A Passionate Schooling

About the Authors

Alduino Mazzone

Alduino was born in 1950 in Italy, immigrating to Australia in 1958. In his teenage years his involvement with the State gymnastics squad led him to study physical education at Adelaide Teachers College. At the same time he was involved with Outward Bound, the Lifeline and Youth Line telephone counselling services, and he trained in Group Work at the Institute of Technology.

After graduating, he taught in high schools and also worked as a Director of Training at the Institute for Fitness Research and Training. He also worked as a Social Development consultant with the Research Branch of the SA Education Department.

Following a deep interest in Rudolf Steiner's work, in 1979 he became a founding teacher at the Mt Barker Waldorf School where he worked until 1992. He then worked as a consultant in new Australian Steiner schools and Steiner based training courses (Parsifal College, Sydney, Raphael College, NSW, and Rudolf Steiner College, Adelaide).  He was also Coordinator of the Council of the Anthroposophical Society of Australia for almost 10 years and a Classholder and founder of the Education Section in Australia within the School of Spiritual Science of the Society.

During the nineties he undertook post graduate work, culminating in a PhD awarded in 1999 on Waldorf teacher education. Some of the academic papers written during this time can be found on the ‘Other publications’ page. Since then, in addition to consultancy work, he has done some teaching for local universities (Flinders, Adelaide and UniSA) as well as acting as examiner, reader, and advisor to many other post graduate students also researching Rudolf Steiner's work in Australia and overseas.

In 1999, he was diagnosed with primary progressive multiple sclerosis. After trying many therapies to forestall its progression, he eventually concluded that for him the illness was not about becoming ‘healed’, but learning to live with equanimity with the limitations it brought. He has met this challenge remarkably well and has delighted in also being able to share his insights into Rudolf Steiner's educational work in this book A Passionate Schooling.

Susan Laing

Susan has a degree in psychology and politics and an Advanced Diploma in Art Teaching. She taught Art in secondary schools for many years, with a deep interest in integrated curricula and in what brings a balance to the predominantly ‘head’ education of our schools. She was in the group which founded the Mt Barker Waldorf School in South Australia in 1979 and later taught art there. Since 1989 she has been involved in parent education, initially through TAFE in S.A. and now privately in Adelaide as well as in Steiner School communities interstate and in New Zealand. She has also worked with teachers, child care workers and other professionals working with children, sharing her unique approach to a deeper understanding of children's development and needs. She has found that Steiner's observations provide a useful framework for understanding each year level, in a deeper way than sometimes thought possible.

She and her partner Alduino Mazzone live in Adelaide and have four adult children.