About Waldorf Education
Summary of the book Understanding Waldorf Education: Teaching from the inside out from Jack Petrash
Here is the book on Amazon:
This book is about Waldorf philosophy and Education. As most of the concepts and principles developed by Rudolf Steiner aren’t easy to explain this is quite a long summary.
If you want to know more about Waldorf please visit this website: http://www.whywaldorfworks.org/
Summary of Waldorf’s principles:
- Development of the whole child.
The children have to “try some of everything”. Waldorf approach Education with a three dimensional philosophy considering artistic, physical and academic education as equally important. Most of the subjects are taught with a multi dimensional approach. Ex: Geometry is taught through drawings.
- Not specialize too early
The children who specializes too early fail to develop a polyvalent mindset and cannot adapt to diverse situation or an evolving system. Specialization becomes crucial only at a later age.
- No technology too early
Many studies have shown that at an early age the use of screens — televisions, computers or smart phones — is detrimental. It notably creates a dramatic decrease in the attention span of the growing child. Technology is introduced little by little at an age where children have had enough time to understand the world without it.
- Follow the rhythm of learning of the child
This concept is a little hard to grasp. There are times when children have different interest and considerations. When these considerations are taken in account, the learning process can resonates with the children and become much more effective. For example at the age of 14 years old, the child enters the “rebellious age”; at the same time the great revolutions throughout the years are studied. By learning this way and going with the flow children learn much faster and have time for personal activities, arts and sports. At the end of the curriculum, the academic level attained by Waldorf’s students is the same as the students from public schools.
Finally, the heart of Waldorf does not lie in these principles:
“Waldorf Education is not about its principles; it is all about the teacher, and these wonderful students.”
— — — —
“Waldorf education places the development of the individual child the focal point, convinced that the healthy individual is a perquisite for a healthy society.” — The internal conference on education of UNESCO
The idea that children should broaden their horizons and “try some of everything” is an essential part of Waldorf education.
“The gifted math student is asked to leave the safe confines of abstract thinking and to enter unfamiliar territory, finding emotional expression through painting and movement. At the same time, the artistically expressive student is asked to experience the clarity and predictability of trigonometry and calculus.”
“A child’s strength should not become their weakness because of one sided development.”
All children have areas of strengths where they are more interested and comfortable. These interests are important and can become pronounced at an early age. These strengths need to be “rounded off” and expanded to bring fullness and completion to an individual student development.
All children have a rhythm of growth and learning certain notions at a certain time is crucial to awaken the child interest and facilitate the learning. The purpose of Waldorf is to raise well-being children into self responsible and adaptable adults.
This is why particular interest won’t be encouraged too much at a young age. Being specialized too early has very negative consequences on the future of the child, like being too narrow-minded. However particular interest are not discouraged or banned from Waldorf. These interests can later become passions and fuel the changes in the world. The child must also have a polyvalent and diverse education involving arts, sciences and sports early on. Specialization only becomes crucial at a later age.
There also are different applications in order for introverts and extroverts to learn from each other’s strong points.
“Efforts to lead children to fullness must invariably be concerned with helping children develop the ability to separate what they feel from what they do. Education should be based on the understanding that for young children their impulse for activity is intricately connected with their feelings.”
Waldorf encourages the development of self discipline and deliberate practice.
“Self discipline is the ability “to do the right thing”. A key element that enables self discipline to develop in a healthy way is the early formation of good habits, habits that becomes “second nature”. When children are young, it is possible to develop these habits by providing good examples and consistent routines.”
It is preferable and easier to develop these habits by providing good examples through experience and stories than trying to lecture your child about them.
“The good practices that children establish at an early age through imitation and regular repetition pave the way for the development of maturity and self discipline later.”
“Students need good soul habits as well as good work habits. In short they need to be emotionally responsive both to their lessons and with their classmates and teachers.”
“This conjunction of feelings and thinking makes students more receptive and perceptive and undoes their natural tendency toward self involvement. Students begin their education with their feelings melded with what they do. During their time in school, their feelings must merge with what they think. When feelings connect strongly with ideas, idealism is born.”
Measuring a student’s progress
“The best education is always one that expects children to be active thinkers and ask them to use their imagination to produce assignments that shows originality and effort and not just a recapitulation of facts.”
“Standardized tests can’t measure initiative, creativity, imagination, conceptual thinking, curiosity, efforts, irony, judgment, commitment, nuance, goodwill, ethical reflection, or a host of other valuable attributes.” — William Ayes
“Defining intelligence in narrow terms is counterproductive.”
“By evaluating children according to a three-dimensional paradigm, one that recognizes the importance of physical and emotional capacities as well as cognitive, Waldorf teachers applies the term gifted and talented to all children.”
“For this reason Waldorf teachers will asses children in a variety of ways to determine if they are developing a well-balanced array of abilities. The teachers will observe the children in various situations to see how they are progressing physically and emotionally as well as academically.”
“Teachers will consider such things as the child’s drawings, paintings, knitting, facility of movement, musical skills and oral expressiveness as lo less important than the more easily determined powers of cognition and verbal memory.”
All these observations provide a “portfolio” on a child’s performance in a variety of subjects.
The journey toward wholeness
“Students must feel that what is being asked of them is for their good”
“Educators should prepare children for life, not just for graduate school or future employment. Teachers should be concerned with children’s development and with children’s ability to give their own life direction.”
When you work to prepare children for life, you can’t tell if you are doing a good job right away. Children are riddles. Who they long to become is only revealed little by little during their educational journey.
“Receive the children with reverence
Educate them in love
Send them forth in freedom.”
- Rudolf Steiner
“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lightning of a fire.” — William Butler Years
“Rudolf Steiner designed Waldorf education around the simple idea that children have within them three fundamental forces impelling them toward physical, emotional and mental activity.
Understanding that children need to be engaged in these three distinct ways, through head, heart and hands forms the primary educational paradigm at Waldorf school.”
Capacities for the future
“Today’s children will need three distinct capacities to meet the challenges of tomorrow’s world. They will need to develop imaginative thinking, a thinking that enables them to perceive events with clarity, comprehend situations fully, and then to envision new solutions for seemingly unsolvable problems. They will also need emotional involvement that is both sensitive and resilient so they will be strong enough o weather the inevitable emotional storms that will arise and yet sensitive enough to look beyond the obvious. Furthermore children will need the capacity for resolute determination so that they can take their hopes and dreams and turn them into reality.”
The world is changing at a very fast pace “much of what we had to learn in school is now outdated.”
“Wide awake perceptive observation is what our children need for the future. The ability to observe individuals, events, and the natural world more completely will promote both lively intelligence and interest. Children who knows the world in this more intimate way — a type of knowing reveals tendencies and pattern, that give rise to question rather than answers, and that embrace complexity — view knowledge as a by-product of an ongoing process, rather than an end product of a finished deed.”
Schools need to teach lessons about feelings too.
“While a child’s emotional life may be mysterious and hidden, it still falls within the province of education.”
“To develop the capacity for emotional involvement, Waldorf schools enhance their educational program by integrating art through the curriculum.”
“If our children are going to help change this world, they will need a reservoir of strength that is not stymied by obstacles. Children must believe that one person can still make a difference and the power to make a difference is in the will.”
“Children develop over time through curious repetition and gentle insistence on good habits.”
“This three dimensional paradigm influences the structure of the day in a Waldorf school. For grade school and high school students, the day begins with an extended lesson lasting up to two hours. This is called the main lesson.”
The afternoon is a time when lessons requiring more activity such as woodwork, crafts, arts and physical education are more suitable for children.
Painting, singing, foreign language, eurhythmy and form drawing — join the more traditional skills classes and take place from mid-morning to lunch.
The Waldorf preschool
“I am struck by the fact that the more slowly threes grow at first, the sounder they are at the core, and I think that the same is true of human beings.” –Henry David Thoreau
“Our task as educators, if we wish to preserve what we value, is to cultivate and nurture youthful vitality, rather than promoting premature aging. The key to this is to create schools program that value and protect childhood.”
“Children’s early experiences will affect brain structure.”
“Clearly the environment into which young children are placed matters. A classroom that is stimulating and yet protective, comforting and yet safe is essential.”
“In the Waldorf approach to working with young children, early academic instruction is absent. The pressure for early learning is one of the most significant factors affecting young children’s experience today.”
-> Accelerated learning at a young age has a price.
Waldorf provides natural opportunities of learning. It is counterproductive to require participation in advanced activities at an early age.
Brain research has proven that academic instruction can be harmful at an early age.
The importance of play
“The creative process of inventors, scientist and artists often share striking similarities, including the manipulation of the physical world through play.”
“Play develops emotional maturity through social interactions when children play together; there is ample opportunity for socialization.”
“By learning to share, to agree, and to cooperate, children learn how to be part of a social group.”
“Another important benefit of play is the development of thoughtfulness and rapt attention.”
“Not only does play help to develop a child’s attention span it also give rise to imaginative and divergent thinking, enabling children to consider situations and to solve problems in a variety of different ways”
Waldorf preschools often have wooden toys without a very definite use.
“Children who are encouraged to play with the same object in a number of different ways develop the kind of flexible thinking that can consider a problem from a number of different perspectives.”
“A fundamental principle of early childhood education is that young children learn about the world most readily by interacting with their environment.”
“Vigorous outdoor play also gives the children a connection with nature.”
“Play is serious business for the children, as important for them as work for the adults.”
The importance of work
“Participating in work enables the children to learn important lessons early on, lessons that are necessary for life. They learn to do their fair share and to help others.”
“Through the regular work of the classroom, the children also develop a stronger connection to the real world. Some children are in danger of slipping into a “virtual” world where food and other everyday item just seem to appear.
The importance of imitation
“Meaningful and purposeful activity done in the presence of young children also provides them with actions to imitate, an irrepressible urge in young children. It is through imitation that young children learn most of the time.”
“The reason that young children are able to learn so readily through imitation is because they experience the world with complete openness and without any reservations. They are so impressionable that whatever is done in their presence becomes a part of them. This places tremendous responsibility on the teachers and parents of young children.
The importance of stories
“Story time is face-to-face contact when a storyteller creates the world of enchantment that children need and that nourish them emotionally, at the same time, it prepares them for the academic work that they will encounter in grade school.”
“Waldorf teachers exhibits the patience of gardeners, taking a long view of education, they believe that when the seeds of learning are sown in fertile soil and tender shoots emerge, there will be a rich harvest when all bears fruit at the end of a long growing season.”
The Waldorf Grade school
“In most Waldorf schools the first grade children will even make their own readers. By allotting time for this work and by saving this work in bound books, the children are receiving an important message: what they do is of great importance. Throughout the eight years of grade school and into high school, Waldorf students make their own textbooks and workbooks.
Learning through stories and drawings fosters imagination, and leave stronger impressions.
“This imaginative approach to teaching involves the whole child — actively and emotionally while they learn. Make no mistakes, this innovative multi sensory instruction is not trivial. It is based on a sound approach to education that teaches students to higher order thinking.”
The Waldorf approach to reading is taught in a multi-sensory way using both dramatic visual images and the physical experience of the letter through walking and clay or beeswax modeling. It engages the whole child, using both sides of the brain and by doing so, makes learning to read more meaningful and more memorable, but also more rewarding.”
Many Americans can read, but choose not to. To cultivate readers who are thoughtfully, emotionally and actively engaged by the book that they will read, we must teach children to read in a manner that activates them inwardly.
Teaching through art
“Artistic activities help children to be emotionally engaged in the learning process.”
“The teaching of any subject, from science to history can be enlivened and enhanced by incorporating art into the instruction.”
“All of this artistic involvement elicits an interest and responsiveness to subject matter that is counter to the normal diffidence expressed by so many 11 and 12 years old. These students’ strong feelings are released in artistic expression, making their learning a whole-hearted activity.”
“Art is not merely taught in isolation as a separate subject. It is more often used in combination with other subjects to enhance the learning experience.”
“Students long for lessons that will engage them emotionally.”
-> Experience, think, deduce hypothesis, share information, understand how the world works, the process and forces at work.
The grade school curriculum:
“The Waldorf curriculum offers an organic structure that mirrors the developmental changes that take place over the grade school years. By being inwardly relevant, by resonating with a child’s changing frame of mind, the subjects that are taught can meet their growing needs.”
Ex: “The sixth grade math curriculum mirrors the 12 year old prosaic interest in money, purchases, discount, sales, tax and engage it through the study of percent and simple interest in business math.”
Others examples are given like the widening of the children geographical boundaries at 10 years old mirrored by geography and leaning to read a map.
At 13 years old teenagers are preoccupied with their body => health, hygiene & biology of our body.
The 14 year old child is at a rebellious age => colonial history and revolutions.
The role of stories
“A story particularly a told story, engages children completely.”
A story also elicits a thoughtful response from the children. It provides a model of an organization, ordering information and giving sequence to events making it possible for learning to take place effortlessly.”
“For centuries in all cultures around the world, stories have been used to instruct children on ethical and moral issues to educate their character.”
“Each elementary grade at Waldorf schools has its own story theme. These stories become the starting point for many language or art lessons.”
“The story is a many faceted jewel, and one of those facet is that it makes learning memorable at any age.”
“Regardless of the subject stories can be used effectively when they are integrated in the curriculum. They are not used as a diversion but rather as a time-tested method of instruction that is perfectly suited for the way children learn.”
“Learning to live with others is certainly a central lesson in Waldorf schools. Over the years they are together teachers help students to work out personal differences and difficulties.”
The role of music
“Waldorf teachers weave together a variety of disciplines including music to make the learning experience rich and rewarding. This way of teaching known as integrated curriculum, uses art to teach science, writing to teach math and stories and literature to teach history and geography.”
Music serves the student by engaging a wide range of capacities.
“Learning and performing music actually exercises the brain — not merely by developing certain skills, but also by strengthening the synapses between brain cells.”
“Waldorf education is not simply about teaching art. It is about teaching all subjects artistically and creatively.
Education as an art is the goal of all Waldorf teachers.”
The teacher is required a much deeper involvement however the act of teaching never becomes monotonous.
The Waldorf class teacher
“In Waldorf schools, the “class teacher” who will teach a class of students from first grade to eight grades, accepts extensive and extended responsibility for the children as their main instructor. When strong emotional ties fostered by continuity develop between teacher and student, over a long period of time, learning is furthered.”
One teacher and one specific group of student are together for the entire elementary school period. This practice is called looping.
“The educational advantages of this approach are myriad. First it is a most economical use of time. Looping teacher will not spend the first two month of the school trying to get to know the students. Nor will the students spend the first two weeks of the year trying to adjust expectations and testing the limits. From an academic perspective, the continuing teacher will already be aware of the individual learning style — who learns slowly and who needs lots of practice, who learns quickly and need to be challenged. In addition, students’ basic strengths and deficiencies will be known, as well as the full extent of the material that was introduced in previous years.”
“Teachers, who continue to teach the same children year after year, establish trust that allows the relationship between student and teacher to grow. At the same time, those teachers develop a more discerning eye and are able to perceive problems before they become painfully obvious. The benefits for teachers are equally significant, vitality replaces complacency as teachers strive to master new curriculum each year.”
“Looping far often brings the best in a teacher. Placing teachers in a unique position where they are called on to commit themselves over a long period of time and accept the challenge of preparing to teach a new curriculum each year; and by asking teachers to join with parents in accepting extended responsibility for a child’s well being, evokes a surprising measure of dedication. At the same time the commitment to teaching children over an eight year period attracts individual who are looking for just a challenge.”
The natural emotional progression of childhood goes from warmth and connectedness (7 years old) to coolness, separation and reserve. (14 years old).
Parents experience this shift away from uninhibited closeness when young children no longer sit on their lap or kiss them goodbye in public. This change occurs during the course of the grade school years, and Waldorf teachers accompany parents and children on this developmental journey.”
The Waldorf high school
“In high school this three dimensional paradigm continue to be the guiding educational principle.”
“The maturation process that occurs in high school students plays an important role in determining which habits of mind will be cultivated during the four years. Each year of high school should present a unique question to the students. These underlying questions have an important purpose, to awaken specific aspects of human intelligence.”
“Because Waldorf education requires inner responsiveness on the part of the students, graduates leave school with a cleaner sense of what they believe to be important, making it possible for them to give direction to their own life.”
“To develop good habits of mind, school creates learning situations that encourage students to explore subjects deeply, going beyond a superficial understanding. This requires a more intense focus and in-depth study.”
“Rather than sampling a wide range of diverse material, Waldorf schools chose to dive deeply into selected areas in an effort to provide their student with a more substantive understanding.”
“For Rudolf Steiner, the experience of truth, beauty and goodness was an essential aspect of what children should receive in schools. The subjects that are taught can essentially be organized around these ideas.”
Truth: “A search for truth is also a personal quest for each individual student.”
Today more than ever, issues are rarely so clear as to be one sided. High school teachers must help students develop the habit of considering issues from various points of view.”
Beauty: “The courses underscore the importance of beauty and place in the context of human history.”
Goodness: High school students also need an experience of the good. Many examples through books are used because they raise serious ethical questions, one that encourages the students to consider goodness as an ideal that is as worthy of attention than truth or beauty.
The pedagogy at work
“The value of Waldorf education should be evident in its ability to put educational principles into practice.”
The four essential goals of the high school:
- Help the students to think critically and communicate effectively
- Learn about themselves, the human heritage and the world they live in
- Prepare students for work and further education.
- Fulfill their social and civic obligations.
Small is beautiful
“Perhaps the most common criticism directed at Waldorf high schools has centered on its size. Parents, students and even teachers have at times felt that the schools are too small.”
“Clearly the weakness of Waldorf high school is also its strength. The familiarity that makes young people feel uncomfortable also makes them members of a community. It insures that they are known and cared for and that changes in their behavior and appearance does not go unnoticed.”
The non engagement of certain students is a challenge to teachers. Students cannot avoid responsiveness when they sit in smaller classes, face to face with an attentive teacher who has known them and possible their siblings for an extended period of time.
“When Waldorf teachers work with challenging students, they proceed on two levels: They deal with problematic behavior and then they invariably turn to the root cause of the problem.”
It is only through a well-balanced approach to teaching that we can help student to become adults who can exploit their full potential.
Parents
The essential part
“The students who do the best are the ones whose families have provided them with educational directions and clear expectations.”
“Parents are an essential part in the educational equation.”
The relationship between the parent and the child of, for that matter between the parent and the teacher is significant. Simply stated, when parents invest time and energy in furthering their child education, good things happen.
Actively engaged at Home
“One of the most noticeable changes in children’s life in the last 50 years is the dramatic decrease in activity. Children have to be active indoors as well as outdoor.
“Regular chores at home enhance children’s development.”
It is also easy for young people to develop self esteem through the mastery of skills. When teenagers have a skill they can do well as an adult, their confidence grows. Having these capabilities develop teenager’s feeling of self worth and allow them to work side by side with adults.
This gives them the rite of passage into adult society that they seek and is often missing in today’s society. Although the desire to be active is more pronounced in the young child, it is clearly important right through the teenage years.
Paradoxical nature of parenting
Structured activity is important but too much structure is detrimental. Children also need free time.
Emotionally engaged at home
Helping children to feel secure in the world is important work for parents. Something as simple as establishing a daily routine with regular times for meals and for naps can reassure children and help them see that the world makes sense because of its predictability.
Healthy emotional development cannot take place without interactions with other people.
Help children think for themselves
Parents nurture their children’s intelligence when they spend quality time with their children from an early age, interacting with them in a thoughtful manner, engaging them in conversation and giving them undivided attention. Another way to assist the development of thinking is by exposing children to new experiences so that their understanding and interest in the world grows.
Parenting is a dance and good dancers are able to affect their partner’s movement in the gentlest way without making it obvious that they are leading. It is in this way that parents can help their older children develop and pursue interests.
The challenge of Homework
Waldorf schools tend to give less homework than others independent schools.
“Parents who value a well rounded approach to education will see the value in shorter homework because there is still time for basketball or soccer, for drawing, dance or a musical instrument, for face-to-face conversation, and of course, time to help out around the home by clearing the table and doing the dishes.
Empowering Parents
When parents understand and embrace the principle of child development that are at the heart of Waldorf education, they can make choices at home that support the work that is being done at school.
Parents are such an important part of the educational process that their involvement and commitment cannot be underestimated.
Teacher
A teacher’s Journey
What makes a good teacher?
“Good teachers share one trait: a strong sense of personal identity infuses with their work.”
“Good teachers give themselves to their work, the same way that children give themselves to it — actively, emotionally and thoughtfully.”
“It was by working like this each day after school and on the weekends that I forged a bound with my work. Teaching was more than a job and a paycheck, it was my calling, it was work I could put my heart into” — Jack Petrash, Waldorf teacher
The emotionally active teacher
“Good teachers come to work early or they stay late. They teach when they’re ill rather than calling a substitute, and they will do school work even when they’re off. They sometimes dream about students and they like to talk shop. In short good teachers care.”
“Good teachers care about the student and stand by them during difficult times. Good teachers love their students.”
“Parents continually see the best in the child. As a teacher, I needed to do the same.”
Imbuing lessons with feelings
“One of the primary challenges that teachers face in a Waldorf school is the enlivening of everyday subjects by infusing them with emotional content. The secret to transforming lessons is in the ability to be imaginative and to understand new ways to introduce a subject.”
“Although Waldorf teachers are schooled in responding emotionally, anger, impatience and frustration are not the emotional responses they are seeking.”
As teachers infuse their thinking with imagination, their teaching comes alive. Learning must become an experience of knowledge, not just its acquisition.
“The more teachers learn, the more they realize there is to learn.”
Self evaluation is an integral part of good teaching.
Teaching is a path of self-development.
“Self evaluation is an essential part of good teaching. But it is willingness to change and persistent efforts to make change occur that determine how much we actually improve.
“Teachers need simultaneously to have the ability to work with the whole group, as well as the ability to focus on individuals.”
Waldorf teachers are encouraged to view education as an art.
In education, teachers must employ opposites to enhance their work. The tension between formality and informality is at the center of classroom discipline. The interplay between staying with prepared lessons and exploring abstract subjects that arises spontaneously gives much structure to instruction while at the same time adding live and vibrancy.
Preserving spiritual connections
A Waldorf school is not a religious school in the way 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.
“Although the notion that a balanced education fosters spiritual awareness may be simplistic, it is based on a theory of knowledge that is at the heart of Waldorf approach. This understanding is when feeling and willing — the emotional and volitional aspects of human experience — combine with thinking; children are able to form an inner connection with what they study. This connectedness enables children to live fully in the world and make it possible for them to find meaning and wonder in existence.”
“Thinking that is infused with emotional warmth and involvement helps to overcome the dual nature of human experience marrying the outer and the inner or the objective and the subjective.”
Moral Education
In a Waldorf school, the development of good work habits is part of the moral education that begins with the very first lesson in grade one.
Regardless of the religious traditions, stories of individuals who have lived by higher principle inspire and guide students in their own lives.
Waldorf School is about the importance of balance in the lives of children.
Strong interest in subjects, feels like an intimate connection with life.
Finally,as I have already said, the heart of Waldorf does not lie in these principles:
“Waldorf Education is not about its principles; it is all about the teacher, and these wonderful students.”
I hope you now have a further understanding of what Waldorf is.
