time. This is also a question for myself. After this year I went to YIP, where a whole new world opened for me. A world of many possibilities, choices, meetings, connections, enthusiasm, love, positivity. It maybe didn't make my life easier, but for sure much more fun and interesting!

The backpackers workshop gives me the opportunity to continue, develop and share questions and ideas with other people. I have many questions around the theme of education and the way society deals with it – what the future of education will be and how we can develop it further. What is really important for each individual? Who decides what is right for me? But most important for now, what is my way in all this and how do I want to educate myself? Tania and I want to set up a painting studio, which I am really excited about! Meeting new people, learning new skills.

Martin Stenius

I'm looking forward to a space where I can bring my own impulse and themes – where I can learn to become conscious on many levels, such as studying, working, my own inner development and in relationship to others in social processes.

Philip Stoll

For a long time I have been dreaming of working (on life/out of life/for life) in community. I see a dynamic interaction between people striving together for individual development and fresh initiative. I see active teamwork as well as silent listening to the other’s life path, and committed engagement in creating the next days of the future!

In the Backpackers Workshop I see the possibility for this and more to be explored! I am excited about these coming weeks!

John Stubley

Education: Literature, language, culture, journalism, writing. Interests: Resurrection of language, social poetry, poeticisation of the world.

I am coming to Backpackers to participate and to help keep open a space where everyone can bring their burning questions and themes.

How can we study and work with others in freedom and in community? Can we together fashion the new guilds, where we learn for the love of learning, and where we put what we've learned in the service of the world?

Elizabeth Wirsching

Education: History of Art, History of Ideas. Uni Degree: CAN MAG. Steiner Teacher Training. 17 years teacher. Nine years of leadership in the YS. Hobby: Being in the mountains.

I will be at Backpackers to support and contribute to the “living anthroposophy.” Main Focus would be: Creating images in connection with meditation verses, and working for the Goetheanum.

Silvia Zuur

Waldorf child, Bachelor of Science – Environmental Studies and Psychology. Organics, environmental protection, conscious development, social entrepreneurship, youth potential, learning while doing. Mmmm…Occupation?…student of the world!!! Sailing, crafting, being outside, reading, conversations, curiosity, a need to rediscover the potential of education, wanting to push myself in this environment, a knowledge that amongst the people called to this group something incredible will occur, and it’s gonna be fun!!!

Tania Zuur

Born in New Zealand and attended Waldorf school from Kindergarten through to class 12. Left NZ in May 08 and have been living in Sweden for the past year at YIP. I love piano, crafts, cooking, talking and living!

I’m coming to explore my questions, including finding out what they are – to have a free space to know what it means to “Be” in our world.

Notices

Aotearoa (New Zealand) Summer Youth Gathering! You are invited to contribute to and participate in ‘The World & I: Meeting the World and Shaping the Future,’ to be held near Wellington, January 21–27. Click here for more information or visit their website: www.summergathering.co.nz

Formal applications for Focus: International Initiative Forum will open in January. But you can now register your expression of interest by sending an email to Elizabeth Wirsching: elizabeth(at)youthsection.org Focus will take place in Dornach, April 5–9, 2010. Click here for more information.

HeartChord Music Festival: An event to fill the Goetheanum with music of all colours and genres – a weekend jamboree. April 9–11, 2010. Organised by the YouthSection. Click here for more information. HeartChord immediately follows – and can be experienced in connection with – 'Focus.'

Website We're Checking Out:

ELIANT – European Alliance of Initiatives for Applied Anthroposophy – is working to ensure, in view of growing European integration, that legislative framework conditions are created to safeguard the various aspects of applied anthroposophy, including education, nutrition and agriculture, special needs (curative) education and social therapy, medicine and therapeutic disciplines. If you haven't yet done so, you can sign by clicking here!

Current signatures: 921,993

From EU Countries: 816,642

Require: 1,000,000

What We're Reading:

Part of a lecture given by Jörgen Smit (at a youth conference in Dornach) in which he discusses a “Threefold Exercise for the Attainment of Social Faculties” as given by Rudolf Steiner. Click here to read it.

Coming Events

Credere Grants – Apply Now!: Until October 16.

Weekend Workshop 'How to Know Higher Worlds,' Dornach: October 9–12.

'Backpackers Workshop,' Goetheanum: October 19 – November 30.

Gewaltfreiheit In Ost und West, Basel, Switzerland: October 23.

'Air Beneath Your Wings,' Financial Literacy, Spring Valley, New York: October 30 & 31.

Einladung zu einem Jugendkolloquium, Bochum, Germany: October 30–31.

Connectivity Meeting, Ghent, Belgium: November 5–8.

'Coming Into Conversation,' Goetheanum: November 27–29.

'YouthSection Weekend,' Goetheanum: November 27–29.

Young Doctor's Meeting / Jungmedizinertreffen, Dornach: December 11–13.

'The World & I' Summer Gathering, New Zealand: January 20–27, 2010.

YWMS Conference and Youth Festival, India: Jan 23–27, 2010.

Focus: International Initiative Forum, Goetheanum: April 5–9, 2010.

HeartChord Music Festival, Goetheanum: April 9–11, 2010.

'A Venture Into the Interior' with The School of Nature, Southern Africa: August 29 – September 18, 2010.

Connectivity, South Africa : 2011.

Click here to view the many events happening in Belgium. (pdf)

For a full list of events, as well as plenty of other information, visit us at www.youthsection.org