The New Adult Educator (NAE) is a professional development program for educators, mentors, facilitators, coaches, administrators, therapists, and those in leadership and human resources. It develops the capacities of individual learning, ongoing transformation and creativity. 

The program is based on Anthroposophy, and the three-fold learning path developed by Coenraad van Houten and his colleagues. It is taught in three modules, each devoted to one of the learning paths and offered in 3 nine-day intensives.

See the interview here. Use passcode: c$3@j!GB

Michaelmas Greetings; 

The season of ‘knowledge’ has arrived and so too new offerings of New Adult Learning programs.  We begin the descent into the outer and inner darkness and yet within lives an impulse for learning and light.  Michael leads the way in the autumn with Michaelic knowledge of spirit, Michaelic courage of the heart and Michaelic will born out of certainty of one’s karma and destiny which ‘steels’ our spirit striving…  

“…For your own being the light of day fades into
Soul’s night and spirit-darkness;
With anxious seeking you turn your soul
To that light that takes its strength from darkness…”
1st Lesson from the Michael School of Spiritual Science.

From Connie and Carol;

The New Adult Learning (NAL) has been blessed with two fine facilitators who have offered the My Child Myself (MCMS) and other NAL programs in the London Waldorf School community for many years.   Here is an email from Connie White:

New Adult Learning – Autumn 2022* 

My Child Myself

FALL 2022  

Observing Your Child – Module 1 – Online
Experience a new way to be present with your child.  Increase your awareness of your child as a being of body, soul, and spirit.  Open the door to new understandings and insights about yourself and your child with the sevenfold path. Tuesday evenings –  7:30 – 9:30, October 18 – November 29, 2022 

My Child My Karma  – Module 4  – Online – with Marg Beard
To consider karma is to open to the idea of past lives and to how the past is still part of your life and your relationships.  Karma work challenges us to new levels of understanding, development, and healing. Through the seven weeks, you will awaken to your past and build capacities to meet your child in a new way. Thursday evenings – 7:30 – 9:30, October 20 – December 1, 2022 

My Home Family & Community

FALL 2022

Home for Body, Soul and Spirit – Module 1 – Online with Marg Beard
Enlivening our relationship with each part of our home. 4 Sheaths of Home, the 4 bodies, elements & ethers. Wednesday evenings, 7:30 – 9:30 EST – October 19 – November 30, 2022

Family, Foods and Festivals – Module 6 –  Online with Arlene Thorn
How can the cycle of the year and celebrating the seven festivals become a path of initiation?  We will explore the mysteries of the festivals in 7 sessions and paint each on a 12″ x 16″ canvas.  Friday afternoons, 4:00 – 6:00 EST – October 14 – November 25, 2022

My Child Myself Facilitator

FALL 2022

New Adult Educator, My Child Myself and My Home, Family and Community graduates are invited to participate in a training to learn to facilitate the My Child Myself curriculum.  Curriculums will be given. There are 6 modules to the My Child Myself program.  Participants are requested to be active offering or be willing to offer the My Child Myself programs.  We will begin with Observing My Child – Module 1 – Online with Arlene Thorn – Tuesday afternoons, 4-6 EST –  October 18 – November 29, 2022

New Adult Educator Research Week Intensive

SPRING 2023 

The Seven Planets and Seven Chakras – Online

What is the soul’s connection to the whole cosmos? The astral body is music. The etheric body works out of the rhythms of cosmic sculpture, with the astral body working out of cosmic melody. The seven planets living in our chakras are the bridge to the Music of the Spheres!.  We will follow a 7 day process with the planets and the chakras.  We will experience the planetary colours and chakras through veil painting.   As has been our practice in these weeks, we will each follow a Creative Spiritual Research question that is arising out of our life.  Sun., April 2 – Sat. April 8, 2023, 6:00-8:00 p.m. EST

New Adult Educator

SPRING 2023 
New Adult Educator, Path 2
The New Adult Educator is a professional development program for educators, mentors, facilitators, coaches, administrators, therapists and those in leadership and the human resource fields. It develops capacities of individual learning, ongoing transformation and creativity.  The program is offered in 3 eight day intensives. – Saturday, March 11 – Sunday, March 19, 2023, Cowichan, B.C.

In December of 2020, New Adult Learning Program Leader and health consultant, Fiona Hughes, was featured in an interview with the Rev. Jonah Evans on “The Light in Everything” podcast which is produced by the Seminary of the Christian Community in North America. The following is from the Seminary’s Patreon blog post about this interview:

Who is Fiona Hughes?

“Today, we share with you a conversation between Jonah and Fiona Hughes, a health coach and consultant in the greater Toronto area.  Fiona has been working with Hesperus, our neighbor community which is an Anthroposophically inspired home for aging adults,  on developing a “Curriculum for Aging”.

Fiona Hughes is a health coach and consultant who works with individuals to improve wellbeing, with groups running workshops, and with organizations developing strategies to deliver health and care. With a degree in medicine from the University of Witten/Herdecke, a cultural studies degree from Trent University, and training in anthroposophical medicine and new adult learning, Fiona is passionate about healing, karma, and creating the new.

Our thanks to Elliott Chamberlin, who composed the opening music, “On the Road” and the closing music, “Seeking Together”.  You can find more of his music here.”

Download Fiona’s Interview Here

While you do need to become a member through Patreon to access most of “The Light in Everything” podcasts, the Seminary has kindly made it possible for us to share Fiona’s interview with you, without having to subscribe to their podcast first. Here is the link to download the podcast as an MP3 file.

Warm Greetings

We are pleased to present the New Adult Learning 2021 programs. Although Zoom is a trial, it’s also a blessing and programs that have been inaccessible for many, are now possible. Looking forward to you joining us in one of the upcoming programs.  Scholarships are available upon request to newadultlearning@gmail.com. Times in our programs are EST or EDT.  – Arlene Thorn

“After doing 7 paintings, a co-worker said she has never experienced self-development like this. The New Adult Learning brings spirit which none of the other methods she has experienced have: therapy, Landmark programs, Pursuit of Excellence. Demartini. etc. She says this is the breakthrough for which humanity is searching.” – Kathleen Thompson, Edmonton, April 2020

“I am so grateful for all that you have shared this past year.  It’s such a privilege to experience you as a teacher/facilitator/healer, to be part of your modern mystery school, and to witness your passion and dedication to NAL/your work in the world.”  – Fiona Hughes, NAE Graduate 2019/20 (with Arlene Thorn)

Spring 2021  

New Adult Learning Conference – Zoom
Easter Intensive – Development of ‘I’ Consciousness – for New Adult Educator Graduates – Zoom 
My Home Myself –  The New Culture of Home – Zoom 
Connections for Men – Week Intensive – Cottage in S. Ontario  – On-site

Summer 2021

Leading Learning Communities – Rudolf Steiner Centre Summer Festival – Zoom
Connections – Week Intensive – Cowichan Valley, B.C. – On-site
Connections East – Path 1 – Ontario – On-site
New Adult Educator West – Path 3 – Creative Spiritual Research – Cowichan Valley, B.C. – On-site
New Adult Educator – Path 1 – Cottage in Southern Ontario – On-site

Fall 2021

My Child Myself – Observing Your Child – Tuesday evenings for teacher and parent development.  Zoom 
Connections – 10 Weekends – On-Line – Friday night, Saturday and Sunday til 2. 
My Home, Family and Community – Module 4 – In the Shelter of Each Other 

Conference –  Whitsun & New Adult Learning – Sat., May 15, 2-4  &  6-8, Sun., May 16,  9-11 &  1-3

A Zoom conference that will be nourishing and revitalizing!  “Whitsun”, a book by Fred Benesch, is subtitled ‘Community in the Time of Individualism.’  The forces of individualism live strongly in us and will increase until the 30C. How can we connect to the forces that live within us for community? What is the Whitsun image and how is it an inspiration for the New Adult Learning?  

The New Adult Learning (NAL) offers seven processes that build the capacities for knowledge, self and the world.  Experience a taste of the NAL processes and see how they offer new light and life forces for you and your community. Fee:  $77. There will be short presentations and art exercises. Register at https://newadultlearning.com/new-adult-learning-conference-2/

Easter Intensive – Development of the ‘I’ Consciousness – Zoom – Sun., March 28 – Sat. April 3, 5:00-7:00

Last Easter we followed Part 1 of The Esoteric Path through the First Class Lessons, Sergei Prokofieff.    This Easter we will take up Part II.  This program is for graduates of the New Adult Educator program.  If you wish to join this  intensive, please email newadultlearning@gmail.com for the notes from Part 1. More information at: https://newadultlearning.com/programs/training/new-adult-educator/research-weeks/
To register: https://newadultlearning.com/research-intensives-registration/  

My Home Myself –  Module 3 – The New Culture of Home and the Spiritual Tasks of the Homemaker  – Zoom – Saturday Afternoons – April 3 – May 15

Life is being re-ordered by the pandemic. Being at home with the children has been challenging and has been transforming home, family and education as well as us!  What is the new culture of home that is being created? What does being a homemaker mean today and how can we maintain ourself? For more information and to register go to https://newadultlearning.com/programs/personal-development/home-family-community/

“My Home Myself program (Module 1 – Fall 2020) was an anniversary gift to myself and husband, knowing that anytime I engage in Steiner’s work, and those who work with it, my relationship and family is blessed with the DOING that transpires. Creating Home for Body, Soul, and Spirit prompted deep thoughtful dialogue within my home and active positive change.”  – Jessica Rivers, Plattsville, Ontario

Connections for Men – Path 1 – Southern Ontario – On-site – Sat., May 22 – Sun., May 30

A new offering for us….a week for men, at the cottage.  The New Adult Learning was created by the Conraad van Houten who was associated with the NPI, a Netherlands Institute for business consulting.  Coen worked for many years in business which led to his work with 7 Fold Learning. Otto Scharmer, who also worked with the NPI came, through his research at MIT, to a Change Management method based on 7 processes known as the U Theory for learning and management.

Connections Path 1 delves into the 7 processes which are the basis for new knowledge, capacities and forces within the self and one’s life.  The week is at a cottage and the ice may still be on the lake.  There’s lots wood for the fireplace. Take a week to renew, enliven and rebuilt one’s inner fire.  For more information and to register go to https://newadultlearning.com/programs/personal-development/connections/

Leading Learning Communities – Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto – Summer Festival  – Afternoons July 19 – 23 – 1:00 to 3:00 – Zoom

This workshop had excellent reviews from the participants last year and we have been asked to offer it again this coming summer.  The workshop will present a taste of the 3 Paths of Learning and feature Carol Lewis and Connie White on Tuesday speaking about the My Child Myself program that they have offered at the London Waldorf School for 12 years.  Arlene Kamo will be speaking on Thursday about the organizational development that took place at the Trillium Waldorf School through using the NAL processes.  For more information and to register go to https://www.rsct.ca/SummerFestival

Connections East – Path 1 – Southern Ontario – On-site – July 30 – Aug. 7, 2021

Treat yourself this summer!  Renew yourself in a safe, quiet and private Ontario cottage.   Nourish your body and soul with study, nature, art and a week at the lake.   All food served will be home-cooked and organic as much as possible. Path 1 is this summer.  Path 2 will be a week intensive in March 2022.  

Path 3 will be in the 1st week of August 2022 at the same cottage.  The program is being offered by Fiona Hughes.  For more information and to register https://newadultlearning.com/programs/personal-development/connections/

Fiona Hughes is a health coach and consultant who works with individuals to improve wellbeing, with groups running workshops, and with organizations developing strategies to deliver health and care. With a degree in medicine from the University of Witten/Herdecke, a cultural studies degree from Trent University, and training in anthroposophical medicine and New Adult Learning, Fiona is passionate about healing, karma, and creating the new.

New Adult Educator West – Path 3 – Creative Spiritual Research – July 30 – Aug 7, 2021 

Cowichan Valley, B.C. – On-site  – July 30 – August 7 – Are you in the fields of education and trainings, the helping professions or business?  Are you meeting inner and outer challenges in moving your work life forward?  Are you longing to bring the NEW?  The New Adult Educator is a professional development program for educators, mentors, facilitators, coaches, administrators, therapists and those in leadership and the human resource fields. It develops capacities of individual learning, ongoing transformation and creativity.  The program is offered in 3 nine day intensives. 

Creative Spiritual Research – Path 3 – We were once naturally in communication with the spiritual world.  As we evolved, we lost this connection and can now cultivate our relationship consciously through our interests, intentions, and initiative. Become a co-creator with spirit and live into your unique destiny. Speech & Clay Work. Pre-requisite is New Adult Educator or Connections Path 1 & 2.  

Connections Cowichan – Path 1 – On-site,  Aug 8 – Aug 15

While life brings us experiences by which we learn, stepping onto a conscious path of development enriches our gifts and connects us to the new for the self, the other, and the world.  Connections develops capacities of individual learning and ongoing transformation.  The program is for personal and professional development, such as teachers, educators, healers.  All NAL programs are based on anthroposophy.  Path 2 of the program works with karma and Path 3 to living into one’s destiny with new insights and forces.  

Join an enriching and enlivening week of movement, presentations, group exercises, nature observation, art exercises, sharing and discussions.  We will cook and eat together and stay at a shared accommodation in the beautiful Cowichan Valley, B.C. For more information and to register https://newadultlearning.com/programs/personal-development/connections/ 

New Adult Educator – New Cycle – Path 1 – Ontario  – August 16 – 24

Are you in the fields of education and trainings, the helping professions or business?  Are you meeting inner and outer challenges in moving your work life forward?  Are you longing to bring the NEW?   

The New Adult Educator is a professional development program for educators, mentors, facilitators, coaches, administrators, therapists and those in leadership and the human resource fields. It develops capacities of individual learning, ongoing transformation and creativity.  The program is in 3 – 9 day retreats and is residential.  For more information visit https://newadultlearning.com/programs/training/new-adult-educator/

For more information or to register https://newadultlearning.com/programs/training/new-adult-educator/

My Child Myself – Observing My Child – Oct. 5 – Nov. 16, 7:00 – 9:00

Tuesday evenings for teacher and parent development. While many parenting programs focus on outer skills, My Child Myself builds inner practices and capacities. Using dynamic sevenfold processes in each module,  parents practice receiving individualized knowledge unique to their  parenting and new forces for their busy lives.  Each module consists of seven sessions of 2 hours.  The program builds on capacities from the previous module.  Programs can also be taken as individual courses. Simple artistic exercises accompany the sessions.

Module 1 – Observing Your Child  Experience a new way to be present with your child.  Increase your awareness of your child as a being of body, soul, and spirit.  Open the door to new understandings and insights about yourself and your child with the sevenfold path.  For more information and to register go to https://newadultlearning.com/programs/parent-development/parenting/

Connections Weekends – On-Line – Path 1 – Oct. 1- 3,  Nov. 5-7, Dec. 2-5

Path 1 –  3 Weekends – Connections develops capacities of individual learning and ongoing transformation.  The program is for personal and professional development. Connections Online is a series of 10 weekend sessions, one weekend per month.  Path 1 Fall, Path 2 – Winter, Path 3 – Spring

Three Paths of Learning

Path 1 – The Sevenfold Path  – The sevenfold archetype and practicing transforming knowledge into new wisdom
Path 2 – The Path Inward – Awakening to karma and destiny.
Path 3 – Creative Spiritual Research  – Co-creating the new in the self and world.

Each weekend has presentations, group exercises, nature observation, movement, art exercises, sharing and discussions in 2 hour sessions.  The weekend  is Friday evening, Saturday, and Sunday until 2.  For more information and to register go to https://newadultlearning.com/programs/personal-development/connections/

New Adult Educator – New Cycle – Ontario  – August 16 – 24

Are you in the fields of education and trainings, the helping professions or business?  Are you meeting inner and outer challenges in moving your work life forward?  Are you longing to bring the NEW?   

The New Adult Educator is a professional development program for educators, mentors, facilitators, coaches, administrators, therapists and those in leadership and the human resource fields. It develops capacities of individual learning, ongoing transformation and creativity.  The program is in 3 – 9 day retreats and is residential.  For more information visit https://newadultlearning.com/programs/training/new-adult-educator/

  

New Adult Educator Path I and II  ~ August 2019 and Feb/March 2020

L-R: The Word Sisters: Dale, Renate, Jenny and Rosemary, July 2019 after a week’s Intensive at the Perth Waldorf School.

hands receive and give
warmly held community
– now I sit alone

Outside my small apartment in Highgate, near the Perth Central Business District, Western Australia, birds sing. I was woken by the guffawing laugh of kookaburras and now listen for the sweeter song of doves and wattle birds. I am in self-isolation.

I arrived a few days ago from Cleveland, Ohio after staying with dear friends in Erie, PA for nearly two weeks. And I travelled there from Toronto after Path II of the NAE Training at Bonnieview Farm near Meaford, Ontario from 28 February-8 March, 2020.

My journey was planned months ago. I returned to Australia on 24 March, just hours before the Western Australian borders were closed, thus my fourteen-day self-isolation.

This preamble invites you to my story of discovery.  Since my partner’s death in 2014 and my retirement from 45 years of teaching and arts education in the public system in Western Australia, I have spent short and delightful periods of time with his sister and her partner in Erie, PA. Last June I enticed my two good friends to meet me in Toronto and to spend a few days exploring together.  Always interested in conferences when I travel, I investigated the possibility of Anthroposophical events in Toronto. 

I discovered that there was to be a weekend conference Moving Towards the Future June 8-9, 2019, presented by the New Adult Learning Movement (NALM). I was immediately interested. 

I had been opened to “Destiny Learning” and Coenraad van Houten’s work when training in Biography Work with Karl-Heinz Finke in Sydney, Australia from 2014-2016.   So I leapt in and found myself dog-paddling as the mermaids and porpoise dived around me!

Everyone had either attended New Adult Learning workshops or had, or were, actually presenting various linked classes. The Australian was the only one out of her depth. But I like the new and so doggedly did my best to keep up!

We were treated to a comprehensive review of the life work of Coenraad van Houten by his widow Shirley Routledge van Houten, specifically as it had emerged in her life. It was a gentle and encompassing talk, and her love and respect for Coenraad was palpable.

I left with an invitation to return to Canada in August 2019 to attend Path I of the New Adult Educator Program. Within days I had my flights booked.

The August week at the lake cottage with four other participants and Arlene was extraordinary-life-shifting. The seven learning processes were explored in days of rhythmic discovery and friendship. I was inspired to share the work on my return to Western Australia.

A great joy in my life since 2017 is my ongoing work with three other women. We call ourselves the Word Sisters, and we have written and performed a work that blends biography, the vowels,  and the planets in a piece called Dancing Backwards.   We presented at the Australian Anthroposophical Conference in 2018 and at the Adelaide Fringe Festival in 2019. We are currently developing the second work exploring biographically through the consonants and the zodiac. These friends found the seven learning processes a wonderful addition to the way we develop our work.

As a further diversion to the story, I returned to Perth after the August in Canada to rehearse and perform in a work developed by Jennifer and Horst Kornberger, Anthroposophical luminaries in Australia, along with five musicians and performers from Slovenia, three local actors and a chorus of ten, in Somnus, an exploration of sleep for the Fremantle Biennale in November, 2019. The importance of sleep and night work in New Adult Learning was complemented by this unique experience.

Addendum from Dale, May 1st: This video of Somnus has just been released by Jennifer Kornberger and I think it gives a clear overview of the project. Here is the link to the video: www.theatreofthesea.net/somnus-video

I spent hours of rehearsal under the veil…

At the end of 2019 I was able to take a group of twelve through the seven learning processes. Many were long-time Anthroposophical members, and I was heartened by their warm reception of the Seven Learning Processes. I will include some photographs of the Imaginations they created in relation to the presentation. 

My booking for Path II of the training was made as soon as the date and place were fixed. When I left Australia at the end of February, the Coronavirus still seemed manageable.  It was so good to see my colleagues from Path I and to meet the two participants from BC. 

We were sequestered at Bonnieview Farm, blanketed in snow, and ready to embrace Destiny Learning: a heartful place with rhythmic routine, kind friends, and a steady helm. I have already set up Skype sessions to begin to share the practice with two of my Word Sisters. We may be in self-isolation, but there are ways to connect.

My only sadness is that it is unlikely that I will be able to attend Path III in August 2020 with my Canadian friends. And that sadness extends to our ailing world and all fellow travellers on this orb. But a thread of connection has been firmly formed and contributes to the healing so needed now. The Australian is warmly in the room. 

farewelling kind friends,
a murmuration of dreams
– migratory birds

Dale Irving, selfie with melaleucas (tea-trees), by the Tamar River in Tasmania, Australia, December 2019

NAL Programs Summer & Fall 2020

Whitsun Conference 2020 Update – Now OnLine!!!! 

Awakening to COVID-19 and My Karmic Imprint.  We have created an On-Line Conference.  

4 – 2 Hour Sessions – Art Exercises & Conversation, May 23 1-3 & 7-9, May 24 – 9-11, 1-3                       

Connections 2020/21- Summer, March Break, Summer 

What are you doing this summer?  Does a week at the lake with an amazing group that learns and does art exercises together, eats and swims together sound like your kind of holiday?  Join Heather Church and Laurie Harper-Burgess at the cottage in the Parry Sound area this summer.  The program is 3 single weeks offered this summer, March Break, and next summer.    For more information and to register, go to www.newadultlearning.com  

Leading Learning Communities – Case Studies of Two Waldorf Schools

NAL Processes in Professional & Organizational Development 

Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto – July 20-24, 2020   – Afternoons  

For more information visit https://www.rsct.ca/SummerFestival

Coming Fall 2020

Creating Home, Family, and Community – Facilitator’s Training 

Term 1 – Home for Body, Soul and Spirit – ON-LINE – Wednesday mornings, September 30 – Nov. 11, 2020

Do you work with parents or home educators?  Are you looking for ways to build their knowledge, develop their capacities, and support them in creating home, family, and community?  Learn to use the NAL adult learning and transformational processes.   

This program is offered in series of 7 sessions, each session being 2 hours. It will be offered on Zoom. A session begins with a sharing of the week’s learning, then a lesson and an art process.  The program is both a professional training and personal development. Through attending the program, each participant receives the curriculum that can be used with parents.  A pre-requisite of the program is that each participant will have 3+ students to share the session with each week.  

For more information and to register see www.newadultlearning.com