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Waldorf education

Waldorf education, also known as Steiner education, is based on the educational philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy. Its educational style is holistic, intended to develop pupils' intellectual, artistic, and practical skills, with a focus on imagination and creativity. Individual teachers have a great deal of autonomy in curriculum content, teaching methods, and governance. Qualitative assessments of student work are integrated into the daily life of the classroom, with standardized testing limited to what is required to enter post-secondary education.

The first Waldorf school opened in 1919 in Stuttgart, Germany.[1] A century later, it has become the largest independent school movement in the world,[2] with more than 1,200 independent schools and nearly 2,000 kindergartens in 75 countries,[3] as well as more than 500 centers for special education in more than 40 countries.[4] There are also numerous Waldorf-based public schools,[5] charter schools, and academies, as well as a homeschooling movement.[6] Germany, the United States, and the Netherlands have the most Waldorf schools.[3]


Many Waldorf schools have faced controversy due to Steiner's connections to racist ideology[7][8][9] and magical thinking. Others have faced regulatory audits and closure due to concerns over substandard treatment of children with special educational needs.[10] Critics of Waldorf education point out the mystical nature of anthroposophy and the incorporation of Steiner's esoteric ideas into the curriculum.[11][12] Waldorf schools have also been linked to the outbreak of infectious diseases due to the vaccine hesitancy of many Waldorf parents.[13][14][15]

Governance[edit]

Independent schools[edit]

One of Waldorf education's central premises is that all educational and cultural institutions should be self-governing and should grant teachers a high degree of creative autonomy within the school;[136]: 143 [80] this is based upon the conviction that a holistic approach to education aiming at the development of free individuals can only be successful when based on a school form that expresses these same principles.[137] Most Waldorf schools are not directed by a principal or head teacher, but rather by a number of groups, including:

Under the regime in South Africa, the Waldorf school was one of the few schools in which children of all apartheid racial classifications attended the same classes.[172] A Waldorf training college in Cape Town, the Novalis Institute, was referenced during UNESCO's Year of Tolerance for being an organization that was working towards reconciliation in South Africa.[171][173]

apartheid

The first Waldorf school in West Africa was founded in to educate boys and girls orphaned by the country's civil war.[174] The school building is a passive solar building built by the local community, including the students.[175]

Sierra Leone

In Israel, the Kibbutz Waldorf school includes both Jewish and Arab faculty and students and has extensive contact with the surrounding Arab communities.[176] It also runs an Arab-language Waldorf teacher training.[177] A joint Arab-Jewish Waldorf kindergarten (Ein Bustan) was founded in Hilf (near Haifa) in 2005.[178][179] An Arabic language multi-cultural Druze/Christian/Muslim Waldorf school has operated in Shefa-'Amr since 2003.[180] In Lod, a teacher training program brings together Israeli Arabs and Jews on an equal basis, with the goals of improving Arab education in Israel and offering new career paths to Arab women.[181]

Harduf

Staudenmaier, Peter (2014). . Aries Book Series. Brill. p. 214. ISBN 978-90-04-27015-2. Retrieved 3 February 2022.

Between Occultism and Nazism: Anthroposophy and the Politics of Race in the Fascist Era

Steiner, Rudolf. "The Education of the Child, and early Lectures on Education" in Foundations of Waldorf Education, Anthroposophic Press, 1996 (includes Steiner's first descriptions of child development, originally published as a small booklet).

Steiner, Rudolf. The Foundations of Human Experience (also known as The Study of Man). Anthroposophic Press, 1996 (these fundamental lectures on education were given to the teachers just before the opening of the first Waldorf school in Stuttgart in 1919).

Online Waldorf Library

Education Section at the Rudolf Steiner Archive, An Online Library

Interactive map of Waldorf kindergartens, schools and teacher training colleges worldwide