Waldorf Education, sometimes called Steiner education, is a world-wide movement based on an educational philosophy formulated by Austrian Rudolf Steiner after World War I. With a goal of educating the "whole child", Waldorf educators place a strong emphasis on balancing the child's natural stages of development with creativity and academic excellence. There is a strong emphasis on the arts, social skills and spiritual values. Philosophy of education is the study of such questions as what education is and what its purpose is, the nature of the knowing mind and the human subject, problems of authority, the relationship between education and society, etc. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... World War I was primarily a European conflict with many facets: immense human sacrifice, stalemate trench warfare, and the use of new, devastating weapons - tanks, aircraft, machineguns, and poison gas. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... A precise definition of the arts can be contentious, but the following areas of activity are usually included: Art / Visual arts Architecture Crafts Dance Design / Graphic design Drawing Film Literature Music Painting Photography Pottery Sculpture Theater In academia, the Arts are usually grouped with or a subset of the Humanities. ... Social skills allow a person to interact and communicate in nature with others. ... See: Spirituality Spiritual music Spiritual dance The Age of Spiritual Machines Spiritual possession This is a disambiguation page, a list of pages that otherwise might share the same title. ...

Waldorf education is practised in Waldorf schools, homeschools, and special education environments. There are now over 900 Waldorf schools throughout the world including Europe, North & South America, Africa, Australasia and Japan. World map showing Europe (geographically) When considered a continent, Europe is the worlds second-smallest continent in terms of area, with an area of 10,600,000 km² (4,140,625 square miles), making it larger than Australia only. ... // Etymology World map showing Africa (geographically) The name Africa came into Western use through the Romans, who used the name Africa terra — land of the Afri (plural, or Afer singular) — for the northern part of the continent, as the province of Africa with its capital Carthage, corresponding to modern-day... Australasia Australasia is the area that includes Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, and the many smaller islands in the vicinity, most of which are the eastern part of Indonesia. ...

The name comes from the Waldorf-Astoria Cigarette Company, in Stuttgart, Germany which was the first institution to host a Waldorf school. Stuttgart is the capital of Baden-Württemberg, Germany and has about 600,000 inhabitants (June 2004). ...

Description

Based in the work of Rudolf Steiner, Waldorf schools employ a curriculum that addresses subjects on three levels: In education, a curriculum (plural curricula) is the set of courses and their contents offered by an institution such as a school or university. ...

• the head or the intellect. The education claims to teach the student 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, everything from paint to coppersmithing.

Often there is an attempt to integrate these three elements into the teaching of all subjects. A conscious effort to build a sense of community and environmental responsibility is fostered at every level, including parents, teachers/staff, students, and alumni. Movement, sport and drama are employed throughout; in fact, a type of body movement called Eurythmy (beautiful or harmonious movement), is taught to every age group. Intelligence is a general mental capability that involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend ideas and language, and learn. ... The heart and lungs (from an older edition of Grays Anatomy) The heart (Latin cor) is a hollow, muscular organ that pumps blood through the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions. ... A human hand typically has four fingers and a thumb The hand (med. ... Eurythmy was created by Austrian Rudolf Steiner in the early 20th century as a way of expressing music and language in movement. ...

Further Waldorf Education makes no sharp division between theoretical and practical subjects, the arts and logic subjects like maths etc. Steiner repeatedly emphasized the unification of the three subjects of art, spirituality, and science, since he believed these had a common root in the human expression of culture, as stated in his The Arts and Their Mission lecture from 1923.

Waldorf Schools are co-educational, and predominantly comprehensive. Most are run co-operatively and are self-administered. In both Australia and New Zealand some schools have successfully integrated with the state funded school system, with some adaptation for state prescribed curricula. Most have no school uniform. Coeducation is the integrated education of men and women. ... A comprehensive school is a secondary school that accepts school students or pupils of all abilities, as opposed to a grammar school which depends on a system of selection. ... Co-operation refers to the practice of people or greater entities working in common with commonly agreed-upon goals and possibly methods, instead of working separately in competition. ... Japanese high school students in uniform School uniforms are common in elementary and secondary schools in many nations. ...

The schooling is divided into 3 stages (see Pedagogy below) of Kindergarten (early years to 7), Middle school (7 to 14 ) and Upper school, (14 to 19). Kindergarten   listen? (German for garden for children) is a name used in many parts of the world for the first stages of a childs classroom education. ...

Pedagogy

Pedagogy, Steiner's 3-stage pedagological model of child development, is utilized in Waldorf education.

From birth and until approximately the age of 7

The child at this early stage learns through imitation and example, so it is best to surround him with the goodness of the world and caring adults to emulate. Waldorf teachers work to support the amazing physical and spiritual growth the child experiences at this time.

Emphasis is placed on traditional household activities such as cooking, fingerknitting, helping with chores, storytelling, rhyming and movement games. Children are not taught specific academic subjects at this time, including reading and writing, and are sheltered from the media and even stories which include violence.

• At approximately age seven, it is believed an initial physical growth stage of the child is completed. Two signals that this stage is complete are the ability to reach over his head to touch the opposite ear, and the change of the teeth. As reprinted from the Foundations of Human Experience, Lecture 9: "...when their change of teeth is complete, it reflects the conclusion of the development of the head."

After approximately the age of seven, until puberty

Academic instruction is integrated with arts, spirituality, craft and physical activity. As Steiner stated in "The Education of the Child in the Light of Anthroposophy, "...the child should be laying up in his memory the treasures of thought on which mankind has pondered..."

The curriculum is highly challenging, structured, and creative. In Waldorf schools, one teacher stays with each class as it advances from first grade all the way through grade 8, teaching the main subject lessons. Specialist teachers are utilized for secondary subjects.

After puberty

The child is helped to begin a guided, but independent search for truth in himself and the world around him. As stated in "Education for Adolescents" (1922), "The capacity for forming judgments is blossoming at this time and should be directed toward world-interrelationships in every field."

Instead of having one main teacher who teaches most subjects, the students in high school have many specialist teachers. They begin to grasp concepts and analyze the facts and knowledge they learned in the earlier stages.

• A note on teacher education:

Specialist Waldorf education teacher training colleges, based on hundreds of pedagogical lectures Steiner gave, are in operation throughout the world. Spiritual theory based in anthroposophy is still taught to every aspiring Waldorf teacher, though it should be noted that the influence of the spiritual teachings varies greatly among the schools and other educational environments.

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 a few legal restrictions (such as health and safety laws), provided they were kept to a minimum, would be necessary and justified.

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. His first opportunity to open such a school came when Emil Molt of the Waldorf-Astoria Cigarette Company asked him to do so in 1919 in Stuttgart, Germany. Steiner insisted upon four conditions before opening: This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... 1919 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Stuttgart, a city located in southern Germany, is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg with a population of approximately 600,000 as of May 2005. ...

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 workers at Waldorf Astoria, but beginning with the second year the first school was independent. Pedagogy is the art or science of teaching. ...

Within a few years, many other Waldorf schools modeled on the Stuttgart school opened in other cities. Most of the European schools were closed down by the Nazis but after World War II were reopened. Today (2005) there are over 900 independent Waldorf schools worldwide, including over 150 in the United States, and 31 in the UK and Ireland. There is also a large homeschooling movement utilizing Waldorf pedagogy and methods. 2005(MMV) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Homeschooling (or home schooling; also called home education) is the education of children at home and in the community, in contrast to education in an institution such as a public or parochial school. ...

There is a growing Waldorf charter school movement (controversial among Waldorf educators, some of whom believe it is wrong to merge Waldorf with the State and destructive of independent Waldorf schools, which lose funding when some parents opt for the 'free' charter schools. Other Waldorf educators believe the compromise is necessary in order to reach state school students). In the United States, a charter school is a public school that is created via a legal charter. ...

Criticism

Waldorf educators are most often questioned about not teaching reading and academics until approximately age 7. Critics claim that a "window" of intellectual opportunity is lost. Proponents believe that the literacy-building techniques they use at this time—storytelling, music and singing, games, speech and movement exercises—help to nourish imagination and a love of language which will be carried long after the child learns to read.

Waldorf schools have been criticized for their spiritual nature, which many interpret to be religious. Some critics feel that the teachers influence the children with Anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner's spiritual science which all Waldorf teachers study. Some even go as far as to say that the schools are front organizations for indoctrination into Anthroposophy. Supports respond that in a genuine Waldorf school Anthroposophy is never taught. Anthroposophy, also called spiritual science by its founder, Rudolf Steiner, is a philosophy (or, as some opponents claim, a religion) that sprung from the Theosophy movement. ... Anthroposophy, also called spiritual science by its founder, Rudolf Steiner, is a philosophy (or, as some opponents claim, a religion) that sprung from the Theosophy movement. ...

In 2005, a UK government-funded study praised the schools' ability to develop students through closer human relationships rather than relying purely on tests, but reported that the state sector could provide guidance to Steiner schools in teacher training and management skills. [1] In education, certification, counselling, and many other fields, a test or exam (short for examination) is a tool or technique intended to measure students expression of knowledge, skills and/or abilities. ... State school is an expression used in the United Kingdom and other countries apart from the United States to distinguish schools provided by the government from public schools which are in fact private institutions. ... Management (from Old French ménagement the art of conducting, directing, from Latin manu agere to lead by the hand) characterises the process of leading and directing all or part of an organization, often a business, through the deployment and manipulation of resources (human, financial, material, intellectual or intangible). ...

See Also

List of Waldorf Schools

See the seperate article , List of Waldorf Schools. A list of Waldorf Schools from around the world, organized by country: // Australia Castlemaine Steiner School Lorien Novalis Orana School for Rudolf Steiner Education Rodney Neighbourhood Kindergarten Samford Valley Steiner School Shearwater Steiner School Canada Alberta Calgary Waldorf School British Columbia Sun Haven School Nelson Waldorf School Vancouver Waldorf School...

Some Notable Parents Who Have Chosen Waldorf Education

• Russell Schweickart, Apollo 9 astronaut
• Sam Shepherd, playwright and actor
• Willy Brandt, 1971 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, former Chancellor of West Germany.
• Carly Simon and James Taylor, singer songwriters
• Eric Utne, founder, publisher, and former editor-in-chief of Utne Reader, teacher and parent
• Clifford Stoll, astronomer, computer systems administrator, author
• Joe Namath, professional football player
• Gilbert M. Grosvenor (1875-1966), President & Chairman, National Geographic Society
• Greg Allman of the Allman Brothers band,
• Ingmar Bergman, director
• John Paul Jones, bassist for Led Zeppelin
• Karl Otto Pohl, president of German federal bank, 1980-1991
• Mikhail Baryshnikov, dancer, actor
• Paul Newman, actor, philanthropist-entrepreneur
• Prof. Daniel T. Jones, coauthor of the bestselling management book, Lean Thinking
• Rolf Gutbrod, architect (e.g. the Liederhall in Stuttgart, Germany)
• Peter Schneider, conductor

Russell L. Rusty Schweickart (born October 25, 1935, in Neptune, New Jersey) is an American astronaut. ... Apollo 9 was the third manned mission in the Apollo program, a ten day earth-orbital mission launched 3 March 1969. ... Newshounds is a humorous webcomic drawn and written by Thomas K. Dye. ... Willy Brandt, Time Magazines Person of the Year, 1970. ... 1971 is a common year starting on Friday (click for link to calendar). ... The Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway. ... Carly Elizabeth Simon (born June 25, 1945 in New York City) is an American musician who emerged as one of the leading lights of the early 1970s singer-songwriter boom. ... The Best of James Taylor album cover James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist, born in Boston, Massachusetts. ... Utne Reader is a left-of-center periodical founded in 1984 by Eric Utne. ... Clifford Stoll (or Cliff Stoll) is an astronomer and computer systems administrator, and author. ... Joseph William Namath was born May 31, 1943 in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. ... Flag of the National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society was founded in the United States on January 27, 1888, by 33 men interested in organizing a society for the increase and diffusion of geographical knowledge. ... Gregg Allman (born December 8, 1947) (sometimes spelled Greg Allman) is a rock and roll singer and lyricist. ... The Allman Brothers Band is a pioneering and innovative Southern rock group from Macon, Georgia originally popular in the 1970s, described by Rolling Stones George Kimball in 1971 as the best . ... Ingmar Bergman Ingmar Bergman   listen? (pronounced in Swedish, but usually in English, IPA in Unicode notation) (born July 14, 1918) is a Swedish stage and film director who is one of the key film auteurs of the second half of the twentieth century. ... John Paul Jones John Paul Jones (July 6, 1747 - July 18, 1792) was Americas first well-known naval hero in the American Revolutionary War. ... Led Zeppelin was a British rock band, who were pivotal in the development of hard rock and heavy metal, and became one of the most popular and influential bands of all time. ... Karl Otto Pöhl (born December 1, 1929) is a German economist and a President of the Bundesbank and Chairman of its Central Bank Council from 1980 to 1991. ... Mikhail Nikolaevitch Baryshnikov (in Russian Михаил Николаевич Барышников) (born January 28, 1948) is a famous Russian- dancer and actor. ... Paul Newman Paul Leonard Newman (born January 26, 1925) is an Jewish American actor and film director. ...

Some Notable Alumni of Waldorf Education

• Kenneth Chenault, the President and CEO of American Express, USA, and an African-American
• Kristen Nygaard, inventor of object-oriented computer programming
• Michael Ende, author: The Neverending Story
• Sandra Bullock screen actress, USA
• Victor Navasky, professor of journalism publisher and editor of The Nation.
• Jens Stoltenberg, former prime minister of Norway
• F.A. Porsche, automobile designer, Germany
• Chris Elliott screen actor and tv-entertainer, USA
• Wolf-Christian Dullo, oceanographer
• Jennifer Aniston, actress, USA
• Stanislas Wawrinka tennis player, Switzerland
• Linn Ullmann, author
• Albert Watson, photographer
• Julianna Margulies actress in tv-series, USA
• Mika Eichenholz, music director
• Nico Widerberg, sculptor and painter
• Rainer Fassbinder, film/stage director
• George Hume, BBC journalist
• Luke Donald, professional golfer
• Timothy Daly actor, USA
• Justin Theroux actor, USA

Kenneth Chenault (born 2 June 1951) is a former president (1997-2001) and current CEO (2001-present) of American Express. ... Kristen Nygaard Kristen Nygaard (August 27, 1926 - August 10, 2002) was a Norwegian mathematician, computer programming language pioneer and politician. ... Michael Ende (November 12, 1929 – August 29, 1995) was a German writer of fantasy novels and childrens books. ... The Neverending Story (Die Unendliche Geschichte) is a fantasy novel by Michael Ende, first published in 1979. ... Sandra Bullock on The Tonight Show in 2005. ... Victor Navasky - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... The Nation is a weekly leftist periodical devoted to politics and culture. ... Jens Stoltenberg (left) with NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson, in 2001 Jens Stoltenberg (born March 16, 1959) is a Norwegian politician and economist, and the current leader of the Norwegian Labour Party. ... Prof. ... Chris Elliott (born May 31, 1960 in New York City) is an American comedian and the son of comedian Bob Elliott. ... Jennifer Aniston Jennifer Joanna Aniston was born on February 11, 1969 in Sherman Oaks, California, USA) and is an Emmy-winning American actress best known for playing Rachel Green on the television sitcom Friends. ... Stanislas Wawrinka is a Swiss male tennis player. ... Linn Ullmann (born in Oslo, Norway in 1966) is the daughter of actress Liv Ullmann and director Ingmar Bergman, and a respected Norwegian author and journalist. ... Albert William Watson (August 30, 1922 - September 25, 1994) was a South Carolina politician. ... Julianna Margulies Barros on the cover of Marie Claire Julianna Luisa Margulies is an actress whose role on the NBC drama ER brought her recognition and fame. ... Fassbinder 1977 Rainer Werner Fassbinder (May 31, 1945 - June 10, 1982), German movie director and actor, was one of the most important representatives of the New German Cinema. ... Luke Donald (born December 7, 1977 in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire) is an English golfer who plays mainly on the U.S. based PGA Tour but is also a member of the PGA European Tour. ... ... Justin Theroux is an American actor. ...

Sources

Primary sources

• Steiner, Rudolf: The Foundations of Human Experience, ISBN 0880103922 - these lectures were given to the teachers just before the opening of the first Waldorf school in Stuttgart in 1919.
• Steiner, Rudolf: Practical Advice to Teachers , ISBN 0880104678 - also held in Stuttgart in 1919.
• Steiner, Rudolf: Discussions with Teachers, ISBN 0880104082
• Steiner, Rudolf: Education As a Force for Social Change, ISBN 0880104112
• Steiner, Rudolf: The Spirit of the Waldorf School, ISBN 0880103949
• Steiner, Rudolf: Rudolf Steiner in the Waldorf School: Lectures and Addresses to Children, Parents, and Teachers, 1919–1924, ISBN 0880104333
• Steiner, Rudolf: The Genius of Language: Observations for Teachers, ISBN 0880103868
• Steiner, Rudolf: Faculty Meetings with Rudolf Steiner: 1919–1924, ISBN 0880104589
• Steiner, Rudolf: The renewal of education through the science of the spirit - these lectures were held in Basel in 1920, ISBN 0880104554
• Steiner, Rudolf: Education for Adolescents, ISBN 0880104058
• Steiner, Rudolf: Soul Economy: Body, Soul, and Spirit in Waldorf Education, ISBN 0880105178
• Steiner, Rudolf: Waldorf Education and Anthroposophy 1, ISBN 0880103876
• Steiner, Rudolf: Waldorf Education and Anthroposophy 2, ISBN 0880103884
• Steiner, Rudolf: The Spiritual Ground of Education, ISBN 0880105135
• Steiner, Rudolf: The Child's Changing Consciousness: As the Basis of Pedagogical Practice, ISBN 0880104104
• Steiner, Rudolf: A Modern Art of Education, ISBN 0880105119

A primary source is any piece of information that is used for constructing history as an artifact of its times. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Stuttgart, a city located in southern Germany, is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg with a population of approximately 600,000 as of May 2005. ... 1919 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Location within Switzerland Basel (English traditionally: Basle , German: Basel , French Bâle , Italian Basilea ) is Switzerlands third most populous city (188,000 inhabitants in the canton of Basel-City as of 2004; the 690,000 inhabitants in the conurbation stretching across the immediate cantonal and national boundaries made Basel... 1920 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 7 - Forces of Russian White admiral Kolchak surrender in Krasnoyarsk. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

Secondary sources

• Blunt, Richard: Waldorf Education. Theory and Practice, Novalis Press, Cape Town 1995.

• Harwood, A. C., : The Recovery of Man in Childhood

• ____________ . : The Way of A Child

Secondary sources are texts based on primary sources, and involve generalization, analysis, synthesis, interpretation, or evaluation. ...

External links

Waldorf Resources

• Association of Waldorf Schools of North America
• Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship of the UK and Ireland
• "Waldorf Education . . . An Introduction" by Henry Barnes, at awsna.org
• "Schooling the Imagination" by Todd Oppenheimer (a winner of the National Magazine Award for public interest reporting), from a September 1999 Atlantic Monthly article -- a picture of Waldorf education in practice, showing how some minority children do in Waldorf
• Waldorf Education Discussion List
• Waldorf Homeschooling for Special Needs Children Discussion List
• Waldorf Education - A list of notable alumni
• Bob and Nancy's Services with a link to various Waldorf resources
• Steiner College
• Wonder Ranch Waldorf Homeschooling Website
• Waldorf Resources
• BBC News story on 2005 UK study
• Therapeutic Homeschooling Resources, information, and support for homeschooling children with bipolar disorder using Waldorf Education.
• Camphill Communities Intentional communities of people with disabilities that recognize the potential, dignity, spiritual integrity, and contributions of each individual.

Finding a Waldorf School

• A list of Waldorf Schools Worldwide
• A list of Waldorf Schools in the US
• Starting a Waldorf School

Criticism of Waldorf Schools

• Waldorf Critics at the US group (PLANS) People for Legal and Non-Sectarian Schools
• OpenWaldorf.com - topics, tools, and community for Waldorf-skeptical parents
• Whats Waldorf? (salon.com) A prospective school parent's attraction to Waldorf education and ultimate decision to send her kids to the local public school.

Waldorf School Advocacy

• On PLANS Inc. A site that describes PLANS Inc. as publishing and promoting misinformation and defamatory demonstrated untruths about Waldorf education and Waldorf's philosophical basis in anthroposophy.
• Spotlight on the Waldorf Critics Article exposing lies in PLANS press release following their loss of Waldorf court case.
• Waldorf Answers Adherants of Waldorf Education tackle common criticisms
• Positive Views of Waldorf: Comments on Waldorf and Steiner from Nobel Prize Winners, Scientists, Artists, Actors, Politicians & Professors of Education
• "AudioMcCarthyism" Six page article from Stereophile magazine about Dan Dugan. The article presents Dugan as a user of McCarthyite deception and smear tactics in his role as debunker of the value of certain sound and amplification systems. Dugan has been moderator of the "waldorf-critics" internet mailing list and secretary of PLANS, Inc. Apparently concerned that Dugan's credibility as a critic of Waldorf will be destroyed, a person or persons have regularly removed this link to stop people reading Stereophile's article about Dugan.