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). Steiner described three seven-year stages of child development. In the first stage, early childhood, emphasis is on imitative learning of worthwhile skills. During the elementary school years, the emphasis is on developing pupils' artistic expression and social capacities, fostering both creative and analytical modes of understanding. In the third stage, the emphasis is on encouraging critical understanding and fostering idealism. Throughout, the approach stresses the role of the imagination in learning and places a strong value on integrating academic, practical and artistic pursuits.

The educational philosophy's overarching goals are intended to provide young people the basis upon which to develop into free, morally responsible, and integrated individuals. Teachers generally use formative (qualitative) assessments rather than summative (quantitative) assessments, 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 education has been found to foster a high degree of social competency.

In central Europe, where most of the schools are located, the Waldorf approach has achieved general acceptance as a model of alternative education. Elsewhere, controversies have occurred in which 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 and violates the establishment clause of the United States Constitution. 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 teacher training center in Witten, Germany
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  Hawthorne Valley School in Ghent, NY

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

Waldorf education is based on Rudolf Steiner's life and work. 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. Steiner began to articulate his ideas on education in public lectures, culminating in a 1907 essay on The Education of the Child which included his first comprehensive description of the three major phases of childhood. His conception of education was deeply influenced by the Herbartian pedagogy that was prominent in much of Europe during the late nineteenth century.

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 school was the first comprehensive school in Germany, serving children and adolescents from all social classes, abilities and interests. Because of legal requirements of German schools, Steiner's early German schools had to deviate from his ideal in order to be acceptable; however this achieved one of Steiner's objectives – allowing students to be able to transfer between Waldorf, and conventional state schools. Waldorf schools have been always been co-educational.

Steiner gave twelve lectures on education at a conference at Oxford University in the summer of 1922, which made Waldorf education better known in Britain. Schools began to open in other locations, including Hamburg, The Hague, and 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

Rudolf Steiner's ideas on education grew out of his simultaneously emerging views on what he considered to be the true "essence of the growing individual." This was one aspect of his spiritual philosophy, Anthroposophy. Ullrich describes Steiner's educational ideas as following closely the "principal 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, developing thinking that includes a creative as well as an analytic component. A 2005 overview of research studies concluded that research results suggest that Waldorf schools successfully develop "creative, social and other capabilities important in the holistic growth of the person," but that more research is needed to confirm the generally small scale studies conducted to date.

Educational Practice

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

• 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 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 is developed with songs, poems, movement games and daily stories – typically a fairytale is recited by the teacher, 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. Pupils are not taught to read before the age of seven. Steiner believed that engaging children in intellectual activity too early would adversely affect them in a physical way, and that in later life the harm done would manifest itself as disease.

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, children learn best by being immersed in an environment they can learn from through unselfconscious imitation. In the second-seven year period, the child is ready for formal learning. The transition has a number of markers, one of which is the loss of the baby teeth – Steiner believed that the pushing out of the old teeth by their replacements represented the "etheric body" breaking out of its "etheric envelope". According to Uhrmacher, this etheric body is characterized as a "vehicle for character, temperament, habits, and memory."

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. The unusually broad core curriculum, which includes language arts, history, mythology, general knowledge, geography, geology, algebra, geometry, mineralogy, biology, astronomy, physics, chemistry, and nutrition, "among others" is introduced imaginatively through stories and creative presentations. Academic instruction is integrated with a multi-disciplinary artistic curriculum that includes visual arts, drama, artistic movement (eurythmy), vocal and instrumental music, and crafts. 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, and recitations of poetry, generally including a verse written by Steiner for the start of a school day.

In the elementary years, each class has a core teacher for academic subjects who is 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. This homeroom teacher is normally 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. Beginning from first grade, additional teachers teach subjects such as music, crafts, movement, and two foreign languages from complementary language families (in English-speaking countries often German and either Spanish or French), all of which are central to the curriculum throughout the elementary school years.

While emphasizing the value of the class teacher as a personal mentor for students, especially in the early years, Ullrich documented problems with the continuation of the class teacher role into the middle school years (grades 7 and 8, ages 12–14). Noting that there is a danger of any authority figure limiting students enthusiasm for inquiry and assertion of autonomy, he emphasized the need for teachers to encourage independent thought and explanatory discussion in these years, and cited approvingly a number of schools where the class teacher accompanies the class for six years, after which specialist teachers play a significantly greater role.

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: age 14 and up

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. The curriculum is structured to foster pupils' intellectual understanding, independent judgment, and ethical ideals such as social responsibility, aiming to meet the developing capacity for abstract thought and conceptual judgment.

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 overarching goals are to provide young people the basis on which to develop into free, morally responsible and integrated individuals, with the aim of helping young people "go out into the world as free, independent and creative beings".

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.

The main academic subjects are introduced through blocks lasting for several weeks consisting of daily classes that begin the day and last up to two hours long. These lesson blocks are both 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, and vertically integrated in that each subject will be revisited over the course of the education with increasing complexity as students develop their skills, reasoning capacities and individual sense of self. This has been described as a spiral curriculum.

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, former president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has noted how the arts generally play a significant role throughout Waldorf education, and commended this as a model for other schools to follow.

Assessment

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 primarily evaluated through portfolio work in academic blocks and discussion of pupils in teacher conferences. Standardized tests are rare, with the exception of examinations necessary for college entry taken during the secondary school years. Letter grades are generally not given until students enter high school at 14–15 years. Pupils are not normally asked to repeat years of education, as the educational emphasis is on children's holistic development, not solely their academic progress.

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

Waldorf teachers sometimes 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.

Seating charts and class activities are planned around the temperaments of the students who, as children, are viewed as being fundamentally sanguine.

Social engagement

Waldorf schools seek to cultivate pupils' sense of social responsibility. A comparison of Waldorf and state schools in Australia found that Waldorf pupils "more frequently expressed interest and engagement in social and moral questions and showed more positive attitudes." A study by Jennifer Gidley of pupils drawn from the Waldorf schools of three Australian cities found that "students demonstrated a strong sense of activism and self-confidence and felt empowered to create their own preferred futures". Reports from small-scale studies suggest that there is lower levels of harassment and bullying in Waldorf schools.

Waldorf schools build close learning communities, founded on the shared values of its members, in ways that can lead to transformative learning experiences that allow all participants, including parents, to become more aware of their own "path as an individual", but which at times also risk becoming exclusive.

Betty Reardon, a professor and peace researcher, suggests that Waldorf schools provide an example 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 referenced during UNESCO’s Year of Tolerance for being an organization that was working towards reconciliation in South Africa.
• 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.
• The T. E. Mathews Community School in Yuba County, California serves high-risk juvenile offenders, many of whom have learning disabilities. The school switched to Waldorf methods in the 1990s. A 1999 study of the school found that students had "improved attitudes toward learning, better social interaction and excellent academic progress." This study identified the integration of the arts "into every curriculum unit and almost every classroom activity" of the school as the most effective tool to help students overcome patterns of failure. The study also found significant improvements in reading and math scores, student participation, focus, openness and enthusiasm, as well as emotional stability, civility of interaction and tenacity.

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.

Evaluations of students progress

Heiner Ullrich, who has written about Waldorf schools extensively since 1991, argues that the schools successfully foster dedication, openness, and a love for other human beings, for nature, and for the inanimate world. A number of studies of Waldorf education have concluded that the education is "particularly successful in stimulating imaginative thought and creating eager, confident and curious students." Studies have found that, in comparison to state school pupils, Waldorf students are significantly more enthusiastic about learning, report having more fun and being less bored in school, find their school environment pleasant and supportive, feel individually met, and learn more from school about their personal academic strengths. More than twice as many Waldorf students report having good relationships with teachers. Waldorf pupils also have significantly fewer physical ailments such as headaches, stomach aches, disrupted sleep, and a lower incidence of allergies and allergic-like symptoms.

According to an article in Die Welt, a 2009 PISA study found that, compared to state school students, European Waldorf students are significantly more capable in the sciences.

In a 1996, a study of British and German third- through sixth-grade children found they averaged higher scores on a Torrance Test of Creative Thinking Ability than state-school students A study by Cox and Rolands found that the pupils achieved both more accurate, detailed, and imaginative drawings. A study by Jennifer Gidley found that Waldorf students were able to develop richer and more detailed images, and had more positive views of the future.

Reception

In 2000, educational scholar Heiner Ullrich wrote that intensive study of Steiner's pedagogy had been in progress in educational circles in Germany since about 1990 that positions were "highly controversial: they range from enthusiastic support to destructive criticism." In 2008, the same scholar declared that Waldorf schools have "not stirred comparable discussion or controversy....those interested in the Waldorf School today...generally tend to view this school form first and foremost as a representative of internationally recognized models of applied classic reform pedagogy." Bruce Uhrmacher considers Steiner a polymath whose areas of interest do not neatly correspond with any singular modern category of knowledge, and whose views on such topics as pantheism and Angelology have provoked an adverse reaction from modern academics and scientists. Nevertheless, Urhmacher considers Steiner's view on education worthy of investigation for those seeking to improve public schooling; they serve as a reminder that "holistic education is rooted in a cosmology that posits a fundamental unity to the universe and as such ought to take into account interconnections among the purpose of schooling, the nature of the growing child, and the relationships between the human being and the universe at large", and that a curriculum need not be technocratic, but may equally well be arts-based.

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. 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.

A 2007 German study found that an above-average number of Waldorf students become teachers, doctors, engineers, scholars of the humanities, and scientists. A 2003 study of science education in American Waldorf schools by David Jelinek and Li-Ling Sun found the scientific reasoning of Waldorf school pupils to be superior to that of non-Waldorf students, with the greatest gains in the later years of schooling,

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. A UK Department for Education and Skills report suggested that each type of school could learn from the other type's strengths: in particular, that state schools could benefit from Waldorf education's early introduction and approach to modern foreign languages; combination of block (class) and subject teaching for younger children; development of speaking and listening through an emphasis on oral work; good pacing of lessons through an emphasis on rhythm; emphasis on child development guiding the curriculum and examinations; approach to art and creativity; attention given to teachers’ reflective activity and heightened awareness (in collective child study for example); and collegial structure of leadership and management, including collegial study. Aspects of mainstream practice which could inform good practice in Waldorf schools included: management skills and ways of improving organizational and administrative efficiency; classroom management; work with secondary-school age children; and assessment and record keeping.

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. Hermann Röhrs describes Waldorf education as embodying original pedagogical ideas and presenting exemplary organizational capabilities.

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. Many elements of Waldorf pedagogy have been used in all Finnish schools for many years.

Reading and literacy

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.

Sebastian 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."

In 2013, Waldorf kindergartens in the United Kingdom were granted an exemption from and modifications of a number of the government's Early Learning Goals, including the requirement that early childhood programs include a reading and writing curriculum. The exemption was granted on the basis that certain of these goals run counter to Waldorf early childhood education's established principles.

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.

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.

A Chicago Tribune article on critics' wariness towards the "religious aspect" of Waldorf education reported Eugenie Scott, the executive director of the American National Center for Science Education, as being scathing towards what she describes as Waldorf education's teaching of pseudoscience. She is quoted as saying "Waldorf science relies upon a religious—certainly a cultish—philosophy" and describing Steiner as a "nut case from the 19th Century". However Arthur Zajonc, physics professor at Amherst College and general secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in America, said the schools teach sound science but do not "teach that a particular viewpoint by a particular scientist is 'the truth'. We present it as a hypothesis that they should be critical of." Zajonc added that many Waldorf graduates "have gone on to major in science at Harvard, MIT and other prestigious universities".

In a 2008 review article, Østergaard et al. wrote of an American research report by David Jelinek and Li-Ling Sun that had found "some doubtful scientific material" in the Waldorf Curriculum. The material that Jelinek and Sun's report noted 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 argued that it would be a good idea to remove such pseudoscience and inaccuracy from the otherwise good science curriculum materials, but that doing so would have a major impact on them.

It was reported that the book,The Educational Tasks and Content of the Steiner Waldorf Curriculum, "says the model of the heart as a pump is unable to explain 'the sensitivity of the heart to emotions'"

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."

In September 2012, an article in the Times Educational Supplement reported that concerns were being raised about a curriculum reference book used as a basis for Waldorf science lessons, which "says the model of the heart as a pump is unable to explain 'the sensitivity of the heart to emotions' and promotes homeopathy, which relies on a belief that illness can be fought with a diluted amount of the cause of the illness." The book was also quoted as saying "Darwinism is 'rooted in reductionist thinking and Victorian ethics'".

Edzard Ernst, emeritus professor of complementary medicine, said 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." Richy Thompson, education officer of the British Humanist Association stated, "how can pupils receive a vigorous science education under these circumstances? It is gravely concerning that these schools provide alternative medicines such as homeopathy, thus legitimising belief in cures which do not work."

In response to the concerns raised, a Department for Education spokeswoman was quoted as saying "No state school is allowed to teach homeopathy as scientific fact. We have rigorous criteria for approving free schools. Applicants must demonstrate that they will provide a broad and balanced curriculum." 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.

Religion

There are many opinions on the relationship between Waldorf education and religion. In Freda Easton's view, Waldorf schools are "Christian based and theistically oriented", but "are opening in different cultural settings and can adapt to 'a truly pluralistic spirituality'". 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. Iddo Oberski considers that, though first established within a Western, Christian society, Waldorf education is essentially non-denominational in character. In the United Kingdom, public Waldorf schools are not categorized as "Faith schools".

For Steiner, education was an activity which fosters the human being's connection to the divine and is thus inherently religious. He emphasized the important effect spiritual role models drawn from culture and history have on children's fantasy and imaginations. Ullrich describes Steiner's view as follows: "The strongest impulses can come from religious tales because these may be envisioned through man's position within the world as a whole."

The Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA) stated in a 1997 position paper 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."

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 a 1994 article, 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 1998, PLANS filed a lawsuit against two California school districts with Waldorf-methods schools, alleging that publicly financed Waldorf-methods schools violated the First, Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution and Article IX of the California Constitution. The court dismissed the case on its merits in 2005 and again after appeal in 2007. The judge's 2010 decision found that the plaintiffs had failed to prove anthroposophy is a religion. In 2012, a higher court affirmed the lower court's 2010 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.

Religious classes are a mandatory school offering in some German federal states, whereby each religious denomination provides its own teachers for the Waldorf schools' religion classes; such schools also offer a non-denominational religion class. Religion classes are universally absent from American Waldorf schools.

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 expressed by the founder of Waldorf education, Rudolf Steiner."

Immunization

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

Concerns have been raised about the extent of vaccination in Waldorf schools. The Australian has reported concerns among parents that Australian Waldorf schools have discouraged immunization, and 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, agreeing 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