History of Waldorf Education

The German people believed that its Imperial structure, erected half a century ago, would last for an unlimited time. In August 1914, they felt that the immanent catastrophe of war would prove this structure invincible. Today, only its ruins are left. After such an experience, retrospection is in order, for this experience has proved the opinions of half a century, especially the dominant thoughts of the war years, to be tragically erroneous.

From all directions came not retrospection, but the struggle for control. In large and small ways, thousands of people engaged in an effort to replace the crumbled order with a better world. The solutions tended in opposing directions and ranged from military dictatorship to the creation of a "soviet" in Bavaria. Ideology, not ideas, became the driving force of social activity.

These polar efforts tore at the shreds of Germany. The rancor of opposing opinions succeeded in claiming public attention for a struggle that could hold no hope, regardless of the outcome. Behind the din of diverging forces, human beings cried out for a better society, but the clamor was so loud it was all but impossible to hear a thoughtful response. In July 1917, Rudolf Steiner had presented the German and Austrian governments with a proposal detailing how the principles of the Threefold Social Organism could be realized. Within days after it reached the German palace, internal political turmoil rendered any consideration of his ideas impossible. The Austrian government likewise failed to respond. Steiner turned to the German people. In public lectures he pointed again and again to the need to go beyond slogans and empty phrases, to fearlessly evaluate the past and face the future with clear commitment. His "Call to the German People and the Civilized World," was a deeply considered plea for a new direction based upon an unflinching evaluation of the past and a deep understanding of human needs. These efforts notwithstanding, Steiner soon realized that his ideas alone were insufficient to move a society forward.

Rudolf Steiner was forced to ask why it was that no one seemed to be able to hear what could be done to form a truly new society, a truly human society. He concluded that no one could hear him because the education people had been given left them unable to consider, and therefore unable to work with, anything not based in familiar routine. A window of opportunity for social change was open. Germany was in a state of chaos and the German people were searching for an answer to the question of how to reorganize society. The question was, how could a positive change be effected? The needed social change could result from neither political coercion nor revolutionary upheaval. A truly human society can be the outcome only of the fully developed human capacities of Thinking, Feeling and Willing. When Thinking is developed, it becomes possible to clearly perceive present circumstances and form accurate imaginations of positive change. Rightly developed Feeling enables people to sense how to unite these imaginations with the outer world. A developed Will grants the possibility of transforming these imaginations into deeds for the World. Only in this way can a sound human society develop. Rudolf Steiner concluded that truly human social change would not be possible until a sufficient number of people had received an education that undertook to develop complete human beings.

Emil Molt, Director of the Waldorf-Astoria Cigarette Company and student of Rudolf Steiner, first had the desire to be active in a reformation of German society during a lecture given by Dr. Steiner in Switzerland in early November of 1918. Shortly thereafter, during a mid-November discussion with some of the workers at the Waldorf-Astoria factory, he resolved to create a school, though the school as yet had no firm form. In a discussion with Rudolf Steiner in January of 1919, the latter mentioned that in order to achieve a real social reformation, schools must be formed. Three months later, following a lecture by Steiner to the factory workers, the workers expressed a desire for a new school, a desire that was, of course, immediately taken up by Molt. Some weeks before, Molt had already begun discussions with the Minister of Education concerning the formation of a new unified school, discussions that were tending in a positive direction. Two days after the meeting with the factory workers, a first "teachers" meeting took place with Steiner, Molt and two of the future Waldorf School teachers (Stockmeyer and Hahn).

Three weeks later, the Minister of Education agreed to the new school. In particular, it was agreed that the new school would meet the standards set for public school students at the end of the third, sixth and eighth grades. However, during these three periods, what and how the students were to be taught was left to the pedagogical leadership of the school. This agreement allowed Rudolf Steiner, Emil Molt and others to begin the formation of the Waldorf School.

The following weeks were filled with activity. Teachers needed to be found. Buildings needed to be located and renovated. The seminar for teachers was held. Finally, on September 7, 1919, the Free Waldorf School opened amid great festivities.

The Free Waldorf School was founded upon the impulse for social change, upon the need to reform society into a community that takes into account the true Being of Humanity. Into the desire for reform were sown the life-giving forces of the teacher's inner work and Rudolf Steiner's spiritual insight. The goal of this education was that, through living inner work guided by the insights of Rudolf Steiner, the teachers would develop in the children such power of thought, such depth of feeling, such strength of will that they would emerge from their school years as full members of the Human Community, able to meet and transform the world.

~ Robert F. Lathe and Nancy K. Whittaker, The Spirit of the Waldorf School.