Steiner Education System: Principles and Practices

Waldorf education, also known as Steiner education, is a globally recognized educational philosophy emphasizing holistic development and creativity. Originating from the visionary ideas of Rudolf Steiner in the early 20th century, this philosophy integrates intellectual, artistic, and practical skills. Steiner developed Waldorf philosophy as a response to the industrialized education system of his time, aiming to foster free-thinking, well-rounded individuals. The first Waldorf school was established in 1919 in Stuttgart, Germany, for children of the Waldorf-Astoria factory workers. As the co-educational school also served children from outside the factory, it included children from a diverse social spectrum. It was also the first comprehensive school in Germany, serving children of all genders, abilities, and social classes.

Core Principles of Waldorf Education

The Waldorf education system is underpinned by several core principles that guide its pedagogy and school culture. These principles, while rooted in the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, are continuously re-evaluated and adapted to meet the needs of a changing world. The Winter 2017 edition of Confluence features seven articles by seven members of the Alliance Board or Advisory Board on the seven Core Principles of Public Waldorf Education.

The Unique Individual

Each human being is a unique individual who brings specific gifts, creative potential, and intentions to this life. Public Waldorf education addresses multiple aspects of the developing child including the physical, emotional, intellectual, social, cultural, moral, and spiritual. The role of Waldorf teachers is to identify the students' individuality. In addition, they respect, inspire, and guide them to attain their full potential in learning and personalized engagement.

Developmental Stages

Human development proceeds in approximate 7-year phases. The Waldorf education consists of learning that engages the heart, head, and hands. Better still, it focuses on feeling, thinking, and doing. It is the basis on which Waldorf teachers involve and nurture children through the methodology and curriculum that integrates arts, academics, and practical skills. The Waldorf education is based on the premise of three distinct childhood stages of seven years each: Early childhood (0-7 years), middle childhood (7-14 years), and adolescence (14-21 years). Each stage shapes a child's approach to the world emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, and physically. Educators consider teaching methods and curricula that are tailored to developmental stages and evolve as adulthood unfolds.

Social Change

Public Waldorf schools seek to be agents of positive social change through the development of each individual and through the community life of the school. At the school level, schools work actively to model social engagement and responsible civic values. Steiner's belief that all people are imbued with a spiritual core has fuelled Waldorf schools' social mission. The schools have always been coeducational and open to children of all social classes.

Enduring Relationships

Enduring relationships - and the time needed to develop them - are central to Public Waldorf education. Healthy working relationships with parents, colleagues, and all stakeholders are essential to the well being of the student, class, and school community. Enduring human relationships between students and their teachers, and among the children themselves, are at the heart of Waldorf education. The teacher’s task is to work with the developing individuality of each student and with each class as a whole within the context of the entire school. Teachers accompany the same class from grade level to grade level, throughout the duration of their K-8 education. Healthy human relationships with and among parents and colleagues are essential to the well-being of the school.

Accessibility and Diversity

Public Waldorf schools respond to unique demands and cultures in a wide range of locations in order to provide maximum access to a diverse range of students. Waldorf schools celebrate the diversity of humankind. Faculty, staff, and board pursue a path of human dignity and equity in organizational, leadership, and pedagogical realms. Schools are engaged in understanding and addressing the current and historical roots of inequity.

Collaborative Governance

Faculty, staff, administration and boards of a Public Waldorf school collaborate to guide and lead the school with input from stakeholder groups. Governance and internal administration are implemented in a manner that cultivates active collaboration, supportive relationships, effective leadership, consequential action, and accountability. The college of teachers, who decide on pedagogical issues, normally on the basis of consensus. This group is usually open to full-time teachers who have been with the school for a prescribed period of time. Waldorf schools are self-administered. This work is strengthened by cultivating a shared anthroposophical understanding of social interaction.

Continuous Improvement

Public Waldorf education emphasizes continuous engagement in learning and self-reflective practices that support ongoing improvement. At the individual and classroom level, teachers reflect regularly on their observations of the students and of the educational process.

Historical Context and Global Presence

The first school based upon the ideas of Rudolf Steiner was opened in 1919 in response to a request from Emil Molt, owner and managing director of the Waldorf-Astoria Cigarette Company in Stuttgart, Germany. At Steiner's behest, the early Waldorf schools were "open to all students, regardless of income. Waldorf education became more widely known in 1922 through lectures Steiner gave at a conference at Oxford University. Two years later, on his final trip to Britain at Torquay in 1924, Steiner delivered a Waldorf teacher training course. The first school in England (Michael Hall) was founded in 1925; the first in the United States (the Rudolf Steiner School in New York City) in 1928.

From 1933 to 1945, political interference from the Nazi regime limited and ultimately closed most Waldorf schools in Europe, with the exception of some British, Swiss, and Dutch schools; the United Kingdom and Switzerland were not occupied by Nazi Germany. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Waldorf schools again began to proliferate in Central and Eastern Europe.

Today Waldorf and Waldorf-inspired initiatives exist in many Indian states. In Nepal, the Tashi Waldorf School in the outskirts of Kathmandu teaches mainly disadvantaged children from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds. It was founded in 1999 and is run by Nepalese staff. The first Steiner school in Russia was established in 1992 in Moscow. That school is now an award-winning government-funded school with over 650 students offering classes for kindergarten and years 1 to 11 (the Russian education system is an eleven-year system). There are 18 Waldorf schools in Russia and 30 kindergartens.

Curriculum and Teaching Methods

The Waldorf education consists of learning that engages the heart, head, and hands. It focuses on feeling, thinking, and doing. It is the basis on which Waldorf teachers involve and nurture children through the methodology and curriculum that integrates arts, academics, and practical skills. Main academic subjects are introduced through two-hour morning lesson blocks that last for several weeks. These blocks are horizontally integrated at each grade level in that the topic of the block will be infused into many classroom activities and vertically integrated in that each subject will be revisited with increasing complexity as students develop their skills, reasoning capacities and individual sense of self. Many subjects and skills not considered core parts of mainstream schools, such as art, music, gardening, and mythology, are central to Waldorf education.

Early Childhood (0-7 years)

Young children from birth to seven years live through their senses and learn through imitation. The teachers in early childhood strive to be worthy of imitation, to nurture children, and provide a gentle yet sensory-rich environment. The play-based activities encourage kids to investigate their natural world, expand imaginative capacities, and explore social relationships. It lays the foundation for emotional, intellectual, and physical development. Waldorf preschools employ a regular daily routine that includes free play, artistic work (e.g. drawing, painting or modeling), circle time (songs, games, and stories), outdoor recess, and practical tasks.

Middle Childhood (7-14 years)

Between 7 and 14 years, children learn through lessons touching on feelings to enliven their creativity. The Waldorf curriculum includes fables and fairy tales, biographies, and mythological sagas. Elementary teachers integrate drama, storytelling, visual arts, rhythmic movement, and music into their daily work. It weaves in an experience that brings subjects to life in children's feelings, willingness, and thinking. Entrusted to accompany students on various year journeys, the Waldorf grade 1-8 teachers have a role similar to parents'. They guide the student's formal learning while awakening moral development and enhancing their worldly awareness. Waldorf elementary schools (ages 7-14) emphasize cultivating children's emotional life and imagination. Each class remains together as a cohort throughout all elementary, developing as a quasi-familial social group. In elementary years, a core teacher teaches primary academic subjects. A central role of this teacher is to provide a supportive role model both through personal example and through stories drawn from a variety of cultures, educating by exercising "creative, loving authority". Class teachers are normally expected to teach a cohort for several years, a practice known as looping.

Adolescence (14-21 years)

Ages 14-21 mark the development of an independent intellect and the ability to accurately examine the world and exercise judgment, discernment, as well as critical thinking. Waldorf high school students have autonomy over their learning under their teachers' mentorship. In most Waldorf schools, pupils enter secondary education when they are fourteen years old. Secondary education is provided by specialist teachers for each subject.

Unique Subjects and Activities

Students learn a variety of fine and practical arts. Music instruction begins with singing in early childhood and continuing through high school. Pupils also usually learn to play pentatonic flutes, recorders and/or lyres in early elementary grades. Certain subjects are largely unique to the Waldorf schools. Foremost among these is eurythmy, a movement art usually accompanying spoken texts or music which includes elements of drama and dance. Although found in other educational contexts, cooking, farming, and environmental and outdoor education are centrally incorporated into Waldorf curriculum.

Assessment and Evaluation

The schools primarily assess students through reports on individual academic progress and personal development. The emphasis is on characterization through qualitative description. Pupils' progress is evaluated through portfolio work in academic blocks and discussion of pupils in teacher conferences.

Waldorf vs. Montessori

The Waldorf and Montessori schools are famous for elementary and preschool-age learning.

Montessori schools follow the teachings of Dr. Maria Montessori, an anthropologist and medical doctor. The first class, a "house of children", was founded in 1907 in Rome, Italy. The Waldorf School follows the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner. The first school was opened in Stuttgart, Germany in 1919. The intention was to offer the children of the Waldorf Astoria Cigarette firm's workers an education upon its directors' request.

Montessori schools believe that you follow the child. In this way, they choose what to learn as the teacher guides the learning process. It employs a hands-on and student-directed approach. Waldorf uses a teacher-directed approach in the classroom. In comparison to students in Montessori schools, those at Waldorf start learning academic subjects at a much later age. The traditional subjects like reading, math, and writing are viewed as non-enjoyable learning experiences for children and are off until around age seven. Instead, learners fulfill their day with imaginative activities like make-believe, music, and art.

Montessori learning lacks an established spirituality. It's adaptable and flexible to the individual's beliefs and needs. Waldorf's roots are in anthroposophy. The philosophy believes that to understand the universe, people must first understand humanity.

In the Waldorf system, students are grouped by age as they advance together each year. However, in Montessori, the learners are in three-year age groups, which are from 3 to 6, 7 to 11, and 12 to 15 years. During preschool, children are grouped in infant and toddler rooms. As they grow older and gain skills, they move into a new age cluster that often includes children they know well.

Waldorf and Montessori respect and recognize the children's rhythmic and order needs in their daily routine. They recognize essentials in various ways. For instance, Madame Montessori believed that children should play with toys that teach concepts. Waldorf education encourages children to create their toys from the materials at hand. The child's most critical task is using their imagination. Both Waldorf and Montessori use developmentally appropriate curricula. Montessori's system has a six-year cycle, while Waldorf works in seven years.

Generally, Montessori allows parents to decide the use of popular media. Waldorf is rigid in exposing students to popular media, as the system requires them to create their own world. You don't find computers in Waldorf classes except in higher school grades. The reason screens are not popular in Waldorf and Montessori is that they want children to develop their imagination.

Maria Montessori didn't patent or trademark the philosophy. Therefore, you find the system in many schools. Some institutions are strict in the interpretation of the Montessori precepts. Others are more eclectic. Waldorf schools stick to the standards set by the Association of Waldorf Schools.

Public Waldorf Education

The first US Waldorf-inspired public school, the Yuba River Charter School in California, opened in 1994. Most Waldorf-inspired schools in the United States are elementary schools established as either magnet or charter schools. The first Waldorf-inspired high school was launched in 2008 with assistance from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. While these schools follow a similar developmental approach as the independent schools, Waldorf-inspired schools must demonstrate achievement on standardized tests in order to continue receiving public funding. Studies of standardized test scores suggest that students at Waldorf-inspired schools tend to score below their peers in the earliest grades and catch up or surpass their peers by middle school.

The first state-funded Steiner-Waldorf school, the Steiner Academy Hereford opened in 2008.

Criticisms and Controversies

Tensions may arise within the Waldorf community between the commitment to Steiner's original intentions and openness to new directions in education, such as the incorporation of new technologies or modern methods of accountability and assessment. Prominent critics of Waldorf education commonly focus their criticism on its links to anthroposophy. While scholars with more favorable views of Waldorf education point out that Steiner never wanted Waldorf schools to be schools based on anthroposophy as a worldview. Jost Schieren argues that legal frameworks in countries such as Germany, which force Waldorf education to conform to non-anthroposophical standards, and social factors which only allow it to be evaluated according to the standards of empirical education science lead to an environment in which these tensions grow ever larger.

One study conducted by California State University at Sacramento researchers outlined numerous theories and ideas prevalent throughout Waldorf curricula that were patently pseudoscientific and steeped in magical thinking. These included the idea that animals evolved from humans, that human spirits are physically incarnated into "soul qualities that manifested themselves into various animal forms", that the current geological formations on Earth have evolved through so-called "Lemurian" and "Atlantean" epochs, and that the four kingdoms of nature are "mineral, plant, animal, and man". All of these are directly contradicted by mainstream scientific knowledge and have no basis in any form of conventional scientific study.

In 2008, Stockholm University terminated its Waldorf teacher training courses. In a statement, the university said "the courses did not encompass sufficient subject theory and a large part of the subject theory that is included is not founded on any scientific base".

In December 2018, The Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) judged the Steiner Academy Exeter as inadequate and ordered it to be transferred to a multi-academy trust; it was temporarily closed in October 2018 because of concerns, including significant lapses in safeguarding of students' wellbeing, mistreatment of children with special educational needs and other disabilities, and misspending of funds. Subsequently, the Steiner Academies in Bristol and Frome have also been judged inadequate by Ofsted, because of concerns over safeguarding and bullying. A number of private Steiner schools have additionally been judged inadequate in the ensuing investigation.

In November 2012, BBC News broadcast a segment about accusations that the establishment of a state-funded Waldorf School in Frome was a misguided use of public money. The broadcast reported that concerns were being raised about Rudolf Steiner's beliefs, stating he "believed in reincarnation and said it was related to race, with black (schwarz) people being the least spiritually developed, and white (weiß) people the most". In 2007, the European Council for Steiner Waldorf Education (ECSWE) issued a statement, "Waldorf schools against discrimination", which said in part, "Waldorf schools do not select, stratify or discriminate amongst their pupils, but consider all human beings to be free and equal in dignity and rights, independent of ethnicity, national or social origin, gender, language, religion, and political or other convictions.

The British Humanist Association criticized a reference book used to train teachers in Steiner academies for suggesting that the heart is sensitive to emotions and also promoting homeopathy, while claiming that Darwinism is "rooted in reductionist thinking and Victorian ethics". Edzard Ernst, emeritus professor of complementary medicine at the University of Exeter, said that Waldorf schools "seem to have an anti-science agenda".

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