Waldorf

“Waldorf schools promote creativity and critical thinking in an inter-disciplinary fashion, which is exactly the direction public education needs to move in.”

(Jack Miller, Professor of Education, OISE).

Waldorf education offers a broad curriculum, planned to achieve a balance between the sciences, the humanities, and the arts. Appreciation and reverence for the natural world as well as the cultural heritage of humanity form the core of the curriculum. Throughout, emphasis is placed on the development of the child and the integration of knowledge with the student’s own experience of life. Thus, deep involvement between student and subject becomes a source of real joy.

The first Waldorf school was founded in 1919 in Stuttgart, Germany. Emil Molt, the director of the Waldorf Astoria Company, was concerned for the new generation of schoolchildren emerging from the devastation of World War I. If these children were to develop capacities that would allow them to transform society, they would need to be taught in a new way – one that addressed their essential humanity, that enhanced their concern for other people, and that fostered a sense of responsibility for the earth. Molt approached Rudolf Steiner to develop a new educational philosophy and curriculum.

The Waldorf philosophy strives to transform teaching and education into a complex artistic activity that educates the whole child: head, heart, and body. Its highest endeavour is to “develop free human beings who are able of themselves to impart purpose and direction to their lives.”

Waldorf education has created the world’s largest and fastest growing family of independent, non-sectarian schools. Today there are more than 600 schools around the world. Each school is an independent, self-governing entity, although all Waldorf schools and official initiatives in North America are affiliated with the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA) and to the Waldorf School Association of Ontario (WSAO).

“In linking their curriculum and schooling to children’s developmental stages, Waldorf schools seem to have a unique sense of what children are ready for.”

(Malcolm Levin, Assistant Director, OISE, 
University of Toronto).