sharing the love
The Waldorf School of Atlanta strives to provide our students with hands-on, practical experiences in the world they'll soon be entering. The Waldorf student is one that learns through thinking, feeling, and willing. In Blacksmithing, they incorporate all three of these elements as a practical art. They must think carefully about how their materials are affected by heat and pressure. They must enact their will upon these elements with a steady hand. And through their effort, they must bring into the world something of a unique beauty, something that they themselves feel important to manifest into being. Through this practice of blacksmithing, the students exercise a personal creativity and thoughtfulness that connects them to an age that shaped the world in which we live. By providing these students such an opportunity, we show them a path to the very real world that they themselves will no doubt shape tomorrow.
-Joshua Gartland, Waldorf Educator
After a decade of teaching blacksmithing for the Waldorf school, it is not lost on me that an important part of my job is to keep an interest in the craft alive, especially in the hearts and minds of young people.
From a strictly bottom-line perspective, the time and effort of teaching this sort of thing is somewhat of a zero-sum game. But its power and meaning feeds the soul in a way that more than transcends that sort of logic.
I have been sustained by even small moments of awakening within students and employees alike. The power of being able to show what it feels like to care about what you do, own your craft, and to feel fulfillment from the act of making. For me, the process of opening eyes to the gifts this discipline offers continues to give my practice so much meaning.
