Waldorf Education is an international independent school movement initiated by Rudolf Steiner. At present, Waldorf education is very prominent around the globe comprising 1000 schools and 2000 early childhood programs in over sixty nations.
The procedure of learning here is threefold including head, heart, and hands which represent thinking, feeling, and doing. This is the main principle followed by teachers to foster and make every child become part of the curriculum and methodology that incorporates skills including academics, practicals, and arts.
Waldorf Education was founded by Rudolf Steiner. It comes with an initiative to provide quality education to young students. There is also an update that leaders of the high-tech industry have been initiating the long-term benefits of Waldorf schools with low technology in imparting education to their children. And this has been the reason why many parents and teachers are showing much inclination towards the Waldorf approach and what it offers.
Back in 1919, the owner of the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart, Germany, Emil Molt had a plan to laid down a foundation of a school for the children. He wanted to draft a curriculum that would not only focus on the intellectual needs of children but also appeal to their spiritual nature and humanity, which would help them prosper in the chaotic repercussions of the Great War. For the development of this method, Molt approached Rudolf Steiner to which the latter agreed on it but with a condition that the school must be:
- Self-governed
- Must be an exalting via cultural and artistic
- Should not be separated in academic and vocational ways
- Must welcome all workers’ children (both genders) from any walk of life.
Steiner wanted his school teachers to be responsive to all the development needs of the children. Also, young people must have the ability to think freely and should be capable to meet the challenges.
Benefits
Make children enjoy their childhood to the fullest
The first major benefit is to make students feel delighted all the time by giving them ample opportunity to enjoy each moment, be free to be surrounded by nature and follow wherever their imagination takes them. In this hectic world where children are often pushed to hurry up or fall behind the norm, Waldorf Education wishes to save childhood by developing their natural rhythms.
Support experiential learning
Another main motive of Waldorf Education is to promote experiential learning. By this, it means that children need not have to gain certain experiences, rather it is to make children introduced to all experiences in the appropriate time for their growth.
Does not focus on a single trait
Teachers at Waldorf take much initiative in giving attention to every student and do not put the whole emphasis on one trait or skill over another. Apart from teaching usual subjects like Mathematics and Science, students are also taught foreign languages, playing instruments and singing in the chorus.
Conclusion
So this is all about the Waldorf Education that you have been reading in this article. Today we have let you know briefly about its origin, the man behind its foundation, its objectives, and its benefits too. Waldorf School takes a keen interest in imparting education to its students starting from the discovery of the alphabet in the first grade to the study of anatomy, the history of the United States, and algebra in the eighth grade, till high school studies.
Students at Waldorf are given learning opportunities in the creation of their textbooks. These include drawn journals that contain stories, maps, poems, lab descriptions, essays, math equations, and illustrations. Also, know about the advantages of study abroad scholarships for your future career.