by Faye Daughterson

Created on: April 22, 2009

How Waldorf educational methods help special needs children.

"Love is higher than opinion. If people love one another the most varied opinions can be reconciled - this is one of the most important tasks for humankind today and in the future is that we should learn to live together and understand one another. If this human fellowship is not achieved, all talk of development is empty." - Rudolf Steiner

The first Waldorf School was started by Rudolf Steiner on September 7, 1919 in Stuttgart Germany, known as Die Freie Waldorfschule (The free Waldorf School). It was revolutionary then and it still is today.

The Waldorf Schools today are still based on Anthroposophy
(Spiritual Science) which was developed by Rudolf Steiner. It is this philosophy that guides the Waldorf schools in their holistic approach that is so unique, but because the schools are based on Anthroposophical philosophy it is unlikely they will ever become mainstream.

Rudolf Steiner wanted to establish a new way of organizing society to enable all people to develop their highest potential intellectually, spiritually and physically; therefore the education of children to be free and think for themselves was a good place to start.
His school accepted all children, male and female, and the teachers, who worked with the children, were to have control of the school. The education was centered on the whole development of the child. One of the biggest differences is that the children were not segregated by age or gender. Learning together lessens "us and them" and allows acceptance of people outside the age group or gender. This concept was outrageous at the time and still not accepted in mainstream education today.

Art and music are considered to be as important as reading and writing. Steiner wanted to rise above the materialist point of view that encourages selfishness, short sightedness and lack of self awareness.

What gets cut first in a financial crisis? Art and music, it is considered that young children can do without self-expression and the appreciation of beauty? And then we wonder why orchestras are not attended as they once were. Bullies go unchecked because there is little effort to teach children to respect themselves and each other. I could go on and on.

Who is Dr. Rudolf Steiner?
Briefly, he was a great thinker born in 1861. He studied mathematics, physics, chemistry, natural history and philosophy. He was part of a new wave of revolutionary thinkers which included Sigmund Freud, Carl Young and

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