Waldorf education
Qualitative assessments of student work are integrated into the daily life of the classroom, with standardized testing limited to what is required to enter post-secondary education.
[13][14][15] The first school based upon the ideas of Rudolf Steiner was opened in 1919 in response to a request from Emil Molt, owner and managing director of the Waldorf-Astoria Cigarette Company in Stuttgart, Germany.
By the 1930s, numerous schools inspired by Steiner's pedagogical principles had opened in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Hungary, the United States, and England.
[62] Waldorf preschools employ a regular daily routine that includes free play, artistic work (e.g. drawing, painting or modeling), circle time (songs, games, and stories), outdoor recess,[62]: 125 and practical tasks (e.g. cooking, cleaning, and gardening), with rhythmic variations.
[74] Waldorf pedagogues consider that readiness for learning to read depends upon increased independence of character, temperament, habits, and memory, one of the markers of which is the loss of the baby teeth.
[17]: 389 [55][75] Formal instruction in reading, writing, and other academic disciplines are therefore not introduced until students enter the elementary school, when pupils are around seven years of age.
In order that students can connect more deeply with the subject matter, academic instruction is presented through artistic work that includes story-telling, visual arts, drama, movement, music, and crafts.
[77][78][79] The core curriculum includes language arts, mythology, history, geography, geology, algebra, geometry, mineralogy, biology, astronomy, physics, chemistry, and nutrition.
[55] Waldorf elementary education allows for individual variations in the pace of learning, based upon the expectation that a child will grasp a concept or achieve a skill when he or she is ready.
[57]: 6 Tensions may arise within the Waldorf community between the commitment to Steiner's original intentions and openness to new directions in education, such as the incorporation of new technologies or modern methods of accountability and assessment.
[103] Many subjects and skills not considered core parts of mainstream schools, such as art, music, gardening, and mythology, are central to Waldorf education.
[105] Older students build on these experiences and learn new skills such as pattern-making and sewing, wood and stone carving, metal work, book-binding,[106] and doll or puppet making.
[113]: 111 Experts have called into question the quality of this phenomenological approach if it fails to educate Waldorf students on basic tenets of scientific fact.
[115] One study conducted by California State University at Sacramento researchers outlined numerous theories and ideas prevalent throughout Waldorf curricula that were patently pseudoscientific and steeped in magical thinking.
[127]: 1422, 1430 Waldorf schools were historically "Christian based and theistically oriented",[79] as they expand into different cultural settings they are adapting to "a truly pluralistic spirituality".
[2][131][132] For early childhood and elementary school teachers, the training includes considerable artistic work in storytelling, movement, painting, music, and handwork.
[145] Public Waldorf schools' need to demonstrate achievement through standardized test scores has encouraged increased use of textbooks and expanded instructional time for academic subjects.
[152][153][154] In November 2012, BBC News broadcast a segment about accusations that the establishment of a state-funded Waldorf School in Frome was a misguided use of public money.
"[156] The British Humanist Association criticized a reference book used to train teachers in Steiner academies for suggesting that the heart is sensitive to emotions and also promoting homeopathy, while claiming that Darwinism is "rooted in reductionist thinking and Victorian ethics".
They were designed from the beginning to be comprehensive, 12-year schools under the direction of their own teachers, rather than the state or other external authorities,[161] all radical principles when Steiner first articulated them.
[65][164][165][166] Studies suggest that this is successful;[55]: 190 [57]: 4 Waldorf pupils have been found to be more interested in and engaged with social and moral questions and to have more positive attitudes than students from mainstream schools,[167] demonstrating activism and self-confidence and feeling empowered to forge their own futures.
[170] Many private Waldorf schools experience a tension between these social goals and the way tuition fees act as a barrier to access to the education by less well-off families.
The French government anti-cult agency MIVILUDES reported in 2021 that it remains vigilant about anthroposophy, particularly because of its deviant medical applications and its work with minors (Waldorf pedagogy).
[189] Studies of Waldorf students' artistic capacities found that they averaged higher scores on the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking Ability,[190] drew more accurate, detailed, and imaginative drawings,[191] and were able to develop richer images than comparison groups.
[192] Professor of educational psychology Clifford Mayes said "Waldorf students learn in sequences and paces that are developmentally appropriate, aesthetically stimulating, emotionally supportive, and ecologically sensitive.
[199] A UK Department for Education and Skills report suggested that Waldorf and state schools could learn from each other's strengths: in particular, that state schools could benefit from Waldorf education's early introduction and approach to modern foreign languages; combination of block (class) and subject teaching for younger children; development of speaking and listening through an emphasis on oral work; good pacing of lessons through an emphasis on rhythm; emphasis on child development guiding the curriculum and examinations; approach to art and creativity; attention given to teachers' reflective activity and heightened awareness (in collective child study for example); and collegial structure of leadership and management, including collegial study.
[201] Ernest Boyer, former president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching commended the significant role the arts play throughout Waldorf education as a model for other schools to follow.
[189] Ashley described seven principal ways Waldorf education differed from mainstream approaches: its method of working from the whole to the parts, its attentiveness to child development, its goal of freedom, the deep relationships of teachers to students, the emphasis on experiencing oral traditions, the role of ritual and routine (e.g. welcoming students with a handshake, the use of opening and closing verses, and yearly festivals), the role arts and creativity play, and the Goetheanistic approach to science.
[204] In US states where nonmedical vaccine exemption is legal, 2015 reports showed Waldorf schools as having a high rate of vaccine exemption within their student populations, however, recent research has shown that in US state schools, child immunization rates often fall below the 95-percent threshold that the Centers for Disease Control say is necessary to provide herd immunity for a community.
[212] The United States Advisory Committee on Immunization, the Centers for Disease Control, and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services all recommend that all healthy children 12 months of age and older get vaccinated against Varicella.
