Twaalfde klas: 17–18 jaar

De jongere krijgt meer zelfstandigheid, vertrouwen in zichzelf en zicht op zijnhaar kwaliteiten. Gefundeerd oordelen is binnen bereik voor deze adolescenten. De vraag naar het wezen der dingen komt op en er kunnen persoonlijke idealen ontstaan. De keuze voor een vervolgopleiding kan vanuit een breder perspectief worden gemaakt.
De lesstof is filosofisch getint. Diverse mens-, wereld- en maatschappijbeelden worden, zoekend naar een eigen oordeel, afgetast. De jongere vindt een eigen verhouding tot de moderne kunstvormen en de nieuwste geschiedenis en verkrijgt een grote intellectuele gevoeligheid voor overzichten en verbanden.
In het kader van het wiskundeonderwijs sluiten de leerlingen hun schoolloopbaan af met een huizenbouwperiode. De zelfontworpen huizen worden met tekeningen en een model tentoongesteld.

Een verslag over Dornach
De drie twaalfde klassen de kans om naar Zwitserland te gaan. Met 23 andere twaalfde klassen uit hetzelfde aantal landen, zouden we daar van lezingen workshops en theater genieten. Daarvoor studeerden we een toneelstuk en een musical in: ‘Der Jasager’ van Berthold Brecht  en de musical ‘Down in the Valley’.

Een opdracht voor Engels mocht over ons Dornachproject gaan. Hierbij dus mijn Engelse ‘paper’ over Connect 2003 in Dornach:

Connect 2003, Dornach
Nostalgic memories come back, when I think of one of the most important weeks in my life. It got a colour of being in harmony together, to meet each other and to learn a lot as well. Of course the plays and musicals were part of it, but there was so much more. I hadn’t expected this.

I met so many inspiring people. Even the “old” people I got very close with. For example the main characters at the lectures, the Dutch organiser, teachers and so many others. I met an Israelite, with whom I’ve been talking about the war between his country and Palestine. But as the time passed by, it got a far more wide perspective.

And the Brazilians. I set up a fund-raising-campaign  to shrimp the guilt of the Brazilians for coming to Dornach. I collected more than four and a half hundred euros. I gave it on the departing day (one doesn’t buy friendship). Other countries collected money as well, even some institutions and the connect-newspaper, sold at the last day, brought money in cash for those wonderful people who deserve to come easier to Dornach than they got until.

I met the “main” Brazilian at a lecture discussion. I just sat in the special panel in front of the auditorium; he was one of the other three. The two girls, who joined us as well, came from South Africa. It was an interesting experience.

The workshops were very interesting as well; I decided to join the Philosophy workshop: questions and exercises. We learned to think about thoughts for example, we talked about different views, opinions and explanations. There were people from all over the world: America, South Africa, Ireland, Norway, and England; I was the only Dutch in this group. The teacher, Robin, came from Germany; he made sense to me. He thinks before he speaks, something I am not always able to. We also learned to steer your thoughts in five exercises. I want to take as example the first anthroposophical, philosophical exercise (by Rudolf Steiner of course). You take a simple object for example a pen. You start looking at it and fix your thoughts only on that pen. You may think where it would have come from, but when you know for example from which shop, you have to be aware that your thoughts don’t roam away to other aspects of the shop which are not directly related to the pen. All your thoughts must be related to the ordinary object for at least five minutes. We learned a lot, I started to do those exercises frequently, but it is difficult to keep on doing it. I should do this a couple of months. But anyway about the workshop: never before I’ve used my brains the way I did this week.

Sometimes it was hard to be awake early in the morning when I hadn’t slept more then about five hours and a very busy program. About that busy program: I joined the group of people who tried to get everywhere they could. I haven’t missed anything, but it was impossible to join all the activities, I’ve tried. I missed the first day because of our Down in the Valley on which we had to practise. I had quite a big part in our Down in the Valley musical and I would like to tell, that it has been a great experience to stand in front of so many people on such a big stage. I’m very grateful that we were able to perform Down in the Valley the way we did: harmonious, beautiful and for us it was the best performance. For the rest it took just a small part in the perspective of the week, but it was big fun.

Matthias