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Why Waldorf?
Making a difference a child at a time.....
Date: 6/23/2005 10:13:46 AM ( 19 y ) ... viewed 1718 times Results of a Waldorf Education
"By the time Waldorf Students reach us at the university level, these students are grounded broadly and deeply and have a remarkable enthusiasm for learning."
Dr. Arthur Zajonc, Professor of Physics Amherst College
"My Waldorf Education taught me to think for myself, take responsibility for my decisions, to be a good listener and to be sensitive to the needs of others."
Kenneth Chanault, Harvard Law School, President, American Express
A well-rounded education provides a strong foundation for a student’s future endeavors. Waldorf students are educated so they may go out into the world ready to meet life’s challenges with knowledge, courage, enthusiasm, creativity and a solid sense of how to think and reason. While some effects of good education are measurable at the time, many of the most important facets are planted as seeds that will continue to grow and bear fruit in later years. What happens to students who receive the seeds of Waldorf Education?
At the Waldorf School of Orange County, our graduates have traveled on to several local high schools, they have been well received. They have adapted to their new environments with relative ease. Teachers at these schools have noted their strong ability to listen and learn and their unique balance in academic and artistic abilities.
"The (High Mowing) Waldorf School has been extraordinarily successful for my son. It draws out the best of qualities in young people. This systems works!"
Gilbert M. Grosvenor, President and Chairman, National Geographic Society
Waldorf school graduates remain active participants in the educational process motivated by a genuine curiosity and reverence for life. A Seattle Waldorf School graduate, Zoe Wilkins, recognized the gift of her Waldorf education this way: "I learned how to bring quality, depth and meaning into the learning process and I know what to question." Waldorf students bring high expectations to the learning process; they are comfortable asking questions and initiating discussions.
Waldorf education is known for its integration of arts into the curriculum. What is not often as clearly recognized is how such integration supports a strong mathematics and sciences program. Louis Scultz, a 1979 Green Meadow Waldorf School graduate, received his Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Syracuse University in 1990. He credits his Waldorf education with showing him how science could be fun. "I have asked myself what it was that sparked my strong interest in science and engineering. The conventional approach to science education doesn’t seem to spark such interest in students today. I believe that Waldorf Education stimulated a natural curiosity in science with its balance of observation and theory. The Waldorf approach to technical subjects is a superb antidote to the current disinterest of newcomers to science and mathematics."
"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. Even mathematics is presented in an artistic fashion and related via dance, movement or drawing to the child as a whole." Konrad Oberhuber, Professor of Fine Arts, Harvard University
When assessing the results of Waldorf education, it is helpful to hear from people outside the Waldorf system, who have worked together with - or in some other way have had experience of - Waldorf graduates and who have an objective, professional basis for judging whether this form of education really accomplishes its goals. The following article and quotations will give you a sense of the kind of support Waldorf Education enjoys from educators and other professionals.
"Ideal for the child and society in the best of times, Rudolf Steiner’s (founder of Waldorf education) brilliant process of education is critically needed and profoundly relevant now at this time of childhood crisis and educational breakdown."
-Joseph Chilton Pearce, author of Magical Child and The Crack in the Cosmic egg
"Being personally acquainted with a number of Waldorf students, I can say that they come closer to realizing their own potentials than practically anyone I know."
-Joseph Weizenbaum, Professor, MIT, Author of Computer Power and Human Reason
By James Shipman, History Department, Marin Academy, San Rafael, California
(Explanatory Note: The Marin Waldorf School ends at eighth grade. A number of its graduates have gone on to the Marin Academy – not a Waldorf school – for their secondary education).
What I like about the Waldorf School is, quite simply, its graduates. As a high school teacher at Marin Academy, I have seen a number of the students who come from your program, and I can say that in all cases they have been remarkable, bright, energetic and involved.
One of my duties is to teach World Civilizations to incoming 9th graders, so I tend to be one of the first people who encounter a Waldorf graduate. My course is not like the standard History of Western Civilization course, but rather requires the student to investigate the deeper aspect of the world’s cultures. For example, we are not so much interested in the chronology of the Chinese emperors and the dynasties to which they belong, instead we want to explore and understand the principles of Taoism and Confucianism and how these underlying philosophies helped to shape the Chinese culture. We aren’t so much interested in memorizing names and dates as we are in understanding what motivates people and why they make the choices they do.
I find the Marin Waldorf graduates to be entirely willing to undertake this sort of investigation. They do not complain when I assign, for example, a passage from the Bhagavad Gita and ask them what they think. Indeed, that is what I find most remarkable about Waldorf kids; thinking is an "okay" activity for them to engage in. I think they intrinsically understand the difference between thinking about an issue and merely memorizing "the right answer" for the test.
Waldorf students are not simply bookworms, however, in fact one could find Waldorf kids completely involved in the theater, the arts, music and sports here at the Marin Academy. What I see here is an integration of the faculties – mental, emotional, physical and spiritual – which, when coupled with the overtones of personality, unite to form unique individuals. Marin Waldorf students to me are interesting people. They can converse intelligently on almost any issue, because they have been taught to examine. They can be enormously sympathetic to almost anyone’s plight because they have been taught to tolerate. They can gracefully dance or score a goal because they have been taught to move. They can circulate among the various groups on campus and engage in a variety of activities because they have been taught to harmonize.
We used to use the word "holistic" or "whole person" to describe the kind of person I have outlined above. Whatever the term used, it is apparent to me that the Marin Waldorf School consciously turns out calm, centered and confident students. For my part, I deeply appreciate the schools’ efforts, because based on their work, I get to enjoy those students who come to Marin Academy. It is with humility that I note that Waldorf students allow me and my colleagues to influence them.
It is as if somewhere in their early years of schooling they somehow got the idea that learning is a lifelong enterprise.
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