Why, maybe, I'm here(a 1981 teacher's prophecy)

Emerson College
An adult centre of training & research
based on the work of Rudolf Steiner
Rural Development Programme
Forest Row - Sussex - England RH18 5JX
Tel. Office (034282) 2238, Students (034282) 2073

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

It is my pleasure to write on behalf of Ralf Rickli, a student in the Rural Development Programe whom I have known on a daily basis during the past year in my position as instructor and administrative coordinator for the programme.

It is my impression that Ralf is primarily a person of the mind --- of ideas and imagination --- and of communication. In my estimation, it was very courageous of him to undertake a programme that has been 75% physical work, and hard outdoor work in bad weather at that. He has done this in an effort to achieve a personal balance of mind and body. While I do not expect that, in the future, he will be a full-time farmer or gardener, any work he may do as teacher or writer or administrator will be informed by his deep respect for physical labor and the understanding he has gained during this year of the problems and ways of achieving a wholesome system of land-use by sustainable biological means.

In our discussions of the relationship of First and Third Worlds, he has made an invaluable contribution through his unusual combination of European and Brazilian traits. I expect him to be one of the people, in the coming decades, to make a significant contribution to the great issue of North-South relations that is now coming to the fore as one of the most important matters before the world community. I myself look forward to working with him as a colleague when we both return to the western hemisphere.

Any enterprise that requires a sensitive, intelligent, imaginative --- even visionary --- co-worker and is flexible enough to allow him adequate sphere for personal expression would be privileged to have Ralf as a colleague.

My warmest personal wishes and affection go with him.

(signed) Judith Hurley

Administrative Coordinator

July 16, l98l

Proprietors: THE EMERSON COLLEGE TRUST LIMITED (Registered Charity)

Members of the Council: I. Bruntsch, J.C.Davy, C.J. van Houten, D. van Houten, H.H. Koepf, U.M.Koepf, M.Macdonald, P.M.F.Matthews, R.E.Spence, M.D.Spence (Secretary). Hon.Member of the Council: L.F. Edmunds (founder).