trans intelligence magazine # 8 , 2000
WALDORF SCHOOLS
the largest non-denominational private school system
in the world
by Earl J. Ogletree
Men who have new ideas that are not in tune with the thinking of their day rarely are recognized during their lifetime. Too often their ideas and contributions, though known in a small circle of followers, do not surface in the public domain for decades.
Rudolf Steiner is one of these men. He and those who pursue his research have established the largest nondenominational private school system in the world, known as Waldorf Schools or Steiner Schools. The system consists of 700 schools in 44 countries and more than 1000 kindergartens worldwide. One hundred twenty of these schools are in the U.S. In addition, Steiner and his students founded 550 residential and day schools for special children. These schools are also scattered throughout many countries.
Although Steiner is best known for the Waldorf school system he initiated, both he and his schools are almost unknown in educational circles. Few educators in public and private schools or even in universities have heard of him. Neither he nor his schools are mentioned in the educational literature, journals or books. Neill's Summerhill in England, attended at best by forty to fifty students annually, was internationally known. It is discussed in most textbooks on education, and in educational courses taught at teacher colleges and universities. Montessori schools are much discussed and publicized here and abroad. Why isn't Steiner's educational system better known?
Parents and educators are seeking innovative approaches to education. Why the silence on Steiner and his enterprises? Perhaps it is Steiner's esoteric philosophy—Anthroposophy—the unusual theory of human development and educational practices that flow from it.
Rudolf Steiner and his work
Before delving into the theories and practices of Waldorf Schools, it would perhaps be appropriate to say something about the man.
Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), the son of a stationmaster, was born in Austria. He was a precocious child. During his teens, grounded in the math and science of the day, he acquired a deep and extensive knowledge of literature and philosophy. At age 14 he read and critiqued Emmanuel Kant's Critique of Reason. He received his first degree in mathematics, chemistry and natural science from the Technical University in Vienna. At 21 he was appointed editor of Kurshner's edition of Goethe's scientific writings, earning a PhD in 1891. Out of his own insight and through extensive study of the work of Goethe and other philosophers, he developed a philosophical school of thought known as Anthroposophy (wisdom of man), an esoteric form of objective idealism. He then began his work as an international lecturer.
Steiner spoke and wrote voluminously. He gave more than six thousand lectures and wrote more than sixty books, essays and articles on history, religion, education, evolution, science, architecture, astronomy, religion, psychology, physiology, agriculture, and medicine. In his writings and lectures he revealed little about himself. Little is known about his personal life, his parents, friends or financial affairs. His major objective was to propagate his philosophy and the enterprises that sprang from it. Steiner gave new indications and insights in philosophy. His major philosophical work is his Philosophy of Freedom (Steiner, 1964).
His interests were wide ranging. He delved into painting, sculpture, music, speech, drama, eurythmy, pharmacology, economics, agriculture, and education. The enterprises that sprang from Steiner's work include hospitals, clinics (including the training of hundreds of physicians in his form of medical therapy), two pharmaceutical companies, a university, biodynamic farms, and scientific research centers where techniques of chromatography, crystallization, and water purification are studied. These enterprises and the approximately 1200 schools for typical and special children and 40 Waldorf teacher training centers are located internationally, including Russia, Eastern block countries, India and Japan. The Milwaukee and Sacramento public school systems have adopted the Waldorf model as an alternative or magnet school.
The question is why Steiner is not recognized as a philosopher in contemporary society, or his Waldorf Schools known or understood in any detail. The answer seems to be in the origin of Steiner's philosophy, Anthroposophy. Steiner's philosophical works—Philosophy of Freedom, Truth and Knowledge and Riddles of Philosophy—were not based on western philosophical thinking but upon spiritual thinking, and upon his ability to research the spiritual world. As a child, Steiner brought with him into the world a vestige of old clairvoyance. He was able to “see” into the spiritual world, which he hid from others. His first verification of this gift was substantiated when a recently deceased cousin requested his help. In Goethe's writings he found confirmation of this unusual gift of inner experiences in which the spiritual world was as real as the physical world. Like Goethe, Steiner believed in a spiritual world that interpenetrated the physical world. In 1886, at age 24, he published his first book, Theory of Knowledge in the Light of Goethe's Weltanschauung. In 1894, he published his major work Philosophy of Spiritual Activity (also known as Philosophy of Freedom) which represented the results of many years of struggle with the problem of knowledge and the relationship between the worlds of senses and spirit. Steiner could not accept what he thought were the "narrow materialistic and mechanistic theories of the day." They contradicted his distinct daily perceptions of the reality of the spiritual world. In Philosophy of Spiritual Activity he argued that by clarity of thought, achieved through meditation and strengthening one's thinking, anyone could gain insight into the spiritual realm. His whole philosophical system was based on immediate spiritual experience. He said that the experiences of our consciousness can enter the true realities (spiritual world) by means of strengthening our soul forces (mind/thinking).
Steiner claimed that by extending or continuing the natural scientific method of the thinking process into the cognitive exercises given in his Philosophy of Spiritual Activity and the Knowledge of Higher Worlds and its Attainment, one could penetrate the spiritual world, acquire knowledge, and know the other half of reality which penetrates the physical world. He claimed that the result allows a person to find answers life’s deepest questions. Therefore, one acquires freedom of knowing by experience, not on the basis of faith or dogma. Freedom is attained by thinking that is no longer limited to the physical realm. This also leads to recognition of the individuality in one's selfhood and the individuality of others in their selfhood and not their type; i.e., gender, race, ethnicity, etc. Therefore, the goal of Anthroposophy is to show the way to acquiring knowledge beyond the physical world. The term "anthroposophy" is derived from the Greek word anthropos (man) and sophia (wisdom), which Steiner used to denote that wisdom which comes to humans when they are able to perceive the spiritual world as well as the physical world. Apparently, Steiner had reached this stage, which he called intuitive thinking. His knowledge and work were derived from the spiritual world. For example, instead of man being conceived as body and soul, Steiner—via his supersensible experiences—found that man consists of a physical body, an etheric (energy body or forces), an astral body (soul or mind) and spirit (ego). These concepts are applied in medicine and education. Steiner's philosophy, Anthroposophy, is called spiritual science; or, in conventional terms, "concrete or objective idealism." That is, ideas are as real as the physical world. For example, the idea of reincarnation, on which he gave numerous lectures describing the after and earthly lives of such noted individuals as Jesus and Plato, became reality based on his is ability to perceive and follow them into the spiritual world. In 1904 Steiner wrote the above-mentioned Knowledge of Higher Worlds and its Attainment from his enhanced experiences, which described meditative processes for developing one's thinking in order to perceive the spiritual world. One can say that Steiner developed a theory of knowledge which took its beginning from the direct experience of the spiritual nature of thinking. Because of the origin and basis of Steiner's philosophy, he has not been recognized by the world of “official" philosophers and educators.
Steiner essentially was a religious thinker. His life and work were based on his vision of the universe and of the nature and destiny of mankind. He felt his special mission was to reveal the invisible world to the public in concepts and language that could be understood. Yet he not only addressed metaphysical and lofty ideas, he also dealt with mundane and practical questions. He carried over and implemented the insights of his spiritual reality into the physical world. He and his followers established numerous enterprises in the areas of education (Waldorf schools), medicine (Iscador, a cancer remedy made from mistletoe), medical clinics, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, retirement villages, 50 facilities for the care of special children and adults (Camphill Villages and schools), 1500 biodynamic farms, and Christian Community Churches. He developed the art of eurythmy (dance-like movement described as “visible speech”), gave special indications for painting techniques and designed unique architeture, (the Goetheanum, a massive building and world headquarters for the Anthroposophical Society in Dornach, Switzerland). In addition, he established social organizations such as the Threefold Commonwealth, in which the political, economic and culture (religion and education) were separate and independent entities. He encouraged his followers to follow in his footsteps. Today, there are approximately 58,000 Anthroposphists internationally, including approximately 2,500 in the U.S.
Philosophy of Waldorf Education
The first Waldorf School was established in 1919 in Stuttgart, Germany, with the support of Emile Molt, an industrialist seeking a humanistic school for his employees. Following the chaos of WWI, Molt felt that many of the problems Germany was facing in the post-war period were due to the neglected education of the working class. Steiner was asked to introduce a new approach to the social, economic and political life of Europe. He set up the curriculum, recruited and trained the teachers and supervised the operation of the school. This first school became the model for subsequent schools. Steiner stated that the "highest endeavor (of Waldorf education) must be to develop free human beings, who are able to, in themselves, to impart purpose and direction to their lives" (Steiner, 1948, p.2).
The philosophical foundation of Waldorf education is based on Steiner's spiritually-inspired Anthroposophy. Included in his spiritual science is the meaning of life and the nature of man as a spiritual being. He perceived that man is a threefold being of spirit (ego), soul (mind) and body (corporeality) whose capacities unfold in three developmental stages toward adulthood: early childhood, middle childhood and adolescence. Children are viewed as distinct individuals with a pre-and post destiny who bring with them individual capacities and talents. These attributes are to be nurtured and drawn out by the teacher, whose job is to remove all obstacles and hindrances in order to fully develop children's talents for later service in behalf of humanity. This method is the opposite of prematurely forcing the learning of prescribed subjects that are incompatible with and not supportive of the child's unfolding stages of development. Although Steiner's Anthroposophy is not taught to students or to parents, the curriculum and methodology are influenced by it. Waldorf teachers' anthroposophical beliefs influence the way they view their students, the implementation of the Waldorf curriculum and teaching techniques. All teachers receive formal Waldorf training in Steiner's philosophy, theory of child development and hands-on teaching methods, followed by continuous weekly in-service meetings, summer seminars and self- study.
What makes Waldorf fundamentally different from other methods is that it approaches the teaching process both as science and art. The approach to child development is based on scientific knowledge of the whole child as body, soul and spirit. "The art of education requires the teacher to adopt an artistic approach in educating children in every subject, so that the body experiences, via activity, so the soul is touched by and the spirit understands the inherent meaning in what the intellect processes" (Maher and Shepperd, 1995, p. 23). The methodology includes teaching on three levels to involve the children's willing (doing), feelings and thinking, to help them integrate and harmonize their soul faculties so they may gradually unfold their innate capacities.
The basic tenets of Waldorf education offer: 1) a new way of looking at the world, seeing it as both material and spiritual, healing the conflict between science and religion; 2) a new picture of the human being, identified as a spiritual identity with a past, present and future, whose task is to use his/her individual gifts in community with others for the benefit of the earth; 3) an imaginative education that nourishes the whole human being, including his/her moral nature, not simply the intellect; 4) a curriculum that matches the learning process to the stages of inner growth in the child, promoting appropriate, stress-free, enjoyable learning; and 5) an in-depth grasp of child development which understands how education of the will, via motoric and artistic activities, and the feelings, via imaginative and pictorial teaching, influences intellectual development (Maher and Shepperd, 1995).
In regards to premature intellectual learning, a practice prevalent in other education school systems which is a major concern in Waldorf schools, Steiner (1924) warned:
We must take the greatest care that intellectual thinking does not appear too early. We must strive to educate in such a way that the intellect, which awakens at puberty, can find its nourishment in the child's own nature. If during his early school years he has stored up an inner treasury of riches through imitation, through his feeling for authority and from the pictorial character of his teaching (as in Waldorf education), then at puberty these inner riches can be transmuted into intellectual activity. He will now always be faced with the task of thinking what before he has willed and felt. For a human being can only come to an experience of freedom if his intellectually awakening within him of itself, not if it has poured into him by his teachers. But it must not awaken in poverty. (p. 85)
If the student is taught in this manner, the intellect will be properly exercised and strengthened instead of being dulled and perhaps retarded. In the early and elementary grades Waldorf teachers attempt to teach intellectual conceptual academic content by transforming it into artistic and pictorial conceptions which are compatible with the children's thinking.
Waldorf teaching methods
The Waldorf schools approach the child as a growth-ready, developmental being. Any form of premature forced learning is taboo. Waldorf teachers at the elementary school level use a kinesthetic, action-loaded approach to intellectual subjects. The child is involved first in the realm of impulse and doing, then in emotions, and then gradually led to knowledge and developmental skills. Waldorf teachers feel that by delaying the teaching of a subject until the child is cognitively and motivationally ready, they economize teaching time, permitting a broader curriculum.
The consciousness of young children is primarily imaginative. Their thinking occurs in pictorial, mental representations, and they learn by doing. Therefore, every effort is made to present subject matter so as to involve the child motorically and artistically. With this approach, art is not an isolated subject but a pervasive medium that gives meaning to every subject and promotes intrinsic motivation. Intellectualism is "out." Art, rhythm and music are "in." The emphasis is on the development of skills and capacities (Finsor, 1994).
Main lesson
Another special feature of the Waldorf School is the main lesson or block period. This is a two-hour period at the beginning of each day. The lesson is devoted to one subject for three weeks or longer. Typical subjects are mathematics, language arts, history, and science. The main lesson allows the pupil to give his undivided attention to each subject. He lives with his studies more intensely. The brighter pupil deepens his interest and is stimulated to intensified creative work. The slower pupil, whose interest may be hardly touched in the fifty-minute periods, has time in the two-hour main lessons to develop his interest in the subject and to deal with it in some depth.
Balanced day
The activities of the school day are balanced, or distributed in relation to the child's restfulness and activity. The child is more rested and attentive in the morning and more restless and less attentive in the afternoon. Therefore, the intellectual subjects are taught in the morning and the artistic and the physically active subjects are taught in the afternoon. In the main lesson, for example, the intellectual subjects are taught during the first periods of the day, when the children are rested and can concentrate. The artistic subjects such as arts, crafts and music are taught in the late morning and early afternoon. The more active subjects—Bothmer gymnastics, physical education, eurythmy, and industrial arts—are taught at the end of the school day, when the children are restless and less attentive.
Student created textbooks
Few commercial textbooks are used in the Waldorf schools, particularly in the lower grades. Waldorf teachers do not teach from commercial textbooks or use worksheets or computers as instructional tools. (Computers are introduced in grade 12.) Pupils write and illustrate their own classwork in lesson books from the material developed and given by the teacher. Each class teacher has skills in drawing, painting (water color), knitting and other handcrafts, and playing the recorder (flute). These are taught as developmental skills so that the child progresses in these areas from grade to grade, as in the more academic subjects. The arts become tools for learning the intellectual subjects. For example, reading is taught through a developmental sequence in which writing is taught through form drawing, before reading. Since writing is active and reading is passive, children are taught to experience the letters imaginatively (through fairy tales, pictures, art, drawing and writing) before any attempt is made t decode their meaning. Geometric form drawing (creating and practicing drawing geometric patterns) and painting are used to lead the children into writing. The children first read what they have written in vivid colors in their class workbooks. These workbooks, or pupil-made lesson books, serve as readers in the first three to five grades.
Eurythmy
Eurythmy is a disciplined art form in which the movement of the arms expresses the vowels and the consonants of speech. In short, eurythmy is visible speech. There are three forms of eurythmy: speech, tone (music), and remedial. Speech and remedial eurythmy are used extensively in the reading and the speech programs and as exercises for perceptual-motor development.
Sequenced curriculum
Subjects are arranged sequentially so that they are compatible with the child's psychological or cognitive development. The reading program includes a sequence of literature that is supposed to be historically compatible with the child's mode of thinking at each grade level. According to Steiner, the sequence follows the evolutionary development of man's consciousness (Steiner, 1988). For example, fairy tales are taught in first grade, animal stories and fables in second, the Old Testament in the third grade, Norse and Greek mythology and legends in fourth and fifth grades, history of the Middle Ages in sixth grade, history of exploration in seventh grade and history to the present time in eighth grade.
The Waldorf curriculum has breadth and depth in which all children can find success. Huebner (1972), a German education inspector, reported:
In view of the fact the potentialities and talents of children vary greatly, the Waldorf curriculum is unusually rich. In addition to the regular subjects there are gardening, surveying, mechanics, surveying, bookbinding, weaving, spinning, etc. With such a variety of offerings, every child will find something of interest and something in which he may excel. The generally accepted distinction between gifted and non-gifted thus tends to disappear. Every human being is gifted in some area. (p. 2)
Geometry program
Geometry is introduced by drawing wavy, metric and non-metric forms to imitate freehand designs in the first five grades, a precursor to handwriting in the earlier grades. In the sixth grade the children construct geometric figures and designs using compass, protractor and ruler. The child experiences geometry through artistic and motoric involvement prior to attempting to master formula and theorems. A child who experiences geometry via this approach is more likely to have a more positive attitude and understanding than a child whose is taught in the reverse fashion.
Foreign languages
Children from the first grade on learn two foreign languages by the oral method. German, French or Spanish are commonly taught in U.S. Waldorf schools. They simply listen to and imitate the teacher in a natural manner. For example, translating from English to German or vice versa is avoided. Daily recitation speech exercises, poetry, songs, and tongue-twisters enhance their feeling for language and clear enunciation. Good oral language development precedes reading.
Continuous teacher
The pupil-teacher relationship is a significant feature of the Waldorf approach. The class teacher, who takes over the class in first grade and follows the class throughout the elementary grades. Thus, he can form a personal relationship with each pupil in the order of a third parent. The teacher creates a close relationship between himself and his students and comes to know the weaknesses and strengths of each child. Each child not only has a continuity of friendship and authority, but a continuity of subject matter.
The class teacher is personally responsible for the academic achievement and progress of each pupil. However, the class teacher is not the only teacher with whom the class comes in contact. Special subjects are taught by specialist teachers, such as foreign language, music, crafts and eurythmy. Hence there is little need for annual testing and grading of students. (For the benefit of parents and the state, students may take the IOWA or some other standardized test at grades 6 and 8.) Students are not awarded quantitative letter grades. Instead, teachers write essay evaluations and progress reports on each student. Weekly college of teacher meetings and parent conferences are an integral aspect of monitoring students' development and progress. The school physician may attend the meetings. Parents are very much involved in the schools. In most Waldorf schools, each classroom has a volunteer parent sponsor-helper.
Faculty run school
The Waldorf schools are administered by the college of teachers, not by an outside-appointed administrator. Teachers in some cases elect a faculty member or individual to manage school finances. All decisions regarding curricula, students, faculty, enrollment and resources, including finances, come before the college of teachers for discussion and determination. Decisions are based on the needs, health and welfare of the students, which includes a contracted or volunteer on-call physician on staff. "No two schools are identical; each is administratively independent. Nevertheless, a visitor would recognize many characteristics common to them all" (Barnes 1990, p. 2).
Steiner's theory of learning
The most important aspect of Waldorf education is Steiner's spiritual-inspired theory of human development and school readiness, in that it explains the rationale for delaying premature intellectual development and pedagogical principles. Steiner's theory of child development is based on an ancient but recently rediscovered concept of growth, or vital forces, or bioplasmic energy. However, the following discussion is only a partial explanation of Steiner's theory of human development. Steiner conceived the human being to be made up of four bodies: the physical body, soul or mind (personality, emotions and feelings), etheric or biological energy forces (basis of growth, activity and thinking) and the ego ("I", the self). It is this theory and the inter-developmental relationship of these bodies that undergirds Steiner's educational systems and enterprises, which makes it very difficult to explicate to the public sector. It partially explains why Waldorf education is not better known (Steiner, 1966, 1943).
Steiner's theory is based on the concept that biological energy is required for activity, physical growth, and thinking. Biological energy is known as bioplasmic energy by Russian scientists and vital energy by acupuncturists and homeopathic physicians (Ostrander and Schroeder, 1970, Moss, 1970, Coulton, 1972). During the child's growing years this biological energy is used mainly for physical maturation and is later transmuted into energy for thinking during the process of physical growth and maturation.
The Swiss psychologist, Piaget (1969) and Steiner (1966) found that children manifest different mental abilities as they mature. Other research has shown that children cannot be forced from one stage of intellectual development to a higher stage. They must be maturationally ready (Moore, 1979). A skill that comes easily to a seven-year-old may be totally beyond the grasp of a five-year-old. Ilg and Ames in School Readiness (1964) placed the transitional period, or the period when a child is ready to learn certain skills, at about the age of seven, when a child loses his baby teeth. The loss of baby teeth signifies that the brain has reached about 95 per cent of its development and the head about two-thirds of its adult proportions. With the change of teeth the biological energy of physical growth has mostly completed its task in the development of the brain and the head. According to Steiner, these growth forces are then gradually released as energy for thinking, which coincides with Piaget's concrete operational stage of cognitive development.
Steiner's theory of transmuted energy forces appears to explain Piaget's transitional stages of cognition--sensory motor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Piaget's theory is based on a child's voluntary control or movement of his/her thinking, based on maturation.
The following (Table 1) depicts the general transitional characteristics of each stage of Piaget's stages of cognitive development:
TABLE 1
Preoperational Concrete operational Formal Operational (2-7 years) (7-14 years) (14...years)
_______________________________________________________________________________________
1. Cannot conserve 1. Can conserve (hold images) 1. Thinking is under voluntary (hold a mental image) control (e.g., operational)
2. Thinking is perceptual 2. Thinking is bound to 2. Thinking is more objective,
bound emotional/affective relatively free of emotions
3. Thinking is 3. Thinking is reversible 3. Can Manipulate non-reversible two or more variables
4. Cannot deal with 4. Has greater voluntary 4. Thinking is more flexible variables/changes control over thinking
5. Has little voluntary 5. Thinking is pictorial 5. Predictable problem solving control over thinking is possible
6. Needs concrete props 6. Can manipulate symbols and to support problem solving concepts without outer perceptual props
7. Can deal with one variable
At each of the these stages, the gradual release of the energy forces from the development of the physical body is the causal factor for gaining increased control of the thinking processes and the development of intellectual thinking. Thinking requires concentrated effort. Mental fatigue is as real as physical fatigue. Thinking requires mental energy, just as physical development requires energy for growth. Attempts to force premature learning are likely to be ineffective because a child's energy or growth forces are not totally free from physical development. At the same time, attempts to force premature learning drains growth energy from cognitive and emotional maturation. A child who is forced to learn academic subjects may become emotionally and motivationally ill equipped later on (Elkind, 1981, Moore, 1979). By elementary school or in later grades, he may be "burned out--turned off."
Steiner considered that if growth energy is used for premature intellectual development, the child's psychological development may be sacrificed. Steiner (1966) wrote:
Any disturbance in etheric (growth) forces during the formative years of childhood will have a significant impact on the emotional and intellectual constitution of the child. There is a delicate balance between the two functions (physical and mental development) of the etheric (energy) forces. (pp. 65-66)
King (1955) found that shortened processes of maturation caused immaturity.
The Waldorf curriculum is based on the theory of developmental and transmuted growth energy. The process of human development unfolds in cycles of seven years each, similar to Piaget. Waldorf schools base their curriculum and methods on the principle that during each these approximate three stages—ages 1-7, 7-14 and 14…which Steiner calls the stages of willing, feeling and thinking—children need methods of instruction and specific subjects and activities that will nurture the healthy processes of development. Steiner (1967) described Waldorf education as a "developmental approach that addresses the needs of growing children and maturing adolescents...that develops capacities as well as skills" (pp. 10-11). Artistic activities—eurythmy, music, painting, hand crafts, modeling—sustain and enhance the growth or energy forces. Premature/forced intellectual learning tends to stunt and dissipate the growth forces of young children. The sustenance of these forces of growth during the growing years permits the physical body and bioplasmic forces to remain more pliable for a longer period. Hence, the child has greater capacity for intellectual growth and creativity. More energy is available for cognitive development when the energy forces are released from the task of physical growth at the proper time; that is, when the child is maturationally ready.
In addition, eurythmy provides a primary function in the nurturing of the growth forces and the health of children. The primary focus of Waldorf teachers and staff is on the developmental needs of the children, to fit the curriculum and methods of teaching to the child rather than mold the child to a traditional or socially-determined curriculum. As indicated, this is also facilitated by the organization of the school, as in the continuous teacher and the faculty-run school.
What appears to be unique about Waldorf education is its unusual application, in which its educational practice closely follow its philosophical goals and psycho-developmental theory,
and "in which the part reflects the organic whole" (Harwood, 1963). Barnes (1990) added "When the Waldorf curriculum is carried through successfully, the whole human being—head, heart, and hands—has truly been educated" (p.7). Ernest Boyer, President of the Carnegie Institute for the Advancement of Teaching, stated:
The Waldorf School I have observed (Princeton, N.J.) celebrates the uniqueness of each child, blends a rich curriculum in creative ways and sensitively evaluates student progress along the dull line of human talent. Waldorf students are encouraged to live with self-assurance, a reverence for life and a sense of service. (Waldorf flyer, nd.)
Joseph Chilton Pearce put it this way:
I used to think Waldorf education the most undamaging education, but then the more I looked at it, I found it the most beneficial system we have. Among many things that the Waldorf system does, it nurtures, protects and develops the intelligence of the true child. (It) bring(s) out the best in each child, rather than molding children to a particular perspective of society. (Fenner and Rivers, 1992, p. 82)
The reason Rudolf Steiner and Waldorf education are so little known is a combination of a number of factors. For one, it is the sectarian nature of the schools. The under-girding Anthroposphical philosophy and the theory of learning is esoteric and complex. The Waldorf school movement is isolated from other public and independent school movements and guards its independence jealously (Blunt, 1995). As a result, extremely few experienced educators have ever heard of Waldorf education, and even fewer have any accurate knowledge of the schools. Also, individuals with unusual theories and new ideas that are incompatible with the thinking of the time rarely are recognized during their lifetime, and do not surface in the public domain for decades, particularly if it requires effort and a different way of thinking on the part of the general public. On the other hand, in these days where educators are searching for practical and innovative solutions and programs for unmotivated public school students and declining tst scores and increasig dropout rates, Waldorf education deserves further study.
Elliot Eisner, Professor of Education and Art, Stanford University, appears to recognize their potential: "...Waldorf education possesses unique educational features that have considerable potential for improving public education in America..." (Waldorf flyer, nd.).
There is some light at the end of tunnel with the adoption of the Waldorf model in Milwaukee and Sacramento, and charter schools in Texas, Michigan, Oregon and California, such as San Francisco, San Diego, Novato, Sebastopol, Nevada City and other public school district. It may become the education system for the 21st century. On the other hand, having both public Waldorf programs as well as independent Waldorf schools causes confusion. Waldorf educators fear the integrity of the Waldorf movement will be lost by the piecemeal adoption of various aspects of Waldorf methodology. The Waldorf movement has attempted to make distinctions between the independent Waldorf schools, Waldorf-inspired programs and Waldorf methods incorporated into traditional educational programs. The Waldorf movement has resolved to tolerate the compromise to provide the benefits of Waldorf education to children who seek them.
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