COMMENTS ON
Rudolf Steiner / Waldorf Education

"I was always fascinated by acting, but my experience at Rudolf Steiner [school] encouraged me to pursue it as a career."  "Steiner was a free-spirited school that encouraged creativity and individualism."
Jennifer Anniston-Pitt (Actress)

"My meeting with Rudolf Steiner led me to occupy myself with him from that time forth and to remain always aware of his significance. We both felt the same obligation to lead man once again to true inner culture. I have rejoiced at the achievements his great personality and his profound humanity have brought about in the world."
Albert Schweitzer
 

"The advent of the Waldorf Schools was in my opinion the greatest contribution to world peace and understanding of the century ."
Willy Brandt
former Chancellor West Germany, former Waldorf parent, 1971 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

"If I had a child of school age, I would send him to one of the Waldorf Schools."
Saul Bellow
1976 Nobel Literature Laureate

"If there is any one thing that the Waldorf system does, it nurtures, protects, and develops the intelligence of the true child."
Joseph Chilton Pearce
Author: "The Magical Child"

"I am deeply grateful for Waldorf education, which woke me up and helped me rediscover my imagination."
Michael Ende
Author: "The Neverending Story", former Waldorf pupil

"Waldorf education enables young people to be in love with the world as the world should be loved."
Marjorie Spock

Author, teacher (sister of Dr. Benjamin Spock and inspirer of Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring", that led to Earth Day)

"Steiner (1861-1925) was an extraordinary pioneer ... and one of the most comprehensive psychological and philosophical visionaries of his time ... his overall vision is as moving as one could imagine."
Ken Wilber
Author (among many works: "Integral Psychology")

"My wife, Julie, and I are 100 percent behind the Waldorf School movement. Our children attend a Waldorf School and both of us have enrolled in the teacher training program for Waldorf Education."
William Randolf Hearst
Founder of the Hearst Foundation, Inc

"Those in the public school reform movement have some important things to learn from what Waldorf educators have been doing for many years. It is an enormously impressive effort toward quality education."
Ernest L Boyer (1928-1995)
Former President, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

"My son Leif attended a Waldorf school from nursery through eighth grade. Even more gratifying than his specific achievements are his ongoing infatuation with learning and absence of incapacitating cynicism. ... Waldorf schools generally turn out young people who get into the colleges of their choice, but more importantly are well prepared for life. I hope this form of education becomes the basis for public school curriculum throughout the United States. And I hope it happens soon.
Eric Utne
Founder of, publisher, and former editor-in-chief of Utne Reader, (described by The New York Times as "one of the most distinctive voices in magazine journalism,") now a Waldorf teacher
 

"My daughter's experience at the Waldorf school has been both exciting and mind opening. I hope that more people can make Waldorf education available to their children."
Russel Schweickart
Apollo 9 astronaut, NASA Astronaut Technical Advisor, California Energy Commission, former Waldorf parent

"It is a pleasure for me to write an endorsement for Waldorf Education ...[which] has been extraordinarily successful for my son. In three years, the remarkable, dedicated faculty has directed his attitude and energies toward academic achievement and civic responsibility... The school draws out the best of qualities in young people. While this is not an instant process, the values they learn by constant contact with the faculty will provide a lifetime platform from which to grow... - In summary this system works!"
Gilbert M. Grosvenor
President & Chairman, National Geographic Society, former Waldorf parent

Waldorf taught me how to think for myself, to be accountable for my actions, to be a good listener, and to be sensitive to the needs of others. It also helped me to focus on the underlying importance of beliefs and values that are the foundation of good leadership." 
Kenneth Chenault
Vice Chairman of American Express, former Waldorf student

I first heard of Waldorf education about five years ago, after having carried out extensive study of the neurological aspects of cognition, movement, and maturation. I was delighted to discover such a neurologically sound curriculum. I heartily support efforts to spread the awareness of Waldorf education and hope that it will spawn not only an increase in Waldorf schools, but an infusion of at least some of the ideas into the mainstream where they are so sorely needed. In Colorado, I am working with several districts to incorporate various Waldorf strategies into the teaching of reading and mathematics. The ideas are very well received and very much needed.
Dee Joy Coulter, Ed.D.,
Instructor, University of Northern Colorado; Outreach Educational Consultant

What I like about the Waldorf school is, quite simply, its graduates. As a high school teacher at Marin Academy, I have seen a number of the students who come from Marin Waldorf, and I can say that in all cases they have been remarkable, bright, energetic and involved.
James Shipman
History Department, Marin Academy, San Rafael, California

The importance of storytelling, of the natural rhythms of daily life, of the evolutionary changes in the child, of art as the necessary underpinning of learning, and of the aesthetic environment as a whole--all basic to Waldorf education for the past 70 years--are being "discovered" and verified by researchers unconnected to the Waldorf movement.
Paul Bayers
Professor at Columbia Teachers’ College

If a young child has been able in play to give up her whole being to the world around her, she will be able, in the serious tasks of later life, to devote herself with confidence and power to the service of the world.
Caroline von Heydebrand

If I had a child of school age, I would send him/her to one of the Waldorf schools.
Saul Bellow, Nobel Laureate

No other educational system in the world gives such a central role to the arts as the Waldorf school movement. Even mathematics is presented in an artistic fashion and related via dance, movement or drawing, to the child as a whole. Anything that can be done to further these revolutionary educational ideas will be of the greatest importance.
Konrad Oberhuber
Professor of Fine Arts, Harvard University

From careful observations of the child, Waldorf education arrived at the same conclusion (Gesell Institute) and applies the same principles to development of curricula for children’s education: pushing skills before children are biologically ready sets them up to fail.
Sidney M. Baker, M.D.
Executive Director, Gesell Institute of Human Development

 Being personally acquainted with a number of Waldorf students, I can say that they come closer to realizing their own potential than practically anyone I know.
Joseph Weizenbaum
Professor, MIT, author of Computer Power and Human Reason

In linking their curriculum and schooling toward children’s developmental stages, Waldorf schools seem to have a unique sense of what children are ready for. [They] promote creativity and critical thinking in an inter-disciplinary fashion…exactly the direction public education needs to move.
Jack Miller
Professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto