Otto Specht School: The Early Days
May wisdom shine through me
May love glow within me
May strength penetrate me
That in me might arise
A helper for humanity,
A servant of sacred things,
Selfless and true.
~~Rudolf Steiner
It is amazing how when we are open to possibilities and are willing to trust the journey, opportunities end up being perfectly positioned for us to consider.
I came to the Fellowship/Threefold community looking for a way to reimagine education for my young son who was not able to find his way in strictly classroom based programming. Having attended and graduated from a Waldorf school and being a parent of a child in a Waldorf School, it seemed that alternative forms of educational programming for students who could not manage a typical classroom, not only made sense, but were desperately needed - and not just for my child.
I learned, soon after my arrival, that there had in fact been a community based educational program called the Otto Specht program at the Fellowship Community back in the early 1970’s for children of coworkers who could not manage at Green Meadow. The program had not been active for several decades but the impulse was just waiting to be reawakened!
To bring back this community based program, however, I first had to understand the community. So I began my journey as a Fellowship coworker. I worked in the barn with Will Bosch, caring for and milking the cows. When the dairy processing system was built, I learned how to process the milk for hilltop and the coop. I worked in Hilltop House, learning all the tasks necessary to care for the elderly members, including administering medicines. I cooked meals for the community with Jairo; set and cleaned the dining room for meals; Mopped the floor every Monday and Thursday; worked in the office with Jim reconciling the books; worked with the maintenance team cleaning, spackling and painting rooms; worked in the woodshop learning to carve picture frames and repair furniture; I cared for the chickens, worked in the fields, played music for the members every Thursday evening, and so on.
During this initial year, as I learned the ropes, my daughter attended Green Meadow, and a school in Connecticut had agreed to keep my son for the year so that I could delve fully into the process of imaging an educational program - a Waldorf school that could adapt its form to the needs of each child, with its foundation in meaningful work and service to others.
This was and still is an effort that requires many individuals to come together, to create a community (even within a community) around this work. With the help of people like Norma Johnson, Ann Stahl, Judith Brockway, Paul Scharff, Gerald Karnow, Jairo Gonzolez, Brenda Bean, Liesl Winter and many other Fellowship and Threefold community members, the Otto Specht School impulse was reignited. This army of healing hearts came together to care for the needs of the Otto Specht students in activities that gave wisdom to their hands, strength to their hearts, and clarity to their thinking - all in a community where every individual was respected, appreciated, and needed; something that special needs children do not often experience.
In 2004, 20 years ago, the Otto Specht School, rooted in Waldorf education, opened its doors officially as a homeschooling program to 3 students - my son being one. I remember once being in the barn when my son was milking a cow. I took over the miking (we were still doing it by hand back then), and when I looked behind me, the cow in the next stall - her name was Heidi - had decided to sit down. My son sat next to her and Heidi put her head in his lap. He was a little fellow back then - barely the size of her head! As he was cradling and petting her he told me that the angels around her head were smiling.
The Otto Specht School has grown up quite a bit since then. Things have changed, some things lost and many gained, but what remains the same is the picture of the human being and the capacity to say yes - no matter how challenging it may seem. And the angels are still smiling …