What is Waldorf Education?

Waldorf education is a worldwide independent school movement developed in Europe nearly 100 years ago by Austrian philosopher, social reformer, and visionary, Rudolf Steiner. Today, Waldorf education is represented across the globe, with about 1000 schools and nearly 2000 early childhood programs in over 60 countries. In Waldorf education, the learning process is essentially threefold, engaging head, heart, and hands—or thinking, feeling, and doing. This is the basis out of which Waldorf teachers work to nurture and engage each child through a curriculum and methodology that integrates academics, arts, and practical skills.

Waldorf's mission is to teach to the whole human being and promote human development, not simply brain development. Mainstream systems of education teach primarily to the head encouraging and rewarding only the accumulation of factual data and one’s ability to meet the demands of a test. Waldorf education of course develops intellectual capacities but also embraces the qualitative aspects with a holistic educational style, intended to develop pupils' intellectual, artistic, and practical skills, with focus on imagination and creativity.

An Introduction to Waldorf Education and the experience of Waldorf from across the world

Age-appropriate Learning

Waldorf schools offer a developmentally appropriate, experiential, and academically rigorous approach to education. We integrate the arts in all academic disciplines to enhance and enrich learning. Waldorf education aims to inspire life-long learning in all students and to enable them to fully develop their unique capacities.

Waldorf education begins with the premise that childhood is made up of three distinct stages of roughly seven years each—birth to age seven (early childhood), seven to 14 (middle childhood), and 14 to 21 (adolescence). Each stage shapes the way children feel about and approach the world—intellectually, emotionally, physically, and spiritually—which, in turn, shapes the way they learn. Waldorf educators believe that curricula and teaching methods should be appropriately tailored to these developmental stages, each evolving as childhood unfolds.