Waldorf Education:  Excellence for the 21st Century

Waldorf Education has its roots in the research of the Austrian scientist and thinker Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), who is also the father of biodynamic farming and organic architecture. According to Steiner’s philosophy, the human being is a threefold being of spirit, soul, and body whose capacities unfold in three developmental stages on the path to adulthood: early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence.

In April of 1919, the first Waldorf School was founded in Stuttgart, Germany. Ninety years later over a thousand Waldorf schools have been opened in sixty countries across the globe. Waldorf education is the fastest-growing independent educational movement in the world today. Why?

• Waldorf education respects the natural stages of childhood.
  
• Waldorf teachers strive to educate the whole child – the heart, the hands as well as the head.
• Waldorf education is creative, experiential and artistic.
  
• Waldorf Schools are committed to developing capacities as well as skills so that their students will become self-aware, compassionate individuals with a sense of responsibility for the earth and the greater community.
• Waldorf education generates a joy for learning that lasts a lifetime.
• Waldorf students go on to study at the world’s finest colleges and universities.

A recent study of Waldorf graduates found the following:

• 94% attended college or university
• 47% chose humanities or arts as a major
• 42% chose sciences or math as a major
• 89% are highly satisfied in choice of occupation
• 91% are active in lifelong education
• 92% placed a high value on critical thinking
• 90% highly value tolerance of other viewpoints

The video below 'Why Waldorf?' from the Marin Waldorf School in California gives a great overview of what a Waldorf School environment is like and why it is the educational approach of the future!

This video is kindly shared with permission from the Marin Waldorf School.

FAQs

WHAT IS ANTHROPOSOPHY AND HOW DOES IT INSPIRE WALDORF EDUCATION?
Waldorf Education, established by Rudolf Steiner and Emil Molt in 1919, has its foundations in Anthroposophy.  At the heart of Anthroposophy is the belief that humanity has the wisdom to transform itself and the world, through one’s own spiritual development.  To that end, Waldorf Education holds as its primary intention the ideal of bringing forth—in every child—his or her unique potential in a way that serves the further development of humanity.  The curriculum, pedagogy, and teaching methods are designed to nurture this potential.

ARE WALDORF SCHOOLS RELIGIOUS?
Waldorf schools are non-sectarian and non-denominational. They educate all children, regardless of their cultural or religious backgrounds. The pedagogical method is comprehensive, and, as part of its task, seeks to bring about recognition and understanding of all the world cultures and religions. Waldorf schools are not part of any church. They espouse no particular religious doctrine but are based on a belief that there is a spiritual dimension to the human being and to all of life. Waldorf families come from a broad spectrum of religious traditions and interest.

IS WALDORF SIMILAR TO MONTESSORI?
These two educational approaches began with a similar goal: to design a curriculum that was developmentally appropriate to the child and that addressed the child's need to learn in a tactile as well as an intellectual way. The philosophies are otherwise very different.

WHEN DO WALDORF SCHOOLS INTRODUCE READING?
Our goal is to foster passionate readers who continue reading for pleasure throughout their lifetimes. To that end, we introduce reading in a developmentally appropriate way, when students are more comfortable with the written word and fully ready to engage with them.

Waldorf teachers begin teaching reading in the first couple months of first grade by teaching consonants and vowel names and sounds through an artistic approach of drawing, painting, movement, and speech. This artistic, deliberate process engages the children with great interest, and by the end of first grade, children are writing and reading sentences and short texts.  Students typically begin reading printed readers with their teacher during the second half of second grade. This thorough and artistic approach to teaching literacy has been proven to build a solid base for advanced comprehension and vocabulary skills in later years.

ARE WALDORF SCHOOLS ART SCHOOLS?
Waldorf schools are not art schools. The curriculum offers a classical education in all academic disciplines that fully integrates the arts into its teaching methodology. Why? Because research continues to show that the inclusion of the arts in academia increases aptitude and creative thinking in areas such as math and science, and has a positive effect on emotional development as well.

WHAT DOES THE MUSIC CURRICULUM IN WALDORF SCHOOLS LOOK LIKE?
Music education plays a significant role in Waldorf schools from grade one through high school.  All students learn to play flute or recorder in first grade, and are encouraged to take up an orchestral instrument beginning in grade three. In many schools, wind instruments are offered as an alternative to strings in the middle grades. Vocal music is also introduced in Grade l, with the complexity of choral material increasing by age level.  High school music programs vary, but often include students' musical performances in theater, orchestra, jazz band, and chorus.

WHAT IS EURYTHMY?
Eurythmy is the art of movement that attempts to make visible the tone and feeling of music and speech. Eurythmy helps to develop concentration, self-discipline, and a sense of beauty. This training of moving artistically with a group stimulates sensitivity to the other as well as individual mastery. Eurythmy lessons follow the themes of the curriculum, exploring rhyme, meter, story, and geometric forms.

WHEN DO CHILDREN BEGIN LEARNING WORLD LANGUAGES?
People assimilate language most easily when young. This language ‘window’ is recognized in Waldorf schools, and virtually all schools teach one or two ​world languages beginning in first grade.

WHAT IS WALDORF APPROACH TO TEACHING SCIENCE?
All sciences begin with simple nature experiences in kindergarten and the early grades, and advance with the study of acoustics, heat, magnetism and electricity in Middle School to chemistry, biology, botany, zoology and modern physics in High School. The emphasis is on direct encounters with observable phenomena -“Describe what happened. Evaluate what you have observed. What are the conditions under which the phenomena appear? How does this relate to what you already know?” Then students are asked to think through the experiment and discover the natural law that stands behind and within the phenomena.

WHY DO WALDORF SCHOOLS SUGGEST LIMITING MEDIA?
Waldorf teachers appreciate that technology must assume a role in education, but at the appropriate developmental stage, when a young person has reached the intellectual maturity to reason abstractly and process concretely on his or her own, ​which is at around the age of 14. Society might challenge this principle, as many young children are well able to complete sophisticated tasks on a computer; the Waldorf perspective is that computer exposure should not be based on capability but on developmental appropriateness. While many applaud adult-like thinking in young children, we observe that a child’s natural, instinctive, creative and curious way of relating to the world may be repressed when technology is introduced into learning environments at an early age.
Excerpt from NYTimes Opinion, 5/2014, Author, Beverly Amico

HOW IS TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATED INTO WALDORF EDUCATION?
Computers and digital technology are not part of the early grades curriculum, although mechanical technology and the practical arts are incorporated at all levels. In high school, computers and digital aids are used in the classroom as teaching tools across disciplines, and computer-specific courses may be taught. All high school students utilize computers and digital equipment at home for research, to aid in their schoolwork and for in-class or school-wide presentations.

HOW DO CHILDREN DO WHEN THEY TRANSFER FROM WALDORF SCHOOLS?
Children who transfer to a Waldorf classroom from a more traditional setting are typically up to grade in basic academic skills, and have little problem adapting academically. Those entering in the middle school and high school will need to learn to approach the arts in an objective and integrated way and may be required to take music lessons or world language classes, for example, to prepare them for classroom work. We find that most students new to Waldorf Education embrace this engaging and artistic style of learning with excitement and enthusiasm regardless of grade level.


WHY DOES A WALDORF TEACHER STAY WITH THEIR CHILDREN FOR MULTIPLE YEARS?
A Waldorf teacher typically remains with the same class for five to eight years.  In this way, the teacher is better able to assess each individual’s development, needs, and learning style—and the children, feeling secure in this long-term relationship, are more comfortable in their learning environment.

WHAT IF A TEACHER IS NOT A GOOD FIT FOR MY CHILD?
A Waldorf class is something like a family.  Problems between teachers and children, and between teachers and parents, can and do arise.  Schools typically work to resolve such problems through a conflict resolution or grievance procedure.  With the goodwill and active support of the parents and the teacher concerned, schools do make the necessary changes needed to ensure the best situation for all concerned.

HOW DOES GRADING WORK?
Assessment may vary slightly from school to school, but in most cases, a full assessment of each student’s progress is provided in the form of a year-end narrative assessment in all subject areas. These assessments are supported by teacher conferences and class meetings throughout the year. In high school, GPAs are included in unofficial transcripts to indicate a student's academic standing to colleges and universities.

HOW DO WALDORF STUDENTS PERFORM ON STANDARDIZED TESTING?
We believe that standardized testing is not an accurate or complete reflection of a student’s knowledge, intellectual capacities, or ability to learn. Thus our curriculum does not put focus on standardized test-taking preparation, particularly in the lower and middle grades.  In high school, SAT and ACT preparation courses may be offered, or interested students may pursue independent or external preparation coordinated through college counselors.

Online Articles of Interest 

General Articles:

The Wisdom of Waldorf: Education for the Future 
by Rahima Baldwin Dancy, Mothering Magazine, Issue 123, March/April 2004. Waldorf education is extremely interested in the type of person that will emerge from the educational system. This article, from Mothering Magazine, discusses the roots of Waldorf education and how it prepares children for the future.

Schooling The Imagination
by Todd Oppenheimer, The Atlantic Monthly, September 1999. The author visits a number of schools, gives an overview of the education and talks to educators not affiliated with Waldorf.

Waldorf Education: An Introduction 
A one-page article by the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America.

Waldorf Education: Grades 1-8
A brief introduction to the grades curriculum by the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America. A more detailed description of the curriculum can be found here.

The Child At Work and Play
A short description of the Waldorf Early Childhood teaching approach on the Waldorf Early Childhood Association website.

Leading Children Back to the Future in the Waldorf Classroom
by Jack Petrach, a Waldorf classroom teacher, writer and engaging speaker. He talks about why the Waldorf educational approach, that does not involve any computers, is relevant in today's high-tech society.

A Silicon Valley School That Doesn't Compute
New York Times, October 2011. An article part of a series of articles on technology in education.
it talks about the reasons employees of Silicon Valley computer and high-tech companies choose to send their kids to a Waldorf School.

Is Waldorf education Christian? 
by William Ward, Journal for Waldorf Education, Spring/Summer 2001. The author talks about educating the three parts of a person, the heart, the will and the mind; for Waldorf pedagogy understands all people to have a spiritual portion of their personality.

A Look at Waldorf and Montessori Education in The Early Childhood Programs
Parents often wonder about the differences between a Waldorf education and one based on the Montessori philosophy; this article describes some of the differences in the curriculum of Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten programs.

Imagine A Balance
One mother's experience of the differences between Montessori and Waldorf education.

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Articles on the Benefits of Play-Based Early Childhood programs:

Let Them Play
by Joan Almon, internationally renowned educational consultant and co-founder of the Alliance for Childhood. The article discusses the research and studies that have been done on the benefits of play-based preschool programs and talks about why play-based learning is so important in early childhood.

The Death of Preschool
An article in Scientific American about the benefits of play-based preschool programs.


Articles on Evaluation and Testing: 

Assessing Without Testing
by Eugene Schwartz. “No Child Left Behind” has solidified the ranks of those who believe that high-stakes testing is the only way to advance education. The author examines the innovative Waldorf approach to assessment in which learning outcomes are judged in myriad ways — all of them child-friendly, and all of them effective.

What Is the Purpose of School? 
by Douglas Gerwin and David Mitchell. Redefining Education, Spring 2009, Issue #55, Vol 14. This article first looks at what the purpose of education is and then discusses appropriate assessment strategies. A short, readable and inspiring article.
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Articles on Reading and Writing: 

Teaching Our Children To Write, Read and Spell: A Developmental Approach
by Susan R. Johnson, M.D. Published on the website, www.youandyourchildshealth.org. This article discusses the necessity of allowing children’s brains to develop capacities on both the right and left hemispheres (and the connections between the sides of the brain) prior to the introduction of formal reading and writing instruction. Children who are taught to read too young will be utilizing only the right side of their brain and will, therefore, be able to decode words easily but will have problems with comprehension (which happens on the left side of the brain).

The Push for Early Childhood literacy: A View from Europe
by Christopher Clouder, The Research Bulletin. A number of studies have come out describing the negative effects on pushing children too early into the realm of academics. The view from Europe is somewhat different than what we have here in the US: Many countries start their formal educational systems at the ages of six or seven (so no academic instruction in the earlier years).

Literacy, Not Just Reading
by Arthur M. Pittis, a master teacher at the Austin Waldorf school. This article first appeared in Leading Forth in 1988. It provides a lovely overview of the place and pace of language arts education in the Waldorf pedagogical system, focusing on reading and writing in the early elementary grades.

The Push for Early Childhood Literacy: Critical Issues and Concerns
by Nancy Carlsson-Paige. Research Bulletin. There has long been a debate over the best way to teach reading: should students learn to decode words first or should they learn the meaning of words first. This article offers an overview of the political landscape of this debate and briefly details the negative effects on early instruction on children’s capacity to fully comprehend the written word.

There is More to Reading Than Meets the Eye 
by Barbara Sokolov. Renewal: Journal for Waldorf Education. Spring/Summer 2000. A wonderful article written by a Waldorf parent and teacher describing the hard-to-describe approach to reading that Waldorf schools employ. She argues for deep learning over surface decoding.



Topics Specific to Waldorf Curriculum: 

Knitting and Intellectual Development 
by Eugene Schwartz. Knitting has recently become remarkably popular among college students and celebrities — but it has been a pillar of the Waldorf school curriculum for ninety years. We examine the many ways in which knitting and other handwork activities stimulate intellectual development and instill a sense of achievement in the child.

The Cry for Myth
by Eugene Schwartz. Stories, which offer some of the richest and multifarious ways of explaining phenomena, are underutilized in today’s schools. The article explores the ways in which Waldorf education works with narrative content to meet the “cry for myth” that lives in today’s child.

How Eurythmy Works in the Curriculum 
Eurythmy is a movement and recitation program taught in Waldorf schools. As with all things in a Waldorf school, eurythmy is one facet of a complete education program. This article describes the importance of eurythmy and how it supports academic learning, personal control and helps with classroom dynamics.


What the Future Holds for Waldorf Graduates: 

Survey of Waldorf High School Graduates 
from The Association of Waldorf Schools of North America.

What Will Today’s Children Need for Financial Success in Tomorrow’s Economy?
by Judy Lubin Research Bulletin. The author argues that the economy of the future will be a creative economy and that to succeed in this marketplace individuals will need to be creative, have the ability to solve problems, have self knowledge and the confidence to think outside of the box. A well written article that should be read by all parents of young children.

Learning To Learn: Essays Written By Waldorf Graduates 
In 2003, Waldorf Education celebrated its 75th anniversary in North America. To help commemorate the occasion, AWSNA published Learning to Learn, a collection of essays written by 26 Waldorf graduates reflecting upon their education. Excerpted here are four of those essays.


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Books our Community has enjoyed

Parenting:

Simplicity Parenting 
by Kim John Payne and Lisa M. Ross

The Creative Family: How To Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family 
Connections by Amanda Blake Soule

Creative Play for Toddlers: Steiner Waldorf Expertise and Toy Projects for 2-4s
by Christopher Clouder and Janni Nicol

You Are Your Child's First Teacher 
by Rahima Baldwin Darcy

Beyond The Rainbow Bridge: Nurturing Our Children from Birth to Seven 
by Barbara J. Patterson, Pamela Bradley and Jean Riordan

Heaven on Earth: A Handbook for Parents of Young Children 
by Sharifa Oppenheimer and Stephanie Gross

Navigating the Terrain of Childhood: A Guidebook for Meaningful Parenting 
and Heartfelt Discipline by Jack Petrash


General Waldorf Education:

Waldorf Education: A Family Guide 
by Pamela J. Fenner and Mary Beth Rapisardo

The Essence of Waldorf Education 
by Peter Selg and Margot M Saar

Understanding Waldorf Education: Teaching From the Inside Out 
by Jack Petrash

Rhythms of Learning: Selected Lectures by Rudolf Steiner 
edited by Roberto Trostli

The Waldorf Book of Poetry: Discover the Power of Imagination 
by David Kennedy

The Waldorf Book of Breads