R E L A T E D L I N K SAssociation of Waldorf Schools N.A. Waldorf Early Childhood Assoc. Online Waldorf Library Waldorf Answers Research Institute for Waldorf Edu.
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W A L D O R F E D U C A T I O N
The Waldorf curriculum originated with Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), an Austrian scientist, philosopher, artist and educator who founded the first school in Stuttgart, Germany in 1919. Waldorf Education now includes schools on every continent and has grown to become the world's largest independent, non-denominational school system that goes through all the grades. Today the number of Waldorf Schools is nearing the 1000 mark.
A system that recognizes and meets the need for strong development of the intellect, Waldorf is committed to excellence in all basic academic skills. It provides a full introduction to the classics, foreign languages, history, geography, mathematics, and science; the subjects today's child needs as a foundation for tomorrows complex and challenging civilization.
 Even though every Waldorf School is independent, all share a core of curriculum, methods and beliefs, including the idea that a fulfilled and creative life involves considerably more than mental development or the ability to earn a living. Important as these things are, every child also needs the balance provided by stong and healthy development in the life of will (the ability to get things done) and in the life of feeling (emotions, aesthetics, social sensitivity.
Waldorf's time tested pedagogy is designed to address the whole child: head, heart and hands. It stimulates the mind with the full spectrum of traditional academic subjects. It nurtures healthy emotional development by conveying knowledge experientially as well as academically. It works with the hands throughout every day, both in primary academic subjects and in a broad range of artistic handwork and craft activities.
Waldorf Schools strive to awaken and ennoble capacities, rather than to merely impose intellectual content on the child. Learning becomes much more than the acquisition of quantities of information, learning becomes an engaging voyage of discovery of the world, and of oneself.
A Waldorf Education is meant to be the beginning of a life-long love of learning.
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