When Rudolf Steiner founded the first Waldorf school, it was a revolutionary approach to education. In fact, Steiner was attacked from many sides for his ideas. But is Waldorf still young and revolutionary?
Today, after ninety years, there are about 1,000 Waldorf schools world-wide. What a success story! But success should go hand in hand with reflection. Many educators see the need to rethink Waldorf curriculum and methodology on the basis of observation of children of today.
“Let us help children stay young, remember their youth impulses and intentions in adulthood and find their true identity!” These are three golden axioms of Waldorf education.
The image of the child as a three-fold as well as a nine-fold spiritual being, the school’s curriculum, new teaching methods and the understanding of what and who a teacher should be, the structure of the school without a director and the participatory role of the parents—what a visionary adventure, what a challenge to bring to education in the 20th century! It was like an expedition into the unknown which demanded that participants develop a universal change in their thinking feeling and willing.
Basic to Waldorf, is that children come out of the spiritual world with certain expectations and needs. They also come with new abilities and faculties very different from those born seventy years ago. Do we meet the needs of children today? Are we fresh enough? Do we listen enough? What is archetypical, universal in Steiner’s curriculum and what was developed out of the conditions and necessities extant in the first third of the 20th century? What needs to be rethought and changed in order to reawaken the young and visionary character of this astonishing philosophy and practice of education?
In this course we will first look at the phenomenology of children and adolescents in the 21st century. We will analyze our methods and approaches in light of their present validity. Finally, we will carefully examine current curricula and address the question of how we can bring our findings into our schools and movement.
Suggested reading:
Curriculum Chart, AWSNA Publications
HANS-JOACHIM MATTKE
HANS-JOACHIM MATTKE taught German literature, art history, architecture and drama in the high school of the Stuttgart Waldorf School in Germany and in the teacher training. He directed numerous theater productions. He lectures on education, literature, drama and art history. He is a consultant in Waldorf schools throughout the US. and helped to found new high schools. He has written widely on educational issues and edited among others, a new translation by Carl Hoffmann of Steiner’s Education for Adolescents. He was a member of the group of editors of “Erziehungskunst” (“Art of education”) for many years. He has been connected to the Rudolf SteinerInstitute since 1982.