Biodynamic Association Foundation Year in Farming
Bringing the EduCareDo Foundation Year to farmers across America
The 26 biweekly EduCareDo Lessons are included as part of the Biodynamic Farming Foundation Year. The lessons offer a cohesive learning curriculum of short readings, experiential exercises, and artistic activities that bring to life the wisdom and path of knowledge (‘self development for world development’) which stands behind biodynamic agriculture. The weaving together of the breadth and depth of the insights of Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy fosters greater consciousness of our role as human beings in the life of the earth, and supports participants in getting to know the foundations of biodynamic agriculture as part of their Biodynamic Farming Foundation Year. Participants submit biweekly diary sheets with questions and reflections and receive individualized feedback from both EduCareDo staff and the BD Foundation Year organizers.
The Lessons are supported by conversations with your Foundation Year cohort, facilitated by the Biodynamic Farmer Foundation Year organizers, which offers a space to ask questions and share experiences from the curriculum, your daily work and life on the farm, and ‘the bigger questions’ of life in a supportive learning group.
EDU - What do I know?
CARE - How do I care?
DO - What can I do?
All enrollments for the Foundation Year in Farming are taken by the Biodynamic Association of North America
All EduCareDo profits from the BDA Farmer Foundation Year
go to support The Y Project in the United States, which provides mentors, health services,
artistic programs and events for individuals, including those in the farming community, ages 16-26.
The healthy social life is found when in the mirror of each human soul the whole community finds its reflection, and when in the community the virtue of each one is living.
~ Rudolf Steiner, The Motto of Social Ethic.
Lesson themes and topics include
- Developing the Human Senses
- Goethe’s Phenomenological Science
- Artistic Exploration (exploring color through water color painting and more)
- Thinking, Feeling and Willing in the Human Being
- The Human Being and the Kingdoms of Nature
- Elements, Ethers, Their Origins and Evolution on Earth
- Formative Forces, Form, Process and Substance
- Experiments with Elements, Ethers, and their effects in Nature and in the Human Being
- Ecology, Economy and Social Life
- Archetypal Qualities of Gender and Sexuality
- Inner Development and Biography Work
- A Practical, Hands-on Approach to Astronomy
- A Holistic Approach to Nutrition, Physiology, and Food
- Health, Nutrition and Biodynamics
An example of the Capillary Dynamic method of quality testing (Biodynamic Crystalisation), Health and Nutrition Lessons 23-25
the Lessons explore the questions
How do we know and understand the world?
How do we find meaning in perceiving the world around us?
How do we care for other human beings, plants, animals and the earth?
How do we meet the changing world? And how do we change to meet the world?
Can we become active participants in the creation of our earth’s future?
