FAQ

1. What is Waldorf Education?
Developed by Rudolf Steiner in 1919, Waldorf education is based on a developmental approach that addresses the needs of the growing child and maturing adolescent. Waldorf teachers strive to transform education into an art that educates the whole child—the heart and the hands, as well as the head.

2. Are Waldorf schools religious?
Waldorf schools are non-sectarian and non-denominational. They educate all children, regardless of their cultural or religious backgrounds. The pedagogical method is comprehensive, and, as part of its task, seeks to bring about recognition and understanding of all the world cultures and religions. Waldorf schools are not part of any church. They espouse no particular religious doctrine but are based on a belief that there is a spiritual dimension to the human being and to all of life. Waldorf families come from a broad spectrum of religious traditions and interest.

Monadnock Waldorf School observes the cycle of the year through both traditional and lesser known festivals, most importantly Michaelmas in the autumn and Advent in the winter. We feel they embrace the qualities of hope, courage, joy, gratitude, love and reverence which are part of a natural religious attitude toward the world.

3. What is the curriculum like in a Waldorf school?
Waldorf Education approaches all aspects of schooling in a unique and comprehensive way. The curriculum is designed to meet the various stages of child development. Waldorf teachers are dedicated to creating a genuine inner enthusiasm for learning that is essential for educational success.
Pre-kindergarten and kindergarten children learn primarily through imitation and imagination. The goal of the kindergarten is to develop a sense of wonder in the young child and reverence for all living things. This creates an eagerness for the academics that follow in the grades.
Kindergarten activities include:

• storytelling, puppetry, creative play;
• singing, eurythmy (movement);
• games and finger plays;
• painting, drawing and beeswax modeling;
• baking and cooking, nature walks;
• circle time
• gardening and building 

Elementary and middle-school children learn through the guidance of a class teacher who stays with the class ideally for eight years.
The curriculum includes:

• English based on world literature, myths, and legends
• History that is chronological and inclusive of the world's great civilizations
• Science that surveys geography, astronomy, meteorology, physical and life sciences
• Mathematics that develops competence in arithmetic, algebra, and geometry
• Foreign languages; physical education; gardening
• Arts including music, painting, sculpture, drama, eurythmy, sketching
• Handwork such as knitting, crocheting, cross stitch, felting and woodworking.

    

    

4.  Is it possible for a child who has attended a public school to transfer to a Waldorf school?
The earlier a child has this opportunity, the better for the child. However, new children enter into the Waldorf schools at every grade level and can be fully integrated into the learning and life of the classroom and school community. Each school conducts interviews and evaluations with the child and parents to assess what is needed for a good transition in individual cases.

5.  Why do Waldorf schools recommend the limiting of television, videos, and radio for young children?
A central aim of Waldorf Education is to stimulate the healthy development of the child's own imagination. Waldorf teachers are concerned that electronic media hampers the development of the child's imagination. They are concerned about the physical effects of the medium on the developing child as well as the content of much of the programming.
There is more and more research to substantiate these concerns. See Endangered Minds: Why Our Children Don't Think and Failure To Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children's Minds For Better and Worse by Jane Healy; Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television by Jerry Mander; The Plug-In Drug by Marie Winn; and Evolution's End: Claiming The Potential of Our Intelligence by Joseph Chilton Pearce.

6.  What about computers and Waldorf Education?
Waldorf teachers feel the appropriate age for computer use in the classroom and by students is in high school. We feel it is more important for students to have the opportunity to interact with one another and with teachers in exploring the world of ideas, participating in the creative process, and developing their knowledge, skills, abilities, and inner qualities. Waldorf students have a love of learning, an ongoing curiosity, and interest in life. As older students, they quickly master computer technology, and graduates have successful careers in the computer industry. For additional reading, please see Fools Gold on the Alliance For Childhood's web site www.allianceforchildhood.org and The Future Does Not Compute

by Steven Talbot.

 

7.  How is reading taught in a Waldorf school?
Waldorf education is deeply bound up with the oral tradition, typically beginning with the teacher telling the children fairy tales throughout kindergarten and first grade. The oral approach is used all through Waldorf education: mastery of oral communication is seen as being integral to all learning.
Reading instruction, as such, is deferred. Instead, writing is taught first. During the first grade year the children explore how our alphabet came about, discovering, as the ancients did, how each letter's form evolved out of a pictograph. Writing thus evolves out of the children's art, and their ability to read likewise evolves as a natural and, indeed, comparatively effortless stage of their mastery of language.

8.  Why is so much emphasis put on festivals and ceremonies?
Seasonal festivals serve to connect humanity with the rhythms of nature. The festivals originated in ancient cultures, yet have been adapted over time. To join the seasonal moods of the year, in a festive way, benefits the inner life of the soul. Celebrating is an art. There is joy in the anticipation, the preparation, the celebration itself, and the memories.

9.  Why do Waldorf students stay (ideally) with the same teacher for 8 years?
Between the ages of seven and fourteen, children learn best through acceptance and emulation of authority, just as in their earlier years they learned through imitation. In elementary school, particularly in the lower grades, the child is just beginning to expand his or her experience beyond home and family. The class becomes a type of "family" as well, with its own authority figure - the teacher - in a role analogous to parent.
With this approach, the students and teachers come to know each other very well, and the teacher is able to find over the years the best ways of helping individual children in their schooling. The class teacher also becomes like an additional family member for most of the families in his/her class.

It's worth noting that this approach was the norm in the days of the "little red schoolhouse" and is also a common practice today in many schools in Europe.

10.  What is Eurythmy?
Eurythmy is the art of movement that attempts to make visible the tone and feeling of music and speech. Eurythmy helps to develop concentration, self-discipline, and a sense of beauty. This training of moving artistically with a group stimulates sensitivity to the other as well as individual mastery. Eurythmy lessons follow the themes of the curriculum, exploring rhyme, meter, story, and geometric forms.

11. How do Waldorf graduates do after graduation?
Waldorf graduates are prepared to meet a multicultural, multifaceted world with enthusiasm and have the ability to make a positive impact in any field they choose for themselves. Self-confident and creative, Waldorf graduates benefit from a base of interdisciplinary knowledge from which they may pursue any passion in any direction. They are enthusiastically involved in their education, and eagerly partake of the challenges that meet them in the world today, well-equipped with their creative thinking and problem solving capacities.

Waldorf students have been accepted in and graduated from a broad spectrum of colleges and universities in Canada and the U.S. Waldorf graduates reflect a wide diversity of professions and occupations including medicine, law, science, engineering, computer technology, the arts, social science, government, and teaching at all levels. Waldorf high schools can provide specific data on the university affiliations, professions, and accomplishments of their graduates.

 

12. Describe profiles of Waldorf school graduates; what do graduates do after completing their Waldorf education?

A recent study in the U.S. showed that 78% of Waldorf graduates entered college immediately after highschool, and an additional 10% were admitted to college, but deferred their enrollment for a variety of reasons. This means that nearly 90% of Waldorf graduates go to college. When asked where Waldorf graduates go to college, an experienced Waldorf consultant named Abraham Enten responded, "the simple answer is, everywhere. They go to schools from Amherst to Yale and from from The University of Maine to the University of California at San Diego.They go to local community colleges and to the elite Ivy League universities.The top students go wherever they want, and the ones who struggle go wherever they can. Some go to design schools or to schools that concentrate on music or the visual/performance arts.Some even go to West Point. The California graduates are accepted at every campus of the university system and the students in other states attend public universities in their areas."

Abraham Enten's article on the subject in its entirety can be found at:

http://www.awsna.org/renlifeafter.html

One of the most important gifts of a Waldorf education in the life of an adolescent or adult, is the knowledge the he or she has the capacities to enter any line of work or any field of discipline. The well rounded and exhaustive scope of the curriculum instills in the graduates the sense of confidence that comes with being an original thinker with artistic sensibilities and skillful hands.

The results of a study profiling the lives of Waldorf graduates can be found at :

http://www.waldorfresearchinstitute.org/waldorfed.html