Steiner or Waldorf Education was initially developed by Rudolf Steiner during the early 20th Century.  While the curriculum and most aspects of the education have evolved significantly during the past 100 years, most of the key features of Steiner's education method are just as relevant today as they were when first introduced.

Steiner education aims to educate the whole child: the head, the heart and the hands.

A fundamental principle of Steiner education is the understanding of the developmental stages of childhood which takes place in three broad yet distinct phases of approximately seven years each. This understanding indicates the optimum way to support and foster the healthy growth of children in all aspects – physically, socially, emotionally and intellectually. A clear direction for the educational approach at the different stages of childhood is given. The following picture gives an overview.

The newborn baby has very little outer expression of abilities other than their movements. Gradually they learn to control their movements, their eyes focus, they can turn their heads, they smile, they begin to hold themselves, to sit, later to stand and to walk. As they grow they learn to talk and to think, to communicate meaningfully, to recognise themselves as an individual. They learn through their play, imitating those people and things around them, gradually developing more control, more direction and purpose. You will see this in abundance if you have time to visit in a Kindergarten or the Prep.

During the first six or seven years of a child’s life, they are building the foundations for all that is required for a healthy physical body. A complex set of reflexes develop and a number disappear again as each stage of physical development is mastered, allowing new capacities as the child takes greater control of their body. Their inner organs are developed, as are their senses of balance, touch, movement, sight, taste, smell, hearing and what we call the sense of life or well-being, the sense that lets you know how well you are.  Higher senses are also in development.

The best education for the child through these years is given by providing a warm, safe, nurturing environment, with the rhythms and routines of mealtimes and rest, family celebrations, simple stories and music, and surroundings filled with natural beauty, colour, gentle manners, good nutritious food and the experience of the world of nature – the stones, the sea, the rivers, and plants and animals through the seasons.

All this allows the child to develop trust in the goodness of the world and those around them – an increasingly more difficult task when so many things are happening around us today that produce anxiety and fear for us as adults. Nevertheless it is by providing such security that children will develop resilience and an ability to cope with the increasing pressures we experience in the world. In these young years we do not make demands on intellectual learning but provide a place for them to play and develop social awareness. Their thinking at this age is centred in their doing, that is they learn through what they do. Sophia Mundi provides for all this by allowing the children to experience their Prep year in a nurturing environment that stimulates their imagination through play and a rhythm of structured activities that include painting, cooking, stories, early literacy and numeracy activities, games and the daily routines of morning tea and lunch

As the child completes this first phase, around six or seven years, they become ready for a more formal education as the forces engaged in developing their physical body become free for new demands. However they are not yet ready for the conceptual academic intellect that develops later on. What is now eager to be exercised is a new capacity for memory, one that is nourished by a rich pictorial, feeling style of thinking. Now they learn through what they feel. They need to feel both the laughter and the tears of life each day. For this reason the primary years of education are characterised by an artistically rich story-based curriculum that gives the child a harmoniously balanced day. The more academic features are introduced at the beginning of each day, integrated with movement, music, poetry and art (the main lesson). The focus of this period is to awaken a living creative activity in the developing thought life. Subjects such as a foreign language, practice lessons in maths and English, music and eurythmy are best taught in the middle lessons and active subjects such as games, sport, gardening, cooking and woodwork are best in the afternoons. The focus of these afternoon lessons is to bring direction and form into the world of practical work.

The child is accompanied in this journey by the one class teacher, as far as possible, with subject teachers increasingly becoming part of their day in the upper primary classes. This allows a strong connection between teacher and child that sustains their development during these years. The children quickly come to love their teacher and to experience the partnership between parents and school, which underpins also their social development. Being with the same group of children in their voyage from Prep to the end of high school is a remarkably strong aspect of the education.
During the primary years the curriculum supports the unfolding feeling life through the different themes and stories that accompany each year. From fairy stories and folk tales that capture and inspire the imagination in Class One through stories such as the Norse myths that engage the will so strongly in Class Four to Roman stories in Class Six where the sense of the emerging personality with a need for law and justice meets the inner world of the child at that age, the soul of the child is richly stimulated and awakened. In Class Seven, history brings the child through stories of the renaissance and explorers who opened up the new world to the brink of modern times.

This second phase of development where the heart and soul of childhood is cultivated continues also for around seven years. Around the age of twelve, (Class Six), there is an emerging style of thinking that often manifests in the classroom (and at home) in many questions. Now their emerging intellect demands a new approach. This is the normal age for the beginning of the abstract conceptual thinking that characterises our adult way of seeing the world. Now we must create a way of educating that supports this capacity that blossoms during the high school as the ability for discerning thinking and independent judgment.

In secondary school, from the age of around 13 – 14 years, specialists in their field teach the students as they are challenged to awaken their capacity for rational judgment and thinking. The curriculum, building on and extending the subjects covered in the primary school, unfolds a rich panorama of world and life through the sciences, arts, humanities and practical subjects. Understanding arises through students wrestling with the questions they confront in the study of the different subjects. This calls upon their independent judgement and stimulates original thinking. With their inner activity aroused in this way, students find their place in the world as they learn to know and work into it. This is what gives them their ground for independence and frees them to follow a path into life that allows them to grasp and shape their future.

Rudolf Steiner and Education

Rudolf Steiner was both scientist and spiritual seeker. A powerful personality, his efforts tobring to his spiritual perceptions a scientific understanding attracted wide interest, resulting in a broad social role for the worldview he developed.

People from many disciplines and different walks of life took up Steiner’s indications and applied and worked them in their various fields.

Best known are the approaches developed in education and agriculture (Biodynamics), but Steiner’s thinking had practical impact also in the areas of medicine, art and architecture, and economic and social studies.

Steiner established the first Steiner (or Waldorf) school early in the 20th Century. Through Steiner education, he hoped to educate the hearts and minds of young people so that they would gain the strength of will to meet the challenges of their own time and the future.

The need for imagination, a sense of truth and a feeling of responsibility — these are the three forces which are the very nerve of education. Rudolf Steiner

Our highest endeavour must be to develop individuals who are able, out of their own initiative, to impart purpose and direction to their lives. Rudolf Steiner

For more information on Rudolf Steiner see the Links section