Steiner Education

A Steiner Waldorf education differs from other forms of education as it aims to educate the whole body, this meaning the ‘head, heart and hands’. A Waldorf school caters for children from the age of three or four to the age of eighteen or nineteen. Rudolf Steiner set up his school bearing in mind the changing need of the child as they mature into adults.

The first Waldorf School was set up in Germany in 1919 by Emil Molt. During the last six years of his life Rudolf Steiner committed himself to the creation of this school based on his idea of what education should be. Steiner believed that a child developed in three stages, each stage lasting approximately seven years; the first stage being ‘the young child’. From birth to age seven a child learns through imitation and example. The second stage is believed to be from age eight to fourteen, at this age a child learns through their relationship with who teaches them. Children at this age need someone with authority and discipline; they must also have trust and love for the one that teaches them. Finally, the adolescence stage, from fifteen to twenty one they require respect and freedom. Also, pupils at this age need an expert in their field; therefore teachers of the upper school are ‘Specialist Teachers’ (Trostli, 1998).

With regards to the younger pupils attending a Rudolf Steiner school, formal education does not begin until a child has grown their adult teeth. This is due to a belief that a child needs ‘all his powers for his bodily task’ and introducing a formal education at the same time would be effecting a child’s natural development. Similarly, reading isn’t introduced to pupils until later in their education. In Waldorf education children begin to learn through movement and gesture, then through painting and drawing to writing and finally these skills will take them into reading (Edmunds, 1962, p. 19 & 36).

An interesting feature of a Waldorf school is their whole school participation. This can be seen in the ‘Children’s Festival’ they have a couple of times a year. The Children’s Festival consists of children of all ages in the school presenting to the rest of the school what they have been working on in class. Some examples of what they might present are; a play, instrument demonstrations, singing, etc. The range of ages in the school gives Waldorf pupils a different educational experience to the average pupil. The older students have the opportunity to reflect on their own childhood years from working closely with the younger pupils, and the younger children have the opportunity to foresee what is to come in their years ahead (Edmunds, 1962, p. 83).

References

Edmunds, L. F. (1962). Rudolf Steiner Education: The Waldorf Impulse. Hertfordshire: The Garden City Press Limited.

Trostli, R. (1998). Introduction. In R. Trosli, Rhythms of Learning: What Waldorf Education Offers Children, Parents & Teachers (pp. 20-22). Barrington: Anthroposophic Press.