Waldorf Education

Waldorf education is a pedagogy based upon the educational philosophy of the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy.

Learning is interdisciplinary, integrating practical, artistic, and conceptual elements. The Waldorf approach emphasizes the role of the imagination, developing thinking that includes a creative as well as an analytic component. The overarching goals of this educational approach are to provide young people the basis on which to develop into free, moral and integrated individuals, and to help every child fullfill his or her unique destiny, the existence of which anthroposophy posists. Schools and teachers are given considerable freedom to define curricula within collegial structures.

The first Waldorf school was founded in 1919 to serve the children of employees at the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart, Germany. As of 2010 there were 995 indepentent Waldorf schools located in sixty countries throughout the world, as of 2001 there were 1400 kindergartens and 120 institutions for special education world-wide.

For more information see: Waldorf education on Wikipedia