Waldorf Education is Freedom Education

More than a hundred years after the founding of the first Waldorf school in Stuttgart (1919) and a hundred years after the death of Rudolf Steiner (1925), it is time to ask what the self-image of Waldorf education is and where it should be heading to in the future. 

Four distinct phases can be identified in Rudolf Steiner's work. Until 1900, he devoted himself mainly to philosophy; from then until 1914, to theosophy; between 1914 and 1918, to anthroposophy; and until his death, to its various fields of application. What characterizes these individual phases of his work?

The philosophical Steiner

Rudolf Steiner's early work is characterized by his philosophical publications. His first work, Grundlinien einer Erkenntnistheorie der goetheschen Weltanschauung (Outlines of a Theory of Knowledge of Goethe's Worldview), was published in 1886, when Steiner was 25 years old. This was followed in 1892 by the publication of his Rostock doctoral thesis titled Wahrheit und Wissenschaft (Truth and Science). Both works pursue a complementary phenomenological approach to the exploration of the world and the self. In Steiner's view, Goethe's method of intuitive judgment leads to a spiritually deepened experience of the sensory world of appearances. And Fichte's intellectual intuition, which is the subject of the second work, focuses on the self-realization of the thinking ego and leads to an ideal self-justification of human individuality. In his magnum opus, Die Philosophie der Freiheit (The Philosophy of Freedom), published in 1894, Steiner brings both approaches together by describing reality as a productive creation of the human self and by presenting the concepts and ideas produced in thinking as intuitive experiences. The self manifests itself in and through the world, and the (ideal) world appears in the self. This is the fundamental principle of Steiner's monism, his philosophical starting point, according to which all phenomena in the world can be traced back to a single principle of knowledge. Love for the phenomena of the world and the potential freedom of the individual are the idealistic implications of this monism.

The theosophical Steiner

The transition from Steiner's early philosophical work to theosophy raises many questions. How did Steiner, an idealistic-rational philosopher, arrive at an esoteric-spiritual view? Haven't philosophical-academic science and an esoteric-spiritual worldview been incompatible since Kant? Isn't there a huge break here? It should be noted that Steiner's philosophical writings met with only moderate interest among experts. The Theosophical Society opened up a wider sphere of influence for him. With his writings Theosophie (Theosophy) (1904), Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten? (How to Know Higher Worlds?) (1904/1905), and Geheimwissenschaft im Umriss (An Outline of Esoteric Science) (1910), he introduces esoteric views on the origin of the world and the spiritual existence of human beings, opening up a path to so-called higher knowledge. Viewed from the outside, this may appear to be a contradiction. However, the common thread is monism. In his early philosophical work, Rudolf Steiner discusses the epistemological foundations of his monism. In his theosophical writings, he describes a monistic worldview. One is the form of knowledge in human beings, the other is the substance in the supersensible world.

The anthroposophical Steiner

With the outbreak of World War I, he broke with the Theosophical Society. Steiner founded the Anthroposophical Society and began a new, actually unforeseeable phase of his work in Dornach, Switzerland. The 50-year-old, who had not been artistically active himself until then, founded a new artistic impulse in almost all fields except music. Language, eurythmy, literature, painting, sculpture, and architecture—these are the fields in which Rudolf Steiner himself, or in collaboration with his wife Marie Steiner, began to work. Art became a central element of the new anthroposophy. How did this come about? The departure from theosophy was also related to the fact that, in Steiner's view, these circles cultivated a rather pre-modern, devoutly receptive spirituality of revelation. That was not Steiner's concern. A modern spirituality should be based on the execution and authentic development of the human ego. This means that all spiritual content is covered by the development of human individuality without any bigoted arrogance. Form and content go hand in hand. This is precisely the principle of art according to Steiner's aesthetic theory, which states that art should not merely be used to express an idea, but that the ideal should be completely connected with the sensual. The idea begins to emerge in the artistic transformation of the sensory and does not overwhelm it. At the same time as developing his artistic impulse, Rudolf Steiner returns to his original philosophical impulses in his book Von Seelenrätseln (Of soul puzzles) (1917) and in the expanded second edition of Philosophie der Freiheit (Philosophy of Freedom) (1918).

Areas of life

The end of World War I marked the beginning of the fourth phase of Rudolf Steiner's life. The old empire and feudalism had come to an end. And the people of Germany longed for a long-overdue renewal of social life. Rudolf Steiner, who until then had only been active as a writer and, more recently, as an artist, seized upon this need and, with great energy, provided new impetus in the fields of agriculture, education, medicine, and politics. He developed and implemented new concepts and visions for biodynamic agriculture, anthroposophic medicine (including the production of Weleda remedies), Waldorf and anthroposophic curative education, and a threefold social order. He is still known today for these impulses, which continue to this day and have developed globally. Imagine if Steiner's work had ended in 1918; he would probably have remained only a historical figure similar to Helena Blavatsky, known only in esoteric circles. It is historically unique for a single person to have brought so many diverse and viable impulses for renewal to a civilization.

Waldorf education

This also includes Waldorf education. It is certainly the most successful product of Steiner's work to date. However, in the public perception, it has the reputation of being an esoteric-spiritual sectarian form of education. This is the image that has been conveyed everywhere, especially in the German media, and increasingly since Covid. However, this is a misunderstanding. Waldorf education does not primarily stem from Rudolf Steiner's theosophical phase, as many critics, but also representatives of Waldorf education, indiscriminately assume. This is evident from the fact that when Emil Molt asked Steiner to found the Waldorf School in Stuttgart, he did not refer to his 1907 publication Die Erziehung des Kindes aus dem Gesichtspunkt der Geisteswissenschaft (The Education of the Child from the Point of View of Spiritual Science). With his inaugural lectures on Allgemeinen Menschenkunde (General Human Studies) (1919), he continued his studies from the publication Von Seelenrätseln (The Mystery of the Soul). 

Waldorf education is not about imparting a spiritual worldview. Steiner emphasized that no anthroposophical content should be incorporated into Waldorf education, thus no angelology, no spiritual cosmology, no Christology, and no substantial consideration of reincarnation and karma. The concept of Waldorf education is based on the epistemology of Steiner's early work, on educational anthropology and educational psychology as laid out in Von Seelenrätseln (The Mystery of the Human Soul). It is also based on art and, in particular, on the willingness of teachers to engage in meditative self-education. The latter alone has its foundation in the writings Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten? (How to Know Higher Worlds) and Theosophie (Theosophy) from Rudolf Steiner's second phase of work.

What is Waldorf education all about? At its heart is the potential for freedom of human individuality, which is inherent in every human being. This is the inspiration from Fichte that Steiner brought to Waldorf education. It is the trust and belief that every child carries within them a seed of eternity that they alone can bring to fruition through their own activity. This is why artistic and craft activities are so highly valued. Waldorf schools are less concerned with the reception of ready-made knowledge and more with independent production. Added to this is an approach to the world based on experience, the senses, and the body, inspired by Goethe. Everything that children and young people learn should be experienced and done by themselves. They should not receive abstract or spiritual content about the world, but rather – this is the didactic principle – enter into a phenomenological relationship with the world by connecting as intensively and practically as possible with world phenomena. A third factor comes into play: individual experiences of meaning. The era of universal models for explaining the world is over, and even anthroposophy does not seek to convey definitive interpretations. Modern humans generate individual perspectives on meaning and significance. This can be supported in schools and educational institutions through stories and images that have an idealistic character. But no ideal, no value may be imposed or conveyed as a norm. Rudolf Steiner's teaching on freedom implies that there are only offers of meaning and significance with which children and young people can connect freely and without ideological paternalism. This gesture of freedom is indeed at the heart of Waldorf education.

Whether Waldorf schools should be imbued with esoteric and spiritual elements is therefore a decision that needs to be made. This would go hand in hand with an overemphasis on the theosophical phase in Rudolf Steiner's life's work. Or whether Waldorf education is a form of freedom education that appeals to modern individual consciousness. The present account argues in favor of the latter.