 THE UPSIDE In Waldorf's Favor Steiner Schools and Their Namesake Including "Waldorf Graduates" What can we say for Rudolf Steiner? Why did he attract a following in his own time? Why does he still have admirers today? And, more important, what are the virtues of the school system he created — Waldorf schools, also known as Steiner schools? Perhaps Steiner's most obvious asset was intelligence. He was very bright. In addition, he had breathtaking versatility: He did work in a wide array of fields — intellectual, spiritual, artistic, agricultural, and social. He was a genuine polymath. He was extremely well versed in his central subject, occultism or esotericism. He had studied the work of prior spiritual thinkers and he made numerous “improvements" to their teachings. His theology and cosmology are intricate and wonderfully detailed. His vision was extremely reassuring. He placed humanity at the very center of the universe, loved by the gods, and destined for divinity. (His most immediate influence was Theosophy, which places God or the gods — theos — at the center. Anthroposophy puts man — anthropos — at the center.) Steiner was essentially affirmative. His teachings emphasize love, reverence, spiritual improvement, freedom, beauty, and other highly desirable attributes. Much of this tends to look different when we examine precisely what Steiner meant by these things — Anthroposophy and Waldorf often look different on second thought than at first blush — still, the attraction of his teachings is undeniable. We need to bear all this in mind when critiquing Steiner and the results of his doctrines. Admiration of Steiner is fundamental to the Waldorf movement, and that admiration is not hard to understand. If we ultimately decide that there are deep problems both in the movement and in the thinking (largely Steiner’s) that fuels it, we need to recognize the context of admiration in which the movement grew and exists today. Here is an assortment of quotations in which Steiner explains the rationale behind Waldorf education. He uses many alluring words that are virtually guaranteed to elicit our approval — love, beauty, joy, truth. The question is whether the statements he makes about these concepts make sense. Steiner allures, but does he do more? [To consider what Waldorf teachers say today, long after Steiner's departure, see "Today", "Today Too, and "Today 3". Spokesmen for Waldorf education still use the terms and propositions set out by Steiner. Waldorf education now is much as it was originally. If it had merit then, it still has merit in the same measure. But if it never had much merit...]
Waldorf schools encourage children to find beauty, especially inner beauty:  Waldorf schools stress the arts: Music and dance are important in Waldorf schooling: Waldorf schools put little academic pressure on students, leaving them plenty of time to play and muse: "Although it is necessary, especially today, for people to be completely awake later in life, it is equally necessary to let children live in their gentle dreamy experiences as long as possible, so that they move slowly into life. They need to remain as long as possible in their imaginations and pictorial capacities without intellectuality." [Rudolf Steiner, A MODERN ART OF EDUCATION (Anthroposophic Press, 2004), pp. 103-104.] Waldorf education addresses the "whole child": "Educators must keep this truth very clearly in mind. They must make sure that the child’s whole being is moved. Consider, from this point of view, telling legends and fairy tales. If you have the right feeling for the stories and tell them from your own inner qualities, the way you tell them enables children to feel something of what is told with the whole body. Then you really address the child’s astral body. Something radiates from the astral body up into the head, something that the child should feel there. You should have the sense that you are gripping the whole child and that, from the feelings and excitement you arouse, an understanding of what you are saying comes to the child." [Rudolf Steiner, PRACTICAL ADVICE TO TEACHERS (Anthroposophic Press, 2000), p. 15.] [2] "The materialistic worldview turns away from the human being, and develops a monstrous indifference in the teacher toward the most intimate movements of the souls of those being educated." [Rudolf Steiner, THE ESSENTIALS OF EDUCATION (Anthroposophic Press, 1997), p. 10.] [3]Waldorf education rejects materialism: Waldorf schools honor nature and they promote green values: Waldorf schools downplay technological devices such as TVs and computers because of the underlying immorality of the forces involved: If they follow Steiner's directives, Waldorf teachers approach their students with reverence. “The unfolding of the child’s being must fill us as teachers with feelings of reverence — indeed, we could speak of priestly feelings ... This mood of soul allows us to see the child as a being sent down to Earth by the Gods to incarnate in a physical body. It arouses within us the proper attitude of mind for our work in the school." [Rudolf Steiner, THE ROOTS OF EDUCATION (Anthroposophic Press, 2004), p. 60.] Waldorf teachers try to express and evoke love: "Bring love to your teaching, and if you succeed in awakening the right kind of love in the children something besides joy will develop in them. Loyal affection and devotion to the teacher will grow in the children so that they come to feel: there are many difficult things we must do, but for that teacher I will do the hard things." [Rudolf Steiner, BALANCE IN TEACHING (Anthroposophic Press, 2007), p. 57.] The love expressed by Waldorf teachers serves spiritual needs: Waldorf education stresses joy, finding in it the power of physical development: "The joy of children in and with their environment must therefore be counted among the forces that build and shape the physical organs. They need teachers that look and act with happiness and, most of all, with honest unaffected love. Such a love that streams, as it were, with warmth through the physical environment of the children may be said to literally 'hatch' the forms of the physical organs." [Rudolf Steiner, THE EDUCATION OF THE CHILD (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), p. 22.] Waldorf teachers strive to be nearly flawless role models: "The child wants to see the world as living behind the teacher, who must not fail now to confirm the stu dent’s heartfelt conviction that the teacher is properly attuned to the world, and embodies truth, beauty, and goodness. At this stage, the unconscious nature of children tests the teacher as never before. They want to discover whether the teacher is truly worthy of representing the entire world." [Rudolf Steiner, THE CHILD’S CHANGING CONSCIOUSNESS (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), pp. 114.] Waldorf teachers try to represent the heavenly and miraculous: "The reverence that is needed to make education effective, something that can take on a religious quality, will arise if you as a teacher are conscious that when around the seventh year you call forth from the child’s soul the forces that are used when the child learns to draw and to write, these actually come down from heaven! The child is the mediator, and you are actually working with forces sent down from the spiritual world. When this reverence for the divine-spiritual permeates your teaching, it truly works miracles." [Rudolf Steiner, BALANCE IN TEACHING (Anthroposophic Press, 2007), pp. 16-17.] Waldorf teachers try to conduct themselves as if in holy orders: ‘[W]e feel direct contact with the spiritual world, which is incarnating and unfolding before our very eyes, right here in the sensory world. Such an experience provides a sense of responsibility toward one’s tasks as a teacher, and with the necessary care, the art of education attains the quality of a religious service. Then, amid all our practical tasks, we feel that the gods themselves have sent the human being into this earthly existence, and they have entrusted the child to us for education. With the incarnating child, the gods have given us enigmas that inspire the most beautiful divine service." [Rudolf Steiner, WALDORF EDUCATION AND ANTHROPOSOPHY, Vol. 2 (Anthroposophic Press, 1997), p. 161.] Waldorf education stresses virtue: "Here we need to consider three human virtues — concerning, on the one hand, the child’s own development, and on the other hand, what is seen in relation to society in general. They are three fundamental virtues. The first concerns everything that can live in will to gratitude; the second, everything that can live in the will to love; and third, everything that can live in the will Lecture Si"125 to duty. Fundamentally, these are the three principal human vir tues and, to a certain extent, encompass all other virtues." [Rudolf Steiner, THE CHILD’S CHANGING CONSCIOUSNESS (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), pp. 124-125.] Waldorf education aims to promote healthy development of the body and brain through good examples and morality: Conceiving their belief system to be a science ("spiritual science") rather than a religion, Waldorf teachers work to enable children to choose their own religions: "Through appealing to the children’s soul-life in religion lessons — that is, by presenting our subject pictorially rather than through articles of faith or in the form of moral commandments — we grant them the freedom to find their own religious orientation later in life. It is extremely important for young people, from puberty right Lecture Four 93 into their twenties, to have the opportunity to lift, by their own strength, what they first received through their soul life — given with a certain breadth from many perspectives — into conscious individual judgments. It will enable them to find their own way to the divine world." [Rudolf Steiner, THE CHILD’S CHANGING CONSCIOUSNESS (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), pp. 124-125.] Waldorf schools stress freedom: "[I]nsofar as children between the change of teeth and puberty are concerned [i.e., from ages 7 to 14], authority is absolutely necessary. It is a natural law in the life of the souls of children. Children at this particular stage in life who have not learned to look up with a natural sense of surrender to the authority of the adults who brought them up, the adults who educated them, cannot grow into free human beings. Freedom is won only through a voluntary surrender to authority during childhood." [Rudolf Steiner, THE CHILD’S CHANGING CONSCIOUSNESS (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), p. 54.] [5] Waldorf education aims to lead to children to veneration and reverence: Waldorf education spurns dead, abstract thinking: Waldorf education stresses "living thoughts" that come to us from the cosmic ether: “The cosmic ether, which is common to all, carries within it the thoughts; there they are within it, those living thoughts of which I have repeatedly spoken in our anthroposophical lectures, telling you how the human being participates in them in pre-earthly life before he comes down to Earth. There, in the cosmic ether, are contained all the living thoughts there are; and never are they received from the cosmic ether during the life between birth and death [i.e., we don't get them during our lives here on Earth]. No; the whole store of living thought that man holds within him, he receives at the moment when he comes down from the spiritual world — when, that is, he leaves his own living element, his own element of living thought, and descends and forms his ether body. Within this ether body, within that which is the building and organising force in man, are the living thoughts; there they are, there they still are.” [Rudolf Steiner, EDUCATION FOR SPECIAL NEEDS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1999), p. 37.] Waldorf education downplays the brain, which does not really give us truth: Waldorf schools emphasize imagination: Waldorf schools minimize the amount of factual information that both students and teachers must carry around in their heads: "Awful things are happening in teacher education, wherein candidates are often expected to carry an unnecessary burden of factual knowledge in their heads just to pass examinations." [Rudolf Steiner, SOUL ECONOMY: Body, Soul and Spirit in Waldorf Education (Anthroposophic Press, 2003), p. 170.] Waldorf teachers, basing their work in Steiner's description of human nature, are given wide latitude to plan their own classes: "I do not want to make you into teaching machines, but into free independent teachers. Everything spoken of during the past two weeks was given to you in this same spirit. The time has been so short that, for the rest, I must simply appeal to the understanding and devotion you will bring to your work. Turn your thoughts again and again to all that has been said that can lead you to understand the human being, and especially the child. It will help you in all the many questions of method that may arise." [Rudolf Steiner, DISCUSSIONS WITH TEACHERS (Anthroposophic Press, 1997), pp. 181-182.] Waldorf teachers use clairvoyance, but they don't try to force others to become clairvoyant: Unlike many preachers, Waldorf teachers know the truth about the gods, and they try to explain this to their students: "[A]ttempt to explain that there are higher gods, the archangels. (Here you gradually come into something you can observe in history and geography.) These archangels exist to guide whole groups of human beings, that is, the various peoples and such. You must teach this clearly so that the children can learn to differentiate between the god spoken of by Protestantism, for instance, who is actually only an angel, and an archangel, who is higher than anything that ever arises in the Protestant religious teachings." [Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 46.] [10] Waldorf teachers do not try to force Anthroposophy on their students, but they naturally bring it into the classroom: “You need to make the children aware that they are receiving the objective truth, and if this occasionally appears anthroposophical, it is not anthroposophy that is at fault. Things are that way because anthroposophy has something to say about objective truth. It is the material that causes what is said to be anthroposophical. We certainly may not go to the other extreme, where people say that anthroposophy may not be brought into the school. Anthroposophy will be in the school when it is objectively justified, that is, when it is called for by the material itself.” [Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 495.] Anthroposophical art tends to have spiritual and even religious significance. Here are studies of details from two paintings intended for the Anthroposophical headquarters, the Goetheanum, which is located in Switzerland.  Eye and Ear / Elohim, detail THE GOETHEANUM CUPOLA MOTIFS OF RUDOLF STEINER (SteinerBooks, 2011), p. 55 [R. R. copy, 2011]  Ancient Indian / Atlantis, detail THE GOETHEANUM CUPOLA MOTIFS OF RUDOLF STEINER (SteinerBooks, 2011), p. 76 [R. R. copy, 2011]
Sometimes the upside of Waldorf schooling is illusory. Waldorf schools often get good press, but you shouldn't believe everything you read. Here is a message I sent in December, 2011, to the Waldorf Critics discussion page I have adjusted to endnote numbers to be consistent with this page: Waldorf schools are reveling in the favorable (and largely uninformed) press coverage they've gotten recently, mainly in THE NEW YORK TIMES and on NBC NIGHTLY NEWS. In both cases, the schools were held up as lovely outposts of good, old-fashioned, face-to-face learning as opposed to soulless, pressured, rat-race reliance on techno gadgetry. Reporters have a hard time covering Waldorf schools, especially when the reporters are working on deadline and have little or no prior knowledge of the subject. Waldorf schools can dazzle, at least initially. They are usually quite attractive, full of lovely art, and staffed by obviously sincere teachers. The students are often relaxed and generally happy (in part because academic pressures are so minimal). There are gardens and crafts rooms and arts studios... The schools appear quite lovely. Crucially, reporters rarely come to grips with the doctrines behind the schools. Partially this is because the doctrines are so strange, and partially it is because Waldorf faculties are usually quite good at concealing their beliefs and objectives. Rudolf Steiner coaxed Waldorf teachers to keep mum, and they have usually complied. Thus, for instance, Steiner told teachers at the first Waldorf school, "[D]o not attempt to bring out into the public things that really concern only our school. I have been back only a few hours, and I have heard so much gossip about who got a slap and so forth ... We should be quiet about how we handle things in the school, we should maintain a kind of school confidentiality. We should not speak to people outside the school, except for the parents who come to us with questions, and in that case, only about their children, so that gossip has no opportunity to arise." [11] Steiner said that Waldorf teachers should conceal the religious nature of Waldorf schooling, for instance by calling morning prayers "verses." (At most Waldorf schools, teachers and students start each day by reciting prayers, usually prayers written by Steiner himself.) "We also need to speak about a prayer. I ask only one thing of you. You see, in such things everything depends upon the external appearances. Never call a verse a prayer, call it an opening verse before school. Avoid allowing anyone to hear you, as a faculty member, using the word `prayer.'" [12] Sometimes Steiner told the teachers to conceal their beliefs even from their students — such as the belief that there is no universal force of gravity. Teach the kids about gravity, he said, but only because we would look bad otherwise. "Over there is a bench and on it is, let us say, a ball ... [T]he ball falls to the ground ... Saying that the ball is subject to the force of gravity is really meaningless ... But we cannot avoid speaking of gravity ... Just imagine if a fifteen-year-old boy knew nothing of gravity; there would be a terrible fuss." [13] In other cases, Steiner's guidance to Waldorf teachers was somewhat confusing. For instance, he said that islands and continents float in the sea. He instructed Waldorf teachers not to tell the kids about this, but he also said that the teachers should somehow "achieve" this belief in class. "[I]slands do not sit directly upon a foundation; they swim and are held fast from outside ... Such things are the result of the cosmos, of the stars ... However, we need to avoid such things. We cannot tell them to the students ... we would acquire a terrible name. Nevertheless, that is actually what we should achieve in geography." [14] The deepest secrets Steiner told Waldorf teachers to guard are those that involve basic but highly controversial Anthroposophical doctrines, such as the belief that some people are less highly evolved than others. Indeed, Steiner taught, some people are not really human at all but are subhuman. But for heaven's sake, he said, don't let this secret out. "I do not like to talk about such things since we have often been attacked even without them. Imagine what people would say if they heard that we say there are people who are not human beings ... [W]e do not want to shout that to the world." [15] All of this is bizarre, most of it is kept well-hidden, and some of it is hateful. Reporters who write about Waldorf schools really should do enough digging to uncover such secrets. Grasping at least some of the bizarre doctrines of Anthroposophy is essential to a proper evaluation of Waldorf schooling. These doctrines and secrets show how far removed Waldorf thinking is from reality and how secretive Waldorf faculties can be. Failing to uncover such things is a fundamental failure in the practice of good journalism, and it is a grave disservice to parents who may be badly misled by happy-talk superficial press reports. Parents may wind up sending their children to schools that are, in reality, outposts of a weird, occult belief system — a belief system that might horrify the parents if it became known. [16] (Anyone interested can find more on these matters at, for instance, http://sites.google.com/site/waldorfwatch/secrets - Roger
Waldorf Graduates “What I like about the Waldorf School is, quite simply, its graduates. As a high school teacher at Marin Academy, I have seen a number of the students who come from your program, and I can say that in all cases they have been remarkable, bright, energetic and involved.” — James Shipman, History Department, Marin Academy, San Raphael, California, in a message to a Waldorf school. Evaluations of Waldorf school graduates run the gamut. Sometimes Waldorf grads are described as sweet souls who are incapacitated for life in the real world. But sometimes a very different evaluation is offered in statements like the one above. If we shave off a bit to eliminate obvious exaggeration (are ALL Waldorf graduates “remarkable, bright, energetic and involved”?), a testimonial like this is impressive. A student’s primary attributes are innate. A bright, energetic child has been born with that level of intelligence and vigor. Such a child will probably do well in any school, and upon graduation such a student will make any school look good. But it would be wrong to credit the school with creating the student's impressive attributes. At most, we can honor a school for nurturing a child's natural endowments and not squelching them. Of course, this in itself is no mean achievement, and it deserves commendation. The greatest influences on a child usually come from her/his family. A bright, energetic child born into a loving, supportive family has a tremendous set of factors working in her/his favor. Such a child will almost certainly do well in life, perhaps very well. So, once again, giving the credit to the child’s school would probably be unjustified. (Waldorf schools have usually been selective, private schools chosen by caring, supportive families. Thus, family influences may indeed be the major factor in any success attained by Waldorf students.) Of course, we should not underplay the influence a school can have. It can be significant. Waldorf schools may harm children if they lure them into a mystical worldview divorced from reality. On the other hand, some values stressed by Waldorf schools can have distinctly potent benefits. Waldorf schools stress freedom and they encourage their students to think outside the box. These are powerful, highly desirable values. To understand what Waldorf schools mean by such things, however, we need to define our terms carefully. Rudolf Steiner taught that human beings should be free in spiritual matters, but he downplayed and even rejected the concept of freedom in other areas. [See “Threefolding”.] Even in the realm of spirit, Steiner's concept of freedom is limiting. Primarily, he meant freeing oneself of desires, attitudes, and thoughts that can be spiritually injurious. Secondarily, he meant that every person should be free to make her/his own choices in spiritual matters, deciding what spiritual system or religion to embrace. On the other hand, he made it clear that there is only one correct choice — following his own guidance, embracing Anthroposophy. You are free to make a different choice, but choosing anything contrary to Steiner's doctrines would be calamitous — you would be freely choosing error, evil, and self-destruction. [See "Freedom".] Steiner included education in the spiritual sphere. Thus, he said that we should make our own free choices in educational matters. The practical consequence of this approach is that, in Waldorf belief, Waldorf schools should be free of all supervision from outside. Likewise, each Waldorf teacher should be free to teach as s/he thinks best. Students, clearly, do not have similar freedom — they are not yet ready to make their own decisions. Likewise, parents have limited freedom, Steiner said. After a family chooses a Waldorf school, the parents should step aside allow the teachers to do as they think best. [17] The value Waldorf schools place on freedom is conditional and limited. As for thinking outside the box: This may be the greatest benefit Waldorf schools confer to their students. Waldorf schools do indeed stress unconventional thinking. They encourage students to be skeptical of conventional wisdom and authority. They encourage students to reject much of what passes for wisdom in the outside world. The resulting mindset is what outsiders often notice in Waldorf graduates: an unusual way of looking at the world, an apparently original and refreshing point of view. This apparent originality may not be what it seems, however. Waldorf schools lead their students to be skeptical of almost all forms of accepted belief except for one: their own. They encourage students to embrace the Waldorf point of view, the values and attitudes of Anthroposophy. Waldorf schools tend to immerse students in an unrelievedly Anthroposophical mental and spiritual atmosphere for years on end. This immersion can have deep consequences. Waldorf students may emerge expressing a healthy skepticism directed toward the beliefs and practices of the outside world while simultaneously cherishing an unthinking acceptance of the beliefs implanted in them by their Waldorf teachers. They may, in other words, fail to exercise skepticism toward Waldorf articles of faith because they have internalized those articles so deeply. The Waldorf perspective becomes, for many Waldorf graduates, not an arguable set of propositions but the obvious, unquestionable truth. [18] Our strengths are often our weaknesses, and this is certainly true of Waldorf schools. If the schools’ greatest strength is that they encourage students to doubt conventional wisdom, their greatest fault is that they tend to lead students toward Anthroposophy’s alternative, esoteric views. Sometimes they do this by teaching the students at least some of the actual doctrines of Anthroposophy, but far more often they withhold the specifics of those doctrines while inculcating feelings and attitudes that are consistent with Anthroposophy. [19] This process has sometimes been likened to brainwashing. Waldorf students are led — subtly, quietly, often without their parents’ knowledge or permission — toward eventual enrollment in the ranks of Anthroposophy. The kids are brought to Steiner's doorstep, in the hope that they will knock on the door and enter. [20]
ENDNOTES [1] The etheric body is one of three invisible bodies that Waldorf teachers believe incarnate as a child grows. See "Incarnation". It is also called the life body. As for evolution, this is a basic theme in Anthroposophy — the belief that we are evolving to higher and higher stages of spiritual consciousness. See "Evolution, Anyone?" and "Everything" and the essays that follow it. [2] See "Holistic Education". Also see "Fairy Tales". [3] In Anthroposophy, materialism is not mere love of material possessions — it is a worldview, the belief that only the material world exists, the world seen with the material senses and apprehended by the material brain. Thus, materialism is also the use of the material brain for thinking. See "Materialism U." and "Steiner's Specific". [4] See "Neutered Nature". [5] The Waldorf conception of freedom is essentially Germanic and is tightly bound up with concepts of obedience. Steiner was not a proponent of liberalism or democracy. "Please do not think I am trying to promote conservative or reactionary tendencies by what I am going to say, but it is true that, inasmuch as education is concerned, there was greater freedom during the times when liberalism was nonexistent—not to mention democracy. Lack of freedom has crept in only during the times of liberalism and democracy." [Rudolf Steiner, THE CHILD’S CHANGING CONSCIOUSNESS (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), p. 203.] [6] To understand the Waldorf concept of "inner perception," see "Thinking Cap" and "Clairvoyance". For the Waldorf view of temperament, see "Humouresque" and "Temperaments". [7] In Waldorf belief, the astral body is the second of our invisible bodies; it is higher than the etheric body and lower than the ego body. See "The Brief Waldorf / Steiner Encyclopedia". [8] True cognition, in Waldorf belief, is clairvoyance. See "Clairvoyance". [9] Imagination, according to Steiner, is a preliminary form of clairvoyance. Higher forms are inspiration and intuition. See "The Brief Waldorf / Steiner Encyclopedia". [10] In Waldorf belief, there are nine ranks of gods. The spirits often called "angels" are the lowest rank of gods, while the "archangels" are the second rank. See "Polytheism". [11] Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 10. It is worth noting that Steiner classed parents as outsiders. He said teachers can tell you about your own child but not much else. [12] Ibid., p. 20. [13] Rudolf Steiner, PRACTICAL ADVICE TO TEACHERS (Anthroposophical Press, 2000), pp. 116-117. [14] FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), pp. 607-608. [15] Ibid., pp. 649-650. [16] As Steiner said, "Anthroposophy will be in the school." [Ibid., p. 495.] The bizarre beliefs of Anthroposophy actually inform and guide everything that happens in Waldorf schools. Here are some descriptions of Waldorf education by Steiner's followers and by Steiner himself. Although the statements vary, they all come down to the same idea: The purpose of Waldorf education is to help students bring to Earth their supernal capacities and bodies, so that they may further their destinies in cooperation with the gods. In other words, the purpose of Waldorf education is to enact Anthroposophical doctrines. • "We [Waldorf teachers] want to be aware that physical existence is a continuation of the spiritual, and that what we have to do in education is a continuation of what higher beings [the gods] have done without our assistance. Our form of educating can have the correct attitude only when we are aware that our work with young people is a continuation of what higher beings have done before birth." — Rudolf Steiner, THE FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), p. 37. • "[Waldorf] education is essentially grounded on the recognition of the child as a spiritual being, with a varying number of incarnations behind him, who is returning at birth into the physical world ... Teachers too will know that it is their task to help the child to make use of his body, to help his soul-spiritual forces to find expression through it, rather than regarding it as their duty to cram him with information...." — Anthroposophist Stewart C. Easton, MAN AND WORLD IN THE LIGHT OF ANTHROPOSOPHY (Anthroposophic Press, 1989), pp. 388-389. • "Waldorf education strives to create a place in which the highest beings [i.e., gods], including the Christ, can find their home...." — Anthroposophist Joan Almon, WHAT IS A WALDORF KINDERGARTEN? (SteinerBooks, 2007), p. 53. • "Waldorf education is based upon the recognition that the four bodies of the human being [the physical, etheric, astral, and ego bodies] develop and mature at different times." — Waldorf teacher Roberto Trostli, RHYTHMS OF LEARNING: What Waldorf Education Offers Children, Parents & Teachers (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), pp. 4-5. • "[T]he purpose of [Waldorf] education is to help the individual fulfill his karma." — Waldorf teacher Roy Wilkinson, THE SPIRITUAL BASIS OF STEINER EDUCATION (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1996), p. 52. • "If, therefore, we are asked what the basis of a new method of education should be, our answer is: Anthroposophy must be that basis. But how many people there are, even in our own circles, who try to disclaim Anthroposophy as much as possible, and to propagate an education without letting it be known that Anthroposophy is behind it." — Rudolf Steiner, THE KINGDOM OF CHILDHOOD (SteinerBooks, 1995), p. 4. • "This is precisely the task of school. If it is a true school, it should bring to unfoldment in the human being what he has brought with him from spiritual worlds into this physical life on earth." — Rudolf Steiner, KARMIC RELATIONSHIPS , Vol. 1 (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1972), lecture 5, GA 235. [17] "Spiritual freedom is clearly the most developed area of a Waldorf school. If all is well in this area, every teacher is free to proceed with her or his task of education in his/her own way. This means that neither parents nor colleagues, nor least of all a board of trustees, have a right to give directions." — Dieter Brüll, THE WALDORF SCHOOL AND THE THREEFOLD STRUCTURE (Association of Waldorf Schools of North America, 1997), p. 64. [18] Waldorf graduates are sometimes characterized by distinct self-confidence, sometimes arising from their sense of possessing truth, and sometimes from the attention and encouragement that can be lavished on students in small, insular schools. On the other hand, it is also common for Waldorf grads to suffer from overpowering shyness and social awkwardness, having spent much of their lives cut off from the wider world. [19] See, e.g., the section "We Don't Teach It" in the essay "Spiritual Agenda". [20] The conditioning given by Waldorf teachers can be so discreet that Waldorf graduates may not realize how thoroughly they have been molded. Then, too, some students are more resistant to conditioning than others, so the effects of the Waldorf treatment can vary widely. Those students who are most affected, especially those who realize that they are on a path toward full, avowed acceptance of Anthroposophy, may be greatly strengthened as a result. This may or may not be judged beneficial. It is not uncommon for people to find strength and security in committing themselves to a movement, faith, religion, political ideology, or other organized social impulse. Indeed, this may be the main reason people are drawn to membership in such associations. The price paid often includes the loss of one's independence, autonomy, and rational appreciation of reality.  [R. R., 2011.] |