Message From the Executive Director

by David Barham, Executive Director

In her most recent bestselling book, Nurturing Connection, Curiosity & Lifelong Learning in the Age of AI © 2026, Dana Susskind, Professor of Surgery & Pediatrics at the University of Chicago, writes about the extraordinary importance of human relationships & connections for healthy child development.

She writes, “True caring- our capacity to have heartfelt thoughts about another being, rooted in concern for their flourishing, irrational in their intensity- is what makes (humans) unique. It is the irreducible human core.”

This “true human care” is at the very heart of Waldorf education and is needed more than ever in a world rapidly being altered by AI, and more significantly, by human beings replicating the machine’s binary thinking. Susskind writes about the emotional resilience, social intelligence, and genuine vulnerability that come from imperfect (or as she calls them, “messy”) human relationships.

In his important book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt © 2024, Haidt distinguishes between “real world childhoods” (those that feature relationships and social interactions characterized by four features that have been typical for millions of years) and “virtual world childhoods” (typical only for the past few decades.) He characterizes real-world childhoods as marked by the following:

1. They are embodied- use our bodies to communicate, conscious of the bodies of others

2. Synchronous – happening at the same time with subtle clues about timing and turn-taking

3. They primarily involve one-to-one or one-to-several communication, with only one interaction happening at a given moment

4. Take place in communities that have a high bar for entry and exit so people are strongly motivated to invest in relationships and repair rifts when they happen

Unlike the real world, virtual world childhoods are characterized as:

1. Disembodied- no body needed, just language. Partners can be artificial intelligences.

2. Asynchronous – happening via text-based posts and comments

3. Involve a substantial number of one-to-many communications broadcasting to a potentially vast audience. Multiple interactions can be happening in parallel.

4. Take place within communities that have a low bar for entry and exit so people can block others or quit when not pleased. Tend to be short-lived, and relationships are often disposable.

This newsletter, and all of the work done in our various professional development and teacher education programs is in service to a ‘play-based childhood (as opposed to a “phone-based childhood”) that leads to meaning and context. We have powerful allies for our work in thinkers such as Dana Susskind and Jonathan Haidt.

We thank you for being part of this journey with us in service to the protection of the endangered kingdoms of childhood and adolescence.

In this Fall issue of Center & Periphery, we read the powerful keynote address by long-time eurythmist, administrator and WHiSTEP faculty member, Laura Radefeld, sharing about the challenges of creating sustainable community and overcoming deep-seated conflicts at her Waldorf School (Green Meadow). Karine Munk Finser shares reflections on the graduation of the final cohort of the Transdisciplinary Healing and the continuing journey of the Kairos Institute. We read some alumni profiles from members of the WHiSTEP Class of 2026. Additionally, the faculty of WHiSTEP speak to the question, what does academic rigor mean in a Waldorf context? This piece was originally scheduled to appear in AWSNA’s Renewal magazine, though it greatly exceeded the word count and so a shortened version will appear in Renewal soon; readers of C&P can read the full piece here. I have also contributed a piece that will soon appear in an upcoming publication from the Pedagogical Section Council of North America (PSC) on Breathing. The piece is entitled, I Can’t Breathe: Finding the Courage to Speak with our High School Students About Truly Difficult Subjects.

Additionally, it is my pleasure to announce that Deborah Dornemann, CfA’s Director of Explorations Online, has, as of August 1, taken on the Directorship of Building Bridges to Waldorf Teacher Training. Building Bridges sessions are engaging and inspiring in-person learning experiences at host schools, consisting of a series of workshops designed to introduce the anthroposophical foundations of Waldorf education through study, group discussion, and the practice of the arts. With in-person long weekends, supplemented with some virtual learning, participants in Building Bridges will earn the equivalent of the first semester of teacher education, and upon subsequent entry in Antioch University can be awarded 7 graduate credits in advance standing. As Deborah shares in her welcome video (link below), “We wish to enable the teacher to ennoble the student.”

Congratulations, Deborah! We know that you will continue the fabulous work begun by Torin Finser, the program’s founder and former Director.

Click here to watch a brief video introduction to Building Bridges from Deborah.

Finally, we want to dedicate this issue to our dear friend and longtime CfA adjunct faculty member, David Sloan, who passed away this summer after a lengthy illness. It is hard to imagine the world without the vibrancy of David Sloan, one who deeply embodied the practice of “true human care.” David taught for 27 years in the Waldorf High School Teacher Education, at multiple Waldorf high schools (Green Meadow, Shining Mountain, Maine Coast, Jamie York Academy), and published numerous books that helped a generation of Waldorf high school teachers. He is also a published poet. You can read more about David here as well as read the text of the gorgeous Graduation talk David gave to the Antioch & WHiSTEP students at the end of the live summer residency in 2025.

The world is a better place for David having lived, taught and shared as he did.

David Michael Sloan · November 4, 1949 – August 5, 2026