(Adaptation of brochure published by the Waldorf School of Harlemville, New York)
**A world-wide association of schools, begun in 1919**
--When the Intellect travels on wings of Goodness, Beauty, & Truth, it can reach new heights --
The uniqueness of the Waldorf curriculum lies primarily in how and when the children are taught, rather in what is taught. In presenting material, first comes the encounter; then encounter becomes experience; and out of experience crystallizes the concept. Perception, feeling, idea: three steps in a genuine learning process that prepares the intellect for the abstract and conceptual thinking which will become possible later, in adolescence.
Waldorf Schools are organized to make the relationship between student and teacher as fruitful as possible. In the elementary grades, this is accomplished by the unique Class Teacher/Main Lesson system. Each morning the children spend the first period of the day -- the two-hour Main Lesson -- with their Class Teacher. During this time when young minds are freshest, they will intensively study a block from one of the core subjects. In this way the rhythm of the day begins with work which requires the most attention, and each academic subject can receive special focus during the course of the year. The Class Teacher has time to enter each subject in depth and to approach it in a variety of ways -- time to enliven each topic with poetry, painting, modeling and drama. Thus, intellectual learning is always combined with artistic, rhythmical and practical work. After about a month, when one topic has been fully explored, a new Main Lesson block is introduced.
Subjects which require regular repetition in shorter lessons (foreign languages, for example) occupy the later part of the morning. Afternoons are devoted to activities that are more social in nature: games and sports, painting, handwork, and gardening. Boys and girls learn crocheting and knitting, simple sewing and woodwork. There is a wonderful coordination and harmony of subject material throughout the Waldorf curriculum. What is being taken up in each Main Lesson block appears in subtle ways in the activities of the afternoon. The challenges of handwork and the fine arts are treated not as separate, unimportant "options" or "electives" but as vital parts of a complete education.
Two great rhythms work concurrently in the Waldorf grade school: the daily rhythm of lessons, and the rhythm of seasonal festivals celebrated throughout the year. The student of this age needs the ordering quality of rhythmic activity in order to develop the security and confidence necessary for academic achievement and self-disciplined work habits.
The close community relationship established between a class and its teacher in the main academic subjects is balanced by lessons taught by subject specialists, so that the children have a healthy experience of many different adults. Subjects such as foreign languages, music, eurythmy, handwork and physical education may be taught by class teachers with the necessary skills, or by other specially-trained teachers.
The daily Main Lesson is concluded with work in the Main Lesson Book. The student writes and illustrates a main-lesson-book through the course of each main lesson block, gaining much practice in handwriting, grammar, art, and composition along the way. The enthusiastic pride children take in creating their books shows how joy in learning has been preserved and promoted.
The samples included here show the work of a former Waldorf student in the Harlemville New York school, as she progressed from Grade 1 through Grade 8.
If you would like to see more samples of Main Lesson books and other curriculum work, you are very welcome to visit a Waldorf School near you. (See "Directory of Waldorf Schools in North America" for the address of the nearest school).
Parents can provide nothing of more lasting value than an education which develops their child's full human potential. Waldorf education emphasizes disciplined creativity, wonder, and reverence and respect for nature and for human existence.
A comprehensive academic, artistic, and physical education program presented in a supportive, structured and non-competitive environment is meant to help parents develop a child who will be balanced in feeling, with initiative in action and clarity in thought. We aim to strengthen the child to meet not only the challenges of school, but also those of life.
Waldorf is a successful holistic education model designed to provide the right stimulus a the right time and allow each child's abilities to fully unfold. The early childhood, elementary and high school curriculum, working out of the philosophy and methods of its founder, recognizes that as children pass through three distinct developmental stages, specific forces and capabilities are at work...and so children have very particular needs from the adults around them. In extremely brief terms, this approach could be described as follows:
"In linking their curriculum and schooling toward children's developmental stages, Waldorf schools seem to have a unique sense of what children are ready for." They "promote creativity and critical thinking in an interdisciplinary fashion...exactly the direction public education needs to move." --Jack Miller, professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
"A great deal is said today about the need for engineers and for scientists, and the point of view is taken that if you have better science courses and specialize sooner in the scientific branches of knowledge, you are going to get better scientists. I think that the best scientist is the best and most creative thinker and the task of education is first to educate human beings who then become scientists." --Rudolf Steiner, founder of Waldorf Education
"The true aim of education is to awaken real powers of perception and judgment in relation to life and living. For only such awakening can lead to true freedom." --Rudolf Steiner
Founded in Europe in 1919, Waldorf Education now includes schools on every continent and has grown to become the world's largest independent, non-denominational school system that goes through all the grades. By the end of the 20th Century there will probably be about 1000 Waldorf Schools.
A system that recognizes and meets the need for strong development of the intellect, Waldorf is committed to excellence in all basic academic skill. It provides a full introduction to the classics, foreign languages, history, geography, mathematics, science... the subjects today's child needs as a foundation for tomorrow's complex and challenging civilization.
Even though every Waldorf School is independent, all share a core of curriculum, methods and beliefs, including the idea that a fulfilled and creative life involves considerably more than mental development or the ability to earn a living. Important as these things are, every child also needs the balance provided by strong and healthy development in the life of will (the ability to get things done) and in the life of feeling (emotions, aesthetics, social sensitivity).
Waldorf's time-tested pedagogy is designed to address the whole child: HEAD, HEART, and HANDS. It stimulates the mind with the full spectrum of traditional academic subjects. It nurtures healthy emotional development by conveying knowledge experientially as well as academically. And it works with the hands throughout every day, both in primary academic subjects and in a broad range of artistic handwork and craft activities.
Waldorf Schools strive to awaken and ennoble capacities, rather than to merely impose intellectual content on the child. Learning becomes much more than the acquisition of quantities of information... learning becomes an engaging voyage of discovery of the world, and of oneself.
A Waldorf Education is meant to be the beginning of a life-long love of learning.
"Those in the public school reform movement have some important things to learn from what Waldorf educators have been doing for many years. It is an enormously impressive effort toward quality education, and schools would be well advised to familiarize themselves with the basic assumptions that underlie the Waldorf movement." --- Ernest Boyer, President, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
"Being personally acquainted with a number of Waldorf students, I can say that they come closer to realizing their own potential than practically anyone I know." --- Joseph Weizenbaum, Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; author, "Computer Power and Human Reason"