|Waldorf education differs from public education
on a number of points.
Some of them, most often raised in discussions,
are described and answered in the section of Frequently
Asked Questions at this site. Other less common questions and allegations
are discussed in the More Questions section.
Some even more uncommon concerns and more or less
strange allegations about what Waldorf schools teach, at times expressed
in connection with the cultivation of different myths
about Waldorf education are:
"Insects are related to plants."
They are; insects take part in and are a necessary
part of the reproduction of many plants, living in symbiosis with them
and feeding on them as part of this symbiotic relation. It
is important to understand the insect's relationship to the "seed"
reproduction process of plants (as related to the flowers, where the plant
most distinctly "evaporates"
as fragrances and
seeds), and their role in the disintegration and breaking down of dead
organisms in nature into basic organic components.
are some basic aspects of the nature and life of insects.
"The elements are earth, water, fire and air."
For a comment on this, see here
"The body is made up of the nerve-sense system,
the metabolic-muscular system, and the rhythmic system."
This characterization is
a basic reflection at the macroscopic level of the polarization
of the eggs of vertebrates and their development
via the differentiation into endoderm, mesoderm and ectoderm, contributing
to the basic components of the metabolic-muscular and reproductory system,
the heart as the internal center of the rhythmic system, and the nervous
For more on this, see here
"The heart is not a pump, or the circulatory
system is described, but the role of the heart is not explained."
The role of the heart in the human organism is
very complex, as one of the most developed organs, in different ways sensing
and regulating the rhythmic life of the body. The picture of the heart
as a "pump" describes one aspect of this role, its "will"-aspect, in a
very simplified way.
The discussion of the heart in Waldorf education
primarily concerned with doing justice to the complexity of the role of
the heart in the human body and in human life. The picture of it as a mechanical
"pump" reflects only in a very simplified
way one aspect.
For more on this, see here.
"Plants are like a man upside down."
In the human being,
the "warm" and "warmth producing" metabolic/reproductive system is
in the spatially "lower" part of the human body, and the "colder"
of man is his head, as the center of the nervous system. (Externally, the
opposite is the case, with a large part of the heat loss of the body being
located to the head region.)
In plants, this "warm" - "cold" polarity of the
organism is reversed, with its reproductive system turned upwards instead
of downwards. In this perspective, plants in general are like the human
being, turned upside down. This reversal was
pointed to already by Aristotle in his works on characteristics of living
"Goethean color theory is taught instead of
Newtonian color theory."
Goethean and Newtonian color theory reflect two
complementary perspectives on color; Newton looking at it from the perspective
of how some aspects of color can be described if treating light as idealized
"rays" while Goethe mainly describes other aspects of light and color,
focussing on color as a surface experience, and from the perspective of
how they appear in nature and their character in relation to human experience.
For more on this, see here.
"There are 12 senses."
That is probably not taught as such in general
at waldorf schools, if not as a description of one possible perspective
of some aspects of our sensory processes, as discussed by Steiner, reflecting
basic qualities of the richness of our sense experience, when describing
the anatomy and physiology of the senses.
What Steiner described as a "twelvefoldness" of
our sense experience is a similar description in relation the the senses,
as Immanuel Kant described in relation to our thinking, when he described
what he thought of as the 12
types of thought categories that according to him determined how we
perceive the world
"The 12 senses correspond to the 12 signs of
That's purely abstract and does not belong in waldorf
education as something taught to students.
"There are four kingdoms of nature, mineral,
plant, animal, and man."
That's the traditional basic Aristotelian way of
looking at it, being the common view in cultural history from the birth
of science in Greece some 2.300 years ago up to the 20th century, reflecting
one basic structure of the natural world.
The curriculum in Waldorf schools in the broad
sense reflect human cultural evolution. This makes the understanding of
the world out of the perspective of the four kingdoms of nature natural
as something cultivated in the lower and middle grades in Waldorf schools.
While Waldorf schools are free to form their own
individual curriculum, later ways of distinguishing between the different
categories of living organisms probably are described and discussed in
the upper grades and Waldorf high schools.
"Species were specially created, rather than
evolving from one another, and spiritual beings were the creators."
In Waldorf education, the basic species of the
different groups of organisms in nature are described with regard to their
nature and character and put in relation to one another from that perspective.
Darwinism as the presently dominant view of understanding and interpreting
the relation of species is described and discussed in most waldorf schools in the upper grades.
If the view that species were specially created
and that it was done by spiritual beings is described at Waldorf schools,
it probably is not described in any other way than as one view of evolution,
held by some.
"Left-handedness is a condition that should
That probably was the dominant view in general
in education until not very long ago. To the extent that it is practiced
at Waldorf schools and there are well reasoned motives for not trying to
correct it, it should be reconsidered.
"The "ancients" had powers and knowledge lost
to us, such as alchemy and the ability to see things outside the physical
One main focus in Waldorf education is to let the
pupils experience how people and cultures through human history have experienced
and expressed themselves. Historical documents tell that they describe
themselves as having powers and knowledge lost to us. To the extent that
is the case it is also described to the pupils as part of getting to know
the cultures in question.
"Religious mythology is taught as ancient history,
or a theosophical framework for ancient history is taught as fact."
The "theosophical framework for ancient history"
is not "taught as fact" at Waldorf schools. A number of the classical central
ancient cultures of humanity, the classical Indian culture, the cultures
of the "fertile crescent" and the Greek-Roman cultures are described out
of how they expressed themselves in mythology, art, and literature, constituting
the main curriculum for ancient history at Waldorf schools.
"Astrology is taught in the higher grades."
That is not part of the basic curriculum in Waldorf
education and astrology in the sense of "how to make horoscopes" does not
as such belong to the curriculum of Waldorf schools, except possibly as
an free extra-curricular study of how those who do do it, if chosen by
the students as a special study and done outside the normal course.
The stress in Waldorf education is on letting the
pupils experience how the different cultures in human history have experienced
and expressed themselves, not primarily on telling the pupils what they
shall think about them or how they shall judge them.
Learning to understand the different cultures of
the world is something that takes time and not only is achieved through
abstract description of and reasoning about them, but takes engagement
in getting to know how they experience or experienced and think or thought
about the world, learning that what may stand out as a modern present day
or Western perspective not always is self evident in all instances.
"Astrology" in the sense of describing how the
star world was viewed for very long in different cultures, in terms of
structuring the experience of it into twelve "signs" or "pictures", and
how one viewed the elementary qualities of those "pictures" or "signs",
is one part of learning to understand our cultural development as humanity
and belongs in the teaching on the cultures of the fertile crescent.
"I have heard of disturbing events including
parents being asked to leave the school when they questioned or objected
to aspects of Waldorf education or anthroposophy."
It is unlikely that anyone was ever asked to leave
a Waldorf School for simply questioning or constructively criticizing aspects
of Waldorf Education or philosophy. However, if parents seriously question
or object to the basic ways of working in any freely chosen pedagogical
or other tradition, it at times becomes apparent that the conversation
is no longer constructive, that the parents probably have made the wrong
choice of school or pedagogical tradition, and should try to find a school
that better corresponds to their views.
"Another disturbing thing told has been that
kids were being inadequately supervised on the playground to prevent bullying
and accidents, on the theory that angels will watch out for them."
The confidence that our life and welfare not only
lies in our own hands, but also in part maybe is supported and cared for
by higher beings outside our immediate awareness is something that is a
natural part of many people's lives. That however does not take away the
responsibility of grownups to see to it that children in their care not
are subjected to dangers or mishappenings that they as grownups could have
prevented and that the children expect them to do as grownups.
2004: Robert Mays and Sune Nordwall