Waldorf Education

Mr. Rudolf Steiner founded Waldorf education in 1919. “Rudolf Steiner was an Austrian philosopher, playwright and artist who lived between 1861 and 1925. He founded a spiritual movement called Anthroposophy, which works on the basis that children’s creative, spiritual and moral dimensions need as much attention as their intellectual ones”.  https://www.independent.co.uk/

Steiner developed the Waldorf education for cigarette factory worker’s children in Stuttgart, Germany just after the world war I. Steiner focused on teaching by the 7 lively arts. Drama, drawing, movement, music, modeling, painting and speech. “Steiner felt that offering the 7 lively arts to the students as part of the curriculum would be memorable experiences for them”. Instead, “Steiner encouraged teachers to foster what is artistic in the child because the artistic element strengthens the will. This is the core of the Waldorf hands-on approach to learning” https://waldorfinspiredlearning.com/

Waldorf added Story telling to the curriculum as part of seven lively arts, but it is not one that Steiner suggested.

Waldorf is a no-profit independent school.

The Waldorf signature/philosophy; “Educating the Head, Heart and Hands – the integration of thinking, feeling and willing (activity)”. https://waldorfinspiredlearning.com/

There are over a thousand Waldorf schools world wide, 150 in North America and 30 in Canada.

The Waldorf Education curriculum includes the seven multiple intelligences”.

Linguistic intelligence (“word smart”)

Logical-mathematical intelligence (“number/reasoning smart”)

Spatial intelligence (“picture smart”)

Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence (“body smart”)

Musical intelligence (“music smart”)

Interpersonal intelligence (“people smart”)

Intrapersonal intelligence (“self smart”)

Naturalist intelligence (“nature smart”) https://www.bing.com/

Waldorf education is based on the theory that childhood is made up of three different stages of about seven years each.

The first stage starts from birth to age seven. During the first stage, students engage in sensory activities. The second stage consist of the children who are between 7 and 14 years of age.  In this stage, students are guided to use their creative senses.  Third Stage (Adolescence) In this stage, is a “milestone in Waldorf education. Students mentor under specialists to develop their strengths in different subject areas. This is also when they get deeper into various scientific subjects”. https://waldorfinspiredlearning.com/

At Waldorf education, a teacher stays with the same class of students for 7 years. He/she teaches the students all the main academic subjects. “This method of teaching is similar at the home-schooling way of teaching”. https://waldorfinspiredlearning.com/

Waldorf has what they call “Taproot” and it is a teacher training program for parents that want to homeschool their children. Jean Miller is the homeschool mentor for the Waldorf Education. Waldorf offers pages and pages of information on curriculum and support for parents on their website.

Students at Waldorf Education do not use text books in the early years. But they do use very few during the higher grades. Students make their own books, by taking notes and using art as part of their understanding of the subjects been taught.

I tried to look for information on the preschool, but the website was very general. It was actually very overwhelming with the amount of information it had.

I had the opportunity to do my observation practicum at the Waldorf Education’s Preschool.

Their licence was posted as group center, capacity of 12 children, ages 30 months to 5 years. There were two educators.

They used all-natural materials, nothing plastic. Everything was made of wood, high quality paper, crochet dolls, sea shells and cloth towels.

The educators guided the children through singing. Every transition had a specific song, or at least that is what I thought based on my observation.

Note: Waldorf Education closed in June 2020 in the Comox Valley.

Waldorf educators got together and are now opening a new school, the “Daily Wonder Home Learning Hub”. www.dailywonder.ca