Waldorf Education-pro or against! Who is Rudolf Stainer?
November 3, 2008
1.
Waldorf education balances artistic, academic and practical work educating the whole child, hand and heart as well as mind. Its innovative methodology and developmentally-oriented curriculum, permeated with the arts, address the child’s changing consciousness as it unfolds, stage by stage. Imagination and creativity are cultivated as well as cognitive growth and a sense of responsibility for the earth and its inhabitants. Under the warm and active instruction of their teachers, children are provided with a creative and nurturing environment in which to develop, grow and learn.
Since its founding by Rudolf Steiner in 1919, the Waldorf school movement has grown to over 800 schools throughout the world, over 150 of them in the United States and Canada. Increasing recognition from parents and educators has led to rapid expansion and, with it, a shortage of trained Waldorf teachers.
Steiner’s detailed psychology of child development, described early in the 20th century, has been supported by modern research in education and neuropsychology. Through Waldorf education, Steiner hoped that young people would develop the capacities of soul and intellect and the strength of will that would prepare them to meet the challenges of their own time and the future.
“The Waldorf School I have observed (Princeton, New Jersey) celebrates the uniqueness of each child, blends a rich curriculum in creative ways and sensitively evaluates student progress along the full range of human talent. Waldorf students are encouraged to live with self-assurance, a reverence for life and a sense of service.”
- Earnest Boyer, Former president,
Carnegie Institute for the Advancement of Teaching,
Former US Commissioner of Education“My parents were looking for a school that would nurture the whole person. They also felt that the Waldorf school would be a far more open environment for African Americans, and that was focused on educating students with values, as well as the academic tools necessary to be constructive and contributing human beings. I am convinced that Waldorf schools deliver an essential alternative to our existing systems. A Waldorf education provides students with an approach to learning which successfully integrates the arts and sciences with the practical tools necessary to succeed in these challenging times. I am personally very grateful for the foundation that was laid during my formative years at Waldorf.”
- Kenneth I. Chenault, President and CEO,
The American Express CompanyI believe that Waldorf education possesses unique educational features that have considerable potential for improving public education in America. Waldorf schools provide a program that not only fosters conventional forms of academic achievement, but also puts a premium on the development of imagination and the refinement of the sensibilities.
- Elliot Eisner, Ph.D., Professor of Education and Art, Stanford University;
Past President, American Educational Research Association;
Author, Curriculum and Cognition: Educating Artistic VisionWaldorf education addresses the child as no other education does. Learning, whether in chemistry, mathematics, history or geography, is imbued with life and so with joy, which is the only true basis for later study. The textures and colors of nature, the accomplishments and struggles of humankind fill the Waldorf students’ imaginations and the pages of their beautiful books . Education grows into a union with life that serves them for decades. By the time they reach us at the college and university level, these students are grounded broadly and deeply and have a remarkable enthusiasm for learning. Such students possess the eye of the discoverer, and the compassionate heart of the reformer which, when joined to a task, can change the planet.
- Arthur Zajonc, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Physics,
Amherst CollegeIdeal for the child and society in the best of times, Rudolf Steiner’s brilliant process of education is critically needed and profoundly relevant now at this time of childhood crisis and educational breakdown. Waldorf education nurtures the intellectual, psychological and spiritual unfolding of the child. The concerned parent and teacher will find a multitude of problems clearly addressed in this practical, artistic approach.
- Joseph Chilton Pearce, Author,
Magical Child and The Crack in the Cosmic Egg; Evolution’s End: Claiming the Potential of Our IntelligenceMany teachers have discovered that music can also be a powerful means of integrating other aspects of the curriculum. By tapping into the experiential and expressive aspects of music, teachers can add a distinctive dimension to instruction in other subjects. This insight has been used to develop interesting and productive pedagogical models like the Waldorf schools in Europe and the United States. In the Waldorf schools, for example, the goal is the education of the whole human being by paying attention to the needs of the human spirit. The arts particularly, are used as part of a theory of human development that helps children find nonverbal modes of expression and understanding.
- Growing Up Complete: The Imperative for Music Education,
The Report of the National Commission on Music Education, March 1991Programs such as Montessori and the Waldorf Schools offer small classes, individualized instruction, and flexible, child-centered curricula which can accommodate the child and do not demand that the child do all of the accommodating . . . Rudolf Steiner was troubled by the overly academic emphasis of schools; he felt that the aesthetic side of children was being overlooked and that this should be developed along with the intellectual powers. Waldorf schools emphasize creativity in all aspects of children’s work. The same teacher may stay with the same group of children for as many as eight grades. In so doing the teacher has to grow and learn with the children.
- Miseducation: Preschoolers at Risk, David Elkind,
Ph.D., Professor of Child Study, Tufts University Author,
The Hurried Child, All Grown Up and No Place to Go; Miseducation: Preschoolers at RiskAmerican schools are having a crisis in values. Half the children fail according to standard measures and the other half wonder why they are learning what they do. As is appropriate to life in a democracy, there are a handful of alternatives. Among the alternatives, the Waldorf school represents a chance for every child to grow and learn according to the most natural rhythms of life. For the early school child, this means a non-competitive, non-combative environment in which the wonders of science and literature fill the day without causing anxiety and confusion. For the older child, it offers a curriculum that addresses the question of why they are learning. I have sent two of my children to Waldorf schools and they have been wonderfully well served.
- Raymond McDermott,Ph.D.,
Professor of Education and Anthropology, Stanford UniversityBecause my professional life focuses largely on preparing people for teacher education programs, I am particularly aware of how our work compares with that of Waldorf teacher training programs. I have been fascinated to observe how many of the educational theories and goals espoused by my colleagues in teacher education directly correlate with long-established tenets of Waldorf teacher training . . . For the past ten years my teaching responsibilities have compelled me to inform myself not just about what would-be teachers need to learn, but also about how and what children themselves need to learn. All of my instructionally-related research into childhood has pointed toward the superiority of Waldorf education over all other current educational methods.
- Jane W. Hipolito, Ph.D.,
Professor of English and Adjunct Professor of Liberal Studies,
California State University, Fullerton
With over 800 schools worldwide, and there are hundreds of job openings available for qualified teachers. Waldorf schools have doubled in number during each of the last three decades. There are over 100 Waldorf schools affiliated with AWSNA. You could be their teacher! For more information check out the links below.
Useful Links
- Association of Waldorf Schools of North America
This site also has a searchable Directory of Waldorf Schools in North America. - List of Waldorf Schools worldwide
Collected and kept up-to-date by the Bund der Freien Waldorfschulen. - Waldorf World
For those looking for employment as a Waldorf teacher, administrators, biodynamic gardener, or artist. And much more!
Welcome to Why Waldorf Works, a comprehensive site about Waldorf Education sponsored by the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA).
Antonio Elmaleh, alumni parent from the Princeton Waldorf School, made this web site possible with generous contributions of time, creativity, enthusiasm, and financial support. His determination to tell the world “Why Waldorf Works” is visible here.
Waldorf schools offer a developmentally appropriate, balanced approach to education that integrates the arts and academics for children from preschool through twelfth grade. It encourages the development of each child’s sense of truth, beauty, and goodness, and provides an antidote to violence, alienation, and cynicism. The aim of the education is to inspire in each student a lifelong love of learning, and to enable them to fully develop their unique capacities.
Whether you are new to Waldorf Education or a longtime enthusiast, Why Waldorf Works offers something for everyone, from our Waldorf Education primer to our extensive library of articles and scholarly research; from News & Events to directories of Waldorf schools and teacher-training programs throughout North America.
Why Waldorf Works is new! If you notice anything missing, or have feedback about the site, please let us know by contacting the editor at whywaldorfworks.org
2.
Against Waldorf Education ! and other opinions
Welcome! People for Legal and Non-Sectarian Schools (PLANS) is a world-wide network of former Waldorf parents, teachers, students, administrators and trustees who come from a variety of backgrounds with a common goal: to educate the public about the reality behind Waldorf’s facade of progressive, arts-based education. Waldorf is the most visible activity of Anthroposophy, an occultist sect founded by Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925).
Together, we have performed exhaustive research on Waldorf schools and Anthroposophy, the esoteric, occult religion that both guides and inspires Waldorf teachers. PLANS affirms the right of all religious groups to practice and to teach their beliefs. But we expect those groups — including Anthroposophy — to tell the truth about their missionary efforts.
My personal experience with Waldorf was very confusing. Instead of the progressive and liberal alternative school I was led to expect by the school’s promotional materials and staff, I discovered a rigid, authoritarian environment that seemed to be rooted in a medieval dogma that I did not understand. When, in an effort to make sense of things, I asked questions about this, I found Waldorf teachers to be strangely defensive.
I was stunned to arrive at the conclusion that the education of children — at least as I use the term “education” — did not seem to be the school’s most important focus and objective. But what was?
I began to ask questions. What is Anthroposophy? Why don’t teachers allow students in the preschool through the early elementary grades to use black crayons in their drawings? Why do students use the wet-on-wet watercolor painting technique exclusively for so many years? Why is mythology taught as history? Where is the American flag, and why don’t Waldorf schools teach civics lessons in America? In a school system that promotes itself as “education toward freedom,” why do students copy everything from the blackboard? Why do Waldorf teachers talk in high voices and sing-song directions to their classes? Why must the kindergarten room walls be painted “peach blossom”? Why is learning to read before the age of 8 or 9 considered unhealthy? Why do so many Waldorf classes have problems with bullying, and what is the school’s policy for dealing with this? Why are teachers always lighting candles?
What answers I received were not forthright, and the teachers made it clear that my questions were not welcome. They told me, “If you understood Anthroposophy, you wouldn’t be asking that question.” Yet before we enrolled, I was told that the school was non-sectarian and that Anthroposophy was not “in the classroom!” I was eventually invited to leave.
Thanks to PLANS’ dedicated researchers, I now have answers to all of my questions, and many more that I had not even thought of asking! If the information on the PLANS Web site had been available 9 years ago, our family would have passed by Waldorf’s door, knowing that its sectarian, occultist nature was not what we were looking for after all.
My sincere hope is that the information contained in this Web site will help other families avoid a Waldorf disaster. I strongly believe parents have the right to make fully informed decisions about their children’s education. Until Waldorf promoters start being honest, PLANS will be here.
Debra Snell
President
PLANS
http://www.waldorfcritics.org/
Rudolf Stainer
| Western Philosophy 20th-century philosophy |
|
 Rudolf Steiner |
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| Full name | Rudolf Steiner |
|---|---|
| Birth | February 25, 1861 Murakirály, Austria-Hungary, now Donji Kraljevec Croatia |
| Death | March 30, 1925 (Dornach, Switzerland) |
| School/tradition | Phenomenology, Holism, Monism |
| Main interests | Metaphysics, Epistemology, Philosophy of science, Esotericism, Christianity, Theosophy, Freemasonry |
| Notable ideas | Anthroposophy, Anthroposophical Medicine, Biodynamic Agriculture, Eurythmy, Spiritual Science, Waldorf Education |
Rudolf Steiner (February 25, 1861[1] – March 30, 1925) was an Austrian philosopher, literary scholar, educator, artist, playwright, social thinker, and esotericist.[2][3][4] He was the founder of Anthroposophy, Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, anthroposophical medicine,[5] and the new artistic form of Eurythmy.
He characterized anthroposophy as follows:
| “ | Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge, to guide the spiritual in the human being to the spiritual in the universe…. Anthroposophists are those who experience, as an essential need of life, certain questions on the nature of the human being and the universe, just as one experiences hunger and thirst.[6] | ” |
Steiner advocated a form of ethical individualism, to which he later brought a more explicitly spiritual component. He derived his epistemology from Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s world view, where “Thinking… is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas.”
[...] or ear. Just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas . … View post Add your [...]
For some comments on the WC-site quoted, see AWE on PLANS