Education

Lessons

In the Classroom

Ann-Katrin Neundorf,

Looking Away is Never a Solution

Political scientist and mediator Christine Laude wrote the brochure «Bullying and Cyberbullying – Invisible Violence» for the Bund der Freien Waldorfschulen (Association of Waldorf Schools Germany). She spoke to Erziehungskunst about the complexity…
Gabriele Ebeling,

Walking Through Magdeburg for one Night

You don't always have to travel far away to experience something special. It can also be possible in your own neighborhood if you simply change your perspective. Our author spent seven hours walking through her hometown at night with her ninth-grade…
Heike Birk,

Craft Lessons in the Lower School

At most Waldorf schools, formal craft lessons only begin in fifth or sixth grade. Our authors advocate an earlier start to crafting and refer to Rudolf Steiner.
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Jürgen Beckmerhagen,

Students Build Small Robots for School Garden

At the Freie Waldorfschule Frankfurt/Oder, computer science teacher Sören Leonhardt shows his upper school students how they can rethink technology and the future – beyond formulas and dry programming. In a region where some young people are hopeless…
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Jürgen Beckmerhagen,

Music from Outer Space

Geometric shapes, AI and the creativity of young people and trained musicians – these are the components of a project in Potsdam that has resulted in a unique symphony. Classes six and seven from the Freie Waldorfschule Werder/Havel also helped…
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Jürgen Beckmerhagen,

Red beams and dots of light hover in the physics lecture hall

«Do atoms really exist?» This question makes you pause and think. In an innovative project, a physicist and a chemist open up new paths to understanding atoms for students and teachers. Using modern technology, they immerse themselves in the world of…
Nina Luckner,

«Who still has an Australia?»

We share our earth with all the other people who live on it, and we only have this one. Class teacher Nina Luckner wants to convey this to her students. To do this, she combined four subjects and, among other things, built globes out of balloons and…
Noor Khatib-Thorn,

Love Waits Patiently at the Doors of Our Hearts

«What if I would have been on the other side?» Noor Khatib-Thorn asked herself this question as a little girl in Jerusalem. Today, she is an English teacher at the Intercultural Waldorf School in Mannheim. In her lessons, the woman with Palestinian…
Petra Mühlenbrock,

For Time is Life

Why is the class eight play part of the Waldorf curriculum? Our author, a teacher, explains based on the example of Michael Ende's Momo which she performed with her class, which processes are tiggered by such a large stage project and how they enable…
Hiltrud Kamolz,

The Interior Space Opens Up

As one of the oldest crafts in the world, basket weaving is an integral part of the ninth grade curriculum. However, tradition alone is not enough to justify its existence. In her article, our author Hiltrud Kamolz explains how adolescents come into…
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Jürgen Beckmerhagen,

Window into the Soul of a Culture

Pupils at a Hamburg Waldorf school immerse themselves in Russian lessons. In doing so, they not only discover a new language, but also valuable lessons about tolerance and respect. Our author explains how learning a language can become a commitment…
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Jürgen Beckmerhagen,

Rise and fall of a weather balloon

As part of his year project, 17-year-old Waldorf pupil Ilian Rosenbruch launched a weather balloon he had built himself into the stratosphere to explore the secrets of the weather. However, the launch brings more challenges than expected: official…
Jürgen Peters,

Teacher resilience

What is the state of resilience among teachers at Waldorf schools? This was the subject of a study conducted by Alanus University around ten years ago. Our author Jürgen Peters outlines the results and relates them to the current situation.
Tomáš Zdražil,

Nature – Community – Meaning

Alienation from nature, loneliness and loss of meaning are linked to the threefold human constitution: body, soul and spirit. The consequences of neglected human needs are reflected in the current health crisis as part of the civilisational crisis,…
Angelika Wiehl,

The moving classroom

The Moving Classroom is one of the Waldorf school concepts that is attracting increasing attention in school and inclusive education, but is controversial within Waldorf’s own ranks. Children, parents and teachers in lower school are easy to…
Robert Neumann,

The challenge of ChatGPT

Homework and assignments finished in no time at all? Many pupils and some teachers have been using it for quite some time, the ChatGPT software. Robert Neumann is a lecturer in media education and other subjects at the Freie Hochschule Stuttgart –…
Hildegard Wänger,

Arriving in Movement

When children start school, they should have the following skills: attentiveness, impulse control, independence, cooperation skills and a sense of time. From this finding, the concept of the Moving Classroom emerged in the 1990s, which is also…
Hiltrud Kamolz,

Permanence in Change

Class teacher Hiltrud Kamolz takes great pleasure in creating the seasonal table and incorporates the seasons daily in short narratives at the beginning of class in the form of a meaningful story. The story can be entirely focused on the seasonal…
Christof Wiechert,

The Image in Education

One of the fundamental features of Waldorf education is the work with images. Language can create images in people that remain powerful and unforgettable. Christoph Wiechert describes how parents and teachers can use them for successful education.
Martyn Rawson, Albert Schmelzer,

Building blocks for a diverse, anti-racist Waldorf education

How can anti-racism be anchored in the curriculum of Waldorf education so that pupils are sensitised to exclusion and defamation? In addition to generally making empathy part of education, the authors advocate, among other things, addressing racial…
Franz Glaw,

Information literacy as an educational task

Media education in Waldorf schools ideally begins on the first day of school. For the author thinks that the anthroposophical understanding of the human being and media education are not contradictory. In his opinion, age-appropriate teaching that…
Martyn Rawson,

"We would like to have grades so we know where we stand."

Do grade reports really help to find our position?
Jette Lorenz,

I can't get the images out of my head

In March, our class visited the Holocaust memorial in Bergen-Belsen together with class 10 of our school. The trip was part of the curriculum for class 10, who were studying the Nazi period and the Holocaust in their history main lesson. Because we…
Felicitas Bayer,

Time for media parents' evenings?

For many years, Waldorf schools have been dealing with the question of what exactly is meant by "media literacy", how it comes about and what can and should be done for it in school. Existing beliefs about the necessary maturity and the real,…
Tia ten Venne,

The power of images and the Waldorf Peace Network

War in Europe. This was unimaginable for most of us until Russia's attack on Ukraine. Just as the war of aggression in Europe has shaken us adults, it has also made the pupils, children and young people pause in their everyday lives.
Gunter Keller,

Education for Sustainable Development: An assessment of the current situation

How can we empower our children and ourselves to live a sustainable life?
Brigitte Kaiser,

In the footsteps of the "Der Blaue Reiter" group of artists

As a special feature at the Daglfinger Waldorf School there is a "Blaue Reiter" main lesson for our two class 7s right at the beginning of the school year. We start the colourful autumn with a trip to the artist towns of Kochel and Murnau. After an…
Laura Frey,

"It could continue like this ...": What a young Waldorf teacher wishes for the future

Motivated by the Basel school's concept of relationship studies and as a teacher of a class 8, I planned an anthropology and relationship studies main lesson together with a midwife which I carried out in 2019. I took an in-depth look at the sex…
Sven Saar,

Life and love. A main lesson on life and sex education

According to Gert Biesta, all education must pursue three goals: socialisation, qualification and individuation. In every teaching unit I want to experience, as a learner, how I can better integrate into my social environment, I want to acquire new…
Christian Breme,

The dignity of shame

Standing in front of a class eight, I spoke about initiation rituals among indigenous peoples: "It can be that you leave the village as a 14-year-old child, and after a few weeks of strict trials you return as a man or woman and are an adult, an…
Michael Zech,

Relationship and Sex Education. Overview with Closer Look at Puberty

Sex education is not a separate subject at Waldorf schools, even if special lesson sequences are as a rule repeatedly devoted to it at all age levels. Due to its complexity, it is a cross-curricular component of the overall educational mission.
Historical

100 Years of Waldorf Education

Andreas Albert,

Stumbling Blocks for Walter Chrambach

On May 7th a stumbling stone was set in remembrance of Dr. Walter Chrambach at Hoher Weg 11 in Dresden-Hellerau. Family members of Chrambach and contemporary witnesses were present.
Angelika Schmitt,

What will remain? What is coming?

Together with the economist and philosopher Philip Kovce, our author will take over the management of the Rudolf Steiner Archive in Dornach in spring 2025. According to the editorial plan, the publication of Steiner's complete works should be…

Rudolf Steiner and his Jewish milieu

In his day, Rudolf Steiner moved in a widely Jewish and very cosmopolitan milieu. Professor Tomáš Zdražil, who has been working in the field of the anthropological and anthroposophical foundations of Waldorf education at the Freie Hochschule…
Stefan Grosse,

What do they mean: the free intellectual life or the fundamental right to freedom of expression?

When Rudolf Steiner introduced the ideas of the threefold social organism into the discussion on a new social order in 1917 – at the same time as the violent implementation of a new order in Russia – he took up the ideals of the French Revolution and…
Tomáš Zdražil,

Rudolf Steiner and self-governance at the first Waldorf school

At the end of 1918, a small initiative group of Stuttgart entrepreneurs led by Emil Molt decided to launch a campaign for social renewal. It met with Rudolf Steiner in Dornach at the end of January 1919 to prepare a concept for the project.
Periphery

From the Waldorf Universe

Daniela von Pfuhlstein
Daniela von Pfuhlstein,

Ultramarathon Through the Arctic

Aaron Crook won the 6633 Arctic Ultra, a 620-kilometer ultramarathon through the Arctic Circle in northwestern Canada. Crook, a former Waldorf student, raised money for young people with mental health issues during this extreme challenge. He spoke to…
Katrin Kühne,

Intermediary Between Supply and Demand

Crayons, furniture, and musical instruments: for more than 35 years, Waldorf schools in Germany have been purchasing many items from EIKA. EIKA Einkaufsgesellschaft für gemeinnützige Einrichtungen mbH (purchasing organization for non-profit…
Annette Pichler,

Inspiration rather than Definition

A hundred years ago, Rudolf Steiner gave twelve lectures that have since become known as the Curative Education Course. Based on these lectures, numerous organizations for educational and social work with children, young people and adults with…
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Angelika Lonnemann,

Two Women Alongside Rudolf Steiner

The writer Gunna Wendt initially had no connection to anthroposophy. Until she came across Ita Wegmann, the doctor and friend of Rudolf Steiner. It was through her that she became aware of Steiner's wife Marie and was fascinated by the moving…
Sven Saar,

Waldorf 360

Waldorf 360! A Global network for Middle School and High School teachers, starting in January 2024.

Magazine about Waldorf Education in English

The Association of Waldorf Schools of North America publishes a magazine which is comparable to Erziehungskunst, published by the German Bund der Freien Waldorfschulen.
Constanza Kaliks, Goetheanum Pedagogical Section,

Inspiration for New Forces

The six-day pedagogical conference held in July 2023 in the city of Juiz de Fora, in eastern Brazil, was a great inspiration. With 450 participating teachers, it was the largest conference in the history of the Brazilian Waldorf movement so far. The…

Visions for the World

The World Child Forum (WCF) brought together young visionaries from around the world in an impressive premier event in Davos at the end of July. More than 120 young people took part in the open and flexible lab format, including participants from…

Online Workshop

Calling It Like It Is: Uncovering and Dismantling Racism in the Waldorf Movement was first presented by Sunbridge in September 2020. The need for and interest in the event proved to be so widespread, it has been repeated to new audiences several…
Dorit Binder, Stefanie Keinki,

Three years of CO2ero – Climate neutral Waldorf schools

Since 2020, a team of highly committed people has been supporting Waldorf schools and other institutions in their process to become climate neutral. Until now, the CO2ero initiative was a project of the German Association of Waldorf Schools, but from…
Ulrike Barth,

Teaching Students about Violence Prevention

The author and professor of Waldorf education in Mannheim, Ulrike Barth, has ensured that violence prevention is included in the curriculum for students. She explains why this is important.
Andrea Setzer-Blonski,

Culture of Religions – A Project for Understanding

“No child is born racist”. In the village of Neve Shalom (Arabic: Wahat al-Salam) in Israel, where Jews, Muslims and Christians try to live and work together in peace and harmony, the author read this sentence on a poster. In the following article,…
Platzhalter
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Angelika Lonnemann,

We need the ethics of communication as a school subject!

Bernhard Pörksen, born in 1969, is professor of media studies at Tübingen University. In 2008 he was voted “Professor of the Year” and honoured for his teaching. He has researched and written about scandals, truth and lies, and communication as an…
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Angelika Lonnemann,

Waldorf Work in Progress - lecture series

The International Campus Waldorf (ICW) is an academic network of universities and institutions worldwide that offer Waldorf teacher education in BA/MA programs and other educational pathways. In this context, the ICW provides an online platform for…
Karl-Dieter Bodack,

Solving conflicts with the model of etheric forces

How do we come together again?
Axel Eichenberg,

Underground

The four-hammer signal sounds for the descent to level 8 at a depth of 826 metres. Three times twelve miners descend at a rate of nine metres per second.
Albert Vinzens,

Every movement an experience of eternity

When I think back to an event in an extreme situation that changed my personal relationship with heaven and earth forever, I go back in my mind forty years to the base of the El Capitan rock face in Yosemite Valley, California.
Bruno Sandkühler, Christine Arlt,

Wahat el-Bahariya: A school in the desert

“Sabah Al-Kheer – Good morning, dear Selma! This is how the ten-year-old is greeted by her teacher Ahmed. Together with 30 other children, she is still a little tired as she sits in the classroom but she is looking forward to a varied day at school.…
Karin Michael, Tomáš Zdražil,

“We need a complete reform of the education landscape”

Second round table on the consequences of coronavirus in Stuttgart.