What People Are Saying

"In linking their curriculum and schooling toward children's developmental stages, Waldorf schools seem to have a unique sense of what children are ready for. They promote creativity and critical thinking in an interdisciplinary fashion... exactly the direction public education needs to move."

Jack Miller, professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.

"Waldorf education addresses the child as no other education does. Learning, whether in chemistry, mathematics, history or geography, is imbued with life and so with joy, which is the only true basis for later study. The textures and colors of nature, the accomplishments and struggles of humankind fill the Waldorf students’ imaginations and the pages of their beautiful books. Education grows into a union with life that serves them for decades."

Arthur Zajonc, PhD., Associate Professor of Physics, Amherst College

Why did you choose Waldorf education?

Our motivation to look at private schools was not a dissatisfaction with the public schools. Instead, we had this feeling that our child’s early education was something that we would only get one shot at and we just wanted to make sure there wasn’t a better option. We found that better option in Waldorf education. For me it was the way in which the children learned that swayed me to try Waldorf, not the details of what they were learning. The involvement of their entire beings in everything they learned struck me as being the key to learning the true lesson I wanted from their first years of school; to learn how to learn and to love the process. From imaginative stories to full movement math to a complete immersion in drawing and art in their every lesson, I saw a method of learning which could only enrich my children’s educational experience. I felt I had one chance to make this type of difference in their lives and I couldn’t pass it up.

What have you and your children gained from Waldorf?

The most obvious impact on our lives from Waldorf education has been the rich and imaginative play which takes place in our home. I’ve noticed as my children have grown within the Waldorf system that their activities at home have become more and more independent and creative. A bored child is seldom seen at our house as plays are produced, drawings created, and all types of imaginative play invented throughout the evening. I believe that Waldorf education has helped us to slow down and enjoy the richness of childhood while simultaneously preparing our children for a rewarding and thorough education.

Jon Pointer, 1st and 4th Grade Parent

Burnout, Timing, and Holism
One parent's view...

"Second Grade Burn-Out." So read a bold headline in the New York Times. A school psychologist was noting that young elementary schoolers in a well-to-do suburban school district were showing classic signs of academic burn-out. The article continued, discussing the currently popular thrust of pushing academics ever earlier into school curriculums. The children studied had started in an "Academic Pre-K", pushed by both parents & a system that believe earlier is better, and by the time they reached third grade they were burning out. So at a point when they should be just starting to bloom with interest about the world and facts around them, they were numb to it all. How incredibly sad.

In the first few years of raising my daughter, I remember a few times when I tried to teach something and she just didn't get it. I'd try a few times, in a few ways, and it just didn't seem to be getting through. So I backed off, figuring that were I a better teacher, I'd be able to get it across. But then perhaps some months later I tried teaching the same thing in the same way, and I saw it just click in her and she picked it up easily. Obviously the time was right the second time around.

So now I wonder, what if I had continued pushing the first time, trying to force a lesson before she was ready? What if we both had tried and struggled and I had managed to force in a lesson before it's time? We would have a lesson learned, but at what cost? Does a painfully learned lesson instill a love of learning? What I took away from it all was this: when the timing is right, learning is easy and fun and self-rewarding.

As I read more about the background and philosophy of Waldorf education, I am always impressed by a focus on timing, by the coordination of subjects and teaching styles to the timeline of a child's physical and emotional and cognitive development. And also there is explicit attention to the individual development pace of each child – a child is not necessarily grade-ready just because they have lived so-many months on this earth – the Waldorf way is pay attention to more subtle cognitive and emotional signs that a child is ready before proceeding.

Attention to Timing – that's one of my favorite things. And I was only asked to write about one, but now I'm going to cheat a bit and give another favorite: Head, Hands, and Heart.

That's a prominent Waldorf theme. Modern "Academics" focuses largely on the verbal and logical pieces of learning, the "Head" part. But there's so much more: social interpersonal knowledge, visual spatial understanding, physical body sensibility, musical sensibility, ... Waldorf lessons work the hands in crafts and physical skills and musical instruments. And other lessons address how we each are a part of larger social circles: our class, our family, our community, our world – educating the Heart, in the understanding of others. Some researchers note that students who know Mozart do better in Math. It's all tied together!

And to me, that, perhaps is most important: Educating the Whole Child: Head, Hands and Heart.

Stew Crawford-Hines, 2nd grade parent

"If I had a child of school age, I would send him to one of the Waldorf Schools."

Saul Bellow, Nobel Laureate