Rough winds from the Adriatic

Along the Adriatic coast there are various winds and each has its own face. The North wind, the Bura is the roughest. It brings good weather, clears the skies but blows and batters every bush and bent tree that clings to the thin soil on rocky hillsides above the coast.

Where there are no woods it is almost impossible for a new tree to grow roots.

When the pupils of the Rijeka Waldorf School leave the bus somewhat south of the city on such a bare mountainside and the Bura blows their caps from their heads, one can experience what it means to miss the protective cover of woods. With the help of a forester the impossible was attempted. With thick iron bars holes were dug in the ground where some soil had gathered between the rocks and a small fir tree was planted and made secure. Would the trees survive here?

This question is also posed by the school daily life. The Waldorf School and kindergarten stand on thin earth and have to withstand the strong winds.

Our school began in 2000 with the first two classes, today there are seven classes. The conditions seemed at the time to be good after the war, in the new beginnings. Both kindergarten groups were full and until 2004 there were always fifteen children for the first class. 

Today a rough wind is blowing: The school fees are high and the interest and courage to send your child to the Waldorf School has definitely weakened. The kindergarten had to close one of its groups this year and in all seven classes there are now only 65 children. Over the past two years we have not been able to fill the first class and the older children have moved to the state school because the parents fear they will not be up to the challenges of the state schools.

Experiences at school

Jurajs mother does not have these worries. She is a teacher in the kindergarten and earns 420 Euro a month and a ‘Godparent’ in Norway pays the school fees for Jurajs, 120 Euros a month. Sometimes one sees the class 2 children at 7 am on a sofa before the class room deeply sleeping. But soon the class 6 children storm in. Then Jurajs goes to the sleeping room in the kindergarten and does his homework. Then the lessons begin, handwork, English, German, Eurythmy or games, all together with the first class. For the language lessons the small room is exchanged with the third class, who as a group of 12 make themselves comfortable for handwork. Games usually takes place outside, except when it rains and the teacher prepares a few indoor games. For Eurythmy lessons the children go to a hall in the local community centre which the school rents for six lessons a week. 

Jurajs has main lesson only between 12.00 and 14.00. The five second class children enjoy this time with their class teacher Iva. She is 26 years old and wanted to teach art in the school, but a teacher was needed urgently for the first class so she decided to do both. She is also the chairwoman of the administrative meeting, manages the school website and organises exhibitions of pupils’ work and of her own.

In total twelve teachers and a few parents share the running of the school. Both the male colleagues are highly regarded by the children, who spend much of their time alone with their mothers at home. Many parents are divorced and many fathers are away at sea for long periods.

All the teachers receive their salaries often two months late and have to be much more active than their colleagues in the state school and have to live with an uncertain future. They only stay in the job if they have great enthusiasm. All newcomers to Waldorf have few role models and there is little relevant literature in Croatian. Nevertheless they have to represent the education from their first day onwards in a social and political climate which is often filled with prejudice. 

But the children love their school and give us strength again and again. Dora in class 5; " the school means a great deal to me because there is no pressure. I wish our school were big and beautiful. Inside we should exhibit school work and outside should be a park, a garden and a sports hall" – just like our partner school in Dietzenbach, which 50 enthusiastic Rijeker children, teachers and parents much enjoyed, not least because of the warm hearted welcome.

... and outside

Kiran, a dreamy, gentle boy in class 3 with copper red hair loves his school just as much. He lives in the city centre and travels everyday with the bus to school along the sea, past factories, the oil industry and docks, with a view over the Kvarner Bay and the Velebit Mountains. After 10 minutes he gets out at a four lane crossroads and is greeted at the school entrance, a short distance away by the cobbler whose workshop is near the school and who does some of the work that belongs to a janitor. After school Kiran and some of the other children go there and watch him work.

In the morning break the pupils storm down the steps behind the school to the public park there. Here the games lessons also take place in all weathers. A part of the park has been given to the school by the authorities for gardening lessons. At the moment the pupils are busy clearing the earth of concrete with picks. A tree house built by the third class was unfortunately destroyed.

 In the immediate surroundings of Rijekas traditional crafts, farming and house building can be experienced quite concretely. In the mountains we can visit a blacksmith, in the village on the island of Cres there are large stone baking ovens. On the Istrien peninsula there are working watermills. In an old and remote village Luciano lives who has been running his farm for 30 years using the Maria-Thun calendar. Kiran’s class is the second to be able to spend three days here ploughing and sowing, sleeping and fooling around in hay and then make adventurous outings with the jeep.

In summer when the class rooms get too hot, i five minutes in the bus we can be at the wonderful sea. Perhaps in future it will be even nearer.

In the city centre at the harbour is an old factory building, which has been inhabited by an art school but is now empty. In five or ten years it is due to be pulled down but the school has no space for expansion in its current buildings. The school won’t be able to grow roots in the harbour but perhaps it is no tree but a ship that can respond to the moody wind and weather of the Adriatic. We hope that the school can find a sheltered place on the harbour, where it can drop anchor, take children on board, without pressure or fear can later go into life with courage.

Mirjam Habunek (translated by Martyn Rawson)

Donation key word: 4685 WS Rijeka