Good examples do not guarantee good people
Any system of education which believes that it can directly produce virtue and morality – for example through admonition and training – is naive. Ever since the brilliant educator Socrates came to grief with the education of Alcibiades at the latest, the error of such a belief has been well-documented and obvious. [more]
Early childhood
The language of play. How children play themselves to health and into life
The language of the heart comes to expression neither in puzzles nor computer games nor in the Olympic Games. Maria Luisa Nüesch from the Verein Spielraum-Lebensraum e.V. play association and Gerda Salis Gross, Waldorf teacher and special needs teacher for play and play research, demonstrate how children assimilate experiences in free play. [more]
Living lessons
The world in my hand
It is Monday morning. I am standing in the classroom of class three. Silence still reigns. Thirty-six lumps of clay lie ready prepared, one for every child. The pupils stream into the classroom and quickly the space fills with voices. There is laughter and calling, but not everyone appears to be in a good mood. Some look tired or keyed up. [more]
Living Teachers
Learning like children
Pär Ahlbom is an educator, musician and composer. He founded the Solvik school in Jaerna and is considered to be the initiator behind intuitive education. Meanwhile he holds worldwide courses on this particular approach together with a team of educators – Merete Lövlie, Marcel Desax and Thomas Pedroli. [more]
Young writers
Probing in the dark
Everything turns black in front of my eyes and that is as it should be. Merve is 19 and will accompany me. She has been blind from birth. She has learnt to rely on her ears, can use her white cane in such a way that it helps instead of hinders her, and does not (any longer) have problems asking strangers for help. We meet in front of the “Nikolauspflege” building, a foundation for visually impaired and blind people in Stuttgart. My hand feels about in the air for a few seconds before it finds Merve’s small hand and squeezes it in welcome. I get to know Merve in the same way as she gets to know me because I have decided to put on my eye patches before we meet. She introduces herself in an alert voice and hands me the white cane. Our... [more]
Spotlight
Generation porno?
Let me say one thing in advance: my favourite educational themes are others! But as a teacher I stumble across the subject of pornography and sexuality in school almost on a weekly basis. [more]
Why we need 12 classes
Can the Waldorf upper school still be rescued? Are we giving up a core element of our education in anticipatory obedience, and without actually having to do so, if we start preparing for state exams at an increasingly early stage? Jens Göken, involved in parent and public relations as well as in the school libraries of the Sorsum Free Waldorf School, says Waldorf schools should strengthen their own profile instead of voluntarily demolishing it. [more]
Bund der Freien Waldorfschulen e.V.