Waldorf education was conceived by the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) as a means of cultural and spiritual renewal after the devastation of the First World War. Steiner believed that modern Western society had placed too much emphasis on external, materialistic values, at the expense of the imaginative, creative innermost spirit of the human being. The Waldorf curriculum draws upon the mythologies, legends and arts of the great civilizations through history to awaken the creative and emotional life within every child. Since Steiner emphasized the close relationship between children and the adults who are their mentors and models, a group of students stay together with their teacher each year from first through eighth grades, and teachers are trained to be unusually perceptive of children's temperaments and learning styles. Teaching methods are carefully designed to match the phases of psychological/spiritual development that Steiner identified; for example, since young children learn primarily through sensation, teachers pay close attention to the use of color, form, and music in the environment, and natural materials, such as wood, wool, and cotton, are always used rather than anything plastic or artificial. Early elementary children take in the world primarily through images and feelings, so for these ages Waldorf teachers recite vivid stories and present the curriculum poetically rather than through dry textbook facts. Young children learn through movement, imitation and play, so the teacher leads the class through numerous games, dances and exercises (such as counting or reciting poems while clapping or marching), and introduces them to a unique form of expressive movement, eurhythmy, that Steiner invented. At all stages, imagination and artistic expression are cultivated to the fullest extent possible. More information of Waldorf Education can be found by visiting:
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