Uncommon Schooling: A Historical Look at Rudolf Steiner, Anthroposophy, and Waldorf Education

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Wiley and Ontario Institute for Studies in Education/University of Toronto are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Curriculum Inquiry. ABSTRACT Rudolf Steiner founded the first Waldorf school in Germany in 1919. Unique elements of Waldorf education include an arts-based curriculum in which students learn subject matter through a variety of forms of representation, a pedagogy designed to meet students' developmental growth, an administrative system in which teachers govern the school, an organization devoted to sustaining a sense of community, and an integrated conceptual approach to education generally-a place where the cosmic and the mundane are intertwined.Rudolf Steiner's life and writings are the foundations on which Waldorf schools are built. Therefore, this article is devoted to an overview of his work, which should assist us in understanding what goes on in contemporary Waldorf schools. Also, because Waldorf schools in North America are based on the first Waldorf school, I have included an examination of elements of that school's educational program. However, I do not present a simple chronological account of Steiner's life or of the origins of Anthroposophy (an outgrowth of Theosophy and the term used to denote the path of spiritual development from which Waldorf education springs). Rather in the last section of this article, I focus on possible reasons why Anthroposophy has survived and continues to flourish many years after Steiner's death.The first idea was to provide an education for children whose parents were working in the Waldorf-Astoria Factory, and as the Director was a member of the Anthroposophical Society, he asked me to arrange this education. .... And so, in the first place, the Waldorf School arose as a school for humanity as such, fashioned, it could in fact be said, out of the workingclass. ... Here then, we have an educational institution arising on a social basis, that seeks to found the whole spirit and method of its teaching upon Anthroposophy.' -Rudolf Steiner A Modern Art of Education Because Rudolf Steiner's life and writings are the foundation on which Waldorf schools are built, this essay is devoted to an overview of Steiner's work, which should assist us in understanding what occurs (or perhaps what should occur) in contemporary Waldorf schools. Rudolf Steiner ? 1995 by The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Curriculum Inquiry 25:4 (1995) Published by Blackwell Publishers, (1861-1925) is not widely known among American educators. Perhaps this is because his ideas do not fit neatly into any one sphere of knowledge.He was neither full-time educator, nor philosopher, nor artist, nor critic. In addition, his...

Layers of experience: Forms of representation in a Waldorf school classroom

“…In 1919, the Austrian scientist and philosopher, Rudolph Steiner (1861± 1925 ), established the`Free Waldorf School' (`Die Freie Waldorfschule' ) for the children of the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory workers in Stuttgart, Germany (Kotzsch 1990, Barnes 1991, 1999, Uhrmacher 1995. The ® rst Waldorf school in North America, the Rudolph Steiner School of New York, was founded in 1928 (Uhrmacher 1995 ).…”

“…The ® rst Waldorf school in North America, the Rudolph Steiner School of New York, was founded in 1928 (Uhrmacher 1995 ). The Waldorf movement has since grown to more than 750 independently administered schools in 44 countries (Barnes 1999 ).…”

“…Steiner, formed general secretary of the German branch of the Theosophical Society in Berlin, brought his personal beliefs and practices to the design of the school (Kotzsch 1990, Uhrmacher 1995. He referred to his philosophical teachings as`anthroposophy' , stressing the spiritual essence of the human being (Kotzsch 1990, Uhrmacher 1995.…”

“…Signi® cantly, this brief exposure to a Waldorf classroom revealed practices indicative of Waldorf education (Uhrmacher 1993(Uhrmacher , 1995. My visit prompted the emergence of a research question: Why does the teacher select the particular forms of representation used in her lessons?…”

Those who ignore the past … : 12 'easy' lessons for the next millennium

“…Just when a teacher is beginning to understand the backgrounds of the students he or she teaches, the teacher ® nds himself or herself with another group of children to teach. Some schools, the Waldorf Schools for example, have the same teacher work with a group of students for ® ve to seven years (Uhrmacher 1995). T he group becomes something of a family and the teacher knows not only the students' academic performance but, their social and emotional condition as well.…”