Q. I've noticed the kids in Waldorf schools don't read or use textbooks. Why not?

A. Textbooks are not entirely absent from Waldorf schools, but they are rare. Instead, the children often create their own texts — that is, "class books" or "lesson books" in which they record what they have "studied." That is the idea, anyway. In practice, what often happens is that the kids copy what their Waldorf teachers tell them verbally or write for them on the chalkboard. Even the illustrations in the students' notebooks are often copies of the teachers' work. There are several obvious drawbacks to this, the foremost being that the students are exposed to only one point of view: Everything they hear and see comes from their Waldorf teachers, who predominantly share a single point of view, the Anthroposophical point of view. This can be quite narrowing, leading kids along a single path — which, as it happens, is a mystical one. [See "Anthroposophy - What Is It?"]

If Waldorf teachers were truly experts at all subjects, then textbooks would be unnecessary. But this is far from the case. Waldorf teachers often know little of the wide world except what they have picked up from Anthroposophical doctrines, which are often severely detached from reality. Such teachers may, then, pass error — not truth — to their students. A former Waldorf teacher has reported this: 

“I have seen scores of [student] notebooks, copied and illustrated with enormous care and devotion and riddled with all kinds of errors, placed where parents and visitors are most likely to see them. I can assure you that I am not exaggerating.” [1]

The use of well-researched, mainstream textbooks would be a significant corrective for the flaws in Waldorf pedagogy. But because such books would contradict the cherished beliefs of Anthroposophists, they are usually rejected. Steiner set the Waldorf attitude toward textbooks when he said this:

“I have nothing against using a textbook, but all of them are bad.” [2]

Why are "all" textbooks bad? Because they include reams of material that run contrary to Anthroposophical beliefs. [3]

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[1] Keith Francis, THE EDUCATION OF A WALDORF TEACHER (iUniverse, 2004), p. 131.

[2] Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 284.

[3] See "Lesson Books".