Once in olden times

There lived in the souls of the initiates

Powerful the thought

That by nature

Every person is ill.

And education was seen

As a healing process

Which brought to the child,

As it matured,

Health for becoming a true human being.

These lines were dedicated by Rudolf Steiner to the young doctors and medical students in a Newsletter, March 1924, wherein he called upon them to collaborate with the educators.

Why do we have Kolisko conferences?

Eugen Kolisko was the first school doctor in a WaldorfSchool.He enriched medical diagnosis through the phenomenological impulse of Goetheanistic Natural Science.As both teacher and school doctor, he gave the groundwork to observe education in itself as a form of preventative medicine, and to throw light on the health giving properties of education. He was a man of whom Rudolf Steiner said “…he speaks deep into the heart with truth”

The concept for these Kolisko conferences is to present and make clear the pedagogical and therapeutic tools found within Waldorf education.The focus for careful observation of life situations of school children needs to be on an educational and medicine orientated learning process together with knowledge of the child’s developing physiology.

In a time of social insecurity, with many new health issues and pressures from the harmful effects of civilization; violence, drug abuse and, increasingly, deficient immune systems,a fundamental new reflection is essential:How can the child’s school years be enriched by the application ofthe wealth of scientific findings from the fields of developmental physiology, psychology, chronobiology,salutogenesis and other health-related scientific applications.In reality, how can we apply, and bring to fruition, such work in our clinical practice?

How can teachers, therapists, doctors and parents work together, in such a way that children feel themselves to be seen and recognized, to feel their own intentions are being supported?How can the soul and spiritual dimension of their development be seen at the same level of awareness as the development and training of their intellectual and physical growth?Never before has one had such an unlimited chance for development as today to determine one’s own life and form.Yet, how often one fails to take this opportunity with full strength and confidence?

In 2006, for the first time, there will be nine Kolisko conferences held world wide in different countries.This has come about partly because a growing number of people from different continents have expressed their deep interest to be able to participate.Also, it is clear that by having a larger number of conferences in the one year, each country involved is able to tailor the content to the immediate needs of that particular land.Respectively the diverse requests for lectures, forums and workgroups allow a full dialogue in respect to the evolving Human being and his/her biographical challenges.