On Rudolf Steiner and His Work

Dr Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), was the originator of anthroposophy, the Waldorf school movement, biodynamamic agriculture and more. He was also an editor. He founded a many-faceted movement based on the notion that there is a spiritual world. He taught that perception of spiritual things is served by training of the human consciousness.

The first Waldorf school was founded in 1919 in Germany. There are now more than 1000 independent Waldorf schools and 1400 independent Waldorf kindergartens in about sixty countries throughout the world. Three-quarters of them are in Europe. Thus, the Waldorf school movement is one of the world's largest independent educational systems. It aims among other things: at ". . . allowing the most fruitful expansion possible to individual initiative and personal worth . . ." [Rudolf Steiner, in Reordering of Society, GA 24]

Steiner Education (Waldorf Education) seeks to let "heart, head, and hands" work together in harmony, as the educator Pestalozzi would have put it. The Waldorf approach emphasises art imagination in learning. The main goal is to provide young people the basis for developing by stages into free, moral and integrated individuals. Steiner launches how concepts should be introduced to growing persons - not like small shoes to feet that keep growing, but ideas that go well with the "assimilation levels" of persons at different stages of development. The stages range from imitation through imagination or imagery to intellectual kernels or ideas, for example. Waldorf education is to a great extent founded on that view.

We may compare the first stages of Steiner's developmental scheme with those of Jean Piaget, which Steiner's findings predate by decades. To adapt a school's curriculum to the levels one assimilates ideas from through life, is more than talk is the fit idea at the bottom of schooling through fables, fairy tales, myths and other artistic presentations in Steiner education (Waldorf Education). In time, more abstract kernels in them may be extracted from the fables other tales and activities the children have been introduced to and worked on by artistic means. And later, when the growing person has got more intellectually awakened, ideas embedded in story forms, are grasped intellectually too, and in this way they can be further "digested" in one's mind in a very common process of developing abstractions.

For those who would like to develop still more and make good use of one's life, there are further stages delineated and worth contemplation. In his book Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment (1947), Steiner advocates training of one's imagination, followed by inspiration and intuition. These three may be worked on until they serve as quality guides. Steiner's book delineates his anthroposophical path: he posits that in human consciousness, faculties are sleeping (dormant), and that if they get (nurtured and) awakened, they lead to life-giving wisdom. Steiner also mentions moral qualities to be cultivated on the path. The "I" (egohood) may be vitalised as well. Good meditation is fit for that.

There is also Waldorf-based homeschooling.

Besides, Waldorf methods have been adopted by numerous educators in state and private schools. For example, In Israel, the Harduf Kibbutz Waldorf school includes both Jewish and Arab faculty and students and has extensive contact with the surrounding Arab communities.

✑ Steiner Biography and Timeline

Good Sides to Steiner Education: Findings

Less accidents and physical harm caused by other children (Hultin og Kilpinen. Helsinki, 1985).
Less stress-related troubles. (Thomas Zdrazil's Doctoral Thesis at Universität Bielefeld 2001)
Less allergic rhinitis and atopical eczema, even despite the states of their better-educated parents (2006). A study of 6,600 children from five European countries, ages 5 to 13, showed a lower incidence of allergies amongst children attending Waldorf schools.
Presumably less sclerosis (arthrosis) and not as hightened blood pressure and as many heart diseases are found among former Waldorf School pupils in Germany. (H. Barz og D. Randoll, 2007 - Somewhat controversal findings)

Source of all the extracts above: Anette Bender. "Steinerskole og helse. (Do Waldorf Children have a better health?)" Lecture of 25 October 2007

Outperforming Peers

Unesco, The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, states that the Waldorf movement's ideals and ethical principles correspond to those of Unesco.

A UK Department for Education and Skills report noted significant differences in curriculum and pedagogical approach between Waldorf and mainstream schools and found that schools in the state sector could benefit from elements of Waldorf education, such as the emphasis on child development guiding the curriculum and examinations; the attention given to teachers' reflective activity and heightened awareness (in collective child study for example); and collegial structure of leadership and management. A 2008 report by the Cambridge-based Primary Review found that Steiner/Waldorf schools achieved superior academic results to English state schools.

An Australian study compared the academic performance of students at university level. It was found that students who had been at Waldorf schools significantly outperformed their peers from non-Waldorf schools in both the humanities and the sciences.

A Canadian study found that Waldorf-educated students scored significantly higher on a test of moral reasoning than students in public high schools and students in a religiously-affiliated high school.

A 1995 survey of U.S. Waldorf schools found that parents overall experienced the Waldorf schools as achieving their major aims for students, and described the education as one that "integrates the aesthetic, spiritual and interpersonal development of the child with rigorous intellectual development", preserving students' enthusiasm for learning so that they develop a better sense of self-confidence and self-direction.

Studies comparing students' performance on college-entrance examinations in Germany found that as a group, Waldorf graduates passed the exam at double to triple the rate of students graduating from the state education system, and that students who had attended Waldorf schools for their entire education passed at a much higher rate (40% vs. 26%) than those who only had part of their education at a Waldorf school.

Waldorf pupils have been tested and found more creative than state-school students.

Waldorf Education Endorsed by Educators

Thomas Nielsen of the University of Canberra considers the imaginative teaching approaches used in Waldorf education (drama, exploration, storytelling, routine, arts, discussion and empathy) to be effective stimulators of spiritual-aesthetic, intellectual and physical development and recommends these to mainstream educators.

Dr. Ernest Boyer has recommended Waldorf education's unique integration of the arts into traditional content as a model for other schools.

Thomas Armstrong sees Waldorf education curriculum as organically embodying Howard Gardner's seven intelligences.

Professor Robert Peterkin considers Waldorf education a healing education whose underlying principles are appropriate for educating all children.

UK educational evaluators see the Waldorf approach conforming to the principal direction of educational theory based upon John Amos Comenius and Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi.

Rudolf Steiner Highlights

On Rudolf Steiner and His Work

Good Sides to Steiner Education: Findings

Outperforming Peers

Waldorf Education Endorsed by Educators

Professor Robert McDermott on Steiner

Rudolf Steiner Quotations

Lectures and lecture series

A taste of Steiner