NEW DATE ADDED! This November 13-14 Teachers Conference is sold out. To accommodate all those who were unable to secure a spot in November, we will be presenting this event again—with identical content—on Friday-Saturday, January 29-30. Register here for the January date and/or add yourself to our wait list for November.

The protests that followed the killings of members of our Black communities this spring served to wake many people up to the realities of racism in America—realities to which the Waldorf movement is not immune. Accepting the fact that racism exists within Waldorf Education and taking on the work of recognizing and eradicating it from our classrooms is a goal to which we must commit ourselves if we are to truly educate our children (and ourselves) toward freedom.

To this end, Sunbridge’s 2020 Teachers Conference tackles the important task of uncovering racism in the Waldorf movement and identifying steps we must take to dismantle it.

Over the course of three one-and-a-half-hour sessions taking place Friday evening and Saturday, we will:

• Define and articulate the ways in which the Waldorf curriculum centers whiteness and sets it up as an ideal, to the detriment of all;

• Use the frameworks of racial identity formation and biography work to better understand how we become who we are in a racialized society and how that impacts our engagement with the children in our care;

• Share practical tools, resources, and success stories with the goal of dismantling racism in Waldorf schools and communities.

Join us over Zoom for this real-time, virtual event.

 

Facilitators

Keelah Helwig (November and January dates) is currently an early childhood educator and chair of the Early Childhood program at The Waldorf School of Garden City (her alma mater). Keelah has served as chair of WSGS’s College of Teachers and is a founding member and chair of its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. She is proud to be a founding member of the Sunbridge Institute Diversity Scholarship Fund Committee and is also a Sunbridge Board trustee. A skilled facilitator, mentor, evaluator, and shepherd, Keelah is passionate about motivating school communities and inspiring lasting and meaningful change. Following her WSGS graduation, Keelah earned a BA in theatre from Spelman College and her masters in early childhood education from Sunbridge College.

Vicki Larson (November and January dates), director of communications and marketing at Green Meadow Waldorf School since 2011 and a founding member of Sunbridge’s Diversity Scholarship Fund Committee, has been involved in anti-racism initiatives and community organizing for social justice for more than 20 years. Vicki has held positions in publishing, resource development, translation and interpretation (English/Spanish), international women’s human rights, marketing, communications, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. A skilled trainer/facilitator, writer, and editor who loves working with young people and adults, she has been a consultant to Waldorf schools across the US since 2014. Vicki graduated with honors from the University of Florida in Gainesville with a major in English and minors in Religion and Women’s Studies.

Heather Scott (November date) is currently a high school humanities teacher at The Waldorf School of San Diego. Heather has taught at WSSD for 16 years, including graduating two eighth grade classes. Her teaching experience also includes a year spent at The Community School for Creative Education, a public, Waldorf-inspired charter in Oakland, CA. Heather’s interests are in diversifying Waldorf middle- and high-school curricula. She is passionate about supporting anti-racism through a grounding in history and biography and has a decades’ long interest in African-American culture and literature, especially attuned to Black women writers. Heather earned her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and her MA from The University of New Hampshire, Durham.

Meggan Gill (January date) is currently lead toddler teacher at City of Lakes Waldorf School. Between 2009 and 2020, she taught in the early childhood section at the Brooklyn Waldorf School, leading parent-and-child and kindergarten classes and being active on the school’s Faculty Council and Board of Trustees; before that, she taught parent-and-child and nursery classes at NYC’s New Amsterdam School. Meggan, who first learned about Waldorf Education when she visited the Olympia Waldorf School as part of her “Arts and the Child” class at Evergreen State College and soon thereafter began working in their extended day and early childhood programs,  earned her undergraduate degree in health sciences at Evergreen State and her certificate in Waldorf Early Childhood Education from Sunbridge.

Schedule

This conference will take place in live Zoom sessions.

Sessions

Friday, November 13: 7-8:30pm
Saturday, November 14: 10-11:30am and 12:30-2pm

All times are US EASTERN

Due to the sensitive nature of these discussions and because each builds on the next, we strongly encourage registrants to be able to attend all three sessions.

 

Cost

$150

Discount Options

• 10% off if you are a Sunbridge program alum OR for schools sending two or more registrants
• 50% off for current Sunbridge program students

Discount codes for Sunbridge program alumni and students will appear on your registration form once you identify yourself. Discounts for sending schools are in the form of rebates that will be issued after the conference takes place. Only one discount may be applied.

 

If you would like to be added to a wait list for November 13-14, should a space open up, please do so HERE.

REGISTER HERE FOR OUR ADDED DATE: JANUARY 29-30.

Zoom Sessions
Friday, January 29: 7-8:30pm ET
Saturday, January 30: 10-11:30am and 12:30-2pm ET

 

Questions?
Please contact Barbara Vitale, admissions and summer coordinator, at [email protected] or 845-425-0055 x20

Sunbridge reserves the right to make faculty substitutions when necessary.