Articles

By Georg Starke
Translated by R. P.
Published in Education as an Art Vol. 25, #4 – Autumn 1966
Download the article: But Wickedness Has to Be in It Too!

The children were playing gleefully with some puppets they had received for Christmas. What they played was naturally an echo of past experience. Both 7-year-olds had seen a Punch and Judy show, and both knew the story of the Garden of Eden. From these memories their play was formed. The Devil was an important member of the cast, and since there was no puppet for the part, another figure substituted for him. But soon the tussles with the Devil became loud and vehement. The grown-up nearby, wishing to curtail just this element, suggested that they rehearse more peaceful, pleasant scenes. And then there rang out a cheerful and absolutely carefree chorus: "Oh, but there has to be some wickedness in it, too!"

AWSNA lecture given at the AWSNA Teachers’ Conference, Kimberton Waldorf School, 
Sunday, June 23, 2002
by Joan Almon
Download the lecture: Changes Observed in Kindergarten Children

In listening to these various living pictures on kindergarten children from the audience, I was struck again by the many children I’ve worked with. Last October I quietly celebrated 30th years of working with young children. I started a school before I knew about Waldorf and then transformed that school into the Waldorf School of Baltimore. Over these 30 years I have seen huge changes. I am reminded of a conference I went to with friends in Vienna. It was a public school conference with Jörgen Smit in the 80’s. At a workshop he asked us for descriptions of children and similar descriptions were given as we heard just now. He said, “ Aren’t you seeing anything positive that is new?” I was so preoccupied with the problems that I actually could not tell you what was positive. Today, I am hoping to weave back and forth. Yes, the problems are severe but new developments of an inspiring nature can also be observed.

by Linda Thomas
Published in Kindling (UK), 2004
Download the article: Chaos in Everyday Life, About Cleaning and Caring


When it comes to housekeeping, the concepts of disorder and chaos often get confused. In our households, order is often related to a certain regularity and clarity. I call a room orderly, when everything is in its place and I can easily orientate myself and find my way around without fuss. However, as soon as I start working in the room, or the children start playing around in it, the order very soon turns into disorder. Order seems to have this special quality of merging into disorder without much effort, yet the opposite never occurs. I have to consciously intervene in order to re-establish the lost order.

by Gary Lamb
This article was published in the Research Bulletin, Fall/Winter 2015, Vol 20 #1
Download the article: Charter Schools in Relation to the Waldorf School Movement

Introduction
    The introduction of publicly funded charter schools has blurred the distinction between public and non-public education in the United States. Charter schools exhibit an assortment of outer features attributable to both public and private schools, some of which previously were marks of distinction between them. So too, their rapid growth has had a negative impact on the levels of enrollment in both local public and private schools. Some people view this as simply the side-effects of necessary change as parents exercise the opportunity to express their wishes for their children.¹ Others take the view that charter schools are a corporate, philanthropic, and government-financed Trojan Horse whose effect, if not its intended purpose, commercializes and extends market thinking into all aspects of education.
    This paper compares charter schools with traditional public and private schools and outlines their history and the reasons for their phenomenal growth. It also examines the relation of education as a whole to the realms of politics and business and offers some thoughts on what all this may mean for Waldorf education.

by David Mitchell
Download the article: Child Development and the Teaching of Science

Stimulation of the Senses → Astute Observation→ Rigorous Training in Thinking →Phenomenological Thinking

Waldorf education works with the developmental stages of growth in children. The harmonious unfolding of the personality depends on the healthy maturation of each developmental stage, and each progression builds upon the one before it. Strengthening a child’s later cognition in science begins with the building of a strong foundation in the early years, initially by parents and family and later by teachers.

Preschool children are informed about the world through their bodily or sense impressions. The wonder in the world passes directly into their physical, sensory organization through every experience they encounter. Impressions are stored as cellular memory as the organs of the body are being sculpted. Young children have a feeling of “oneness” with the world, and the world is their teacher. These sensory engravings later become the basis upon which scientific cognition is founded.

by CAROLINE VON HEYDEBRAND
Published in Present Age, Vol.1, No.6, 1936 (England)
Download the article: Childhood Dreams

A LITTLE girl, still quite young, often makes the following experiment: going upstairs, she stops suddenly on one of the steps, shuts her eyes, and stands quite still. She thinks: "The world in which we live is only a dream. There is another 'real' world, a world quite different from my present surroundings. This other world cannot be described; it is quite different, but it is the real one. Presently I shall open my eyes and find myself in that real world." The child has absolute faith in this; confidently she opens her eyes-and is full of bitter disappointment when she sees the well-known staircase, the hall down below; above the staircase the landing with the stairs leading to the rooms in which she is accustomed to play and to work. Though she is bitterly disappointed, nevertheless she continually repeats the same experiment, for she never ceases to long for this world which is so much more real to her than all her earthly experiences, though she could by no means describe the peculiarities of it. There are moments in this child's life when she seems to seize something of this "real world"; these are the moments before she falls asleep. Sounds come to her not from outside; music is in her ear, in the listening soul. A succession of beautiful melodies makes her very happy whilst she falls peacefully to sleep.