by Sheny Figueroa Tarot, Class 3 Main Educator

Cuernavaca, México, is the place where I have spent half of my Summer vacation during the last two years. The reason is that I have been studying to obtain my International Waldorf Teacher’s Certification.  And I have had a great experience each time I’ve been to the International Center of Anthroposophical  Development.

Each time I begin my classes, I am surprised by the curriculum proposed by the teachers. These are the classes that I received: Arts and  Science, where teachers train us students to see the world through the Goetheanum observation and Rudolf Steiner´s teachings.  And what is that, you may ask. Honestly, I´m still learning, but I will adventure to give you my own personal definition of this way of understanding the human experience: it means feeling, thinking, and doing before you reach your own definition of life. Feeling, thinking, and doing is a threefold process, and it is the basis of my School Trinus. Finally, I said after I finished this year, I am beginning to understand how to approach the understanding of the human being. I remember when my teacher heard me expressing my enthusiasm for my new discovery. He said, “Well done, Sheny! Twenty or thirty years more of anthroposophical studies, and you will be in the middle of understanding Rudolf Steiner´s lectures!”

By studying Arts and Science, I am referring to classes like watercolor painting and the study of the theory of color according to Wolfgang von Goethe, Form Drawing, and the meaning of the line (straight and curved) for the child’s soul and spirit´s development. Eurythmy as healing movement for the human being. How to teach Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics, Geography, Botany, and History from the anthroposophical point of view.

I´ve had a couple of experiences that seemed funny when I told them to my students. During the second year, I had my first Eurythmy class. The teacher, a very strict and experienced one, asked us to bring dancing shoes, which I forgot at home. She said, “To dance Eurythmy means feeling, coordinating, and moving with grace and rhythm!” And without the proper shoes, the only thing I was paying attention to was not to slip and fall down. Grace and rhythm? Please! Wait for me next year!

And this year’s experience with Botany made my students laugh for a week. As I wanted to represent my school properly, before leaving for Cuernavaca, I did my nails to look nice and elegant. On the first day of class, the teacher told us that for several days we had to work with compost and handle horse pup. Oh, my beautiful nice hands, I said. Kneeled on the floor, gathering horse pups, and learning how to teach children how to grow a plant, as part of a natural process. Goodbye, beautiful pink nails!

What will happen after I obtain my International Waldorf Teachers´s Certification? It means that I will be certified as a teacher who knows the Waldorf Curriculum by heart, that I have the complete knowledge of how to guide children from Grade 1 through Grade 8, according to Rudolf Steiner´s teachings and vision. I, through my hard and conscious learning, have become a member of the international community of teachers that shares values, knowledge, and vision to guide our students to understand their new and changing world.