What is Waldorf Education?

  • Waldorf is a 100 year old educational philosophy created by Rudolf Steiner shortly after WWI.

  • It is the fastest growing educational movement worldwide. There are over 2,900 schools across 70 countries.

  • Focuses on educating the whole child - the heart, soul and body.

  • Emphasizes the role of imagination in learning while also striving to integrate holistically the intellectual, practical, and artistic development of the students.

  • Curriculum is thoughtfully presented to the child in a way that respects their stage of child development.

  • Encourages a role in the global community, highlights a connection to nature, second language programs from a young age, and strong social and communication skills

  • Waldorf schools cultivate a love of lifelong learning and self-knowledge.

waldorf prepares children for:

  1. Community building through shared values.

  2. Collaborative Leadership practices

  3. Three strands focus: Eco-literacy, digital-literacy and Social-literacy

  4. An outdoor education program that supports and enhances all 4 elements above

Principles 

Core principles shared by all Waldorf Schools:

(as articulated for this purpose, by Bonnie River) 

  1. Humanity is spiritually developing with capacities that create peace ~ individually and globally

  2. Education must foster these capacities 

  3. A child develops these capacities as social, emotional and spiritual 

  4. Spiritual capacity is also evidenced as academic ability to express the essentials of values in number and letter. 

  5. A Waldorf Teacher is a lifelong student of the underlying philosophy of the Education… Anthroposophy 

  6.  A Waldorf Teacher maintains a discipline of inner work including meditation, focus on the spiritual nature of individual students, and sacrifice toward creating community/cultural harmony 

PRACTICES 

  1. Waldorf Schools support all cultures and religions without adhering to any one of these as necessary to the definition of being ‘Waldorf”. 

  2.  A Waldorf School is ‘Culturally Creative’ and brings to the community a global view of human celebration

  3. A Waldorf Teacher is committed first and foremost to the long term well-being of a class of children and understands that a basis of the education (The 2nd stream of the curriculum)  is the forming of healthy class community in which the children learn to negotiate, foster strengths in the other and accept differences. 

  4. Waldorf Education’s 5 R’s are Rigor, Relevance, Relationshp, Rhythm, Respect.  

Rigor ~ in academic achievement and self expression 

Relevance ~ learning for the sake of knowing the necessary from the non-essential 

Relationship ~ knowing how, when, and where to work together for the common good of all