Waldorf without Steiner?

Anthroposophy and the associated fields of practice of Waldorf education, anthroposophic medicine and biodynamic agriculture (Demeter) do not have an easy time in the national media. Seemingly as a matter of course, they are associated with anti-science, conspiracy theories, esoteric mumbo-jumbo, the Querdenker conspiracist movement, racism and anti-Semitism. What was still considered harmless wackiness before the Covid crisis is now categorised as anti-democratic and dangerous. There are even demands that homoeopathic medicines should no longer be covered by health insurance and that Waldorf schools should be excluded from state funding.
As far as Waldorf education is concerned, education studies have long questioned anthroposophical doctrine and its esoteric roots. The Mainz-based education researcher and critical Waldorf expert Heiner Ullrich addressed this topic back in 1986. In his doctoral thesis, he criticised Waldorf education as a pre-Enlightenment «occult worldview». A year earlier, the Tübingen education researcher Klaus Prange had accused Waldorf schools of an indoctrinating «education in anthroposophy».
The academic criticism voiced at the time is now having a social impact. The Waldorf world, which outwardly appears cheerfully colourful and child-friendly, is suspected of being a sect. It is regarded as anti-scientific and esoterically muddled. There is hardly a television documentary or press article that has not trumpeted the same thing in the last two years. Most recently, it was the study by Basel researcher Oliver Nachtwey, which is seen by the public as academic proof of the thesis that anthroposophists are disproportionately susceptible to Querdenker conspiracy thinking – even if this study does not claim to be representative.
The coronavirus crisis brought to light what had long been suspected: anthroposophy, and even more so anthroposophists, are undermining the social and scientific consensus. They are the problem of Waldorf education. But is that really so?

Anthroposophy is not congruent with Waldorf education

Many Waldorf critics make the undifferentiated assumption that all of Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy is part of Waldorf education. They often choose a random, seemingly abstruse Steiner quote to prove how crude this method of education is. This completely ignores the fact that many aspects of anthroposophy have not found their way into Waldorf education. When Steiner founded the first Waldorf school in Stuttgart in 1919, he was well aware that critical questions about the ideology might arise. He warned insistently that it should not be an «anthroposophical school»: anthroposophy had no place in the Waldorf school in terms of content, but had a purely methodological value there.[1]
In this context, it is interesting to note all the things Steiner did not say in relation to Waldorf education. Central elements of anthroposophy such as cosmology, Christology and the doctrine of angels play no role in the many lectures Steiner gave on Waldorf education. Most critics, and certainly many «overzealous» anthroposophists, are more ideological than Waldorf education has ever been.

Waldorf goes science

The criticism levelled against Waldorf education is mostly tendentious in nature. This can be seen primarily in individual cases that are used as evidence: here a reference to elemental beings or angels, there a right-wing Waldorf teacher or one who believes in corporal punishment. As much as the one case requires explanation and as problematic as the other case may be, they do not correspond to the overall picture of an internationally extremely successful and popular system of education that has long since arrived in the centre of society. It is also overlooked that a fundamental change has taken place in Waldorf schools for over twenty years now.
Until the end of the twentieth century, Waldorf education was primarily a practical movement whose theoretical reference consisted of the largely uncritical adoption of Steiner's theories. However, a research-based scientific discourse has emerged since the twenty-first century at the latest. Numerous empirical studies on the actual reality of schools have been able to disprove, among other things, that indoctrination takes place at Waldorf schools. Today, there are also significantly more academic studies and doctoral theses that take a critical and hermeneutic look at the theories behind Waldorf education.

Typical Waldorf concepts such as the theory of cultural stages, the teachings regarding the seven year periods and the theory of temperaments are being scrutinised – also within Waldorf. In addition, Waldorf teacher training, which had previously been organised rather informally, underwent a radical change. With the first academic Master's degree course at Alanus University, accredited in the usual peer review process, an academisation of Waldorf education began throughout Germany in 2007. In 2010, the German Science and Humanities Council even awarded Alanus University the right to award doctorates in the field of education – according to all the rules of the conventional academic process. This was reconfirmed in 2020. Relevant doctoral theses are initiated in the Waldorf Education postgraduate programme. Doctoral students write their dissertations in a network of education departments at other universities that cooperate with each other.
Open discourse, methodological rigour and scientific transparency have produced a new quality of Waldorf education over the past twenty years. The German Association of Waldorf Schools umbrella organisation addresses the schools' critical questions and problems. There is the initiative «Waldorf schools for an open society – opposing the right», a clear demarcation against racism and anti-Semitism and there is a mandatory procedure for dealing with abuse and violence in schools. Fair and well-founded criticism is highly welcome because it is what makes quality development possible in the first place.
The internationalisation of Waldorf education must also be looked at in this context. Waldorf schools are distributed all over the world. It has long since ceased to be Germany that has the largest proportion of Waldorf schools in relation to the population. The Netherlands is in first place, followed by Norway and Israel. In Israel, there are Waldorf schools in Jewish and also ultra-Orthodox communities, in Arab-Islamic and Christian contexts – some Waldorf schools are also attended jointly by Arabs and Jews. Whereas in the early days a predominantly German school model was transplanted to other countries, today Waldorf education has taken on its own cultural flavour in each country. One systematic project in this context is «De-Colonising the Curriculum».

Steiner as a source of inspiration

Where does that leave Rudolf Steiner? Isn't he a relic from another time? Do his spiritual and clairvoyant writings still have any significance for current Waldorf education? Certainly, some more traditionally minded anthroposophists cling to the almost inexhaustible cosmos of Steiner's work in a metaphysical yearning for meaning. In doing so, they, like many critics, miss the thoroughly philosophically modern core of Steiner's approach. It still provides plenty of inspiration for a productive system of education even today.
Anthroposophy is based on a concept of thinking that is shaped by idealism. The focus is on activating one's own thinking and forming judgements based on observation as Goethe developed it. This ultimately leads to a non-dualistic, in Steiner's words «monistic», experience of reality in relation to human beings and the world. Anthroposophy is not a naïve belief in spirits, but a modern philosophy of consciousness that centres on the development of human freedom. In this context the human individual is not considered normative, that is, tied to a fundamental norm. Rather, they are able to spiritually open up deeper experiences of consciousness and reality through meditative training.
This philosophical core of Steiner's work also makes Waldorf education relevant to the present day and establishes the central principles of its practical form. This includes, for example, the unconditional recognition of pupils as individuals and the greatest possible promotion of individual talents and aptitudes instead of grade-based selection. The Waldorf school sees itself as a space for the experience of social community building and does not regard learning as the mere transfer of knowledge. Entirely in the spirit of Wagenschein, learning helps us to understand the world and reality, and does so on the basis of our own experiences and actions.
This holistic view of the human being corresponds to a learning approach that encompasses not only cognitive-intellectual processes (head), but also aesthetic-emotional-social (heart) and practical-craft (hand) skills. This also goes hand in hand with a practical educational exploration of the mind-body problem. This is not only of a philosophical nature, but in the digital age it is also psychologically and socially charged.

The latter aspect is becoming increasingly important, as the alienation from the body and reality in the course of increasing digitalisation among children and young people sometimes takes on dramatic traits. In the purely digital world, processes of consciousness are only developed one-sidedly. This leads to a loss of the world for the sentient and acting human being and also to an alienation from the body with an increasing incidence of observable illnesses. Waldorf education counters this by always linking learning processes to direct experience – entirely in line with modern phenomenology of the body. Here the often derided eurythmy («dancing your name») also has a special role to play. This is because it is designed to enable a physical expression of aesthetic experiences in working with speech and music.

Rudolf Steiner still stands today for a modern humanistic approach to education that understands and promotes learning as individual personal development. This is why a Waldorf education with Steiner is advocated here, but with a Rudolf Steiner whose anthroposophy, when read philosophically, provides a free and spiritual experience of consciousness and monistic reality.