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The Waldorf Approach

Borrowed from the Rudolf Steiner College web site

Since its founding by Rudolf Steiner in 1919, the Waldorf school movement has grown to over 800 schools throughout the world, over 125 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.

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.

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.

A summary

Excerpted from The Waldorf Schools: 32 Questions and Answers by Wade B. Holland

"The uniqueness of the curriculum lies in how the children are taught. In presenting material, first comes the encounter; then encounter becomes experience; and out of experience crystallizes the concept.

Perception, feeling, idea: three steps in a genuine learning process; one that is in harmony with the child's nature and that meets the child's needs. Their lessons are alive and interesting, they challenge and stimulate the imagination—for the children are addressed not as beings with a head alone, but of hands and heart as well.

A Waldorf education prepares the student to enter adulthood with the gifts of:

Self discipline
Independence
Mastery of analytical and critical faculties
Reverence for the world's beauty and wonder

Recommended Reading

You Are Your Child’s First Teacher: Rahima Baldwin
Understanding Waldorf Education: Jack Petrash
Beyond the Rainbow Bridge-Nurturing Our Children From birth to 7: Barbara Patterson, Pamela Bradley
Waldorf Education – A Family Guide: Edited by Pamela Johnson Fenner and Karen L. Rivers
The Waldorf Schools: 32 Questions and Answers: Wade B. Holland. Children's Book Service. 4th edition.
Resources: online articles: Links to other important articles.