waldorf school education

What is a Waldorf School?

Immersive learning and a focus on the whole child are the hallmarks of Waldorf education.

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Creative arts like drawing, painting, language studies, music and drama support the main lesson and give students a variety of avenues to learn the material. Students then continue an exploration of the lesson through movement and motor skills, with activities like physical education, building, dance and gardening.

Parents looking for education options – especially for kindergarten – have likely come across the term Waldorf. But what exactly is a Waldorf school?

Waldorf education is based on the ideas and teachings of Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian educator and philosopher who opened his first school In Stuttgart, Germany, in 1919. Steiner’s schools focused on “whole child” development, rather than the narrow academic focus popular in German schools at the time.

Today, there are almost 1,200 Waldorf schools and more than 1,900 Waldorf kindergartens around the world, according to the Alliance for Public Waldorf Education . Roughly 130 Waldorf schools, both public and private, are in the United States. The Association of Waldorf Schools of North America says its schools offer a “developmentally appropriate, experiential, and academically rigorous approach to education.”

Parents touring a Waldorf school will see classrooms with open space, supplies made from natural materials, natural light and a palette of muted colors. Students might participate in whole-group lessons directed by their teacher and move on to collaborate with peers while they explore the lesson topics with materials and activities.

The learning environment often extends outdoors because Waldorf schools embrace hands-on learning and engagement with nature. Through all grades, essential values include respect for the changing stages of each child’s development and the importance of relationships.

“The Waldorf classroom is a safe space where faculty and staff honor the innocence and imagination of early childhood; support a developing grade school child’s stages of growth, curiosity and empathy; and inspire the young adult’s capacities and engagement in the world,” Samantha Cosentino, marketing director at the San Francisco Waldorf School, wrote in an email.

What is Waldorf Education?

Central to Steiner’s philosophy was his belief that three developmental stages—early childhood, middle childhood and adolescence—were crucial to optimal learning. Steiner believed that schools should introduce certain subjects at certain stages.

Experts in Waldorf education say that these schools emphasize teaching the whole child. A main lesson is taught in a block of time lasting for several weeks. Creative arts like drawing, painting, language studies, music and drama support the main lesson and give students a variety of avenues to learn the material. Students then continue an exploration of the lesson through movement and motor skills, with activities like physical education, building, dance and gardening.

The model is a thematic approach. Students immerse in their learning and have time to adequately explore and understand the content.

“This allows different entryways for each student to access material,” says Kimberly Vachon, a Waldorf school alum and a former Waldorf teacher who is now doing doctoral work in education at the University of California—Santa Cruz. “Students have to really engage and participate in their education.”

What to Expect in a Waldorf School

Parents can expect Waldorf schools to place an emphasis on relationships and nurture opportunities to explore. Teachers in Waldorf schools typically stay with the same class of students for many years, rather than teaching a specific grade. Cosentino says this design has proven benefits.

“With a new teacher each year, expectations and personalities take up class time to sort out,” she says. “As the child changes and new capacities and interests form, the class teacher, having known the student through the years, is quicker to pick up on these and offer support.”

Observation also takes the place of many standardized tests, though public schools must still comply with state and federal requirements. Rebecca Moskowitz, executive director of advancement for the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America, says observation is a solid foundation for student assessment.

“Teachers have the ability to accurately assess their students in a holistic and comprehensive manner,” she says. “These assessments are supported by teacher conferences and class meetings throughout the year.”

Unlike most traditional schools, computers and technology are not a part of the everyday learning experience in many elementary and middle school Waldorf classrooms. Moskowitz says that technology is used later on. “In high school, computers and digital aids are used in the classroom as teaching tools across disciplines, and computer-specific courses may be taught,” she says.

Waldorf Pros and Cons

Like all educational philosophies, Waldorf schools have both positives and negatives. Advocates like Moskowitz say its holistic approach – balancing academic subjects with artistic and practical activities – helps foster a love of learning.

“Activities that deepen and round out one’s understanding of the world in which we live stand side by side with traditional core academic subjects,” she says.

Cosentino says the fluid and multifaceted nature of Waldorf education helps send students out into the world ready to engage with the community and with further education.

“While traditional education might involve teaching … toward certain benchmarks, Waldorf education relies on a time-tested curriculum whose graduates have consistently been described as perceptive, thoughtful, extraordinary, skilled and kind young people,” she says. “They are proof that academic standards will be met if a student’s whole needs are met.”

Some common drawbacks mentioned in connection with Waldorf schools are the same things that many parents like, such as the lack of emphasis on technology and standardized testing, and the focus on imaginative play in early childhoood (formal reading instruction does not begin until first grade). Some families may also have issues dealing with the same teacher year after year, though that too is often seen as an advantage.

Because many Waldorf schools are private, tuition may also be an obstacle for some parents. At the Waldorf School of Baltimore, for example, tuition for the 2021-22 school year was more than $20,000, according to its website, although financial aid is available.

Still, supporters say that Waldorf education allows children room to discover. “The well-rounded curriculum is designed to honor childhood and support the interests of each student,” Cosentino says.

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WHAT IS WALDORF EDUCATION?

Waldorf education inspires the spirit of the child while eliciting academic excellence through educational artistry. Through our pedagogy students develop an understanding and respect for the various cultures of the world through their experience in the classroom and in the celebration of seasonal festivals of the year. Drawing on many traditions, we celebrate our common humanity, not our separateness in belief or practice. Alongside Waldorf schools worldwide, we graduate lifelong learners who give purpose to their lives and communities.

Waldorf schools provide a developmentally appropriate, experiential, and academically rigorous approach to education that integrates the arts in all academic disciplines for children from preschool through twelfth grade. This approach enriches learning. Waldorf education creates a deeply meaningful learning process upon which experience, not just acquisition, underscores knowledge, thereby encouraging students to be active thinkers.

HOW WALDORF WORKS

Waldorf pedagogy leads students to engage with the curriculum on many levels. The class teacher travels with the students in grades 1-8 as guide, mentor, and figure of authority. Lessons balance cognitive and emotional intelligence with physical activity where each assignment integrates academic work with fine and practical arts.

In the Upper School we foster independent thinking, creative problem solving, and a sense of confidence, which equips students for future challenges. It is a curriculum that stresses practical knowledge and creativity. Our graduates are flexible, creative, and willing to take intellectual risks. Waldorf graduates are passionate about achieving their goals, and are highly sought after in higher education.

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What Is the Waldorf School Method?

The system of private schools is based on a philosophy that prioritizes the arts and the imagination.

By Alex Van Buren

This story was originally published on Aug. 15, 2019 in NYT Parenting.

Being in a Waldorf early-education classroom — with its pale-pink walls and an altar-like table filled with objects from nature — is “like being in a watercolor world,” a Times reporter wrote in 1977. And plus ça change: Although each school operates independently, that rosy pre-kindergarten palette remains quite common today, said Beverly Amico, the Waldorf executive director of advancement in North America. In fact, several recurring threads tend to surface in the Waldorf pedagogical quilt. Over the years, the system of schools has gained fame and notoriety alike for its often technology-eschewing, movement-encouraging ways. Its adherents emphasize that a focus on relationships, the arts, the imagination and nature educates the whole child: “ the head, the heart and the hands .”

The private school began in Europe with the philosopher Rudolf Steiner. In the spring of 1919, Emil Molt, the owner of the Waldorf Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart, Germany, asked Steiner to open a school for his employees’ children. That fall, the Independent Waldorf School opened. In 1928, the Waldorf school branched out to New York City, where it still exists today as the Rudolf Steiner School. Today, according to Amico, there are 125 Waldorf schools in the United States and more than 3,000 worldwide, from pre-K programs through high school.

Born in Austria in 1861, Steiner coined a theory called “anthroposophy,” a sort of spiritual philosophy that Amico explained via email as “the common principle that binds us.” She said it has “nothing to do with perpetuating a certain method, curriculum or tradition, but with developing reverence for the goodness, in the other and in the world around us … which brings with it purpose and meaning to life.” Steiner believed in reincarnation and karma, and that children were born in order to fulfill a particular destiny. His ideas are not followed strictly today. Amico said, “While anthroposophy is the foundation of Waldorf education and how we view the development of the human being, it informs teaching but is not taught in the curriculum.”

Some of Steiner’s beliefs were much more controversial. The website The Cut reported that Steiner once wrote that white people led a “thinking” life whereas black people led an “instinctive/sexually charged” life. (Amico has called those writings “painful,” saying, “As an association, we have no relation to that statement.”) He also believed he was clairvoyant, that diseases were influenced by an “ astral body ” and that childhood illness strengthened the immune system. Some Waldorf schools have been in the news recently because of their low vaccination rates and a lawsuit by anti-vaccine parents, though Amico said that there has not been a confirmed case of measles at a Waldorf school and that “there is nothing about our approach to education that aligns with the anti-vaccination movement.”

Favoring nature over technology

Controversies aside, in a modern early-educational Waldorf classroom the emphasis remains on the arts, nature and imagination. Students might spend time in “ forest school ,” rake leaves in the garden, or make sculptures from beeswax. They listen to stories, but do no formal reading or writing training. In most early-ed classrooms, technology is discouraged both at school and at home. In the words of one parent, Michael Shaun Conaway of Boulder, Colo., kids “who have been in this rich life of story go to sleep with it,” and have it inform their dreams.

Stephanie Rynas, the Waldorf executive director of operations and member resources in North America, said that classes might be mixed-age during the early years—perhaps a pre-K of 3- and 4-year-olds, or a kindergarten of 5- and 6-year-olds. A typical class has 18-20 kids, Rynas said.

In early childhood grades, a class might have a lead teacher and an assistant. In higher grades, the same teacher might stay with a class from first through eighth grades. “The goal is to have that relationship deepen with the teacher through multiple years,” said Rynas.

Learning through the “art of movement”

Until children are around age 7, Steiner theorized, they aren’t ready for more formal reading and writing lessons. Then, they start learning language more methodically. Often, these lessons are informed by “eurythmy,” a dance-language hybrid created by Steiner.

Eurythmy is “movement, usually accompanied by piano, in a big room,” said Nancy Hoose, a kindergarten teacher at the Mountain Laurel Waldorf School in New Paltz, N.Y. “With a lot of the movement comes sound,” for example, vowels. “It’s very therapeutic for the students.” Amico described it as “an art of movement: It attempts to make visible the tone and feeling of music and speech.”

Steiner encouraged a focus on play, not academics, in children’s early years. And the school’s methods — most early-grade classrooms don’t have desks; teachers might sing to students to guide them from playtime to lunch — have found fans in surprising corners. Some Silicon Valley moguls are sending their children to Waldorf schools, embracing the idea of a tech-free life for their kids. Hoose observed her daughter in a public pre-kindergarten where, she said, she was told to sit still and listen to a teacher speak for 40 minutes. When she found a Waldorf school in Woodstock, N.Y., she said, she “felt like we’d landed in heaven.” It was in a bucolic setting, prioritizing what she said was “natural, beautiful and healthy for the child.”

“Developing a complete human being”

Hoose describes the lead teacher as “a huge ego in the room,” and defined that person’s presence as almost “priest- or priestess-like.” Physical closeness with students is considered fine in her classroom, for example, foot rubs during nap time — which takes place on sheepskin and lambskin throws. In addition to lots of play time, Hoose said her students might make an apple crisp together or do “handwork,” domestic projects such as washing the lunch dishes, preparing a meal or knitting. There is a lot of “love, caring and reverence” in the classroom, she said. (Though Amico agreed with the latter characterization, she said, “I absolutely wouldn’t call it priest or priestess-like,” adding that the teacher “is the classroom authority and a parent is the authority in the home.” As for physical touching, that varies by the school.)

“It is about developing a complete human being,” said Jason Child, a music teacher at a North Carolina Waldorf school. “It’s not about meeting goals society feels would make the child a more productive member of society.”

Many Waldorf classrooms skip recorded music in favor of having children play in ensembles — perhaps on wooden flutes, for example — and Child, who teaches ages 6 to 18, “really enjoys” that when children arrive in his classroom from kindergarten, they have already had exposure to music. He said when he was a public school teacher, “the responsibility was to help them be a little bit musical if possible.” Now, he said, he’s fine-tuning kids’ existing musicality.

Lisa Babinet, who taught at college prep schools for 20 years before teaching at a Waldorf in Silicon Valley, was “floored” by her new students. She said they asked her questions about mathematics that she “had never thought about before. They were deep thinkers.”

Waldorf tuition ranges significantly throughout the country, depending on location and whether your student is enrolled part time or full time. At Live Oak Waldorf School in rural California, for example, tuition for a five-day pre-K program is about $7,980 per year, whereas at the Rudolf Steiner School in New York City, pre-K costs $34,400. The length of the school day varies, but is typically 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 pm. for a half day, and until 3 p.m. for a full day. The schools have a financial aid and tuition assistance program supported by “a huge budget,” Amico said, that draws kids whose families have “a broad range of income levels.” As for higher education, Amico cited a recent survey of graduates, not yet publicly available, that quoted 98 percent as having attended college, and 90 percent attending one of their top three choices.

Is the Waldorf school for everyone? Babinet, who is also a parent of two Waldorf graduates, had two caveats: “Students with really severe learning differences, if they’re not thriving, it does not make sense.” And she said the small environment might be “challenging” for some kids and “fabulous” for others. But the schools’ methods please many. “It’s not that the student needs to be filled up, but held in such a way that they can gravitate towards themselves,” Conaway said. “What a gift.”

[For more on early childhood education, read about forest schools, the costly burden of child care , and the increasing academic demands on young students .]

Alex Van Buren is a writer, editor and content strategist living in Brooklyn.

What is a Waldorf School?

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The term "Waldorf School" might not mean much to people outside of the educational realm, but many schools adopt the teachings, philosophy, and approach to learning. A Waldorf School will embrace a pedagogy that places a high value on imagination in the process of learning, which uses a holistic approach to student development. These schools focus not just on intellectual development, but also artistic skills. It is important to note that  Waldorf Schools are not the same as Montessori Schools , as each carries unique characteristics to their approach to learning and growth. 

Founder of the Waldorf School

The Waldorf Education model, sometimes also referred to as the Steiner Education model, is based on the philosophies of its founder, Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian writer and philosopher, who developed a philosophy known as anthroposophy. This philosophy believes that in order to understand the workings of the universe, people must first have an understanding of humanity.

Steiner was born in Kraljevec, located in what was then Croatia, on February 27, 1861. He was a prolific writer who penned over 330 works. Steiner based his educational philosophies off the notion that there are three major stages of child development and focuses on the needs of each stage individually in the teachings within the Waldorf Education model. 

When did the first Waldorf School open?

The first Waldorf School opened in 1919 in Stuttgart, Germany. It was opened in response to a request from Emil Molt, the owner of the Waldorf-Astoria Cigarette Company in the same location. The goal was to open a school that would benefit the children of the factory's employees. The school grew quickly though, and it didn't take long for families not connected to the factory to begin sending their children. Once Steiner, the founder, spoke at a conference at Oxford University in 1922, his philosophies became more widely known and celebrated. The first Waldorf School in the US opened in New York City in 1928, and in the 1930s, schools with similar philosophies soon existed in eight different countries.

What ages do Waldorf Schools serve?

Waldorf schools, which focus on the three stages of child development, cover infant education through matriculation from high school. The emphasis of the first stage, which focuses on the primary grades or early childhood education , is on practical and hands-on activities, and creative play. The second stage, which is elementary education, focuses on artistic expression and the social capabilities of the children. The third and final phase, which is secondary education, has students spending more time delving into critical reasoning and empathic understanding of classroom material. In general, in a Waldorf Education model, as the child matures, the process of scientific inquiry and discovery becomes a greater focus as time goes on, with the highest level of comprehension coming in upper school studies.

What is it like to be a student at a Waldorf School?

Waldorf teachers move with their students through the primary grades creating a sense of stability and security. The goal of this model of consistency allows teachers to get to know their students very well. They understand how the individuals within the class learn and how they respond to the world around them.

Music and art are central components of Waldorf education. Learning how to express thought and emotion is taught through art and music. Children are taught not only how to play various instruments but also how to write music. Another unique feature of Waldorf schools is the use of eurythmy. Eurythmy is an art of movement devised by Rudolf Steiner. He described eurythmy as the art of the soul.

How do Waldorf Schools Compare to More Traditional Primary Schools?

The main difference between Waldorf and traditional primary education is Waldorf's use of anthroposophy as the philosophical backdrop for everything which is taught, and, indeed, the manner in which it is taught. Children are encouraged to use their imaginations as part of their process of discovery and learning. In a traditional school, the child will be given objects and toys to play with. The Steiner method expects the child to create her own toys and other objects.

Another essential difference is that Waldorf teachers do not grade your child's work. The teacher will evaluate your child's progress and discuss areas of concern with you at regular parent-teacher conferences. This focuses more on a child's potential and growth, rather than on the accomplishments that happen by a particular moment in time. This differs from a more traditional model with graded assignments and assessments. 

How many Waldorf Schools exist today?

There are more than 1,000 independent Waldorf Schools in the world today, the majority of which focus on the first stage of child development. These schools can be found in approximately 60 different countries around the world. The Waldorf Education model has become most popular in European countries, having even influenced many of the public schools. Some European Waldorf Schools even receive state funding. 

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What is Waldorf Education?

Waldorf education is a worldwide independent school movement developed in Europe nearly 100 years ago by Austrian philosopher, social reformer, and visionary, Rudolf Steiner . Today, Waldorf education is represented across the globe, with about 1000 schools and nearly 2000 early childhood programs in over 60 countries. In Waldorf education, the learning process is essentially threefold, engaging head, heart, and hands—or thinking, feeling, and doing. This is the basis out of which Waldorf teachers work to nurture and engage each child through a curriculum and methodology that integrates academics, arts, and practical skills.

Although Waldorf education has been available in the US since 1928, with the founding of the Rudolf Steiner School in New York City, it has never been especially well-known here. But with increasing dissatisfaction over the high-stakes testing currently consuming mainstream education; the growing recognition of the many benefits a child receives through experiences with art, movement, and nature; a concern over a reliance on technology by younger and younger students; and the news that leaders in the high-tech industry are touting the lifelong benefits of low-tech Waldorf schools in educating their own children, more and more parents and educators are taking a closer look at the Waldorf approach and what it has to offer.

The Foundations of Waldorf Education

Waldorf education begins with the premise that childhood is made up of three distinct stages of roughly seven years each—birth to age seven (early childhood), seven to 14 (middle childhood), and 14 to 21 (adolescence). Each stage shapes the way children feel about and approach the world—intellectually, emotionally, physically, and spiritually—which, in turn, shapes the way they learn. Waldorf educators believe that curricula and teaching methods should be appropriately tailored to these developmental stages, each evolving as childhood unfolds.

Early Childhood – Develop the limbs through doing

Young children from birth to age seven live primarily through their senses and learn best through imitation. Striving to be figures worthy of imitation, Waldorf early childhood educators nurture each child’s flowering, providing gentle, yet sensory rich environments and play-based activities that encourage the young child to investigate the natural world, explore social relationships, and expand imaginative capacities. These activities lay crucial foundations for intellectual, emotional, and physical development.

Middle Childhood – Develop the heart through imagination

Between the ages of seven and 14, children learn best through lessons that touch their feelings and enliven their creative forces. The Waldorf lower school curriculum is alive with fairy tales and fables, mythological sagas, and stirring biographies of historical figures. Waldorf elementary (or “class”) teachers integrate storytelling, drama, rhythmic movement, visual arts, and music into their daily work, weaving a tapestry of experience that brings each subject to life in the child’s thinking, feeling, and willing. Entrusted with the essential task of accompanying their students on a several-year journey, Waldorf grades 1-8 teachers have a role analogous to that of effective parent, guiding the children’s formal academic learning while awakening their moral development and increasing their awareness of their place in the world.

Adolescence – Develop the mind through discernment of the world

Ages 14 to 21 marks the development of the independent intellect and, along with it, the ability to examine the world abstractly and exercise discernment, judgment, and critical thinking. Students in Waldorf high schools are given increasing autonomy over their education under the mentorship of teachers who are specialists in their fields.

The Benefits of Waldorf Education

Children enjoy an unhurried childhood..

Visit a Waldorf school and watch the students at play. You’ll see children who delight in being allowed to live in the moment, who are free to explore nature and to go where their wide-eyed sense of wonder and imagination takes them. In our frenetic world, where pushing children to “hurry up or fall behind” has become the norm, Waldorf education takes the point of view that childhood is something to be savored. By being free to develop according to their own natural rhythms, Waldorf-educated children enjoy full and rich childhoods, gaining the experiences they need to become healthy, self-actualized individuals.

Learning is hands-on and age-appropriate.

You won’t find young children hovering around a computer in a Waldorf school classroom or missing a walk in the woods or a trip to the farm in order to sit and cram for a standardized test. In Waldorf education, learning is an experiential activity. It’s not a matter of doing without certain experiences, it’s a matter of introducing children to each experience at the right time in their development. When it’s time to teach the merits, uses, and hows of technology, Waldorf school teachers do so. And the knowledge, self-awareness, and problem-solving skills children develop through years of hands-on inquiry is of far greater value to them as learners and as human beings than anything they could have picked up by sitting at a screen.

In-depth study enriches learning experiences.

The advantages of block learning have long been recognized in Waldorf education. In their daily morning (or “main”) lesson, Waldorf students from first through twelfth grade spend up to two hours concentrating on one subject which rotates every 3-4 weeks among the academic disciplines. Students have the chance to study each subject thoroughly and from a number of vantage points, which contributes to their enjoyment—and their understanding—of the subject matter.

Students learn how to take an active role in their own education.

From discovering the alphabet in the first grade to discovering anatomy, algebra, and U.S. history in the eighth grade, and all the way up through their high school studies, Waldorf students take part in the learning process by creating their own textbooks—beautifully-drawn journals containing stories, essays, poems, maps, illustrations, lab descriptions, and math equations. Rather than relying on pre-digested material presented to them in conventional textbooks, the act of creating their “main lesson” books allows children to absorb the lessons their teachers bring them and to make learning their own.

Waldorf schools produce well-rounded individuals.

Waldorf educators strive to bring out what lives in each student, but are careful not to over-emphasize one trait or skill over another. All students study math and science and learn foreign languages; they all play an instrument and sing in the chorus; they all learn handwork and take movement classes and perform in the class play. The goal in Waldorf education is to expose children to a wide range of experiences and to develop within them many interests and capabilities. This, in turn, leads to well-balanced young people with high levels of confidence in their ability to apply skills developed in one area to another, and the knowledge that they can master anything.

Waldorf-educated individuals have a lifelong passion for learning.

At a Waldorf school, education is not measured by competition and test scores, but is viewed as a life-long journey. And an educational approach that appropriately responds to a child’s natural interest in the world cannot help but result in an intrinsic desire to find out more.

Waldorf schools are sometimes erroneously seen as “art schools” because of the depth of the fine, practical, and performing arts curriculum you’ll find here, woven in an interdisciplinary fashion among all the subjects. Interestingly, however, it’s actually the sciences that become a career choice for many Waldorf school alumni—an interest developed through years of exploration, invention, and discovery.

The Central Role of a Waldorf Teacher

While Waldorf education places children at the heart of its pedagogy, Waldorf schools depend on the teacher as a fulcrum for the educational process. The individual who chooses to teach in a Waldorf school brings his or her full self to the development of others, providing mentoring, development, and affection that sustain the students for life.

“If someone wants to make a difference in the world, I can’t think of anything more relevant for our times than becoming a Waldorf teacher.”

~ Leslie Burchell-Fox, ’96; Early Childhood Teacher, Green Meadow Waldorf School, and Sunbridge Early Childhood Program Co-Director/Faculty Member

The Origins of Waldorf Education

In 1919, Emil Molt, owner of the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart, Germany, was looking to develop a school for the children of his employees. Molt was seeking a curriculum that would not only meet the children’s intellectual needs but speak also to their spiritual essence and humanity, thus helping them to flourish in the turbulent aftermath of the Great War. To develop this pedagogy, Molt turned to Rudolf Steiner. Steiner agreed to take on the task, under the conditions that the school be:

• Self-governed
• Artistically and culturally enriching
• Comprehensive (that is, not split into separate academic and vocational tracks)
• Open to all the workers’ children—girls and boys—from every walk of life

Steiner insisted his school’s teachers perceive and respond to the developmental needs of the children. The intended outcome would be young people who were independent thinkers and problem-solvers, capable of creatively meeting the challenges of their time. This inclusive and forward-thinking spirit of idealism, commitment, and engagement with the world continues to be a hallmark of Waldorf education in our time.

To Learn More

• Read about Rudolf Steiner and anthroposophy
• Learn about Waldorf teacher education
• Attend an Info Session to meet Sunbridge’s teacher education directors, faculty, and students/graduates
• Explore  Waldorf education  and  Waldorf early childhood education  in North America
• Explore Waldorf education   and Waldorf early childhood education worldwide
• Watch  “Seeding the Future,” a short video providing a glimpse into the principles of Waldorf education and “Learn to Change the World,”  a two-part film that takes a deeper look.

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What is Waldorf Education?

A quick initial overview on Waldorf Education can be found on the website of the German Federation of Waldorf Schools. Below we feature excerpts. If you would like to to know more visit waldorfschule.de. More information on the key characteristics of Waldorf education and Waldorf schools can be found in the revised paper of the International Conference (Hague Circle): German , English , Spanish , French

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Waldorf Education is the Education of the Future

Have you heard of “Bluey,” the most-streamed TV show of 2023, adored by critics and families alike? For anyone unfamiliar with it, it is an animated show from Australia depicting the life of a family of yes, dogs – a mother, father, and two daughters aged seven and five – Bluey and Bingo. Among the myriad of reasons why it has captivated children and their parents (who are often openly weeping while watching) is the enchanting school that Bluey attends – the Glasshouse Primary School. This school is based on an actual Steiner/Waldorf school. The creator of “Bluey,” Joe Brumm, stated in an interview with the website The Father Hood that Bluey’s school was inspired by his eldest daughter’s experience at school: “Play time was suddenly taken away from her, it was just yanked and seeing the difference in her was horrendous. There was no playing, there was no drawing, it was just straight into all this academic stuff. And the light in her eyes just died.’  The family subsequently changed their daughter’s schooling after Brumm began to research the value of play for child development. Mastering these soft kindergarten skills, he found, is a vital stage in kids’ evolution into socially aware creatures. Their make-believe games can deliver self-taught but powerful lessons about how to co-operate, share and interact. ‘ Bluey  is just one long extrapolation of that,’ Brumm says.”

As more and more parents are understanding the value of play-based learning, interest in Waldorf education for kindergarten and pre-K has increased. However, the value of continuing Waldorf education into the grades is less recognized. Common opinions of Waldorf education for older children are that it is too “woo-woo” for academic and career success, that it is mostly focused on arts and weak in math and science (despite the fact that more Waldorf high school graduates go on to major in math or sciences than humanities ). As parents who, by definition, are of a previous generation than our children, we are informed by our own history of work and education. The schools we attended likely relied on standardized teaching and testing with outcomes such as grades and degrees as sole measures of achievement. Different areas of study such as sciences and humanities are so far separated as to constitute different cultures. “Soft skills” are still regarded with condescension in many workplaces. We can extend ourselves some grace when we believe that because this is the world in which we came up, this is the world for which we need to prepare our children.

However, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF) , we are at the cusp of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The First Industrial Revolution was driven by steam, the Second by electricity, and the Third by electronics and information technology. The Fourth is characterized by advanced analytics, intelligent computers, and connectivity, blurring the line between the physical and digital worlds. The rate of change in knowledge and technology is explosive, radically reshaping the jobs of the future and with them, the skills needed for these jobs. Traditional education based on knowledge acquisition and standardized tests only equips children with information that will become obsolete in a few short years without providing them the skills they actually need to adapt to change, or to take advantage of their uniquely human qualities that cannot be replaced by machines.

In its Future of Jobs Report 2023 , the WEF states, “Analytical thinking and creative thinking remain the most important skills for workers in 2023. . . ahead of three self-efficacy skills – resilience, flexibility and agility; motivation and self-awareness; and curiosity and lifelong learning – in recognition of the importance of workers ability to adapt to disrupted workplaces.” In 2020, the WEF developed their Education 4.0 Framework to recognize changes needed in current education systems to equip children with the skills needed for the jobs of the future. They recommended eight transformations in content and learning experiences:

• Global citizenship skills – awareness of the global community and sustainability
• Innovation and creativity skills – complex problem solving, analytical thinking
• Technology skills – programming, responsible use of technology
• Interpersonal skills – emotional intelligence, empathy, cooperation, leadership, social awareness
• Personalized and self-paced learning – in contrast to standardized teaching and assessments
• Accessible and inclusive learning
• Problem-based and collaborative learning – process-based and collaborative work
• Lifelong and student-driven learning

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Future of Education and Skills 2030 report contains similar recommendations including a “focus on not only academic performance but also on holistic student well-being.”

Many of these points may feel familiar to those of us who have witnessed the education that our children receive at SWS. Rudolf Steiner, upon whose philosophy Waldorf education is based, stated, “The need for imagination, a sense of truth and a feeling of responsibility – these are the three forces which are the very nerve of education.” The system of education built on this recognition of the importance of creativity, social responsibility, and deep respect for our humanity, predates the WEF and OECD reports by over 100 years yet represents the education of the future. The WEF points out that legislators are slow to implement needed changes in education and highlights countries such as Finland (often rated to have the best education system in the world) as exemplars for other countries such as the US (which consistently ranks below European and Asian countries in math and science scores). We are fortunate that we do not have to rely on the glacial pace of government or move to another country to provide our children with an education that prepares them for future success.

Waldorf education is designed to be developmentally appropriate, experiential, and academically rigorous . By staying with a class for several years (a practice acknowledged as a contributing factor in Finland’s superior education system), teachers gain deep knowledge of each child and their development and therefore the ability to personalize each child’s learning experience. Developmental appropriateness includes Waldorf education’s choice to delay introducing electronics and media until children are able to think critically – to understand their appropriate use and to examine their benefits and risks in a way that promotes healthy and responsible interaction with technology. Researchers such as Jonathan Haidt in his recent book “The Anxious Generation” are recognizing the widespread damage that the decline in “play-based childhood” and the rise of  “phone-based childhood” have inflicted on the mental health of our children. As technology reaches ever further into every aspect of our lives, educating children to become users who are critical, ethical, and deeply rooted in their humanity is an essential safeguard as artificial intelligence becomes more powerful.

Experiential learning – learning through doing – lays down and reinforces robust neural pathways as children create their own textbooks, access mathematical principles through music, or internalize lessons of history through art. Project-based learning, such as one recent example with my own child – building a model of a home from another culture, develops multiple skills at once. “Aptitudes are often abstract and therefore hard to teach in isolation. Effective teaching happens through a concrete case or real-world problem. This doesn’t only effectively nurture one skill but often develops multiple at once. This is highly useful in real-life and fosters lifelong learning.” – WEF Besides the traditional academic skills of identifying research material and incorporating information, my child tapped into his creativity and problem-solving skills by planning out his construction design and materials. He used his critical thinking and analytic skills to identify the cause of a structure failure. He cultivated empathy and social awareness in learning about the hardships and problems facing the group of people who lived in these abodes. And he learned valuable lessons in managing his own expectations and frustrations and his time. This “art project,” filled with fun and accomplishment, reinforced his experience of learning as rewarding and pleasurable, setting him up for a life-long love of learning.

As the Fourth Industrial Revolution already begins, we see that Waldorf graduates are well positioned to succeed. A 2019 report “ How Waldorf Alumni Fare After Graduating from High School ” shows that Waldorf graduates study or work in STEM fields at similar or higher rates than graduates of other independent schools. They feel more strongly than graduates of other independent schools that their education prepared them to be creative, innovative, empathetic, and to take on leadership roles. Fortunately, we do not need to rely on the uncertainty of public policy changes or move to Finland to give our children the education that they and our world need – it is already here, “for real life” as Bluey would say.

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Perspective article, waldorf early childhood care and education in the 21st century.

• Waldorf UK, London, United Kingdom

Many of the elements of the Waldorf approach featured 100 years ago, with the opening of the first Waldorf early childhood groups, are now supported by current evidence and research into child development. Waldorf practitioners are developing stronger and better-informed practice based on the founding principles, contemporary resources and an ever-deepening understanding of young children today. In this paper I intend to explore five of the significant themes which have received additional impetus in recent years. 1. In the Waldorf approach a foundation of social and emotional development is prioritised as a support for later cognitive development. 2. A key features of the Waldorf early childhood environment is that it is a sensorily-friendly and unhurried microcosm of everyday life. 3. Waldorf practitioners and teachers have been actively promoting for the past century the importance of building up children’s connections with nature. 4. As a result of increased academicization and the pressures of 21st century life, child-initiated, free, creative play is under threat and needs protection and support. 5. One aspect of the Waldorf approach viewed as key is that the inner development of the practitioner or teacher is just, if not more, important than their outer work. Following this review of some essential aspects of the Waldorf approach in the light of recent development, the paper concludes by looking into the future and pinpointing three aspects at the forefront of developments and research among Waldorf early childhood practitioners today.

1 Introduction

I became a Waldorf kindergarten teacher in the late 1980s at a time when training for the role was hard to access. I learnt through study, alone and with colleagues, through observing others and through making many mistakes and endeavouring to put them right. For the last 15 years, I have had the privilege of working as a Waldorf early childhood consultant and mentor and of working with some of the seminars around the world which now offer the thorough training which I never had myself. I have brought this international aspect into what follows.

When the first Waldorf school, founded on principles suggested by Rudolf Steiner, opened in Stuttgart in 1919, the youngest pupils enrolled were turning seven. Not until 1926 did the first kindergarten open, admitting children under the age of seven. Now the number of schools and kindergartens continues to grow worldwide. This paper will examine the continued relevance of the Waldorf early childhood approach and curriculum as it moves into its second century of existence. It is not a fixed method or a set of rigid principles, but a living, evolving way of understanding children and supporting their development. Circumstances have changed and so have concepts of childhood and education. In its practice, Waldorf education (sometimes also known as Steiner or Steiner Waldorf education) has changed too while its essentials remain constant. I cannot provide here a complete overview of Waldorf early childhood theory and practice, but I have chosen five essential elements to reflect on in this paper in the light of contemporary developments.

When the first school opened, some of the ideas seemed radical. The aspects of early childhood Waldorf practice I will discuss here are now common topics of debate across the educational spectrum and can be supported by current research from educational psychologists and neuroscientists. Waldorf practitioners are developing stronger and better-informed practice based on the founding principles, contemporary resources and an ever-deepening understanding of young children today.

In this paper I intend to explore these five significant themes which have received additional impetus in recent years. As the Waldorf approach is worldwide, I will include international aspects of practice from places where I have personal connections and experience.

2 Social and emotional development comes before cognitive development

Across Europe and much of the world, Britain is an outlier, when it comes to the age for starting formal education. In many parts of the world with enviable educational reputations, the tradition is that children start school when they are 6 or 7 years old, after attending kindergarten. In Slovenia and Croatia, two countries which I visit regularly as a tutor and mentor, children enter school at 6 and 7 years old, respectively. Childcare in organised groups is provided by the state from babyhood, if required, and most children will be in a kindergarten setting from the age of three until they start school. In these flexible, family-friendly settings, they learn to socialise through free play and through adult-led games and activities. Children are there all day and there will be an afternoon nap or rest in addition to meals and snacks, indoor and outdoor times.

Since a compulsory school age was introduced in the 1870s, Britian is notable for having omitted the kindergarten stage, sending young children straight into formal schooling at 5 years old. Now with most parents wanting and needing to work, childcare for children under school age is a necessity and the concept of ‘pre-school education’, including semi-formal teaching of literacy and numeracy, has become embedded. Steiner (1861–1925) suggested that, for the first 7 years, the focus is on physical development and mastery of the physical body, through activity in which the child imitates what is happening around them ( Steiner, 2008a ).

There is contemporary research supporting the view that a later start to formal education may bring short- and long-term benefits. At its most dramatic, starting school early could be life-shortening, according to Kerr and Friedman: ‘Early school entry was associated with less educational attainment, worse midlife adjustment, and most importantly, increased mortality risk.’ ( Kern and Friedman, 2009 , p. 419). Others have argued that there is little academic benefit: ‘success at reading is not assured by an earlier beginning.’ ( Suggate et al., 2013 , p. 45).

For those used to seeing early childhood classrooms crammed with materials for teaching literacy and numeracy, there may be a hesitation about approaching education and care for young children without this structure. An overview of the Waldorf early childhood setting will show what can be done to provide a rich and nurturing environment, in a welcoming and inclusive community, for children up to the age of seven. A typical arrangement may be that there are 16 children, aged three to rising 7 years old in the care of two adults. With all day provision, there will be a rotation of staff to cover this, but the aim is for a consistent pattern and a family atmosphere. From the start, we want to create trusting relationships with children and their families, and to look upon parents as our colleagues. This community takes care of its own needs. Caring for the spaces, indoors and out, preparing meals and clearing up from them create a daily rhythm with structure and purpose. Some children will be busy alongside adults, chopping vegetables, polishing windows and counting out bowls and cutlery. Others will be just as busy playing, often with a free-flow between the adult-led activities and the child-initiated play. This purposeful mood of care lies at the heart of practice and is encapsulated in this quote: ‘the task of the kindergarten teacher is to adjust work taken from daily life so that it becomes suitable for the children’s play activities’ ( Steiner, 1923a , p. 81).

The daily rhythm with its emphasis on time for play, will be punctuated by whole group activities, such as a ‘ring time’ in which the children follow through imitation the voice and gesture of the adults in a linked sequence of songs, verses and games, often celebrating seasonal changes, and story time, when the whole group comes together to listen to a story usually learnt by heart and told by the practitioner, sometimes given as a simple puppet play. The environment will fuse practicality and beauty, including artistic activities such as painting, drawing and modelling.

The Waldorf approach to early childhood education and care is not a fixed method, but from the foundational seeds based in observation of child development, evolution to meet present and future needs is continual. Recently, questions of diversity, inclusion and equality have been highlighted, in Britain and internationally. In Britain now, all Waldorf settings are asked by Waldorf UK (our national organisation) to conduct a DIE (diversity, inclusion, equality) audit reviewing their provision. A recent publication based on a conference reflects the changing needs of the time:

‘As Waldorf Early Childhood practitioners, we are invited to develop the spiritual attributes of greatheartedness, humility, curiosity, interest, wonder and integrity. In these unique and challenging times, we are being asked to see clearly, without any veil of illusions, what influences us. We are being asked to be willing to change, to respond, and to transform’ ( Howard, 2022 , p. 5).

3 Providing a protected and unhurried environment

Putting ourselves into the shoes of a young child in a busy city street, or in a supermarket, we can imagine the assault on their senses. Not just the sights, noises and smells, but the mood of urgency, and the lack of community connections are strong impressions. In 1981, David Elkind, the American psychologist, wrote about how pressures and stresses in the second half of the 20th century were affecting children’s educational experiences ( Elkind, 1981 ). A pressured attitude infiltrates even methods of child assessment with a tendency for electronic notebooks and tick box forms aiming to identify omissions to be rectified, replacing the educator’s time to stand back and observe the child.

In China, Waldorf schools and kindergartens sprang up in the first two decades of the 21st century like a thicket of bamboo shoots and I have been involved in the adult education required to support this. Many settings have been in densely populated urban areas where living spaces are small, and the working lives of parents are stressful. Families who discovered the Waldorf approach to education and care found settings that offered a respite, where sensory experiences encourage calm and peace, where there is no rush and children can receive the individual attention in their pre-school setting which parents saw as missing in their own educational experiences.

Freye Jaffke, an experienced Waldorf early childhood practitioner, discussed the concept of the mantle as a protective space around the child within which opportunities for healthy development can be nurtured. This mantle is created by the physical environment, and, more importantly, by the way in which the adults conduct themselves and organise time in the setting. In addition to the mantle of time, she writes about the mantle of physical and psychological warmth and the mantles created by the way practitioners speak and move ( Jaffke, 2002 ).

This emphasis on psychological warmth is one explored by Tamsin Grimmer in her research-based book, ‘ Developing a Loving Pedagogy in the Early Years’. Grimmer writes:

The main benefit to adopting a loving pedagogy is that children will feel loved and have a sense of belonging and will want to be part of our setting and spend time in our company. … This in turn will raise levels of well-being and children’s self-esteem. … adopting a loving pedagogy helps to foster positive dispositions to learning, such as the characteristics of effective learning, and also helps to build really strong and secure relationships with children and their families ( Grimmer, 2021 , p. 6).

Another recent book by Alison Clark, looks at the benefits of slow pedagogy. She quotes many modern authors on the negative effects brought by the acceleration of time in education and how, especially for young children, this works against the firm foundations for future learning that are needed. She sees the young child as in a process of becoming which cannot be hurried, and writes, “This ‘becoming’ is, by necessity, time consuming” ( Clark, 2023 , p. 71).

In a complex world, the need for simplicity is crucial for the young child and is a feature of early childhood approaches such as Froebel and Reggio Emilia. The simplicity of daily life in a Waldorf early childhood group, where meals are prepared and eaten, and the environment is cleaned and repaired as part of the children’s experience, supports the feeling for young children that the world makes sense, that they can contribute to it, and that it is valuable.

In the same way that you cannot hasten the opening of a flower by tearing open the bud, childhood cannot be rushed, but needs to unfold in a way that gives children time for horizontal exploration of each stage of development, rather than being a vertical ascent to be achieved with utmost speed. The Waldorf setting is designed to be a sensorily calming and peaceful place. You will see a clear space with equipment rich in natural materials and open-ended possibilities inviting exploration and play at a young child’s pace. Days and weeks follow secure rhythms within which it is safe to be curious and make mistakes. In recent years, as the outside world seems to become more frenetic, Waldorf practitioners have taken more steps to provide a respite in their settings. In Britain, kindergarten hours have been extended so that there is more time for play and for leisurely transitions between play and adult-led activities. I would like every Waldorf early childhood setting to have above their gate the motto, ‘Here we have time!’.

4 Connections with nature are essential

Approaches to early childhood education since the time of Rousseau have referred to connections with nature ( Peckover, 2012 ). Reinvigorating this concept in the 21st century, Richard Louv wrote ‘Last Child in the Woods’ and brought to the fore the danger for young children of a diminishing connection with nature which has been echoed by many ( Louv, 2007 ). As a contrast, Louv posits a connection between an experiential relationship to the natural world and later active engagement with environmental issues (2007, pp. 9–11). Louv writes, ‘If we are going to save environmentalism and the environment, we must also save an endangered species: the child in nature’ (2007, p. 158). The Forest School movement, with its roots in Scandinavia, has flowed into Britain since the 1990s and actively seeks positive outdoor experiences as a foundation for a lifelong respect and reverence for the natural world ( Miller and Pound, 2011 ).

There are many commonalities between the Forest School or Kindergarten and a Waldorf setting. The Forest School setting emphasises the sensory experiences, challenges and opportunities which only a natural outdoor environment can bring ( Williams-Siegfredsen, 2017 ). Natural resources, referred to so eloquently by architect Simon Nicolson as ‘loose parts’, bring a call on flexibility and imagination which much mass-produced play equipment does not: ‘in any environment, both the degree of inventiveness and creativity and the possibility of discovery are directly linked to the number and kind of variables in it’ (quoted in Tovey, 2007 , pp. 74–5). Loose parts include not only such variable and valuable items as branches for den-building, plants for making potions and that most attractive and versatile of materials, mud, but also the tools and equipment needed to make the most of this bounty. Only by using tools for play and for real work can small hands become adept at achieving their aims. There is plenty of research to support the larger benefits of this such as ‘Do nimble hands make for nimble lexicons? Fine motor skills predict knowledge of embodied vocabulary items’ ( Suggate and Stoeger, 2014 ). Positive impacts of outdoor settings on well-being and social and emotional skills are also well documented ( Miller and Pound, 2011 ).

That essential relationship of the human being with nature was thoroughly explored by Rudolf Steiner. The view of the earth as a living entity where everything is interrelated, was postulated repeatedly by Steiner in the early 20th century ( Steiner, 2008b ) and can be seen as a forerunner of Lovelock’s Gaia theory that the world is a composite living being which self regulates ( Lovelock, 1974 ). The Waldorf educator sees a warmth towards the natural world as intrinsically present in the very young child. The aim is just to protect this warmth so that adults who are motivated to take care of our world, eco-warriors, can develop from the mud-splashed small children playing in the meadows, woods and streams.

While the imaginative world of early childhood is still strong, the approach will be lively and pictorial. In the European context, there could be stories of the gnomes at work under the ground who take the seeds and bulbs into the protection of Mother Earth in the autumn, look after them during the winter and help the plants to grow in the spring. (Of course, Waldorf is a global approach and in other parts of the world, nature forces will have other characteristics and names.) The children will be actively involved in gardening, recycling and careful use of natural materials but not given ‘scientific’ explanations of why sustainable activities such as these are good for us and the environment. The young child will take the vegetable peelings ‘back to Mother Earth’ by emptying them onto the compost heap, will see them decay and be there when the compost is added to the garden beds, but, although any questions will be answered in a lively way, this experience will not be extended into a lesson which explains the cycle of growth and decay, thus remaining as an experience.

Beyond the Waldorf early childhood setting, value for the natural world continues to be nourished throughout the full Waldorf school curriculum and the mood will change to one which includes detailed observations, practical involvement in food and craft production and land care, and, eventually, critical inquiry into humanity’s relationship with the natural world. The developing human being takes a natural journey from the wish to ‘help the gnomes’ to an adult understanding of the responsibility of the human being towards the ecosphere ( Rawson and Richter, 2000 ).

From my own experience as an early childhood educator, social dynamics outdoors are easier under the sky. For many years I began my kindergarten days outdoors, rain or shine, summer and winter, so that children, appropriately clad for the season, could relax and rediscover each other after the early mornings rush to leave the home and get to school. I found that anxious children separated more easily from their parents outdoors. They were not leaving their parents to come into my space but arriving in Mother Nature’s space and that seemed to be more congenial.

Waldorf early childhood groups have included outdoor time as part of the daily rhythm over the past 100 years. Risk taking has an extra dimension in natural outdoor surroundings and this has been fully acknowledged in the 21st century Waldorf kindergarten with a renewed emphasis on work and play in nature. Children learn respect for nature and respect for tools through imitating the adults around them and their ‘ground rules’ which make sense and become good habits. Now many Waldorf settings include days spent mostly or entirely outdoors at least once a week. This will include preparing food, al fresco, and cooking over fires, which brings further opportunities for respecting boundaries, self-regulation and learning resourcefulness, all very transferable skills for life. For many urban children today, their only experience of fire may be the virtual explosive disasters which happen in the cartoon realm. In the kindergarten, the cooking fire is a regular and familiar presence to be nurtured with twigs, respected and blessed for the warmth and the hot food and drinks it provides.

5 Free play needs protection and support

I am in a Waldorf kindergarten in provincial Thailand observing a group of 16 children aged four to rising 7 years old. This is ‘free play’ time, and the children are engaged in self-initiated activities indoors. They have space and time to play with a range of simple and open-ended toys and equipment. A boy, aged about 5 years old, begins, by himself, to build. He sets up four large wooden frames in a square, tying them together at the corners with ropes. He drapes a sheet over each frame so that the space he has created is hidden. He selects some items to take inside; a stool, some coconut shell dishes with seedpods in them and some log slices. As a finishing touch, he carefully balances a small piece of wood on the projections at each end of all the frames that he has used. This is difficult as they keep falling off, but he patiently replaces them until his structure appears to satisfy him. At this point, he leaves it and goes to join his friends who are sitting at the table and drawing.

Such a play situation would be unlikely in a mainstream English educational setting for children of this age. By the age of six, if not before, the child will already have left behind the requirements of the Early Years government curriculum and will have been embarked on the National Curriculum for school children. Cognitive skills in particular, will be tested regularly as part of a national system ranking individual achievements, and those of classmates and school, against those of peers nationally. Much adult consideration will have gone into surrounding the child with equipment designed to stimulate cognitive development and into filling school days with adult directed tasks that have the same aim. There is a contrast here not only with the Waldorf approach but also with Piaget’s belief in the child as an innate learner, and with the ideas of Froebel whose child centred pedagogy has in the past had a great influence on early childhood and primary teacher training programmes in the United Kingdom.

Froebel, like Steiner, believed that play would allow a rounded and holistic development of the young child and provide an essential and sound basis for future education. His own ideas changed during his life from a more to a less fixed curriculum ( Bruce, 1992 , p. 13), a move which the Waldorf practitioner would support. As the world becomes more complex so play which is essentially child-initiated, and relies on simple open-ended equipment, becomes more important. The adult still has a role, but it is a peripheral one, to engage with some purposeful work, in an artistic way, which will add to the busy, engaged but not hurried mood in the room. The adult’s task alongside their cleaning, cooking, making and repairing activity, is to be awake to what the children are doing. Intervention might be necessary because somebody’s ingeniously constructed ‘aeroplane’ or ‘fire engine’ is in danger of collapsing on those within, or because an unhappy mood is developing which the children are unable to resolve themselves. Additionally, observing children at play, free from your expectations of their achievements, will enhance the deepest understanding of the essence of each child.

The idea that children have, through self-initiated unguided play, something intrinsically their own to contribute to their early educational experiences is now much more accepted, the right to play being enshrined as a basic right in Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Right of the Child ( UNICEF, 1989 ). In England, United Kingdom, there is a tension between the value of play in its own right and the aim of preparing children for a flying start in school by introduction structured sessions in literacy and mathematics. The Early Years Foundation Stage Framework, a statutory document, for example states that ‘Play is essential for children’s development, building their confidence as they learn to explore, relate to others, set their own goals and solve problems’, while at the same time this document sets specific and extensive learning goals for reading, writing and mathematics ( DfE, 2023 ).

Campaigners such as Sue Palmer in Scotland ( Palmer, 2016 ) and Peter Gray in United States ( Gray, 2015 ) have built a strong case for giving children more time to play, especially in early childhood. The English academic, Jule Fisher, has written eloquently on the need for young children to develop their own learning through long periods of uninterrupted play ( Fisher, 2016 ). In the Waldorf early childhood group, play has been valued from the very beginning. In 1923, Rudolf Steiner wrote:

Play is fun for an adult, an enjoyment, a pleasure, the spice of life. But for children, play is the very stuff of life. Children are absolutely earnest about play, and the very seriousness of their play is a salient feature of this activity. Only by realizing the earnest nature of child’s play can we understand this activity properly ( Steiner, 1923b ; p. 59).

The essence of the play incident in Thailand that I have described is mirrored in what is happening in Waldorf kindergartens all over the world. Child initiated play, although it is balanced with periods of adult-led whole class activities, is given time and space and a special value. The view is that this kind of unguided play has value for young children not only in terms of their own satisfaction but also because it is essential to their development. As it emerges from the relationship between the child’s inner life and their experiences, it can be relied on to provide their own bespoke curriculum.

One of the consequences of a world in which screen media is often dominant, is its appearance in the play of young children. Children use their play to digest their experiences, including their screen experiences (though the Waldorf early childhood setting is free of all electronic gadgets). But play on screen themes such as superheroes and Disney princesses can become repetitive and obsessive, and Steiner Waldorf practitioners today, notwithstanding their respect for free play, have found that there comes a point where intervention is necessary.

It is helpful to think of young children engaged in their self-initiated play as being within a bubble. However rumbunctious and exciting the play, the bubble is delicate and could be burst by the wrong word, or even gesture, from an adult. Sometimes one observes play on a screen theme which has become stuck because there is something incoherent and, from the child’s perspective, indigestible, in the theme. Therefore, it keeps being regurgitated, and the adult must step in, without, if possible, bursting the delicate bubble of play.

One approach which 21st century Waldorf practitioners have come to, is by using their own imagination, to drop in a few words which bring the play theme back to everyday concepts more comfortable for children, mostly around care. For example, Darth Vader must have to remove his helmet to eat his breakfast porridge and would need to remove his whole suit to put on his cosy pyjamas at bedtime, and there must be, somewhere in that Disney castle, a room filled with wonderful fabrics, ribbons, buttons and embroidery threads where those beautiful dresses are made. In a similar vein, dinosaurs will inevitably hurt themselves from time to time and must be tended by the dinosaur vet and assistants. Such fantasies may sound bizarre to adults, but to the child, they make sense, form a connection to their lived experience and make it possible for the play to move on. The Waldorf practitioner becomes adept at stepping in with an imaginative picture which might help the children, and then stepping back to the periphery so that the free play can continue.

6 The inner development of the practitioner is just as important as their outer work

All Waldorf teacher and practitioner education programmes will cover the topic of ‘the inner work of the teacher’. For example, the internationally agreed guidelines for early childhood training include a section entitled ‘Path of inner development of the adult/educator’ ( IASWECE, n.d. ). The view is that this inner work, which can take various forms, will give access to the kind of pedagogical wisdom that the ideal teacher or practitioner would have, and directly support healthy child development.

Steiner reiterated frequently in his lectures on education the importance of the self-development of the teacher or practitioner (for example, Steiner, 1924 , p. 58), through the kind of attention to one’s thoughts, feelings and actions which seeks to make one a better, kinder, wiser person. For this purpose, Steiner suggested many exercises to strengthen one’s capacity to be more attentive to thoughts, feelings and actions and thus to gain increasing mastery of them. These include exercises to focus thinking, train the memory, reflect on one’s past, and take a step back from instinctive, habitual or emotional responses (for example in the compilation ‘Start Now!; Steiner, 2004 , pp. 109–119).

We can see this echoed by the current interest in ‘mindfulness’ techniques in education and many other areas of life (for example, Jennings, 2015 ) and common sense tells us that the kind of balanced personality which might result from this effort on the part of the teacher would be an asset to pedagogical wisdom in the classroom. Every individual has personal strengths and weaknesses which make the path towards mastery of thinking, feeling and actions a more or less stony and uphill one, but being on the journey makes a difference to the teacher or practitioner.

Recently I have been working with two organisations in Lebanon to provide a Waldorf early childhood seminar for those working in kindergartens near Beirut and in the Syrian refugee camps. We have included, alongside sessions on Waldorf principles, child development and practical advice to practitioners, ideas and exercises for self-development, and in particular the six exercises which Steiner suggested as a basic framework for self-development (2004). The earthquake which struck parts of Syria and Turkey earlier this year (2023), had an impact on Lebanon too. Not only were there significant tremors, but there was a major impact on the mental health of a population which has suffered destructive civil war, failing infrastructure and the massive explosion in the Beirut docks.

The following week, I met these students online for one of our regular study sessions. They spoke of the difficulties they found in regaining their equanimity in these appalling circumstances. ‘But’, they declared, ‘we have been working on the exercises you gave us, and it is helping us to be strong and peaceful for the children’. The troubles of my life are minor irritations compared with their experiences and I found their statement a striking endorsement of the power of inner work. They knew that their efforts to calm themselves and come to terms with what was happening, would be beneficial to the children in their care.

One of the foundational principles of the Waldorf approach to early childhood education and care is that, especially through the first 7 years, children learn most through imitation. Any parent of a baby a few weeks old can research this for themselves and teach their baby, in a few hours, to stick out their tongue in response to this action by the adult. Rudolf Steiner emphasised the point that children not only imitate our outer gestures, but also imitate and respond to our inner activity. He wrote:

What matters are the thoughts, the attitude and the atmosphere with which one surrounds the child. … Everything children absorb goes in through the senses, and children will imitate everything that goes in (Steiner quoted in Jaffke, 2004 , p. 39).

This leads to an obvious conclusion:

it is what you are that matters; … Health for the whole of life depends on how one conducts oneself in the presence of the child. The inclinations which he (sic) develops depend on how one behaves in his presence ( Steiner, 1924 , p. 18).

If we work in the care and education of young children, then it becomes our responsibility to be models worthy of imitation.

We have been aware of mirror-neurons since the work of Rizzolatti in the early 1990s ( Rizzolatti and Craighero, 2004 ). There are still many unanswered questions but, as Steiner suggested at the turn of the 20th century, children not only imitate outer movements, but more complex inward aspects of our inner nature. For me, the essential point is not that only perfect human beings are fit to take charge of young children, it is rather that young children, as they look to their environment to find out what it is to be human, need to meet the striving human being, one who is endeavouring, through self-discipline and personal effort, to become a better person.

The suggestion is that mirror neurons are involved in such inner activity as language learning, empathy and acquiring social traits, because imitation extends to imitating the brain state of those close to us, especially when we are very young ( Iacoboni, 2008 ). After almost a century, Waldorf early childhood practitioners now had neuroscientific evidence for a foundational principle which Steiner had indicated was especially important for those concerned with the education and care of children under seven.

7 Conclusion

This paper has given an overview of five aspects of Waldorf early childhood education and care which were indicated by Steiner more than one hundred years ago, and which have been evolving ever since. Although there are societal and economic pressures moving against these, in this paper I have demonstrated that that there are convergencies with the thoughts of non-Waldorf practitioners, researchers and academics, taking similar directions.

Looking forward, here are three areas of current discussion and research amongst Waldorf practitioners from which new ideas and practices are emerging. Firstly, as caring for very young children outside the home becomes more and more a necessity for families, so more understanding of the needs of babies and children under three is needed. Secondly, fruitfully extend our support for families. Thirdly, working more closely with those who share a similar understanding of what constitutes a healthy environment for the young child, in order to have a stronger impact on family and educational policies.

As Waldorf education moves into its second century there are still depths of understanding of the young child to be explored and researched, and the work continues.

Data availability statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Author contributions

JT: Writing – original draft.

The author (s) declare that no financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Conflict of interest

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords: Steiner Waldorf early childhood, early childhood education and care, Steiner Waldorf kindergarten, developments in Steiner Waldorf early childhood, alternative approaches to early childhood education and care

Citation: Taplin JT (2024) Waldorf early childhood care and education in the 21st century. Front. Educ . 9:1329773. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1329773

Received: 29 October 2023; Accepted: 09 April 2024; Published: 23 April 2024.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2024 Taplin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Jill Tina Taplin, [email protected]

This article is part of the Research Topic

One Hundred Years and Counting: The International Growth of Waldorf Education

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Where could your English-speaking child go to school in Moscow?

There were no private schools in the USSR, and they have been slow to emerge since. However, public schools are popular with Russians, and some are very good. And the merits of private education aren’t perceived as obvious. Yet, almost all modern trends in schooling have now taken root in Moscow, and many are becoming a godsend to expat families. 

International schools 

The early entrants into the post-Soviet education market,  these schools have almost always ostensibly catered predominantly to expats. The most coveted, the Anglo-American school , historically limited attendance by families with a “Russian background” to 15% in attempt to keep an “expat-dominated”  environment, but has somewhat relaxed this policy in recent years. More accessible options, including the International School of Moscow, the network of British International Schools ,  Cambridge International schools and the latest market entrant -  Brookes Moscow , find their student populations to be at least 50% from Russian-speaking families, sent there to learn English, rather than because it was their native language. According to some sources, many grade levels in these schools now have no expats at all. The tuition, usually costing up to $30,000+ per year, as well as hefty entrance fees, will sound prohibitive to many expats.   

Traditional Russian private schools

These schools tuition fees range from a modest 40,000 rubles ($630) to those priced at around a million rubles (ca. $15,000) per year. In the upper range you can find the Moscow Economic School , Lomonosov School and Shkola Sotrudnichestva . More affordable options include: Novaya Shkola , Luchik , Mezhdunarodnaya schkola (Gribanovo), Nadezhda , The Academy School (just as much a tautology in Russian as it is in English) and many others. Unfortunately, it’s at these types of schools where an expat will have the least luck. Despite stated commitment to bi-lingualism, they depend, in their accreditation and reputation, on adherence to the Russian state-mandated school program and test performance. They require assessments in Russian to get in, and no capacity to teach it from scratch. They will likely reject a non-Russian speaking teenager, however many now do accept younger children.

Brenda Weston Bell is a British expat with experience working at, and with, various schools in Russia. She recently moved her 6-year-old daughter from an English-language program to a Russian private school, and believes that she is getting better value. Brenda says that the “international school” only had children from Russian families in it, and the choice of the environment was, ultimately, bad English versus good Russian. “In the Russian school [my daughter] was silent for about a month, and then she had a breakthrough and started chatting in Russian,” Brenda says. She would encourage other expat families with small children to take this opportunity to have them learn a second language, but warns that Russian private schools “do not want non-native Russian speakers” at secondary grade levels, because they are not competitive in all-important exams and could fail achievement benchmarks. 

Julia Casimir is an American with a 10-year-old son. The family came to Russia after a 4-year stay in China, where their son attended a local school and learned Chinese. In Russia, their experience was different: a Russian private school they approached refused to accept a non-Russian speaking child into 5th grade. The boy now attends an “international school”, but he is the only expat child from an English-speaking country in his class.

Waldorf and Montessori

Waldorf (Steiner) schools are represented quite well in Moscow. They range from larger, fully accredited  schools, that sometimes deviate from Waldorf canons, in order to adhere to the state program (those include, among others, “ Put’ zerna ” [“Journey of a seed”] and The Free School in suburban Zhukovsky), to smaller “educational initiatives” which are, legally, homeschool enrichment programs, and depend in their legality on the children’s registration at another school. The second group adheres to Waldorf material more devoutly. 

They are all undersubscribed, and often lack entire grade levels due to no demand. In the best cases, they have 8-12 students per class, for a total of 25 to about 100 students school-wide (too few to be taken seriously by the Russians). The tuition is potentially affordable on a Russian salary, ranging from 18,000 to 40,000 rubles (ca. $280-$625) per month. All either have enrolled English-speaking expat children, or said they are willing to - especially if the child attended a Waldorf school overseas.  Meanwhile, Moscow public school No. 627, the only school in the system that follows the Waldorf curriculum, is indefinitely full. 

Montessori schools are also proliferant and generally willing to accept foreign children - most are pre-school and primary level, where bi-linguality is achieved best. A larger, but more expensive, Montessori School of Moscow recently opened an educational center for teenagers aged 12 to 15. It is open to expats, but tuition costs 100,000 rubles (ca. $1,564) per month.

The challengers: franchises, democratic schools & cryptocurrency

Older Russian schools seek to remain unique and exclusive, but a number of newer private school  models have sprung up in the last couple of years, that are trying, with varied success, to start not just a school, but a network of schools, into which they seek to recruit franchisees almost as enthusiastically as students. They have all admitted they will accept an English-speaking child.  They are all struggling: to develop, to lease more space for future locations, to recruit staff and to find enough children willing to attend, so that their institution would resemble a school in the first place. Each of these challenger models is envisioned as both infinitely scalable and individually tailored - turning down any student would be antithetical. 

The Lancman schools and SmartSchool are noted examples of such entrepreneurship. Tuition ranges from 40,000 to 100,000 rubles (ca. $625-$1,564) per month, and Lancman seems to follow the pricing model for consumer goods, setting rates higher in what they see as more desirable locations. 

Those expats who are adept of the democratic school model, such as the Summerhill school or Sudbury Schools, will no longer be disappointed in Moscow. The Nos school (which literally means “nose school” in Russian) is attempting to implement the model with flair in suburban Istra, west of Moscow. A scaled-down branch has also just opened in Moscow City Centre. Since the premise of democratic schools is antithetical to Russian government’s requirements for being licensed as a school, these also require enrolment in a licensed “partner” school, at a further cost of 5,000-12,000 rubles (ca. $78-$178)  to a 37,000 rubles ($578) a month tuition, in order to officially progress grades or graduate. 

The newest and most enigmatic entrant to the market is Slon i Giraf  [“An elephant and a giraffe”] school - or, rather, chain of schools, as it hopes to be soon - which is based on a popular network of science-themed summer camps. The school runs a democratic school model fused with the idea of monetarily rewarding children to achieve milestones (the rate and type of marketable achievements, which do not have to be academic, to be decided collectively by parents). It declares itself tuition-free, while seemingly offsetting the costs by the parent participation in the promotion of its own cryptocurrency (a scheme which you have to take an online course in and be examined on to comprehend fully - but it sure sounds like something only Russians could come up with!). The founder insisted that it takes at least 40 minutes in person to properly explain the concept, evoking a proverbial timeshare presentation - but participation is open to foreigners. So, good luck!

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