THE FACULTY and How the Lake Farm School Developed

DIANA SEIM MEISINGER  Primrose Garden

Diana began studying Waldorf education in 1989 while she was expecting her first child.  Thus, her initial experience with these ideas came with her new life as a parent.  She found an affinity with the Waldorf view of the young child and the question soon arose: what would it take to start a school?

She began finding her answer in 1993, when she was given the opportunity of assisting in a preschool/kindergarten with a teacher who was pursuing the same goal.  It was immediately clear that Diana had a natural talent for creating the harmonious, nurturing atmosphere of a Waldorf early childhood classroom.  She added to that talent a training in Waldorf Early Childhood Education at Sunbridge College in Spring Valley, New York, where she completed her certification in 1996.  There, the program director recognized and appreciated Diana's gifts and asked her to assist in the training of future early childhood educators.

Diana received permission to begin her own independent teaching prior to graduating; the Primrose Garden Preschool/Kindergarten opened in Gardner, Kansas, in 1994.  Diana had lived in Gardner her whole life.  However, bringing her teaching closer to home was a questionable move.  Gardner was a small, quiet town uninitiated in non-traditional education.  But, it worked.  Diana found many parents in her hometown region who, like her, wanted something different for their children.  A background in Waldorf education was not needed to value Diana's innate understanding and acquired knowledge for what best serves a child's development.  The Primrose Garden took root and thrived with the support of those first parents.

In 1998, decisions had to be made about the further development of the school.  A group of children had entered the grades and the gnawing question was whether their needs could be met.  The outcome was the offer of a farmhouse and eleven acres south of town.  The Primrose Garden moved to the new site and was joined by the Grades Program in 1999.  The name Lake Farm School naturally evolved out of the scenic setting of a lake and wetlands surrounded by an organic farm.  The name expanded to Lake Farm School for Waldorf Education with the arrival of a certified and experienced Waldorf grades teacher.

 

LISA MEISINGER  Grades

Lisa began her study of Waldorf education in 1989 after two years of working in childcare.  The birth of a new generation in her family sparked the ambition to start a Waldorf school in Kansas, so she located Rudolf Steiner College in Fair Oaks, California, enrolled, and graduated in 1991, with her Waldorf Grades Teacher Certification.  The training had introduced Lisa to eurythmy, the movement art taught in Waldorf schools, and she decided long before graduation that the best way she could contribute to any school would be through eurythmy.  She went to New York for the four-year artistic training, graduated, then finished her studies at Emerson College, in Forest Row, England.  There she completed her certification in pedagogical eurythmy.  Her final step as a student was a high school teaching internship at the Vancouver Waldorf School, in British Columbia, Canada.  She began teaching that same school year, in the spring of 1996, with a eurythmy block at the Minnesota Waldorf School. 

Inspired by her artistic training, Lisa was eager to spend as much time on the stage as in the classroom.  The summer of 1996 took her back to England where she created and performed eurythmy for a presentation of Joseph Brodsky's poetry.  While there, she applied for a high school job in South Australia and was soon living, teaching, and performing Down Under.  In 1998, she spent the year touring with her own production in Australia, America, and Europe.  This included lecture / demonstrations and teaching eurythmy at public schools, arts centers, prisons, schools for the disabled, and Waldorf schools across the country.  By the end of the year, she was invited to become a member of the adjunct faculty at Antioch College New England.  She taught eurythmy for the Graduate Program in Waldorf Education the summer of 1999 and 2000.  In between, she settled down in Chicago, taught part-time, and put together another production. 

After touring the eastern United States with a performance of Kathleen Raine's poetry in the fall of 2000, she began having the feeling it was time to go home.  She completed her teaching commitments then returned to Kansas putting her career in eurythmy on hold to become a class teacher at the Lake Farm School.  A one year commitment soon turned into four when she made a promise to the class that she would teach them until they were ready to graduate in June 2005.  Her experience of Waldorf education in training centers and schools on three continents is a rich background for our pioneer work.     

 

Linda Meisinger   Handwork

Karen Nilson        Spanish