This page will povide information about the seminar, its program, its staff and students, news from the seminar, interviews with seminar students and staff , coverage of special events and more.

The Shfaram Waldorf Project was launched last year (2002) when we opened here in Kibbutz Harduf for the first time a Waldorf Teacher Seminar for Arabic speaking students. 10 women enrolled for the first class of this pioneering project. This year (2003) we opened another class with 15 additional students, this time men and  women, some of Christian others of Moslem and some of Bedouin origin. Some of the students are experienced teachers and others have no previous educational experience and they mostly come from the Arab settlements - villages and towns - in the surroundings of Kibbutz Harduf: Caabiye, Sawayed Chmire, Caucab, Shfaram, and from the larger and mixed cities of Nazareth and Haifa. The decision to establish a special seminar for Arabic speaking students stems from the different cultural background of the students. One of the objectives of the seminar is to facilitate a process of understanding and awareness of the traditional values of the Arab community and their integration with the principles and  ideas of Waldorf education

The seminar is held in the Waldorf school in Kibbutz Harduf. The teachers at the seminar are trained Waldorf teachers who teach in one of the schools in the area and have many years of experience. Some of them teach also at the seminar held at the same place for Hebrew speaking students. The seminar is run in Hebrew as the Arab students speak Hebrew well enough but the teachers don't speak Arabic. The teachers though have decided to take Arabic lessons to get them a bit closer to their students and they meet every Friday at 7:00 AM before the beginning of the seminar session  for an Arabic lesson with Mazan Ayub.

The seminar will run for three years and it has two weekly sessions of about four hours each.

Seminar Program

The first Year

The main objective of this introductory year is to expose the students to various questions connected with the human being from the spiritual point of view (Anthroposophy), to present the principles of Waldorf education and to provide experience in a wide variety of arts as a tool for the students' personal development.

First term
Tuesday afternoon session has classes in:

* The Anthroposophical Philosophy of Education
* Painting
* Bothmer Gymnastics and Speech Formation

The Friday morning session has three classes:

* Singing and recorder playing
* General Psychology and Human Development
* The first seven years of the child

Second Term
Tuesday afternoon session has Eurythmy, Sculpture and a class dealing with the Anthroposophical Philosophy of Education. The Friday session has Singing and Lyre playing, General Psychology and the Human Development and The Art of Story Telling.

The second year

During this year the students continue their artistic training and deepen their knowledge of Waldorf Education. New subjects are: Teaching Methodology in various subjects according to the development of the child and different crafts. During this year the students are expected to make  observations in the classes and kindergartens of the Waldorf schools in the area.

The third Year

The students will be engaged in individual assignments while the methodological and artistic training continues. They are expected to perform or present an artistic project and practice teaching in one of the classes.

Funding

Most of the Arab students come from families of limited economic capacities and so we decided to cut the costs commonly charged in the seminar by half. The rest of the seminar's budget was financed by little contributions from individuals collected abroad in Europe. The teachers in the seminar, agreed to cut their salaries by half or even more in some cases. Others work for the initiative on a voluntary basis. Learn how you can support the initiative