Waldorf education

Waldorf education (also known as Steiner education) is the largest independent alternative education movement in the world.

The first Waldorf school was founded in 1919 to serve the children of employees at the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart, Germany. As of 2012, there were 1,025 independent Waldorf schools, 2,000 kindergartens and 530 centers for special education, located in 60 countries. There are also Waldorf-based public (state) schools, charter schools, and homeschooling environments.

Waldorf education is based on anthroposophy, a spiritual philosophy developed by Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). Child development is seen as taking place over three seven-year stages, each with its own developmental emphasis on the principles of willing, feeling, and thinking. Throughout, Waldorf education places a strong emphasis on integrating academic, practical and artistic pursuits: the head, the heart, and the hands. The approach emphasizes the role of the imagination in learning. Formative assessment is generally preferred over summative assessment, particularly in the pre-adolescent years. The schools have a high degree of autonomy to decide how best to construct their curricula and govern themselves. Waldorf students have drawn praise for being well-rounded and well-socialized people.

Waldorf education is, however, controversial. Views differ on Waldorf schools' practice of not teaching reading and computer technology skills as early as in mainstream education. Waldorf education has been accused of discouraging immunization and questions have been raised about Steiner's views on race; the Waldorf movement has said that concerns over its stance on these matters are unfounded. Waldorf schools have also been viewed as teaching pseudoscience and promoting homeopathy; Waldorf spokespeople have responded that Waldorf schools do not promote any single approach to science or medicine. In the United States there has been opposition to Waldorf education gaining public funding, on the grounds that it is a "religious" education. The Waldorf movement has denied it is religious, and successfully defended that position in court.

Waldorf school buildings

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  Freie Waldorfschule Trier, Germany
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  Michael Park Rudolf Steiner School in Auckland
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  Waldorf school of Pittsburgh, USA
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  Waldorf teacher training center in Witten, Germany

Origins and history

Further information: History of Waldorf schools

Graph showing the growth in the number of Waldorf schools in the world from 1919-2012

Rudolf Steiner's ideas form the basis of Waldorf education. Steiner had been a private tutor and a lecturer on history at the Berlin Arbeiterbildungsschule, an educational initiative which sought to become a college program for working class adults. By 1906, Steiner began to formalize his ideas on education in public lectures. He set out the fundamentals of his pedagogical vision, including a description of the three major phases of childhood, in a 1907 essay on The Education of the Child.

The first school based upon these principles was opened in 1919 in response to a request by Emil Molt, the owner and managing director of the Waldorf-Astoria Cigarette Company in Stuttgart, Germany, to serve the children of employees of the factory. This is the source of the name Waldorf, which is now trademarked for use in association with the educational method. The Stuttgart school grew rapidly and soon the majority of pupils were from families not connected with the company. The Stuttgart school was also one of the first Gesamtschulen, or comprehensive schools, in Germany. As opposed to tripartite educational systems - in which adolescents are directed into either vocational or professional programs - the comprehensive school model seeks to keep students of various abilities, interests and socio-economic backgrounds together longer for their education. This is done in part for the positive social integration that can be encouraged.^{[Citation Needed]}. Waldorf schools have been always been co-educational.

At the invitation of Professor Millicent Mackenzie, Steiner presented his ideas on education at Oxford in the summer of 1922. Steiner gave twelve lectures at Oxford's Harris Manchester College and other lectures of the Oxford Conference occurred at Oxford's Keble College. The Oxford Conference from 15 to 29 August led directly to the proliferation of Waldorf education in Britain.

In the next few years schools began to open in many other locations (Hamburg, The Hague, Basel). The first school in England, now Michael Hall school, was founded in 1925; the first in the USA, the Rudolf Steiner School in New York City, in 1928. By the late 1930s, numerous schools inspired by the original school or its pedagogical principles had been founded in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Hungary, the USA, and the UK. Political interference from the Nazi regime limited and ultimately closed most Waldorf schools in Europe, with the exception of the British and some Dutch schools; the affected schools were reopened after the Second World War. There are currently over 1,000 independent Waldorf Schools worldwide.

Educational Theory

Anthroposophical basis

Further information: Anthroposophy

Rudolf Steiner, founder of Anthroposophy

Educational scholar Heiner Ullrich considers Rudolf Steiner's pedagogical lectures to have been a natural outgrowth of his simultaneously emerging views on what he considered to be the true "essence of the growing individual." These views formed part of his spiritual philosophy, which he termed Anthroposophy. Ullrich describes Steiner's educational ideas as following closely the "principle perceptions of modern common sense educational theory since Comenius and Pestalozzi." He suggests that critics tend to focus on what they see as Steiner's "occult neo-mythology of education" and to fear the risks of indoctrination in a worldview school. For Ullrich, this viewpoint "loses an unprejudiced view of the varied practice of the Steiner schools."

Iddo Oberski writes that anthroposophy underpins Waldorf schools' organisation, curriculum and pedagogy (and frequently, the design of the buildings, as well as pupil and teacher health and diet). Although anthroposophy is explicitly not part of the curriculum, Waldorf teacher education at the bachelor's, master's and non-degree certificate level requires students to read Rudolf Steiner's pedagogical texts as well as familiarize themselves with anthroposophy more generally. As in a Waldorf School, teacher training colleges and institutes attempt to work with the academic, practical and artistic capacities of their students. For example, art, music, poetry, and handwork are integrated into the adult educational curriculum and students are expected to produce not only essays, workbooks and lesson plans but drawings, paintings, theatrical performances and other output that demonstrates their ability to work across all areas of the curriculum.

Developmental Approach

The structure of the education follows Steiner's theories of child development, whereby children are regarded as beings of body, soul, and spirit, who unfold in three developmental stages. These stages, each of which lasts approximately seven years, are broadly similar to those described by Piaget. Each stage has its own learning requirements; Steiner also described sub-stages of these larger developmental steps. Waldorf pedagogical theory describes these stages as follows:

During the first developmental stage (under 7 years old), children primarily learn through empathy, and their desire to engage with the world is therefore stimulated by participating in a range of practical activities. The educator's task is to present worthwhile models of action.

In the second stage, between ages 7-14, children primarily learn through materials appealing to their feelings and imagination. Story-telling and artistic work are used to convey and depict academic content so that students will form an affective connection with the subject matter they encounter. The educator's task is to be present as a role model children will naturally want to follow, gaining authority through fostering rapport.

In the third developmental stage (14 and up), children primarily learn through their own thinking and judgment. They are asked to understand abstract material and are expected to have sufficient foundation and maturity to form conclusions using their own judgment.

The developmental approach used in the Waldorf schools is designed to awaken - and ideally balance – the "physical, behavioral, emotional, cognitive, social, and spiritual" aspects of the developing person.

Educational Practice

Pre-school and kindergarten: birth to age 6 or 7

• Waldorf doll
  A Waldorf doll, as might be used in classroom play
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  An autumn nature table at a Waldorf school in Australia

The Waldorf approach to early childhood education is largely experiential, imitative and sensory-based. The emphasis is on providing worthwhile practical activities for children to imitate, allowing them to learn through example. The schedule is oriented around an "organic" and well-ordered daily routine that emphasizes rhythmic experience of the day, week, month, and seasons. Extensive time is given for guided free play in a classroom environment that is homelike, includes natural materials, and provides examples of productive work in which children can take part. Outdoor play periods are also generally included in the school day, providing children with experiences of nature, weather and the seasons of the year.

Oral language development is addressed through songs, poems and movement games. These include daily story time when a teacher usually tells a fairytale, often by heart. Aids to development via play generally consist of simple materials drawn from natural sources that can be transformed imaginatively to fit a wide variety of purposes. Waldorf dolls are intentionally made simple in order to allow playing children to employ and strengthen their imagination and creativity. Waldorf schools generally discourage kindergarten and lower grade pupils being exposed to media influences such as television, computers and recorded music, as they believe these to be harmful to children's development in the early years.

Pre-school and kindergarten programs generally include seasonal festivals drawn from a variety of traditions, with attention placed on the traditions brought forth from the community. Waldorf schools in the Western Hemisphere have traditionally celebrated Christian festivals.

Transition to formal academic learning

Waldorf pedagogical theory considers that during the first seven years of life, a child's organic forces should be allowed to be fully invested in nurturing his or her physical growth, a stage's whose completion is marked by the emergence of the adult teeth. It is in the second-seven year period that the child is ready for formal learning.

Elementary education: age 6/7 to 14

File:Waldorf classroom.JPG

Waldorf elementary school classroom

During the elementary school years (age 7–14), the approach emphasizes cultivating children's emotional life and imagination. Concepts are first introduced through stories and images, and academic instruction is integrated with a multi-disciplinary artistic curriculum that includes visual arts, drama, artistic movement (eurythmy), vocal and instrumental music, and crafts. Beginning from first grade, students learn two foreign languages from complementary language families (in English-speaking countries often German and either Spanish or French).

There is little reliance on standardized textbooks. The school day generally starts with a one-and-a-half to two-hour, cognitively-oriented academic lesson that focuses on a single theme over the course of about a month's time. This typically begins with an introduction that may include singing, instrumental music, recitations of poetry including a verse written by Steiner for the start of a school day.

Teachers are meant to guide and stimulate pupils by exercising creative, loving authority, providing consistently supportive models of personal development both through personal example and through stories of "spiritual 'role models' from culture and history which may have an effect on the children's fantasy and imaginations through their symbolism and allegory." The approach is unusually teacher centered. In the elementary schools, the homeroom teacher normally is expected to teach a group of children for several years – a practice known as "looping". Looping has both advantages in the long-term relationships thus established and disadvantages in the challenge to teachers, who face a new curriculum each year.

Waldorf elementary education allows for individual variations in the pace of learning, based upon the expectation that a child will grasp a concept or achieve a skill when he or she is ready. Cooperation takes priority over competition. This approach also extends to physical education; competitive team sports are introduced in upper grades.

Secondary education

During adolescence (age 14-19), the emphasis is on developing intellectual understanding and ethical ideals such as social responsibility to meet the developing capacity for abstract thought and conceptual judgment In most Waldorf schools, pupils enter secondary education when they are about fourteen years old. Secondary education is provided by specialist teachers for each subject. The education focuses much more strongly on academic subjects, though students normally continue to take courses in art, music, and crafts.

Student work from a projective geometry block in a Waldorf high school

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  Growth measure and vortices
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  Ellipse constructed of tangent lines
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  Projection of a circle on an oblique plane

The curriculum is structured to help students develop a sense of competence, responsibility and purpose, to foster an understanding of ethical principles, and to build a sense of social responsibility.

Spiral Curriculum

Further information: Curriculum of the Waldorf schools

Though most Waldorf schools are autonomous institutions not required to follow a prescribed curriculum, there are widely agreed guidelines for the Waldorf curriculum, supported by the schools' common principles. Government-funded schools may be required to incorporate aspects of state curricula.

The Waldorf curriculum has been widely described as a long ascending spiral. Subjects are introduced in a series of approximately two-hour units or "morning lesson blocks" for a period of several weeks. These lesson blocks have been described as a spiral because they are both horizontally and vertically integrated. They are horizontally integrated at each grade level in that the topic of the block will be infused into many of the activities of the classroom – artistic, practical, and academic. The lesson blocks are vertically integrated in that they will be revisited again over a period of many years with increasing complexity as students develop their skills, reasoning capacities and individual sense of self.

The Waldorf curriculum has always incorporated multiple intelligences.

There are a few subjects largely unique to the Waldorf schools. Foremost among these is Eurythmy, a movement art usually accompanying spoken texts or music which includes elements of role play and dance and is designed to provide individuals and classes with a "sense of integration and harmony". Ernest Boyer has noted how the arts generally play a significant role throughout Waldorf education, and commended this as a model for other schools to follow.

Spirituality

According to McDermott et al, Waldorf education is "infused with spirituality" throughout the curriculum, and can include a wide range of religious traditions without favoring any single tradition. Waldorf theories and practices are modified from their European and Christian roots to meet the historical and cultural traditions of the local community. Examples of such adaptation include the Waldorf schools in Israel and Japan, which celebrate festivals of their particular spiritual heritage, and classes in the Milwaukee Urban Waldorf school, which have adopted traditions with African American and Native American heritages. Such festivals, as well as assemblies generally, play an important role in Waldorf schools and are generally celebrated by showing students' work.

Four temperaments

Mark Grant writes that unlike in mainstream schools, Waldorf teachers categorize their pupils' character and behavior according to the four temperaments, adapted from ancient Greek notions: melancholic, sanguine, phlegmatic and choleric. According to Steiner, children's temperament partially determines their behavior: a choleric child is likely to hit others, a sanguine one to fidget, and so on; each of these four temperaments is viewed as having a characteristic body shape and behavior patterns, being receptive to different kinds of stimuli, and being dominated by one of four cosmic forces (physical, ethereal, astral, spiritual). Steiner believed that teachers must correct any swing in themselves toward any one temperament, and Waldorf education aims to harmonize and balance out the one-sided tendencies of each temperament in students; Steiner's suggestions as to how to do so ranged from specific activities to dietary measures; for example, a child exhibiting poor reading skills could be placed on a diet which avoided eggs and pastry so as to harmonize his or her temperament.

Classroom seating in Waldorf schools is arranged according to an assessment of each child's balance of temperaments.

Social engagement

Waldorf schools seek to cultivate pupils' sense of social responsibility, respect, and compassion; to develop their cooperative capacities; and to enable them to contribute to societal and cultural renewal; studies have found the schools' pupils to be unusually oriented towards improving social conditions and having more positive visions of the future. Studies done in Germany and Sweden have found Waldorf pupils to be less xenophobic and less likely to be attracted to extreme right-wing political groups than pupils in other types of schools. Waldorf schools have been described as good examples of schools that follow a philosophy based on peace and tolerance.

Intercultural links in socially polarized communities

Waldorf schools have linked polarized communities in a variety of settings.

• Under the apartheid regime in South Africa, the Waldorf school was one of the few schools in which children of both races attended the same classes, despite the ensuing loss of state aid. A Waldorf training college in Cape Town, the Novalis Institute, was described by UNESCO as an organization which had a great consequence in the conquest of apartheid: "It has prepared the way and laid the foundations for a new and integrated [community]."
• In Israel, the Harduf Kibbutz Waldorf school includes both Jewish and Arab faculty and students and has extensive contact with the surrounding Arab communities; it also runs an Arab-language Waldorf teacher training. In addition, a joint Arab-Jewish Waldorf kindergarten was founded in Hilf (near Haifa) in 2005.
• In Brazil, a Waldorf teacher, Ute Craemer, founded a community service organization providing childcare, vocational training and work, social services including health care, and Waldorf education to more than 1,000 residents of poverty-stricken areas (Favelas) of São Paulo.
• 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. In addition, in the southwest Kathmandu Valley a foundation founded by Krishna Gurung provides underprivileged, disabled and poor adults with work on a biodynamic farm and provides a Waldorf school for their children.

Waldorf education also has links with UNESCO. The Friends of Waldorf Education is an affiliated organization, the main purpose of which is to support, develop infrastructure, finance and provide advice to the Waldorf movement world-wide. In 2008, 24 Waldorf schools in 15 countries were members of the UNESCO Associated Schools Project Network.

Governance

One of Waldorf education's central premises is that all educational and cultural institutions should be self-governing and should grant teachers a high degree of creative autonomy within the school; this is based upon the conviction that a holistic approach to education aiming at the development of free individuals can only be successful when based on a school form that expresses these same principles. Most Waldorf schools are not directed by a principal or head teacher, but rather by a number of groups, including:

• 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. Each school is accordingly unique in its approach, as it may act solely on the basis of the decisions of the college of teachers to set policy or other actions pertaining to the school and its students.
• The board of trustees, who decide on governance issues, especially those relating to school finances and legal issues.

Parents are encouraged to take an active part in non-curricular aspects of school life. Waldorf schools have been found to create effective adult learning communities.

Reviewing Joseph Kahne's book, Reframing Educational Policy: Democracy, Community and the Individual, Holmes (2000) contrasts the communities formed by supporters of Waldorf education with those formed in mainstream education, which Kahne sees merely as "residential areas partitioned by bureaucratic authorities for educational purposes" – in contrast, supporters of Steiner's Waldorf ideas are listed as a "genuine community" alongside fundamentalist Christians and Orthodox Jews.

There are coordinating bodies for Waldorf education at both the national (e.g. the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America and the Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship in the UK and Ireland) and international level (e.g. International Association for Waldorf Education and The European Council for Steiner Waldorf Education (ECSWE)). These organizations certify the use of the registered names "Waldorf" and "Steiner school" and offer accreditations, often in conjunction with regional independent school associations.

Reception

Relationship with mainstream education

Further information: Studies of Waldorf education

A number of national, international and topic-based studies have been made of Waldorf education and its relationship with mainstream education.

Sean Esbjorn-Hargens writes that as a holistic education method, Waldorf education de-emphasizes the acquisition of knowledge and competitive achievement over a more individually-centred approach drawing on elements of each individual’s spirituality and culture.

Waldorf education influences the mainstream. In 2000 American state and private schools were described as drawing on Waldorf education – "less in whole than in part" – in expanding numbers. One researcher studying an urban Waldorf school in Milwaukee criticized the lack of wider efforts to implement Waldorf methods in public education. Many elements of Waldorf pedagogy have been used in all Finnish schools for many years.

Imagination and socialization

A number of educationalists have commented positively on Waldorf education.

One aspect that has drawn praise is the system's emphasis on the imagination. Thomas Nielsen, an assistant professor at the University of Canberra's Education Department, considers the imaginative teaching approaches used in Waldorf education (drama, exploration, storytelling, routine, arts, discussion and empathy) to be effective stimulators of spiritual-aesthetic, intellectual and physical development and recommends these to mainstream educators.

Another aspect that has drawn praise is the system's ability to produce well-socialized individuals. Andreas Schleicher, international coordinator of the PISA studies, commented on the "high degree of congruence between what the world demands of people, and what Waldorf schools develop in their pupils", placing a high value on creatively and productively applying knowledge to new realms. This enables "deep learning" that goes beyond studying for the next test. Deborah Meier, principal of Mission Hill School and MacArthur grant recipient, whilst having some "quibbles" about the Waldorf schools, stated: "The adults I know who have come out of Waldorf schools are extraordinary people. That education leaves a strong mark of thoroughness, carefulness, and thoughtfulness."

Robert Peterkin, Director of the Urban Superintendents Program at Harvard's Graduate School of Education and former Superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools during a period when Milwaukee funded a public Waldorf school, considers Waldorf education a "healing education" whose underlying principles are appropriate for educating all children.

Reading and literacy

Early childhood Waldorf education emphasizes oral language skills fostered by storytelling and engaging in fantasy play; formal teaching of reading and writing is deferred until age 7.

In preliteracy research, the topic of best teaching practice is controversial. Some scholars favor a developmental approach in which formal instruction on reading begins around the age of 6 or 7 and others who argue for literacy instruction to occur in pre-school and kindergarten classrooms, assuming that other activities are taking place as well.

In a discussion on academic kindergartens, professor of child development David Elkind has argued that since "there is no solid research demonstrating that early academic training is superior to (or worse than) the more traditional, hands-on model of early education" educators should defer to developmental approaches that provide young children with ample time and opportunity to explore the natural world on their own terms. Elkind names Rudolf Steiner as one of the "giants of early-childhood development" and describes activities for young children in a Waldorf school as "social," "holistic," and "collaborative," as well as reflecting the principle that "early education must start with the child, not with the subject matter to be taught." In response Grover Whitehurst, educational policy chair at the Brookings Institution, argues the opposite. In his view, the lack of solid research demonstrating the benefits of early academics merely reveals the urgent need for an evidence-based "science of early education." He laments that early education scholarship is "mired in philosophy, in broad theories of the nature of child development, and in practices that spring from appeals to authority," such as Elkind’s praise for those "giants of early-childhood development" whose work reflects Jean Piaget’s insights.

A number of recent empirical studies have contributed to this ongoing discussion. For example, education professor Sebastian Suggate led a study published in 2011 that compared three groups of children – at the beginning of state schooling (age 5), the beginning of Waldorf schooling (age 7) and children who attended state schooling, but were of a similar age to the Waldorf sample (age 7). The results suggested that "children beginning school around age five years show similar long-term reading achievement as children who start later, at seven years." Suggate has also performed analysis of the PISA 2007 OECD data from 54 countries and found "no association between school entry age ... and reading achievement at age 15". He also cites a German study of 50 kindergartens that compared children who, at age 5, had spent a year either "academically focused", or "play-arts focused" — in time the two groups became inseparable in reading skill. Suggate concludes that the effects of early reading are like "watering a garden before a rainstorm; the earlier watering is rendered undetectable by the rainstorm, the watering wastes precious water, and the watering detracts the gardener from other important preparatory groundwork."

A study of the performance of 6,600 students found that the children who had experienced an earlier introduction to academic learning had poorer results in fourth grade than students who had not had early academics.

Exposure to Information and Communications Technology (ICT)

The media center at the Shearwater Steiner School in Australia

Education researchers John Siraj-Blatchford and David Whitebread note that in the United Kingdom, Waldorf schools are granted an exemption by the Department for Education (DfE) from the requirement to teach ICT as part of Foundation Stage education (ages 3–5), writing "there is much to admire in Steiner education and, on balance, our view would be that it is to the credit of the [DfE] that Steiner schools have been recently exempted from the requirement to teach ICT..." In particular, they note that "what is hugely valuable in the Steiner position, of course, is the emphasis on the simplicity of resources and on encouraging children's use of their imagination." Less valuable is what they view as an ideological preference on the part of Waldorf educators for "natural, non-manufactured materials," a preference they find to be "a reaction against the dehumanizing aspects of nineteenth-century industrialization" rather than a "reasoned assessment of twenty-first century children's needs." Siraj-Blatchford and Whitebread's overall perspective emphasizes how the educational value of any new technology must be considered in terms of the opportunities and experiences afforded to children. For this reason, they argue that Waldorf educators' emphasis on simple resources and childrens' own imaginations is actually "not incompatible with the use of ICT." At the same time, they stress that what an educational technology is made out of ought to be irrelevant for evaluating its worth.

Waldorf schools view themselves as taking a broad and developmental approach to the topic of technology and the specific question of when to introduce ICT. In 2007 The Herald reported that in Waldorf schools computers are viewed as being first useful to children in the early teen years, only after they have mastered "fundamental, time-honoured ways of discovering information and learning, such as practical experiments and books".

Pseudoscience

The mythical continent of Lemuria features in Steiner's account of the geology of the Earth.

Eugenie Scott, the executive director of the American National Center for Science Education, has been scathing towards what she describes as Waldorf education's teaching of pseudoscience, stating that "Waldorf science relies upon a religious—certainly a cultish—philosophy" and describing Steiner as a "nut case from the 19th Century".

A 2003 study of science education in American Waldorf schools by David Jelinek and Li-Ling Sun noted a number of ideas in the curriculum materials which – they write  – "would be reason enough for some critics to discredit Waldorf science education all together." These included the notions that:

• the four kingdoms of nature are mineral, plant, man, and animal
• animals are the by-products of human development, and
• geologically, the Earth has evolved through Lemurian and Atlantean epochs, and is now in its fifth post-Atlantis epoch.

Jelinek and Sun write that it would be a good idea to remove such pseudoscience and inaccuracy from the otherwise good curriculum materials, but that doing so would have a major impact on them.

In the United Kingdom there has been controversy over Waldorf schools' stance on pseudoscience.

Steiner viewed the human heart as not just a pump, but also a sense organ

Edzard Ernst has stated that Waldorf schools "seem to have an anti-science agenda which is detrimental to progress... the [UK] government makes a grave mistake allowing pseudoscience and anti-science in our education."

In September 2012, the British Humanist Association issued a document that was strongly critical of the existence of pseudoscience in the curriculum of British Waldorf schools. They raised particular concerns over the content of the book, used at the Steiner Academy Hereford, entitled The Educational Tasks and Content of the Steiner Waldorf Curriculum, listing as examples of concern the book's downplaying of the theory of evolution, its claim that homeopathy has an effect, its description of the heart as not merely a pump but also a sense organ, its omission of a discussion of the immune system in the context of germs, and its teaching surrounding "counter space", an "anthroposophical construction that allows links to Steiner's spirit world".

A spokesman from the Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship UK responded that it was not the place of any school to "promote" an approach to medicine, either conventional or complementary, and that the book in question was only one of many teaching resources used. The acting principal of the Steiner Academy Hereford said "it is not our aim to promote scientific orthodoxy, but rather to enable pupils to think and engage in independent verification of reality."

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". The dean, Stefan Nordlund, stated "the syllabus contains literature which conveys scientific inaccuracies that are worse than woolly; they are downright dangerous."

Concerns that Waldorf education is religious

On November 4, 2010 US District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. entered a judgement in favor of Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD), the defendant in PLANS, Inc. v. SCUSD, et al.

In Freda Easton's view, Waldorf schools are "Christian based and theistically oriented". Tom Stehlik places Waldorf education in a humanistic tradition, and contrasts it to "value-neutral" secular state schooling systems that he describes as lacking a philosophical basis.

In 1994 an article appeared in the secular periodical Free Inquiry that was highly critical of Waldorf education. Its authors, Dan Dugan and Judy Daar, invoked Rudolf Steiner's words to his followers when, struggling against restrictive laws on schooling in 1920s Germany, he had advised "we should be aware that we need to do things, but not inwardly, to achieve at least the minimum of what we want, and that we will need to speak with people while inwardly tweaking their noses." For Dugan and Daar, this was evidence that Steiner had always intended Waldorf education "to attract the general public by systematically concealing the objectives of the schools and the contents of their curriculum". In 1995, one of the article's authors, Dan Dugan, went on to co-found the anti-Waldorf campaigning group PLANS.

In 1997, the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA) published a position paper stating that "Waldorf schools are independent schools that are designed to educate all children, regardless of their cultural or religious backgrounds. The pedagogical method is comprehensive, and, as part of its task, seeks to bring recognition and understanding to any world culture or religion. The Waldorf School, founded in 1919 by Rudolf Steiner, is not part of any church."

In 1998, PLANS filed a lawsuit in California against two school districts alleging that publicly financed Waldorf-methods schools violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The court dismissed the case on its merits in 2005. After an appeal led to the case being remanded to trial the court once more dismissed the case on its merits in 2010: the judge's written decision found that plaintiffs had failed to prove anthroposophy is a religion. On a second appeal, in 2012 the higher court affirmed the decision for the public schools, judging that the plaintiff had failed to meet its burden of proof that anthroposophy was a religion, but that the court was expressing no view as to whether anthroposophy could be considered a religion on the basis of a fuller or more complete record.

Racism controversy

In November 2012, BBC News broadcast an item about accusations that the establishment of a state-funded Waldorf School in Frome was a misguided use of public money. The broadcast raised particular concerns 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. Anthroposophy, upon which Waldorf education is founded, stands firmly against all forms of racism and nationalism."

In 1997, the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA) published a position paper stating that "Waldorf schools are independent schools committed to developing the human potential of each child to its fullest. Admission to the schools is open to everyone, without regard to race, sex, creed, religion, national origin, or ethnicity....It is a fundamental goal of our education to bring students to an understanding and experience of the common humanity of all the world’s peoples, transcending the stereotypes, prejudices, and divisive barriers of classification by sex, race and nationality. We most emphatically reject racism in all its forms, and embrace the principles of common humanity expresses by the founder of Waldorf education, Rudolf Steiner."

Immunization

There has been controversy around the question of Waldorf education's attitude to immunization

The American Council on Science and Health has raised concerns over a Waldorf school in Boulder, Colorado where students did not receive immunization with – the Council states – "fatal consequences both for those children and their younger siblings who have not yet been vaccinated". The Australian has reported concerns among parents that Australian Waldorf schools have discouraged immunization.

In the United Kingdom the Health Protection Agency categorizes Waldorf schools as "unvaccinated community".

In 2012 John Thomas, a law professor, suggested that Waldorf education's emphasis on individual rights is inconsistent with society's use of vaccination to escape from disease, and that the Waldorf school system "[boasts] a 'strong cultural anti-immunization preference among thought-leaders' in its community". Thomas cited vaccination rates of 23% at a Waldorf school in the San Francisco Bay area, compared to 97% in the surrounding county. He stated that children may "emerge from their school to infect infants, immunocompromised adults, and people whose vaccinations didn't take or have waned, with potentially fatal diseases."

In 2001 the European Council for Steiner Waldorf Education (ECSWE) issued a Statement on the Question of Vaccination which stated "It has come to our attention that uncorroborated statements have appeared purporting opposition to childhood immunisation as the official or tacit policy of Steiner Waldorf School Associations and the institutions they represent. We wish to state unequivocally that opposition to immunisation per se, or resistance to national strategies for childhood immunisation in general, forms no part of our specific educational objectives." The statement goes on to say that "families provide the proper context for such decisions" and "schools themselves are not, nor should they attempt to become, determiners of decisions regarding these matters." The European Council represents Waldorf schools in Europe – approximately 700 of the 1,000 schools world wide.

See also: PARSIFAL study and vaccine controversy

Further reading

Further information: [[:List of Rudolf Steiner's works on education]] and [[:List of works on Waldorf education]]

• Clouder, Christopher (ed.). Education: An Introductory Reader. Sophia Books, 2004 (a collection of relevant works by Steiner on education).
• Lyons, Suzanne. Toward a holistic approach to earth science education unpublished Master's thesis, University of California Sacramento, 2010.
• Steiner, Rudolf. "The Education of the Child, and early Lectures on Education" in Foundations of Waldorf Education, Anthroposophic Press, 1996 (includes Steiner's first descriptions of child development, originally published as a small booklet).
• Steiner, Rudolf. The Foundations of Human Experience (also known as The Study of Man). Anthroposophic Press, 1996 (these fundamental lectures on education were given to the teachers just before the opening of the first Waldorf school in Stuttgart in 1919).

Note: all of Steiner's lectures on Waldorf education are available in PDF form at this research site

External links

General reference

• Online Waldorf Library
• Education Section at the Rudolf Steiner Archive, An Online Library

Studies

• 2008 overview of all Australian academic studies of Steiner education and Steiner philosophy by Jennifer Gidley: Turning Tides: Creating Dialogue between Rudolf Steiner and 21st Century Academic Discourses
• "Learning From Rudolf Steiner: The Relevance of Waldorf Education for Urban Public School Reform" by Ida Oberman (PDF)
• Association of Waldorf Schools of North America Study of Waldorf graduates in the USA, Part I, Part II

Articles

• What's Waldorf Salon.com Meagan Francis
• "Steiner schools' could help all" by Branwen Jeffreys. BBC News Report on British government-funded study on Waldorf education in the UK, July 5, 2005.
• "Waldorf Succeeds in Public Schools" by Claudia M. Lenart. Conscious Choice, August 2000.
• "Who was Rudolf Steiner and what were his revolutionary teaching ideas?" Richard Garner, Education Editor, The Independent
• "Schooled in spirituality" by Chrisanne Beckner. Sacramento News and Review, February 3, 2005.
• "Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925)" by Robert Todd Carroll, editor of The Skeptics Dictionary.
• Elizabeth Daniels and Carmen Gamper. "The Yin and Yang of Waldorf and Montessori in Early Childhood Education" (comparison of the two systems). Common Ground part 1, part 2
• Cincinnati Enquirer Waldorf goes against school grain by Maggie Dons