HERE'S THE ANSWER

What Are Waldorf Schools?

"It is important that the youth of our Waldorf School talk less about questions of world perspective. The situation is that we need to create a mood, namely, that the teacher has something to say that the children should neither judge nor discuss. That is necessary, otherwise it will become trivial. An actual discussion lowers the content. Things should remain with simply asking questions. The children even in the tenth and eleventh grades should know that they can ask everything and receive an answer. For questions of religion and worldview, we need to maintain that longer. The religion teacher needs to retain a position of authority even after puberty. That is something I mentioned before in connection with the “discussion meetings.” They need to be avoided. If the children put forth questions of conscience, and you answer them, then there is nothing to say against that.

"We also need a second thing. The older students often mentioned that we emphasize that the Waldorf School is not to be an anthropo- sophical school. That is one of the questions we need to handle very seriously. You need to make the children aware that they are receiv- ing the objective truth, and if this occasionally appears anthropo- sophical, 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 would 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), pp. 494-495. 

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"A teacher: I have asked myself if my teaching has become worse.

"Dr. Steiner: The problem you have is that you have not always followed the directive to bring what you know anthroposophically into a form you can present to little children. You have lectured the children about anthroposophy when you told them about your subject. You did not transform anthroposophy into a child’s level. That worked in the beginning because you taught with such enormous energy. It must have been closer to your heart two years ago than what you are now teaching, so that you awoke the children through your enthusiasm and fire, whereas now you are no longer really there. You have become lazy and weak, and, thus, you tire the children. Before, your personality was active. You could teach the children because your personality was active. It is possible you slipped into this monotone. The children are not coming along because they have lost their attentiveness. You no longer work with them with the necessary enthusiasm, and now they have fallen asleep. You are not any dumber than you were then, but you could do things better. It is your task to do things better, and not say that you need to be thrown out. I am saying that you are not using your full capacities. I am speaking about your not wanting to, not your not being able to." — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), pp. 402-403.

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"[Y]ou will need the strength to look at things in a radical way and not give in to a tendency for compromise. As you know, at least in the spirit of our endeavor, we have tried during this first year to work from such a firm position. I hope that will become clearer. As teachers in the Waldorf School, you will need to find your way more deeply into the insight of the spirit and to find a way of putting all compromises aside. It will be impossible for us to avoid all kinds of people from outside the school who want to have a voice in school matters. As long as we do not give up any of the necessary perspective we must have in our feelings, then any concurrence from other pedagogical streams concerning what happens in the Waldorf School will cause us to be sad rather than happy. When those people working in modern pedagogy praise us, we must think there is something wrong with what we are doing. We do not need to immediately throw out anyone who praises us, but we do need to be clear that we should carefully consider that we may not be doing something properly if those working in today’s educational system praise us. That must be our basic conviction.

"To the extent that I feel in a very living way what it means to you to have devoted your entire person to work of the Waldorf School, I would like to say something more. As Waldorf teachers, we must be true anthroposophists in the deepest sense of the word in our innermost feeling. We must be serious about an idea often mentioned as a foundation of Anthroposophy, one of importance for us. We should be aware that we came down from the spiritual worlds into the physical world at a particular time. Those we meet as children came later and, therefore, experienced the spiritual world for a time after we were already in the physical world. There is something very warming, something that strongly affects the soul, when you see a child as a being who has brought something from the spiritual world that you could not experience because you are older. Being older has a much different meaning for us. In each child, we greet a kind of emissary bringing things from the spiritual world that we could not experience. 

"A consciousness of the message that the child brings is a positive feeling that can be, and in fact, is, taken seriously by the Waldorf faculty. This awareness counteracts the decline of our civilization. It also counteracts the traditional religious beliefs preached from all the pulpits about eternity, that eternity following death toward which people look with that clever soul egotism because they do not want to cease to exist. People do not cease to exist, but what is important is how you arrive at the conviction of the eternal soul, whether you come to it through egotism or whether you have a living perspective and comprehension of the eternal human soul. A living comprehension will lead you to see the pre-existence of the soul, to see what the human being experienced before birth, to see that human life in the physical world is a continuation of previous experiences. Traditional religions strongly oppose preexistence, which can make a human being selfless. They strongly oppose those things that do not strive toward a murky and numbing uncomprehending belief, but toward knowledge and the clear light of comprehension." — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), pp. 118-119. 

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"One of the most important facts about the background of the Waldorf School is that we were in a position to make the anthroposophical movement a relatively large movement. The anthroposophical movement has become a large one. This is evident from the fact that difficult anthroposophical books go through many editions. Interest springs up everywhere ... The anthroposophical movement gathers together those people who have an intense human need, a soul need, to make headway with regard to the essence of the human being ... There are very many people today who realize that there is something here that can satisfy their spiritual interests. That is how it stands today, and I hope that its growth is guaranteed in spite of the scandalous opposition to it.

"But what we are lacking are people who are not merely interested in the anthroposophical movement becoming as large as possible and bringing forth as much spiritual content as possible, but who are also interested in making this anthroposophical movement happen, in being coworkers in its coming about. There are extraordinarily few of them. We have many people who listen, many who want something for themselves, but we have extraordinarily few people who are coworkers in the fullest sense of the word ... There are always a small number of friends who nearly have to run their legs off, work their fingers to the bone writing letters, and empty out their wallets. There are only a small number of them, the Waldorf teachers and a small number of others, and they are thoroughly overworked almost every month of the year because of their involvement. Actually, they are always terribly overworked." — Rudolf Steiner, RUDOLF STEINER IN THE WALDORF SCHOOL (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), pp. 156-157.  

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"Today's culture regards spirit and soul merely intellectually. Our cultural life does not include an actual and living spiritual life. And in the mainly Catholic central European countries, Catholicism has assumed forms that are no longer true, so that even there one cannot expect any help regarding the religious mediation of spiritual life. The Protestant spirital life has become more or less fully intellectualistic. As far as our school is concerned, the actual spiritual life can be present only because its staff consists of anthroposophists.” — Rudolf Steiner, EDUCATION FOR ADOLESCENTS (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), pp. 59-60.  

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"[W]hereas the child with a physical body develops the religious mood of the believer, the teacher, in gazing at the wonders that occur [in the child] between birth and the change of teeth, develops a 'priestly' religious attitude. The position of teacher becomes a kind of priestly office, a ritual performed at the altar of universal human life ... Our task is to ferry into earthly life the aspect of the child that came from the divine spiritual world ... Ponderings such things awakens something in us like a priestly attitude in education." — Rudolf Steiner, THE ESSENTIALS OF EDUCATION (Anthroposophic Press, 1997), p. 24.  

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“We can accomplish our work only if we do not see it as simply a matter of intellect or feeling, but, in the highest sense, as a moral spiritual task. Therefore, you will understand why, as we begin this work today, we first reflect on the connection we wish to create from the very beginning between our activity and the spiritual worlds. With such a task, we must be conscious that we do not work only in the physical plane of living human beings. In the last centuries, this way of viewing work has increasingly gained such acceptance that it is virtually the only way people see it. This understanding of tasks has made teaching what it is now and what the work before us should improve. Thus, we wish to begin our preparation by first reflecting upon how we connect with the spiritual powers in whose service and in whose name each one of us must work. I ask you to understand these introductory words as a kind of prayer to those powers [i.e., gods] who stand behind us with Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition as we take up this task." — Rudolf Steiner, THE FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), p. 33.

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"The most important thing is that there is always contact, that the teacher and students together form a true whole. That has happened in nearly all of the classes in a very beautiful and positive way. I am quite happy about what has happened.

"I can tell you that even though I may not be here, I will certainly think much about this school. It’s true, isn’t it, that we must all be permeated with the thoughts:

"First, of the seriousness of our undertaking. What we are now doing is tremendously important.

"Second, we need to comprehend our responsibility toward anthroposophy as well as the social movement.

"And, third, something that we as anthroposophists must particularly observe, namely, our responsibility toward the gods.

"Among the faculty, we must certainly carry within us the knowledge that we are not here for our own sakes, but to carry out the divine cosmic plan. We should always remember that when we do something, we are actually carrying out the intentions of the gods, that we are, in a certain sense, the means by which that streaming down from above will go out into the world. We dare not for one moment lose the feeling of the seriousness and dignity of our work.

"You should feel that dignity, that seriousness, that responsibility. I will approach you with such thoughts. We will meet one another through such thoughts.

"We should take that up as our feeling for today and, in that thought, part again for a time, but spiritually meet with one another to receive the strength for this truly great work." — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 55.

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"As with everything that can really be done, the moment we wish to join the school with Dornach [i.e., the Anthroposophical headquarters there] we are treading upon a path we once had to leave, had to abandon, because we were not up to the situation when we undertook it. That is the path of threefolding. If you imagine the Independent Waldorf School joined with the School of Spiritual Science, you must realize that could only occur under the auspices of what lies at the foundation of threefolding. We would be working toward a specific goal if all reasonable institutions worked toward threefolding. However, we have to allow the world to go its own way after it intentionally did not want to go the other one. We are working toward threefolding, but we have to remember that an institution like the Independent Waldorf School with its objectively anthroposophical character, has goals that, of course, coincide with anthroposophical desires. At the moment, though, if that connection were made official, people could break the Waldorf School’s neck. Therefore, the way things presently are, I would advise that we not choose a new administrative committee; rather, leave it as it is and decide things one way or another according to these two questions. First, is it sufficient that the teachers here at the school become individual members of the School of Spiritual Science in Dornach? Or, second, do you want to be members through the faculty as a whole, so that you would have membership as teachers of the Independent Waldorf School?" — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 705.

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"When the school was founded, we placed great value upon creating an institution independent of the Anthroposophical Society. Logically, that corresponds quite well with having the various religious communities and the Anthroposophical Society provide religious instruction, so that the Society provides religious instruction just as other religious groups do. The Anthroposophical Society gives instruction in religion and the services. That is something we can justifiably say whenever others claim that the Waldorf School is an anthroposophical school. — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 706.

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"In every human being there is an individual orientation toward religion, which, after the fifteenth year, has to be gradually won. Our task is to prepare the ground so that this can happen properly. That is why, at this age, we have to treat the religion lessons just as we do the lessons in the other subjects. They must all work on the child’s soul through the power of imagery; the child’s soul life has to be stimulated. It is possible to introduce a religious element into every subject, even into math lessons. Anyone who has some knowledge of Waldorf teaching will know that this statement is true. A Christian element pervades every subject, even mathematics. This fundamental religious current flows through all of [Waldorf] education." — Rudolf Steiner, THE CHILD's CHANGING CONSCIOUSNESS AS THE BASIS OF PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICE (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), p. 94.

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"[Steiner, addressing a Waldorf teacher:] The other problem is that you are often too anthroposophical, like Mr. X. Yesterday, I was sitting on pins and needles worrying that the visitors would think the history class was too religious. We should not allow the history class to be too religiously oriented. That is why we have a religion class. The visitors seem to have been very well-meaning people. Nevertheless, had they noticed that, they could easily have categorized the Waldorf School as being too anthroposophical and of bringing that into the classroom." — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER, p. 655.

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"[Steiner, addressing Waldorf students:] "It was beautiful and grand that you could speak about the Christ with such love, and that you could listen with such love.

"And do you know where your teachers get all the strength and ability they need so that they can teach you to grow up to be good and capable people? They get it from the Christ, whom we think about at Christmas. We think about how He came into the world to bring joy to all people, and you gave some beautiful presentations about Him today." — Rudolf Steiner, RUDOLF STEINER IN THE WALDORF SCHOOL, p. 29.

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“We must, in our lessons, see to it that the children experience the beautiful, artistic, and aesthetic conception of the world; and their ideas and mental pictures should be permeated by a religious/moral feeling. Such feelings, when they are cultivated throughout the elementary school years, will make all the difference [later] ... It is most important during puberty that the children have developed certain moral, religious feelings. Such feelings also strengthen the astral body and ego. They become weak if the religious, moral feelings and impulses have been neglected ... We must take special care that the girls especially enjoy the moral, the religious, and the good in what they hear in the lessons. They should take pleasure in the knowledge that the world is permeated by the supersensible ... With girls, we should bring the religious and moral life to their very eyes, while with boys we should bring the religious and beautiful predominately unto the heartm the mind, stressing the feeling of strength that radiates from them." — Rudolf Steiner, EDUCATION FOR ADOLESCENTS, pp. 77-79.

[R.R.]

What Actually Goes On

“One could say that Waldorf education has a hidden agenda. Its curriculum is described in terms common to public schools in general; arithmetic, writing, reading, geography, botany, biology, handcraft, history, and so on. But in Steiner schools the dimensions of these subjects are threefold: they are artistic, cognitive, and religious. The childfren work with artists' materials in all their lessons; and in elementary school they approach the entire educational process through imagination ... There is a continual interconnecting, a relinking, a re-ligioning, of one activity with another, one perspective with another. As Steiner put it in PRACTICAL ADVICE TO TEACHERS: 'Moving from one thing to another in a way that connects one thing with another is more beneficial than anything else for the development of spirit and soul and even body.'" — M. C. Richards, TOWARD WHOLENESS: Rudolf Steiner Education in America (Wesleyn University Press, 1980), p. 164.

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“A growing question at Waldorf kindergartens and schools is to what extent is Waldorf education bound to the Christian religion and to what extent it is more universal. The answer points to the modern mysteries, for Waldorf education is centered around the Christ as a Universal Being who has helped humans in their development from the beginning of time. Rudolf Steiner speaks of the Christ in the present time as dwelling in the etheric world surrounding the Earth through which each incarnating soul passes. His presence is felt more and more by sensitive souls upon the Earth, but it is a presence that has never been limited to individuals of one religious persuasion or another. Waldorf education strives to create a place in which the highest beings, including the Christ, can find their home, but it is not bound to one religion or another. The door is open for all to enter, and this openness can be reflected in the celebration of the year whose rhythm marks the changing relationship between heavenly light and earthly darkness.” — Waldorf teacher Joan Almon, WHAT IS A WALDORF KINDERGARTEN? (SteinerBooks, 2007), p. 53.

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"Waldorf education is based upon the recognition that the four bodies of the human being develop and mature at different times. The physical, etheric, and astral bodies provide the foundations of our existence, but as they develop, the higher bodies increasingly provide the basis for psychological and intellectual processes, which Steiner called soul functions. As they develop, the etheric body will serve as the foundation for our thinking, the astral body for our feeling, and the 'I' for our independent will.” — Waldorf teacher Roberto Trostli, RHYTHMS OF LEARNING: What Waldorf Education Offers Children, Parents and Teachers (SteinerBooks, 2017), p. 4.

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“From the spiritual world the human being comes into earthly incarnation with certain tendencises, potentialities and ambitions, acquired as a result of experiences in previous existences. In order to find his proper place in this world, he neeeds to be offered all possibilites of development.

" It could therefore be said that the purpose of 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.

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“Many cultures, including our own at least until fairly recent times, have treated children as if they were indeed small adults, to be reasoned with, preached  to, filled with intellectual knowledge by adults, made to behave in accordance with moral codes evolved by adults, and be taught the difference betwen 'right' and 'wrong' in accordance with adult norms. Anyone who has studied Chapter 4 of this book will certainly not expect this to be the viewpoint of Steiner education. This 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, into a body that will be slowly moulded into a usable instrument by the soul-spiritual forces he brings with him. He has chosen his parents for himself because of what they can provide for him that he needs in order to fulfill his karma, and, conversely, they too need their relationship with him in order to fulfill their own karma. He will inherit a certain kind of body because of what they transmit to him through heredity, and a certain kind of environment. Parents who know these things will naturally have a different relation to their children than those who are ignorant of them. They can never suppose for a moment that their child belongs to them and can be treated as their own possession; similarly teachers in Steiner schools who have convinced themselves of these facts will never, for example, condescend to a child, who, as soon as he is asleep and his spirit is no longer clothed in his child body will be in every respect their equal. 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 and knowledge that adults consider it necessary for him to have.” — Anthroposophist Stewart C. Easton, MAN AND WORLD IN THE LIGHT OF ANTHROPOSOPHY (Anthroposophic Press, 1989), p. 388.

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"Anthroposophical Waldorf often fails to address the needs of the individual child and family. Diana's comments regarding childhood, joy and magic touch upon a major problem that's at the heart of Anthroposophical Waldorf in general.

"The reason many Anthroposophical schools exist is because of the Anthroposophy, period. It's not because of the children. It's because a group of Anthroposophists have it in their minds to promote Anthroposophy in the world. That's the Michaelic spiritual task [i.e., the spiritual task directed by the archangel Michael]. Educating children is secondary in these schools; or, it's the means by which these many Anthroposophical and cosmic Christian impulses are incarnated." — Former Waldorf teacher "Baandje", 2006.

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“As mentioned earlier, from a spiritual-scientific point of view child education consists mainly in integrating the soul-spiritual members with the corporeal members, and from the theoretical considerations already discussed it may be seen that the whole process is extremely complex. Rudolf Steiner maintained that there is a spiritual law which, when expressed in terms of human development, means that various bodily, psychic or spiritual faculties operative during certain periods in life undergo changes, metamorphoses, and re-appear later during other periods as quite different in character. In this respect he brought people's attention to the fact that Man exists in time as well as space; he is a temproal being as well as a spatial being. Orthodox natural scientists confine their investigations of Man mainly to his organism as it exists in space. Spiritual-scientific methodology [i.e., Anthroposophy] claims to achieve an understanding of human beings in the element of time also. Human spiritual and soul members, hidden as they are from direct investigation by the ordinary senses and sense-instruments, are nevertheless inter-related also through the medium of time, but these inter-relationships may only be apprehended by means of spiritual cognition [i.e., clairvoyance], supersensible research." — Waldorf teacher Gilbert Childs, STEINER EDUCATION IN THEORY AND PRACTICE (Floris Books, 1998), p. 68.

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“Children need our attention and support. Through educating, Rudolf Steiner once said, we heal what we call 'normal individuals.' While healing itself is thought of as specialized focusing on what we perceive to be 'abnormal,' all education is healing of the healthy.

"The success of Waldorf Education, Rudolf Steiner continued, can be measured in the life force attained. Not acquisition of knowledge and qualifications, but the life force is the ultimate goal of this school. What is this life force? According to Rudolf Steiner it is nothing biological, it is the force of the incarnated individuality.” — Anthroposophist Peter Selg, THE ESSENCE OF WALDORF EDUCATION (SteinerBooks, 2010)‚ p. 30.

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“Preserving Spiritual Connections

"One question that is often asked is: ‘Is a Waldorf school a religious school?’ The best answer that I have heard to that question is 'Yes and No.' It is not a religious school in the way that we commonly think of religion. There is no creed, no catechism, and no proselytizing. Neither are Waldorf schools sectarian, and for that reason they can thrive equally in a Buddhist country such as Japan or on a kibbutz in Israel.

" And yet, in a broad and universal way, the Waldorf school is essentially religious. The word religion comes from the Latin root religare, which means essentially to re-link. Young children are not yet un-linked from the spiritual connection. A Waldorf preschool teacher's perception of the child is similiar to that of the poet William Wordsworth [who said children see the world 'appareled in celestial light'] ... This innate spiritual awareness shines in little children ... For their continued spiritual development, children need only a little outward instruction. According to Rudolf Steiner, they simply need to be taught in a balanced three-dimensional way, one that develops head, heart, and hands to preserve their innate freligious awareness.” — Waldorf teacher Jack Petrash, UNDERSTANDING WALDORF EDUCATION  (Nova Institute, 2002), p. 134.

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"I'm glad my daughter gets to speak about God every morning [in school]: that's why I send her to a Waldorf school ... She can have a religious experience. A religious experience. I'll say it again: I send my daughter to a Waldorf school so that she can have a religious experience...

"I think we owe it to our parents to let them know that the child is going to go through one religious experience after another. And if any of the teacher trainees in the room feel that I'm not saying that clearly enough to you, well, here it is, guys, if I haven't said it to you a hundred times already: When we deny that Waldorf schools are giving children religious experiences, we are denying the whole basis of Waldorf education...

"To deny the religious basis of Waldorf education — I would say it again — to satisfy public school superintendents, or a talk show host, or a newspaper reporter, is very, very wrong. And the Waldorf leadership, I would say, are waffling on this matter. I would say we are religious schools. Religious schools plus; religious schools with a difference; religious schools light — whatever you want to call it.

"But we are, we are schools that inculcate religion in children. But it's a different kind of religion, because it leaves them free to find their own religious path or not. We have Waldorf graduates who are devoutly orthodox Jews, who are now sending their own children to my own third grade class; we have Waldorf graduates who are Islamic, one of whom in fact took the teacher training with me recently; Waldorf graduates who are atheists. That is fine--we are not trying to create one [kind?] of person; rather we are trying to open up the religious font that is the child's right as a human being. And I think a big part of the tragedy of the public schools in America came with the absolutism, the rigidity, of the interpretation of the separation of church and state.

"The time has come for us to stop pussyfooting around [theories] that will sound too strange if we tell parents what we are really doing. Don't say I didn't tell you guys—10 years ago! Stop pussyfooting around. Tell everybody what we are about. The day they walk into the school, let them know then.” — Waldorf teacher Eugene Schwartz, “Waldorf Education — For Our Times Or Against Them?” (transcript of talk given at Sunbridge College, 1999).

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"What if — as may be expected — the vast majority of young people never attain any of these stages of higher knowledge [clairvoyant imagination, inspiration, and intuition] during this life? What can they reasonably expect? Every young person who is guided toward the path of spiritual development will surely receive great gifts for engaging more satisfactorily in life. Much is attempted in this sense by Waldorf schools working with the educational insights and methods suggested by [Rudolf] Steiner ... Without reaching the initial stage of clairvoyance, which Steiner calls Imagination (with a capital I), young people's imagination may nevertheless be strengthened ... Without arriving at Inspiration, as Steiner understood it, youth can still be inspired to great efffect ... Where will we see evidence of progress toward Intuition? We will see it in the almost magical ability to accomplish one's ideal ... Considered that these three practical forms of higher cognitive forces amount to an ability to enjoy and contribute to life — to find meaning in existence, solve problems, and cheerfully persevere through adversities that would otherwise defeat the ordinary self [sic]. Such are the awards of striving to make more room in one's heart for the mysterious Spirit that lives and rules through all."  — Waldorf teacher John Fentress Gardner, YOUTH LONGS TO KNOW (Anthroposophic Press, 1997), p. 37.

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"Waldorf education is a form of practical anthroposophy based on a set of insights, and not a prescribed method. The fact that these insights are confirmed every day does not mean that all applications of them will be equally successful ...The first Waldorf school had formidable growing pains and internal dissensions, and Steiner died bwhile it was still in the midst of them. Very few human institutions run smoothly for more than a year or two at a time and even angels have their disagreements. Learning about all the good things that may be expected to happen in a Waldorf School is a relatively easy matter. Coping with the ways things actually turn out is more difficult." — Waldorf teacher Keith Francis, THE EDUCATION OF A WALDORF TEACHER (iUniverse, 2004), pp. xii-xiii.

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"[The] special contribution, the unique substance, mission, and intention of the independent Waldorf School, is the spiritual-scientific view of human nature and of the world [i.e., Anthroposophy], the pedagogical relationship, and the pedagogical approach and its goals that Rudolf Steiner distinctly expressed and lived, in a clear future-oriented gesture.” — Anthroposophist Peter Selg, THE ESSENCE OF WALDORF EDUCATION (SteinerBooks, 2010)‚ p. 4.

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“A Waldorf school is more than just another independent school that provides a developmental education. It is an organization that seeks to allow the spiritual impulses of our time to manifest on earth in order to transform society. The group that is primarily responsible for recognizing and realizing this mission is the College of Teachers [the central committee of leading faculty members]. The College does so by working in two realms: the material and the spiritual. This essential feature was revealed during the preparatory course for the founding of the first Waldorf school in Stuttgart, Germany. By examining what Rudolf Steiner presented in The Opening Address and The College Founding, we will begin to sense how the College can bridge and balance the worlds of matter and spirit.” — Waldorf teacher Roberto Trostli, “On Earth as It Is in Heaven”, Research Bulletin, Vol. 16 (Waldorf Research Institute), Fall 2011, pp. 21-24.

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"In one sense...Waldorf teachers are bound in absolute terms to a definite educational philosophy, curriculum and didactic method; in another they are completely free agents, albeit within the 'law' of Waldorf methodology ... Waldorf teachers must be anthroposophists first and teachers second; as the first they are enabled to approach the curriculum with true understanding, and as the second they are enabled to implement it also with true understanding." — Waldorf teacher Gilbert Childs, STEINER EDUCATION IN THEORY AND PRACTICE (Floris Books, 1991), p. 166.