Embedded Files
In Waldorf education, there is a strong emphasis on the qualities of the educators and their own commitment to inner development, noting how children imitate these qualities and are shaped by their influence. Along with the qualities of the educators, the relationships formed with and amongst them is also of great importance. Howard (2007) writes that "the essential element in early childhood education is actually the educator, who shapes and influences the children’s environment, not only through the furnishings, activities, and rhythms of the day, but most important, through the qualities of her own being and her relationships: to the children and other adults in the kindergarten, to the parents, to daily life in the kindergarten, and to living on earth.”
The role and influence of educators, in Steiner's own words:
The role and influence of educators, in Steiner's own words:
“Every education is self-education, and as teachers we can only provide the environment for children’s self-education. We have to provide the most favorable conditions where, through our agency, children can educate themselves according to their own destinies. This is the attitude that teachers should have toward children, and such an attitude can be developed only through an ever-growing awareness of this fact.”
(Rudolf Steiner, The Child’s Changing Consciousness)
“If you make a surly face so that a child gets the impression you are a grumpy person, this harms the child for the rest of its life. What kind of school plan you make is neither here nor there; what matters is what sort of person you are.”
(Rudolf Steiner, The Kingdom of Childhood)
“Children do not learn through instruction or admonition, but through imitation.”
(Rudolf Steiner, The Education of the Child)
The Role of Imitation
The Role of Imitation
Steiner's belief that young children up to age seven learn through imitation is a guiding philosophy in Waldorf schools, and teachers must strive to be 'worthy of imitation.' While Steiner's belief in imitation was rooted in spiritual reasoning about the developmental stage of the 'etheric body,' for which there is not scientific evidence, research backs up the validity of the concept of imitation in infancy and early childhood. On the neuroscience level, experts believe that mirror neurons contribute to the process of imitation, and other researchers find that imitation is a sociocultural function that “serves an adaptive function for the young, which enhances learning and survival” (Meltzhoff and Marshall, 2018). So, regardless of Steiner's reasoning behind the presence and importance of imitation in the early childhood years, science does back up this claim and justifies the emphasis in Waldorf education placed on the qualities of the teachers, which will be imitated by the children in their care.
Essential experiences in Waldorf early childhood education according to Rudolf Steiner, made possible by and through the educators (Howard, 2007):
Love and warmth
"Children who live in an atmosphere of love and warmth, and who have around them truly good examples to imitate, are living in their proper element." -Rudolf Steiner, The Education of the Child
Care for the environment & nourishment for the senses
"The adult shapes not only the spatial environment, but also the temporal environment, creating a loving, lively yet orderly 'breathing' through rhythm and repetition" (Howard, 2007).
Creative, artistic experience
"...the teacher offers the children opportunities for artistic experiences through song and instrumental music, movement and gesture (including rhythmic games and eurythmy), speech and language (including verses, poetry, and stories), modeling, watercolor painting and drawing, puppetry and marionettes" (Howard, 2007).
Meaningful adult activity as an example for the child’s imitation
"The activities of children in kindergarten must be derived directly from life itself rather than being 'thought out' by the intellectualized culture of adults." -Rudolf Steiner, The Child's Changing Consciousness
Free, imaginative play
"The real educational value of play lies in the fact that we ignore our rules and regulations, our educational theories, and allow the child free rein." -Rudolf Steiner, Self-Education in the Light of Anthroposophy
Protection for the forces of childhood
"...the child must be allowed to remain as long as possible in the peaceful, dreamlike condition of pictorial imagination in which his early years of life are passed. For if we allow his organism to grow strong in this non-intellectual way, he will rightly develop in later life the intellectuality needed in the world today." -Rudolf Steiner, A Modern Art of Education
An atmosphere of gratitude, reverence, and wonder
"An atmosphere of gratitude should grow naturally in children through merely witnessing the gratitude the adults feel as they receive what is freely given by others, and in how they express this gratitude. If a child says 'thank you' very naturally – not in response to the urging of others, but simply through imitating – something has been done that will greatly benefit the child’s whole life." -Rudolf Steiner, The Child's Changing Consciousness
Joy, humor, and happiness
"They need teachers who look and act with happiness and, most of all, with honest, unaffected love." -Rudolf Steiner, The Education of the Child
Questions to explore:
How is the teacher’s earnestness and serious striving held in a dynamic balance with humor, happiness, and “honest, unaffected love?”
Are there moments of laughter and delight in the room? How does humor live in the community of children and adults?
(Howard, 2007)
Adult caregivers on a path of inner development
"This is the very challenging realm of self-knowledge and the activity of the individual ego of the adult – a realm where it is difficult to be objective in our observations. Yet ultimately it is this realm that may affect the development of the children most profoundly. It is not merely our outer activity that affects the developing child; it is what lies behind and is expressed through this outer activity. Ultimately the most profound influence on the child is who we are as human beings – and who and how we are becoming" (Howard, 2007).
Self-Reflection, Inner Development, & Inclusivity
Self-Reflection, Inner Development, & Inclusivity
The emphasis on teachers’ self-education and reflective processes in Waldorf education speaks to the possibility of a more inclusive early childhood environment, as these are key ingredients to culturally-responsive teaching and inclusive ECCE.
Page updated
Report abuse