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For seventeen years Dr. Robin Bacchus has directed and taught on the Diploma of Rudolf Steiner Education at Taruna. Now as he leaves Taruna to embrace new challenges, such as educational consultant for the Leichuan Waldorf School in Taichung, Taiwan, he expresses his gratitude to the many people who have been part of his journey of teaching and learning.
Prior to taking on the role of course director in 1993, Robin became involved with the teacher’s course at Taruna at ground level 10 years earlier, working as a tutor while Carl Hoffmann directed. “I was teaching projective geometry once a week and got to know virtually all the students. Carl wanted to have geometry as through it Steiner had found: ‘to be able to lay hold upon something in the spirit alone brought to me an inner joy’. There is an outer space of sense-perceptible objects and events, but also an inner soul-space which is the arena of spiritual realities (concepts). Geometry bridges both worlds,” says Robin, suggesting that in projective geometry there was a meeting place for spirit and matter.
In a way, Robin has come full circle and will continue to teach at Taruna as a guest tutor in mathematics on the teaching diploma. He is also keen to create the opportunity for others to learn more about projective geometry and is considering offering short day or evening courses in the future.
With a family connection to anthroposophy, Robin travelled to England to attend Emerson College, after completing his PhD in civil engineering. He and Diana spent a year at Emerson then Robin worked in an engineering position.
“I realised I didn’t want to do this and thinking back to what my mother had said that the most important job in the world is to be a parent and the next one is to be a teacher, we returned to take the Education year at Emerson College.”
“Towards the end of that year a plea came from Wynstones School that the physics teacher has had a stroke and they needed someone desperately. So I finished at Emerson on Friday and started teaching at the school on Monday.”
In Robin’s life a pattern of 17-year blocks has been eminent, so after four years teaching at Wynstones School, Robin returned to New Zealand at 34 in response to an invitation to help with founding the high school at Taikura Rudolf Steiner School in Hastings. “The first thing I had to do was build a classroom – literally. I spent the first term building what is now the Class One room.” “After 8 years teaching the same subjects in the high school I needed to find fresh ground and I was drawn to become a class teacher.” So, after a sabbatical, for the next 8 years Robin was teaching in the primary school. It was during this time Robin also assisted Carl Hoffmann. Again at a 17-year turning point he moved into his role as course director of the teaching diploma at Taruna.
Reflecting on some of the milestones of his time at Taruna, Robin remembers the early days: “When we first came here it was a raw kind of place, the drive was limestone and became like a riverbed when it rained.”
“Through the 1990s we were struggling with the high costs of running the property until by 2000 we felt the place needed to close. But word got out and we had one of the biggest enrolments ever! Roy Boonen came on board as administrator and he looked at what other courses could be running. I had been until then course director, teacher, and manager so when the other courses came it helped with income and Roy built up Taruna’s infrastructure. That was a turning point I could focus more on the course. Another thing was when Karl-Heinz Finke and Angela Youdale came we began to work with the 7 learning processes and the ‘taking myself on’ approach to learning.”
Robin also talks about the journey of matching Steiner’s philosophies with the structure and bureaucratic demands of the tertiary education environment. “Rudolf Steiner wanted education to be free of all these structures. It’s always for the sake of the structures (that we comply). Our society wants to know what qualifications you have, but in teaching we really want to know ‘is this person going to be the right person to be with the children’. “You can’t educate anyone unless you have an idea of what being a human being is. That’s a key element to address.”
“This is an education in freedom and what you’re looking for in freedom is to say out of yourself that you know what to do. Not because of a law, but because you can see it makes sense. Your morality comes from within.”
The question begs: How does Robin feel to be leaving Taruna? Referring to how all-embracing his role has been he says: “In some ways it’s quite a relief. Also – it’s quite a transition – going from being ‘full on’ to ‘full off’!”
He is pleased to have the opportunity to go to Taiwan where he will visit three times a year over 5 years to ‘foster the process of helping them to find what they need to discover – what will work for them.” “In a way that’s what we have tried to do here (at Taruna) – empower our students to find what they need.”
As Robin farewells his long-standing position as programme director, his love and gratitude for his many journeys there are reflected in the wider Taruna community who have had the privilege of working with him and the honour of sharing his journey.
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