Waldorf Schooling

There are many types of schools around the world that have been affective for many years. One type is Waldorf education. Waldorf education views the child as whole humans who need to develop their mind, body, and spirit. This approach gives the children an opportunity to explore the world around them. Waldorf education tries to make the children who come out of this program well rounded individuals. Waldorf education was found by an Austrian educational philosopher named Rudolf Steiner. This man was a very intellectual man who had many thoughts about spirituality. He developed his own form of spiritual science. This science was called anthroposophy. The back bone of this science was that there was a spiritual world that can only be accesses through higher intellectual thinking. Anthroposophy said it was important for the mind, body, and spirit to grow. This is where he came up with the education that addressed all three aspects. He had many beliefs of how the child develops. The educational curriculum was based around these three beliefs: “Children grow through three distinct developmental phases, the highest pursuit of education should be to develop the whole child to become a free creative thinker capable of self-actualization, and all children should have the right and access to this form of schooling.” (Follari, 2011, p. 243). When creating the Waldorf School, Steiner made sure that the schools were running under four key conditions. The four conditions were that, “the school was open to all children (race, class, ethnicity, ability level), the school was coeducational (accepting boys and girls), the K-12 curriculum was viewed as a unified, complete program, and the teacher bored the primary responsibility for control of the administration of the school, with minimal outside interference.” (Follari, 2011, p. 243). The first Waldorf School opened in Germany in 1919. This school was for the children of the workers at the Waldorf –Astoria cigarette factory.

References: (2005). What is Waldorf education?. In AWE. Americans for Walford Education. Retrieved March 3, 2011, from http://americans4waldorf.org/Waldorf.html. Early Years in Steiner Waldorf education. In Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship. Retrieved March 3, 2011, from http://www.steinerwaldorf.org/earlyyears.html. Follari, L. M. (2011). Foundations and Best Practices in Early Childhood Education: History, Theories, and Approaches to Learning Waldorf Education. In Education Resource. Retrieved March 3, 2011, from http://www.thecatalyst.org/resource/2006/04/21/Waldorf-Education/. What is Steiner Education?. In Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship. Retrieved March 3, 2011, from http://www.steinerwaldorf.org/whatissteinereducation.html.