How did Waldorf Education begin? Where and when did it originate? And what is Waldorf Pedagogy? Could it be outdated now, a hundred years after its inception?
In 1919, the year after the First World War ended, Emil Molt was director of a factory in Stuttgart, Germany, manufacturing cigarettes of the Waldorf Astoria brand named after his countryman Johann Jakob Astor.
Born 1763 in the village of Walldorf, Astor emigrated to the United States and became its wealthiest man, as well as a role model and beacon of hope for Europeans who crossed the Atlantic to seek their fortune in the New World.
The Founders
Director Emil Molt was socially minded and spiritually interested to a degree not commonly found in men of his position, and he approached Rudolf Steiner, a lecturer on spiritual science, with an unusual request:
Would he help to set up a school for the offspring of his factory’s workforce? A school where children could benefit from the spiritual insights that were drawing crowds to Steiner’s lectures?
Rudolf Steiner was happy to comply. He sketched the outline of a curriculum and placed it in the hands of a first circle of teachers.
These teachers were to try it out and develop it further, considering first and foremost the growing child’s developmental stages of body, soul and mind, and taking care to address their teaching to the particular needs of each age group in turn.
A New pedagogy
In a radical break with tradition, lessons were no longer to be about gradable achievements and quantifiable test results, about facts learnt by rote and parroted on request, limited to the set of skills which government and business world deemed necessary.
Instead, teaching was to be an art: the art of strengthening will forces, harmonising feelings and bringing order to thinking – beginning with the teacher’s own.
The goal was a balanced, healthy interplay of the soul forces Thinking, Feeling and Will, underpinned by the universal ideal of Goodness, Beauty and Truth. Both triads are cornerstones of the spiritual foundation on which Rudolf Steiner based what he spoke of as “the Waldorf method”.
A NEW Curriculum
In the summer of 1919, a seminar was held in Stuttgart to prepare the first Waldorf School’s staff, and Rudolf Steiner strove to open the mind of traditionally trained teachers to the methods he was proposing.
All of them were revolutionary:
- no segregation of boys and girls
- no uniforms
- no grades nor testing
- no achievements-based selection
- no repeating of classes
- no annual change of class teacher
- no corporal punishment
- no influence from the Church
- no more than the existentially necessary minimum of government influence
Instead:
- the world’s first gender-neutral curriculum
- treating all children as equals regardless of their social and ethnic background
- giving movement, arts and academic lessons equal value
- exploring topics in blocks, the Main Lessons, based on the developmental stages of the child
- providing whole-group learning experiences in an unbroken stream from Kindergarten to age 18/19
- having an affiliated class taught by an expert for children with particular educational needs
Termly festivals united the whole school to celebrate learning, as classes and their teachers showed each other what they had been working on. These events made younger children look forward to the coming stages of their learning journey, and older ones look back on their progress with fond memories.
The Difficulties
The transcripts of Steiner’s seminar prove that it was not at all easy for these teachers, rigorously trained academics, to change gear so suddenly and completely and transform themselves into a totally new kind of educator.
(Becoming a Waldorf teacher was a process then, remains so to this day and will be the challenge of future years.)
That same year, on the 7th of September, the cigarette factory’s Waldorf Schule opened its doors in a building that had been a restaurant. Not all pupils were from the employees’ families, because when word got out, other people wanted their children to attend as well.
Rudolf Steiner accompanied the school in his thoughts whenever he was away on lecture tours, but chaired its affairs and instructed the teachers when he could be present.
He spoke with great love and concern of “our Waldorf School” and was aware of the many difficulties and hostilities it faced.
Recommended Reading
A concise summary of the first school and the developing Waldorf School movement’s history as well as a detailed and excellent overview of all aspects of Waldorf pedagogy is in ‘The Five Dimensions of Waldorf Education in the Work of Rudolf Steiner’ by Valentin Wember, published 2016:
This book is recommended reading for anyone interested in Waldorf Education, or indeed critical of it.
And if it were studied by skeptics as well as the faculty, trustees and parents of every Waldorf School, the resulting increase in understanding would do wonders for the Waldorf School movement as it heads into its second century and the challenges of a new millennium.
Waldorf Education Today
The difficulties and hostilities Waldorf pedagogy faces are different today but have not decreased, though the beneficial results of its approach are now tested and validated.
In a time that sees stress and mental disorders among children and young people spiral out of control, the Waldorf Way is needed more than ever. And a health-giving pedagogy which strengthens the growing child must begin in kindergarten.
Society is paying a high price by ignoring it, attempting instead to patch up a system of education that is damaging in its short- and long-term effects, as alarmed healthcare experts are pointing out.
And then there is Sir Ken Robinson’s famously entertaining TED talk Do Schools Kill Creativity? in which he makes a compelling case for things that were an essential part of Rudolf Steiner’s pedagogy from the start.
Regrettably, Robinson makes no mention of Waldorf Education. Though his genuine concern for the ills of the traditional school system leads him to the right diagnosis, he passes over (or hushes up) the existing cure, and one wonders why.
Is Waldorf Education Outdated?
In the 100 years since its inception, the Waldorf Way has been steadily evolving from Steiner’s indications, developed by scores of dedicated, insightful and passionate teachers.
A few minor details in the transcripts of that first teachers’ seminar are no longer relevant now, but in general Waldorf pedagogy’s goals and purpose have not and cannot become obsolete.
To develop thinking, feeling and will forces in a way that is appropriate to the child’s age and supports its health, based on the moral ideal of Goodness, Beauty and Truth – this concept can never be considered outdated in any society that aims to become harmonious, fair and free.
It is indeed likely that if a nation were to adopt this pedagogy in all of its schools, the great majority of its societal ills would fade away in the course of two generations.
What is Different in Waldorf Education?
Aspiring Waldorf teachers, though under no obligation to do so, do well to study the aims Rudolf Steiner set out in the beginning, so that they may understand and apply them for the benefit of the children in their care.
This list, by no means complete, gives a few essential points for teachers:
- to base all teaching on a continuous study of the human being, ‘The Study of Man’
- to welcome each child as an individual, “a cosmic work of art” in Steiner’s words
- to recognise what each child brings from the spirit realm to the path of their earthly life
- to guide them in such a way that they can develop strengths and rise to challenges
- to impart a health-giving breathing rhythm to every lesson, not neglecting movement
- to understand the curriculum as a means of supporting the children’s development
- to help the children grow up to be self-directed adults, educating towards freedom
Education Towards Freedom
The book of this title was published in 1973 and encapsulates the Waldorf concept concisely. It remains a beautiful standard work for parents, teachers, alumni and other interested readers:
Waldorf Education Worldwide
At the time of writing, there are 1250+ Waldorf Schools and 1920+ Kindergartens in 70 countries worldwide, as well as numerous Charter Schools and an uncounted number of home educators – all striving to realise as much of the Waldorf Spirit as they can within their particular setting.
We may safely assume that the perfect Waldorf School does not exist anywhere, and yet attempts are made, day by day and with daily renewed effort, to bring it into being.
Like so many orchestras playing from the same magnificent musical score, the quality of sound they (the schools) produce depends on the level of skill of each musician, on the mastery of the conductor (college of teachers), and on the will of each member to devote hours of practice to their art, so that they may get ever closer to a faithful interpretation of the composer’s intentions.
Wrong notes and discords are heard fairly frequently, but they originate from individual participants and must not be blamed on the composer (Rudolf Steiner) or the score (Waldorf pedagogy).
It is an essential educational fact that we learn from mistakes as children, and as adults too, and Steiner’s insistence on freedom in education means that the human way of trial and error is part of the process.
That being so, his indications were given as a true compass, a helpful guide and a safety net, and it is only sensible not to ignore them.
I am a homeschool mom with one ready for grade 1 age 7, 3yr,1yr and nb. This was a very lovely article to read and will be getting the books recommended to read. We have started CM last year but have always been called to Waldorf. Your site and resources are giving me the courage to take that leap! Thank you! So happy I found this site!
That’s great to hear! I admire all who take on the magnificent task of educating several children at home and shall be interested to learn how my daily lesson plans for the classroom can be of help. All the best to you and your little learning group!
Beautifully written and concise explanation of the beginnings of this wonderful educational system.
Thank you for this lovely feedback, Sarah. Much appreciated!