What Some People Say

What some people are saying about Waldorf education…

“I think that it is not exaggerated to say that no other educational system in the world gives such a central role to the arts as the Waldorf School Movement. There is not a subject taught that does not have an artistic aspect. Even mathematics is presented in an artistic fashion and related via dance, movement or drawing to the child as a whole. Steiner’s system of education is built on the premise that art is an integral part of human endeavors. He gives it back its true role. Anything that can be done to further his revolutionary educational ideas will be of the greatest importance.”

Konrad Oberhuber
Curator of Drawing, Fogg Art Museum
Professor of Fine Arts, Harvard University

“No other elementary and secondary school environment has been created by man which is expressly and effectively dedicated to nurturing the child’s capacities of wonder, reverence, and responsibility while providing a curriculum of the highest quality.”

Paul Livadary, J.D.
Senior Partner
Parker, Milliken, Clark, O’Hara, Semuelian

“If I had a child of school age, I would send him to one of the Waldorf Schools.”

Saul Bellow
Nobel Laureate

“There is no task of greater importance than to give our children the very best preparation for the demands of an ominous future, a preparation which aims at the methodical cultivation of their spiritual and their moral gifts. As long as the exemplary work of the Waldorf School Movement continues to spread its influence as it has done over the past decades, we can all look forward with hope. I am sure that Rudolf Steiner’s work for children must be considered a central contribution to the twentieth century and I feel it deserves the support of all freedom-loving thinking people.”
Bruno Walter
Conductor

“I used to think of Waldorf education as the most undamaging system, and then the more I looked into it, I found that it was the most beneficial system we’ve got. What we hear leveled at the Waldorf schools is what will happen to my child out there in the world if he doesn’t learn to read and write very quickly? The issue is that the child’s great strength for survival in a world of madness is to be totally whole, sane and in touch with the heart. The beauty of the Waldorf school is that it is designed entirely to keep children intact until they are ready to move out into the world as whole individuals.
There were three major studies done recently that dealt with the disappearance of childhood in America. If there is any one thing that the Waldorf system does, it nurtures, protects and develops beautifully the intelligence of the true child.”

Joseph Chilton Pearce
Author of Magical Child, The Crack in the Cosmic Egg & Evolution’s End

“As a psychiatrist with a special interest in developmental issues as well as a parent of two daughters educated at the New York City Rudolf Steiner School from nursery and second grade through high school, I have been fascinated by how deftly the approach taken by Waldorf educators dovetails with levels of development in childhood. It seems to me that my daughters, the elder about to graduate from medical school, the younger in her first year at law school, have benefitted not only intellectually, but socially and in terms of cultural and athletic interests as well as from breadth and depth of the curriculum their teachers have presented to them.”

Ion Ginsburg, M.D
Asst. Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Columbia University; Member Board of Directors, New York Society for Adolescent Psychiatry; Past President, Metropolitan Mental Health Association.

“I first heard of Waldorf education about five years ago, after having carried out extensive study of the neurological aspects of cognition, movement, and maturation. I was delighted to discover such a neurologically sound curriculum. I heartily support efforts to spread the awareness of Waldorf education and hope that it will spawn not only an increase in Waldorf Schools but an infusion of at least some of the ideas into the mainstream where they are so sorely needed. In Colorado I am working with several districts to incorporate various Waldorf strategies into the teaching of reading and mathematics. The ideas are very well received and very much needed.”

Dee Joy Coulter, EdD
Instructor, University of Northern Colorado
Outreach, Educational Consultant

“Steiner was way ahead of his time. What he recognized about learning in the first part of this century is gradually being substantiated by new discoveries in brain research. The need for each individual to recreate his own meaningful mind-body relationships, and involvement of the emotions plays a critical role in truly effective learning. Waldorf education has been working with these principles for more than sixty years and is only now being recognized. It has been putting into effect what major brain researchers and educators are discovering about the human brain/mind. What Rudolf Steiner envisioned is only beginning to be a part of the educational consciousness of the 80′s.”

Gabriele Rico
Author, Writing the Natural Way, Learning the Natural Way, the Creation of Meaning
Professor of English and Creative Arts, San Jose State University

“My daughter Diana’s experience at the Sacramento Waldorf School was both exciting and mind-opening. I hope that more people can make Waldorf education available to their children.”

Russell Schweickart
NASA Astronaut, Technology Advisor (1963-79); Member, California Energy Commission; Former Assistant to the Governor in Science and Technology.

“The implications of Gesell’s and Steiner’s observations are clear to educators. Pushing skills before children are biologically ready sets them up to fail. …Springing as it did from careful observations of the child, it’s not surprising that Waldorf education arrived at the same conclusion (as the Gesell Institute), and applies the same principles to development of curricula for children’s education.”

Sidney MacDonald Baker, MD
Executive Director, Gesell Institute of Human Development, New Haven, Connecticut