Steiner - Waldorf Education

"Our highest endeavor must be to develop individuals who are able out of their own initiative to impart purpose and direction to their lives"

Rudolf Steiner 

I hadn't heard of this til Christian mentioned it this over the week so I thought I'd look it up, and it sounds pretty impressive....

Some background info...

Steiner, or Steiner Waldorf Education is a style of teaching based upon the educational philosophy of Austrian philosopher, Rudolf Steiner.
The teaching emphasises the role of imagination, developing thinking that includes creative and analytical approach, where learning is interdisciplinary, with artistic, practical and conceptual elements.
The main goals are to provide young people with basis to develop into free, moral and integrated individuals, and to help each child to fulfill their own 'unique destiny'.

Waldorf School in Trier, Germany.*

'As of 2009 there were 994 independent Waldorf schools located in sixty countries throughout the world', fairly fast growing considering the first was opened in 1919 for the 'Waldorf-Astoria Cigarette Company in Stuttgart, Germany, to serve the children of employees of the factory'.*

Research has shown that the Waldorf schools have higher performance levels that standard state/comprehensive schools in the UK, USA and Australia, and also the artistic and creativity levels; "highly rated imaginative drawings in terms of general drawing ability and use of color but also to more accurate and detailed observational drawings."*

A little more thought...

I wonder if this form of a more 'creative' visual communication could take over in the years to come. Results show it's a more effective way of teaching, I can imagine it's much more engaging and exciting rather than the standard school approach that far too many kids just get bored of. With key principles of interaction, engagement, collaboration and creative thinking - as well as critical thinking... it brings a wider and more exciting perspective of teaching to the table.
I presume this would help kids with learning disabilities much more as well, something visual for them to relate to and understand rather than just words and numbers thrown at you in jibber jabber.
I'd love to see how the teaching is actually planned and presented over the school. There's a few videos that explain the education a little more, and really promote it well... take a look






There's loads of information on the FAQ page on the UK Waldorf Education site. (I won't load my blog with yet more writing), but there's some good questions on there which make you love it just that little bit more.
There are quite a few Waldorf Schools in the UK and Ireland, the largest being Michael Hall, in Surrey. There's a quick promo film of theres --> here. I wish I was at that school.
I think this education could definitely be a thing of the future, it just seems so much more exciting, experimental and engaging.


I'd like to try to contact the nearest school, which is York, and see if it would be possible to spend a day just looking around to see what the environment and the style of learning and teaching is at a first hand point of view. But I'm not sure this is possible, so I'll be checking with Christian next week.
I've always had a part of me that wants to teach, but never felt I could commit to it if I didn't have an enthusiastic crowd of kids to teach. Poor teachers at school just puts me off the idea completely - cause half the time the teacher and their teaching isn't that bad, it's the students that cause the disruption. Or is that just me being too afraid to tackle the standard naughty kids?!
Something like this has make me consider a possible career path I could take.



[*Information/photograph from Wikipedia]