Waldorf Education

Developed by Rudolf Steiner in 1919, Waldorf Education is based on a profound understanding of human development that addresses the needs of the growing child. Waldorf teachers strive to transform education into an art that educates the whole child—the heart and the hands, as well as the head.

"When children relate what they learn to their own experience, they are interested and alive, and what they learn becomes their own. Waldorf schools are designed to foster this kind of learning."—Henry Barnes, a longtime Waldorf teacher and the former Chairman of the Board of AWSNA

The Waldorf school responds to student needs with a most remarkable offering: providing a Class Teacher as the key authority for the time between the "change of teeth" and the onset of puberty. Ideally, this teacher, though by no means the only teacher of the class, accompanies the children through all eight grades of elementary school.

During these years—grades one through eight—the basic skills of literacy and numeracy are acquired. The children engage in a variety of cultural activities that cultivate the imaginative faculties—drawing, painting, poetry recitation, drama, singing, playing a musical instrument, and so on. During both the practical and cultural activities, however, the essence of the teacher's task is to work with his pupils with the imagination of an artist.

To support such an approach, all aspects in a Waldorf school—from the classroom furnishings to the way a poem is recited, from the pen a pupil uses to the exercises done in the gymnasium—are considered with two criteria in mind: they should be functional and they should be beautiful. For the child, this guarantees a caring authority that produces a stimulating effect on all his inner and outer senses.

Waldorf EducationBy April Garrett

Just as the handmade, home-farmed foodie movement is transforming how consumers view processed food, is education’s equivalent—Waldorf-style schooling that favors hands-on art and personal exploration while shunning textbooks and technology—just what school reform needs? (Pappano, 2011)

"Waldorf schools, unlike most American schools," afford children "a balanced diet" focused on academic achievement and "the development of imagination." -Elliot Eisner, acclaimed Stanford researcher.

Steiner believed that education should be holistic. In shaping the first Waldorf school, he said that from the start there was to be no classification of children into intellectual “streams,” no class lists, no examinations, no holding back in a grade or promoting to a grade, no prizes, no honors boards, no reports, no compulsory homework, and no punishments of additional learning material. It was to be a school where teachers and children meet as human beings to share and experience the knowledge of human evolution and development in the world (Morrison, 1993).

The three stages of development in childhood are birth to seven years of age, seven to fourteen years of age, and finally fourteen to twenty-one years of age. Waldorf Education for the birth to seven stage concentrates on learning through activity (Hands), seven to fourteen through the feelings (Heart), and fourteen to twenty-one through thinking (Head).

In school, Waldorf children are taught age-appropriate lessons in art (first and foremost), music, carpentry, handwork (knitting, sewing), reading, nature study, writing, geography, movement, foreign languages and, of course, the core subjects like Math and Science.All of these, in a more creative manner such that concepts are not merely dished out to students but presented as “living” lessons that will make enough impact to be remembered for a very long time. (Morales, 2012)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-m-eger/the-technosavvy-favor-a-n_b_1293039.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mara-menachem/knitting-is-more-important-than-homework_b_3612321.html