Why should Waldorf education be saved?
– In recent years it has drifted away from its anthroposophical roots.
– It has been politicized in many countries by left-wing concepts, or dominated by the state.
– Economically, children of parents with limited resources do not have access to this school, in a number of countries.
Origins
Waldorf education has been born in the 20th century as an impulse for the future, at a time when Rudolf Steiner was asked about the need for an education suitable for the present time. Old-style education has had direct consequences on the human perception of reality, the purpose of life, personal ideals. The human being could not develop freely (this is understood here especially as the dependence of his decisions on the majority accepted social norms).
Realizing the need for healthy human development from childhood, Rudolf Steiner decided to found a new type of school. In essence, Waldorf education emerged as a response to the need for the spiritual elevation of humanity. In other words, Waldorf education is a child of Anthroposophy, the spiritual stream founded by Rudolf Steiner. Without the principles of Anthroposophy, the Waldorf school of today is adrift, separated from the source of original inspiration that made its existence possible in the first place.
From its beginnings, the Waldorf school brought a completely different impetus to education, in opposition to the traditional school, treating the subjects with reverence, training teachers to work with their own person, in order to perceive the spiritual behind the matter. This entire complex process brought artistic inspiration to teaching, and the continuous study of the human being from the point of view of Anthroposophy helped teachers to understand children on a much deeper level. The threefold organization of the human being (thinking, feeling, will), the observation of the spiritual manifested in the physical world (understanding the qualities of sounds, colors, natural kingdoms, exact sciences, spoken languages), living in accordance with the rhythms of the year, as well as all the abundance of knowledge that Anthroposophy brings to the modern man, are sources of life, inspiration and continuous shaping of the methodology, which is transformed according to the local spiritual needs, with the level of development of the community where the respective school is active.
Unfortunately, this process was reversed by the too strong penetration of dry intellectual notions into Waldorf education. The over-intellectualization of Waldorf teacher courses and seminars in many countries in recent years has led to the training of new teachers without the most important concepts stemming from Anthroposophy. This is one of the central problems of Waldorf pedagogy in our time.
Political ideologies
Most of us can agree that nationalist (right-wing) ideologies are contrary to the spirit of our times and have no place in a Waldorf school. On the other hand, left-wing political ideologies have made their presence felt strongly in the schools. If the Waldorf school aims to train future adults who decide and act with knowledge, we observe that ideologies such as neo-Marxism (manifested through gender ideology, as well as through the contemporary approach to racism that sometimes ends up in a vicious circle of hatred) act in an opposite way.
Politics is not a matter that interests the child, because it interferes with its healthy development; therefore, it should not be a main concern of the teachers. How sad it is when, through political interests of the adult, a child is encouraged to denounce, or to support a system that it does not fully understand, given the young age. Again, these are examples of a violation of the child’s inner freedom, of the right to a world where the strong political views of adults do not overshadow its innocence.
Economic issues
In the social threefolding theory, Rudolf Steiner shows how economic life is based on the principle of fraternity, and its main goal shouldn’t be financial gain. Therefore, the management of resources ought to be handled from a perspective for and about the human being. These may seem like fine words, but an actual example is the one of Emil Molt, the industrialist who founded the first Waldorf school. After the First World War ended, in many areas of Germany life was very difficult. Emil Molt had learned about Steiner’s vision of a threefold society at that time and, initially, wanted to better organize the conditions for the workers in his cigarette factory. However, the workers expressed their desire for their children to have a better life, thus the idea was born, to establish a new type of school. Subsequently, his altruistic gesture caused the news about the quality of the Waldorf school to spread – first in Germany, then quickly throughout the world.
Thus, Waldorf education was initially accessible to the children of ordinary people, workers in a factory, and we must fight to ensure that this principle remains valid.
Renewal
Thinking about the future, how can we act to renew the Waldorf school? Perhaps, first of all, the most important is to restore the connection with its source, Anthroposophy. Then, we must be aware that the state’s intervention in the freedom of the school has become so strong in some countries, that it no longer resembles the initiative that served as its first foundation. However, what has been achieved so far, regardless of the degree of perfection, is a miracle for humanity. Let us preserve and develop this miracle, without losing the spiritual work from which it sprang.
