Has anyone put their children through a Waldorf school? What have your experiences been?

Question

Has anyone put their children through a Waldorf school? What have your experiences been?

Answer 1

I personally haven't had a child in a Waldorf school, but I student taught in a Waldorf School, know people who are Waldorf teachers, and know people who's children are or have been in Waldorf education. The teachers I know all love it, are very dedicated, and are extremely happy with their jobs. They could never think of doing anything else.

The parents are split, some are glad that they put their children in the program, others feel that it was the worst experience of their lives.

I on the other hand, see some good things in their philosophy and am glad to have had the experiences I had in them, but would never work in one again. I think there are absolutely wonderful things in Waldorf education. I love the way they teach academic concepts with art and music and wish I could learn more about teaching this way, but do not agree with the philosophy as a whole. I find it too focused on the artistic, verbal and kinesthetic ways of learning. For people who learn in these ways, it is perfect. Yet not everyone learns artistically, verbally, or kinesthetically. Just like not everyone learns visually and auditory- the ways most often used in traditional school.

I also have a problem with their "religious beliefs".  They will tell you that they are non-sectarian, and that Anthroposophy, the spiritual philosophy based on the teachings of Rudolf Steiner the founder of Waldorf schools, has nothing to do with their educational beliefs, but nothing could be further from the fact. If you believe in Anthroposophy, then a Waldorf school will probably be a heaven-sent for you. But if not, you should learn about Anthroposophy and decide for yourself if meshes with your own philosophical and spiritual beliefs, since most everything in a Waldorf school has an Anthroposophical   foundation and “higher meaning”. (You, by the way, will most likely NOT be told this. Teachers do not usually discuss the intricacies of Anthroposophy with parents. Instead, when pressed, parents are told that Waldorf education is not based on, but Anthroposophy is used as a guide.)

Whole books and web sites have been dedicated to this foundation and “higher meaning” of Waldorf activities and methods. I’ve placed links to some of them below, as well as to other sources, but here are a few of the most predominate Waldorf activities and methods and their Anthroposophical roots:



The beautiful colors and techniques that they use to paint the walls of each classroom as well as which colors children are allowed to wear or use in their work, while visually appealing to the person on the street is actually “soul work” for the Waldorf educator. Those specific colors, at those specific ages are believed to incarnate the soul to the next level of development  

The almost outright ban of media in any form for preschool and elementary children, especially TV and computers, can sound wonderful to the average parent, most of whom are all too aware of the problems that too much exposure to the mass media will bring, but for the Waldorf educator it has a much deeper and important meaning. They believe that Steiner stated that such things embody a materialistic spirit named Ahriman who alienates the human being from his spiritual roots.

Although primaraly seen as a negitive figure in Anthroposophy, Anthroposophists do believe that Ahriman does have positive contributions. One of which is to bring about intellectual development  This is why, Waldorf schools shy away from early intelectual endevors. They believe that when a child’s intelect develops too quickly their soul is hardened by Ahriman.

The gnomes that permeate Waldorf schools, craft fairs and publications are not just a return to a fanciful lost world of childhood, they are beings that are truly believed in and are used in a variety of ways. They can displace teachers and students emotions and reactions, they can evade children's questions about the world and how it works, they can mystify children asking questions about things like s*x, violence, illness or death. They can even be threatening and confusing since children who don't see gnomes often feel like there is something wrong with them.(There are webpages on this, but I just finished reading a book called “Teaching Mathematics in Rudolf Steiner Schools- by Ron Jarman-"… on page 16, among others, he talks about gnomes and says, “…it is actually in the nature of a gnome to know things immediately. He doesn't have to think about a problem like us poor human beings. Perceiving and thinking are not separate activities for him. The gnome is awake in at-one-ness."

So I guess a lot will be up to your personality and beliefs. Like I said before, if you believe in Anthroposophy, then a Waldorf school will probably be a heaven-sent for you. If you  don’t mind their beliefs and are able to follow their restrictions, you could very well be happy there. Yet if you or your child are very independent and like to “do your own thing” it might not be the place for you. Although it has “laid back atmosphere” Waldorf schools have a set schedule and philosophy and there is not much acceptance of deviation.

I will give you a little background on my experience. I knew that I didn’t believe in the tradition form of education that I was learning about in my teacher credentialing program and was interested when people told me about a new school that had just opened in my area. According to them this new school taught in all of these innovative ways, used a lot of art and music, and instilled a great reverence for nature. I was very intrigued and excited.

So I pushed hard to do my student teaching in the school. Not an easy feat since both the school and my university didn’t want me to do it, yet I prevailed and spent 8 weeks there. I did see some beautiful things, art work, story time, …but I had a problem with their way of handling academic subjects. Waldorf schools believe that focusing children's learning on intellectual endeavors too soon distracts from their physical, spiritual, and emotional development, so reading, writing, and math are not taught at all during preschool. Instead, emphasis is placed fantasy, imagination, storytelling, rhyming, and movement games. In elementary school an imaginative approach is encouraged and hard core facts are shied away from. This was hard for me.I believe in imparting information, just not the way the traditional education system does it.

I questioned Waldorf's lack of academics in elementary school and the teachers told me that academic material was introduced through stories and images, and academic instruction is integrated with the visual and plastic (modeling beeswax, paint…) arts, music and movement. They also said that science, social studies, and history were explored, just not directly taught or emphasized. They felt that there was plenty of time for "that" when the children were older.

Everything they said, was true, they did teach all of the concepts in many different ways, and science, social studies, and history were all explored, but always on their time line and scale. Children who had interests in things that they were not studying at that certain time were not only not allowed to learn about those interests at school, but their parents were encouraged to not allow them to learn about them at home either. Their parents were told that exposure to anything non-Waldorf would hurt their development. So no matter how interested, a child could not, even on his own time, read (below 3rd grade), look at a book that they personally did not make(below 6th grade), look at maps, draw lines and geometric shapes... .

For example:

A third grade child was thrilled when his class was acting out a myth from Ancient Greece and started to have all sorts of questions about the Ancient Greeks: When did they live? Where was Ancient Greece? What did their language sound like? … I saw this as a great opportunity for him to look at books, pictures, drawings, maps...., but I was told that such information was too overwhelming for him, and giving the answers to his questions or teaching him the skills he needed to answer his questions on his own, would be forcing too much on him, hardening to his brain and heart, and destroying his love of learning.

Another child, a first grade boy, loved numbers. He had a firm grasp of numbers already and wanted to "put them into other numbers (divide)". Yet he was forced to sit and draw numbers and then animals to go with those numbers (one dog, two cats…) during math time. I had nothing against this activity in general, some of the other children really liked it and a few really needed it, they were learning disabled and it might have been one of the few ways they could have truly learned it. But this one child, (and in all honesty some of his peers), was far beyond it and was bored.

When I mentioned this I was told that it was ok for him to be bored, that it would build character, and that by teaching him to divide I would take him away from his emotional growth.

I was one berated for over an hour because a preschooler drew a happy face. They were sure that I had drawn the circle with two dots and a curved line because they believed that no child would come up with "such a thing" on their own. Twenty years later I still remember the teacher screaming at me, "I can not believe an educator like you would allow such a thing, You know how detrimental it is for a child to to be exposed to this! What in your right mind would make you think that such a thing would be allowed?!?!?"

Later, the same child was "caught" drawing a heart. This time, they asked her where she learned such a thing. It turns out that her parents had taken her to a fair and she was intrigued with the face painting that had been there. The school's w