After attending Highland Hall Waldorf School in Southern California, he went on to receive a BA in English Literature and Vocal Performance in Opera from Pepperdine University. Seeking a different path from his parents, who are both Waldorf teachers, he then graduated from Le Cordon Bleu, the renowned cooking school in France, and continued on to have a successful catering business for over 10 years in Los Angeles; where he felt he was following his passion of being of service to others by cooking healthy, delicious food for them. Until ‘one beautiful sunny day’, when he awoke and said “It is time, it is time for me to start teaching.” He sold his business, attended the West Coast Institute in Canada, driving frequently up and down the West Coast, and received his Waldorf Teaching Credential, becoming a Waldorf teacher. After teaching music at Summerfield Waldorf School in Santa Rosa, he came to Berkeley Rose to become a Grades Teacher.

“And now I get to teach my class to be of service,” he says. Our children at Berkeley Rose are blessed to have him as a dedicated Grades teacher, a teacher who brings a rich, thoughtful curriculum to them every day.

In the Fall 2020, due to the many COVID restrictions, his class began in an outdoor pod, on a small urban farm, which fitted perfectly with the third grade farming curriculum. The flexibility required to turn an Oakland backyard into a classroom points directly to who Mr. Loosli is as a person and a teacher. “I found that if you open up the capacities for imagination, then when the universe brings you something that could be a possibility, you are open to it,” he says, referring to the many challenges and delights of teaching outside. 

Because Waldorf teachers often follow their students up the grades, teaching them for up to eight years, the relationship between the students and their teacher becomes life-changing. Here, Mr. Loosli gives us some insights into his experience of being a Waldorf student himself, of teaching, of what matters right now in education, and how to inspire a student, especially if they’re 9.