STEINER / WALDORF EDUCATION Waldorf education (also called Steiner education) is a worldwide educational system that strives to educate the "whole child" by maintaining a balance between physical activity, artistic creativity and academic work following what is seen as a process of incarnation of the child's soul and spirit. Waldorf education is chiefly practiced in the approximately 921 established independent Waldorf schools located in about sixty different countries throughout the world, forming the world's largest independent school system.[1] Waldorf-inspired curriculums are also used in charter schools, state-run schools, homeschools and special education environments. Waldorf schools describe themselves as the school of the head, heart and hands.
Waldorf education is based on an educational philosophy first formulated by Austrian Rudolf Steiner and which grew out of his "spiritual science", Anthroposophy.
Description
Waldorf education is founded on the work of Rudolf Steiner. Waldorf schools typically employ a curriculum that corresponds to Steiner's perception of the developmental stages of childhood. In general, Steiner suggested that there are three larger developmental phases: early childhood, when learning is experiential and sensory; the middle, elementary school years, when learning is imaginative and aided by creative, and especially by artistic activity; and adolescence, when learning can be supported by abstractions and intellectual rigor. Inside these three larger phases, many smaller stages of development are defined by Waldorf teachers.
The education addresses subjects on three levels:
* the head or Intellect. The education aims to teach the students to think for themselves.
* the Heart. The education's stated aim is to instill a sense of feeling and spirit.
* the Hands. Waldorf schools work to involve arts and crafts.
In the early years, the emphasis is primarily on learning through doing (hands), in the elementary school years it is on learning through feeling (heart) and in the middle and high school years the emphasis is primarily on learning through understanding (head). Often there is an attempt to integrate the three elements into the teaching of all subjects.[5]
History
Waldorf education was developed by Rudolf Steiner as an attempt to establish a school system that would facilitate the inclusive, broadly based, balanced development of children. Though he had written a book on education, The Education of the Child in the Light of Anthroposophy, twelve years before, his first opportunity to open such a school came in 1919 in response to a request by Emil Molt, the owner and managing director of the Waldorf-Astoria Cigarette Company in Stuttgart, Germany. The name Waldorf thus comes from the factory which hosted the first school.
Steiner insisted upon four conditions before opening:
1. that the school be open to all children;
2. that it be coeducational;
3. that it be a unified twelve-year school;
4. that the teachers, those individuals actually in contact with the children, have primary control over the pedagogy of the school, with a minimum of interference from the state or from economic sources.
The first year the school was a company school and all teachers were listed as company employees, but starting the second year the school became separate and independent.
Within a few years, many other Waldorf schools modeled on the Stuttgart school opened in other cities. The first school in Great Britain, now known as Michael Hall, opened in 1925. The first school in the USA, the Rudolf Steiner School of New York City, opened in 1928. Most of the European schools were closed down by the Nazis (exceptions include those in Great Britain and Switzerland) but were reopened after World War II. Today (2006) there are over 900 independent Waldorf schools worldwide, including over 150 in the United States, and 31 in the UK and Ireland.
Anthroposophy Anthroposophy, according to Steiner, investigates and describes spiritual phenomena with the same precision and clarity with which natural science investigates and describes the physical world. Steiner described his approach as "soul-observations using scientific methodology," which included trained clairvoyance, a source outside of the traditional view of scientific method. His ideas have their roots in the flowering of Germanic culture that resulted in the transcendent philosophy of Hegel, Fichte and Schelling, on the one hand, and the poetic and scientific works of Goethe, upon whom Steiner draws heavily, on the other.
Anthroposophy's Role in Waldorf Education
Both historically and philosophically, Waldorf education grows out of anthroposophy's view of child development. As a principle in Waldorf schools, anthroposophical content is not explicitly taught to pupils as a subject. There is one occasional exception; some schools have seen the need to give their graduating twelfth-graders a clear picture of the basis for their education through a course on Child Development. Above and beyond presenting the anthroposophic view of child development, such a course may include a description of some other anthroposophic ideas, introduced to help the students understand the origin and nature of the school's educational approach: the human being as composed of body, soul and spirit; the value of integrating multiple points of view; reincarnation; etc. The purpose is to ensure that pupils understand the background of their educational experience and there is open discussion of the viability of these ideas. Waldorf teachers are required to learn about Anthroposophy and are expected to apply the principles of Anthroposophy in their interactions with children and in the presentation of their lesson plans.
Educational Philosophy and Curriculum
Steiner developed a 3-stage pedagogical model of child development that is utilised in Waldorf education. Steiner educational philosophy views a child's physical, emotional, and cognitive development as expressions of the process of incarnation of an immortal soul in its gradual embodiment in the human body which will be its temporary earthly vehicle. Childhood encompasses three of the many seven-year cycles of development that define human biography.
Pre-school and kindergarten: birth to age 6 or 7
Steiner believed a child at this early stage learns through imitation and example, so considered it best to surround him with the "goodness" of the world and caring adults to emulate. Waldorf teachers work to support the physical and spiritual growth the child experiences at this time. Clear rhythms of the day are intended to give the child security. Emphasis is placed on storytelling, rhyming and movement games, crafts, and traditional household activities such as baking, gardening and washing. Skills are learned through imitation. Each day there is a time set aside for free play, generally both inside and outside. Children are not taught specific academic subjects, including reading and writing, in the pre-school years, and are sheltered from the media.
At approximately age seven, it is believed that the initial physical growth stage of the child is completed. A developmental test is often done to determine readiness for school entry. This may include a variety of indicators: the ability to accomplish more complex physical tasks (e.g. skipping), growth of the limbs (often tested by the child's ability to reach over the head to touch the opposite ear), the beginning of the change of teeth,[6] the ability to interpret and replicate more complex forms in movement or drawing, the general development of drawing skills, the quality of social interaction, the development of play and an awakening interest in numbers and letters.
Waldorf kindergartens approach literacy readiness through movement games, poetry and story. The written language is first introduced, pictorially and artistically, when the children enter elementary school at age six-seven. Instruction progresses through writing into reading. Most children are reading independently by age eight.
Elementary education: age 6 or 7 to puberty
In Waldorf schools, the sometimes difficult goal is for one teacher to stay with a class as it advances from its first year all the way through the elementary school (often to age 13-14), teaching the main subject lessons. Specialist teachers are utilized for foreign languages, handwork and crafts, singing, orchestra, movement (eurythmy), games and gymnastics, and so on. Academic instruction is integrated with arts, craft, music and movement.
Throughout the elementary years, an imaginative approach is encouraged; new material is introduced through stories and images, and the children create their own artistic "textbooks" in their own hand with richly colored borders and appropriate illustrations. The day begins with a one-and-a-half to two hour "main" lesson devoted to a single academic subject over the course of about a month. Subjects of main lessons are primarily drawn from mathematics, literature and language, history and nature studies.
An increasing number of Waldorf schools are introducing middle schools for students ages 12-14.
Secondary education: after puberty
In Waldorf schools that extend to high school, pupils enter secondary education (high school (USA) or upper school (UK)) in 9th grade/year nine, when they are about fourteen years old. Instead of having one main teacher who teaches most subjects, the students in secondary school have many specialist teachers. All students continue to take courses in art, music, and crafts on top of the full range of sciences, mathematics, language and literature, and history. Extended block courses, or so-called main lessons, continue for academic subjects; in these, students are exposed to and explore the historical evolution, philosophical significance, and social consequences of special themes.
Main Lesson Books
In both the elementary school and secondary school, most academic subjects are taught in blocks. For these blocks, instead of using commercial textbooks each pupil writes and illustrates a "main lesson book", a self-created 'textbook' based upon the content learned. Scope for independent creativity in these books progresses rapidly through the elementary years.
By the secondary school years, if not earlier, standard textbooks begin to be used for courses that either are not taught in or supplement the blocks: mathematics, literature, etc.
Foreign Languages
Most Waldorf schools begin teaching two foreign languages from first grade/ class 1 (age six-seven) on. Foreign language instruction in the first years is purely oral; by the end of class 3 , (beginning of fourth grade, nine years of age), the written forms of the languages are introduced.
Art
* Painting is a weekly experience in the early years. Art instruction continues through the high school for all students.
* In the elementary years, drawing is practiced daily. For pedagogical reasons, full-color figures are usually drawn, not outlines. A special discipline called Form Drawing, created by the early Waldorf pedagogue Hermann von Baravalle, focuses on linear forms.
Music
* The children sing daily with their class teacher. They also have weekly singing lessons with a specialized music teacher beginning at an early age and continuing as choral instruction through to age 18.
* Pentatonic recorders are introduced in first grade/ class 1, the familiar diatonic recorder in third grade / class 3, when the children also take up a string instrument: either violin, viola or cello. Waldorf pupils are generally required to take private music lessons when a class orchestra is formed, usually at aged 10. By aged 11, the children may switch to (or add) other orchestral instruments such as the woodwind or brass. Orchestral instruction continues through to 18, though in many schools it becomes elective at some point.
Eurythmy
A movement art, Eurythmy, is required in all Waldorf schools from kindergarten through twelfth grade. Eurythmy was founded by Rudolf Steiner. It usually is performed to poetry or music, and aims to create a unity of the movement, the performer's inner experience and the expressive reality (spiritual content) of the piece. Eurythmy is also intended as a connection of the student with a "spiritual impulse".
"I speak in all humility when I say that within the Anthroposophical Movement there is a firm conviction that a spiritual impulse of this kind must now, at the present time, enter once more into human evolution. And this spiritual impulse must perforce, among its other means of expression, embody itself in a new form of art. It will increasingly be realised that this particular form of art has been given to the world in Eurythmy.
It is the task of Anthroposophy to bring a greater depth, a wider vision and a more living spirit into the other forms of art. But the art of Eurythmy could only grow up out of the soul of Anthroposophy; could only receive its inspiration through a purely Anthroposophical conception."
Rudolf Steiner, "Lecture on Eurythmy"
Whereas the six or seven-year old children would typically be performing a nursery rhyme, folk tale or simple melody in eurythmy, the eighteen-year olds might perform large-scale musical and/or dramatic pieces to their own choreography.
Nature and Science in the Waldorf School
Waldorf schools' very distinctive phases of education show themselves clearly in the treatment of nature and the natural sciences. In the pre-school, kindergarten and first elementary years, direct experiences of nature are encouraged. Children are encouraged to play outside in all weathers, preferably in gardens that show the seasons through the changing plant (and sometimes animal) life. Inside the classroom, natural materials are preferred for the room, its furnishings and toys. The emphasis is on working with the materials of nature through planting and harvesting, craft work and creative play. In accordance with Steiner's spiritual view, the beings of nature are personified and even anthropomorphized as active agents. The first years are thus years of ‘nature experience’.
Steiner believed that at about nine years of age, children begin to become more conscious of their separation from their environment. [7] From this age, nature is studied in an imaginative (rather than analytical) way, and still in relationship to the human being. The curriculum includes blocks on farming (aged 10), Man and animal (aged 11), Plant and Earth (aged 12) and geology (aged 13). A feeling connection to nature is aimed for, out of which a sense of stewardship can grow.
By twelve, children are thought to be entering a newly rational phase. An experimental approach to science is introduced, beginning with simple but systematic sensory explorations of phenomena of acoustics, light, mechanics and chemistry and progressing through ever more advanced physics, chemistry, biological and ecological studies:
* 11-12 years: Mineralogy, acoustics, optics, heat, natural magnetism and electricity.
* 12-13 years: Nutrition and hygiene, mechanics, acoustics, heat, optics, electricity and magnetism, chemistry.
* 13-14 years: Anatomy, hydrostatics and simple hydrodynamics, simple organic chemistry of starches, sugars and fats.
At the secondary school level (fourteen years of age and up), main lessons in Waldorf schools tend to emphasize the historical origins, cultural background, and philosophical roots and consequences of scientific discoveries - sometimes discrediting science that doesn't agree with Steiner's conclusions. Subject lessons in science tend to follow more conventional science education. By the end of their secondary school education, students are expected to have a grasp of modern science equivalent to that achieved in other schools. In particular, the following subjects are recommended:[8]
* 14-15 years: Acoustics and thermodynamics, earth science, organic chemistry
* 15-16 years: Mechanics, mineralogy, anatomy and physiology, mechanics, acid-base reactions.
* 16-17 years: Cell biology and embryology, botany, atomic theory, electromagnetism and radiation, the periodic table, advanced chemistry
* 17-18 years: Zoology, optics, physiological chemistry
Testing
Waldorf schools rarely use standardized tests in the elementary grades. Formal quizzes and tests are gradually introduced in the later elementary school years. High school students have regular tests and quizzes in class and may take standard college entrance examinations: SAT in the USA, A-levels in England, Abitur in Germany, etc.
Celebrations and Festivals
Most private Waldorf schools celebrate holidays and festivals that are an anthroposophic or simply school-specific interpretation of the local culture's holidays and festivals. Festivals can be secular in character, combine elements of several religious traditions, as is frequently the case in multi-cultural settings, or represent the dominant local tradition, as is generally the case in parts of Europe (Christian festivals), Egypt (Islamic festivals), Israel (primarily Jewish festivals, but see Intercultural links in socially polarized communities), and India and Thailand (Buddhist festivals).
In North America many private Waldorf schools celebrate several Christian-based holidays and festivals, often with an Anthroposophic interpretation, including Martinmas and the four seasonal festivals of Michaelmas (fall), Christmas (winter), Easter (spring), and St. John's (summer). Most North American private Waldorf schools also celebrate celebrations and festivals drawn from other traditions, or seasonal festivals (fall, winter, spring) with no dominant religious character.
In the kindergarten and earliest elementary schools years, most Waldorf schools also celebrate something known as the Advent Spiral. This festival, celebrated in the weeks prior to the winter solstice, is also called a Advent Garden, Winter Garden, or Spiral of Light. In this ceremonial celebration, children enter, one at a time, into a large spiral of lit candles. As the parents sing the child a song or music is played, each child lights a candle and as the ceremony progresses, the spiral becomes brighter and brighter. The entire ceremony is conducted without any narration or interpretation, but the spiral and the lighting of the candles symbolizes many things in Anthroposophy: the turning and renewal of the year, the path of incarnation on earth, etc.
Social Mission
Wider Social Purpose
Besides seeking to foster creative development of the "whole child," Steiner also started the Waldorf movement in order to help fulfill a social purpose: that education, while remaining fully accessible and available to all regardless of economic background, should eventually cease to be controlled by the State, and should instead come to depend on the free choices of families and teachers freely developing a highly pluralistic and diverse range of schools and educational options.
Steiner held that where the State administered education, culture was crippled in its ability to impartially distinguish good from bad in state action and in economic life. Without the capacity to make impartial, independently-based critiques, i.e., critiques not controlled by the state and economic interests, society would proceed relatively blindly. He also held that educators whose methods and work were determined by the State often had their competencies and creativity greatly weakened through the lack of full self-responsibility and independence.
Social health, he believed, required education to be a matter of freedom and pluralism, such that teachers and parents should be permitted to make a thousand different educational flowers bloom, and then all families should be enabled to choose freely from the highly diverse and spontaneously evolving range of options. At the same time Steiner was flexible and pragmatic, and understood that compromises with the State would have to be made, and that even in an ideal system some legal restrictions (such as health and safety laws), provided they were kept to a minimum, would be necessary and justified.
School Organization
Internal Self-government
One of Waldorf education's central premises is that all schools should be self-governing; that the people who are practical experts on education - the teachers - should decide issues directly relating to pedagogy. Most Waldorf schools thus do not have a principal, but rather a group of committed, long-term teachers who decide on pedagogical issues. This group is often known as the college of teachers. It is usually open to all full-time teachers who have been with the school for a certain period (often one-two years). Most colleges of teachers decide issues on the basis of consensus.
For more information about school organization and administration, see Waldorf schools' organization and administration
Teacher Education / Spiritual Foundations
Waldorf education teaching programs are in operation throughout the world, either in specialized training centers or as courses in established universities. The course of study normally includes methodologies of teaching, academic training in specialized disciplines, artistic development, and familiarity with child development (especially as researched by Steiner and later Waldorf educators). It also generally aims to develop an understanding of the inner, or spiritual, basis of teaching; of the human being as composed of spirit, soul and body; and that an individual human being reincarnates in a series of lives. The latter implies that children bring certain gifts and challenges with them from previous Earth experiences, and have chosen a future destiny to develop in this life - a destiny which can be supported through the environment of family and school. This spiritual background is intended to enhance teachers' professional, personal and inner development and to flow into the actual content taught to children.
Rudolf Steiner's "spiritual science" Anthroposophy and anthroposophical views of developmental psychology are normally central and the primary focus of courses at any Waldorf teaching college or training. Further specialized courses may draw on the body of research since Steiner's day, possibly including work by (in alphabetical order, and without any pretense at comprehensiveness): George Adams, Hermann von Baravalle, Lawrence Edwards, Erich Gabert, Michaela Glöckler, Freya Jaffke, Dennis Klocek, Henning Köhler, Ernst Kranich, Georg Kuhlewind, Audrey McAllen, Martin Rawson, Wolfgang Schad, Ernst Schubert, Jörgen Smit and Olive Whicher. For elementary educators, artistic work will include painting, blackboard drawing, sculpture, singing, recorder playing, speech and drama work and movement (eurythmy and/or gymnastics). Practica in schools vary in length and will include opportunities for observation and for trial teaching.
Much of the education of any Waldorf teacher happens after graduation from the teaching program, however, including mentoring by seasoned Waldorf teachers, and through further seminars (such as those run by the national associations of Waldorf teachers) as well as the extensive publications on the subject (see the list of publishers below). The monthly magazine Erziehungskunst publishes the latest Waldorf research from Germany; to give an idea of the extensiveness of the source material now available - at least in German -, a collection of the best articles on elementary education from this magazine's 66-year history (Zum Unterricht des Klassenlehrers an der Waldorfschule) included more than one hundred authors and ran to more than a thousand pages. The English language source material is also extensive, and there are English language research journals for Waldorf education in several countries.
Critical Views
Basis in Anthroposophy
Some parents, unaware that Waldorf schools have their origin and foundation in Anthroposophy have been surprised by the latter's spirituality and spiritual teachings, which include esoteric Christianity, the principle that every human being includes a body, soul and immortal spirit; reincarnation and karma; the conviction that everything material has a spiritual nature; and the belief that individual spiritual development that will allow perception of spiritual realities is possible. Waldorf schools' basis in anthroposophy has only recently become a widely discussed issue. This connection was regularly emphasized by Steiner in his many public lectures on the subject as well as by many other authors in books on Waldorf education, but is not mentioned on some schools' public relations materials and/or websites.
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