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About Waldorf Education
The first free Waldorf
school opened its doors in Stuttgart, Germany, in September 1919, under
the auspices of Emil Molt, director of the Waldorf Astoria Cigarette Company
and a student of Rudolf Steiner's spiritual science, and particularly
of Steiner's call for social renewal.
It was only the previous year-amid the social chaos following the end
of World War I-that Emil Molt, responding to Steiner's prognosis that
truly human change would not be possible unless a sufficient number of
people received an education that developed the whole human being, decided
to create a school for his workers' children. Conversations with the minister
of education and with Rudolf Steiner in early 1919 then led rapidly to
the forming of the first school.
Since that time, more than six hundred schools have opened around the
globe-from Italy, France, Portugal, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Great Britain,
Norway, Finland, and Sweden to Russia, Georgia, Poland, Hungary, Romania,
Israel, South Africa, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Japan,
and others-making the Waldorf school movement the largest independent
school movement in the world. The United States, Canada, and Mexico alone
now have more than 120 schools.
Although each Waldorf school is independent, and although there is a healthy
oral tradition going back to the first Waldorf teachers and to Steiner
himself, as well as a growing body of secondary literature, the true foundations
of the Waldorf method and spirit remain the many lectures that Rudolf
Steiner gave on the subject. For five years (1919-24), Rudolf Steiner,
while simultaneously working on many other fronts, tirelessly dedicated
himself to the dissemination of the idea of Waldorf education. He gave
manifold lectures to teachers, parents, the general public, and even the
children themselves. New schools were founded. The movement grew.
While many of Steiner's foundational lectures have been translated and
published in the past, some have never appeared in English, and many have
been virtually unobtainable for years. To remedy this situation and to
establish a coherent basis for Waldorf education, SteinerBooks
has decided to publish the complete series of Steiner lectures and writings
on education in a uniform series. This series will thus constitute an
authoritative foundation for work in educational renewal, for Waldorf
teachers, parents, and educators generally.
See Also:
The Foundations of Waldorf Education
Other Waldorf Books
Waldorf Schools
Learning to Read & Write in the Waldorf Schools
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