Human relations

History with Amanda Bell (UK) and Indrani Banerjee (IND)

History is perhaps the most contentious of all the subjects we study at school. While some historians treat it as a science, others consider it literature, with all the creativity that implies. While most would agree that ‘the past’ is something that is gone forever, and ‘history’ is what people say about the past, there are increasingly strong opinions about what we should say and how we should say it. Through examples from the UK and India, in these three sessions, we will present some different approaches to history teaching in the Middle and High School and consider its value for our students.

Amanda Bell has been a Waldorf teacher for 25 years. She was a Class teacher for 16 years before moving into the Upper School to teach History, Art and Philosophy. She and two colleagues founded The St Michael Steiner School in West London, where she still works, in 2001. Amanda has been co-director of the London Waldorf Seminar since 2010 and was a regular tutor on The Modern Teacher: Education as Art in the UK.

Indrani Banerjee is an alternative education enthusiast inspired by Waldorf and Tagorean (inspired by Rabindra Nath Tagore) methodology. She holds a postgraduate degree in World Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies and  a certificate in Behavioural  psychology. She is also a certified somatic movement and breath-work therapist.

Her interest in art history (South East Asia), classical Indian texts and curative theatre makes her a prolific traveling learner and educational collaborator.