Zoology as psychology
A small patch of fur can trigger an outpouring of emotion: “Oh how sweet! May I stroke it?” in lower school, “Oh, how cruel! The poor animal!” among vegan middle school pupils and “Wow! Did you shoot that yourself?” from the cool upper school pupils. Adults feel inspired to crack jokes about fox tails and boy racers. But how can we recognise the essence of the animal? [more]
Human beings are not descended from the apes. Zoology in upper school
If in class 9 the focus is on the high degree of specialisation in the animal and the developmentally open-ended human being, it is on the inner organs in class 10, cytology in class 11 and the whole animal realm in class 12. Martin Schwarz, biology teacher in Kirchheim-Teck provides an insight into the special features of the Waldorf curriculum. [more]
Publisher's View
Learning culture not arms
In Ohio (USA), the janitors of two schools will with immediate effect carry firearms when performing their duties. The director of the responsible authority praised the measure because it would “considerably improve” the safety of the children. He allayed the concerns of parents with the assurance that the two janitors would undergo two days of training. [more]
Early childhood
The seasons reconsidered
Do we need stylised fairies, trolls and dwarfs in order to regain access to nature and its elemental forces? Almuth Strehlow, lecturer at the Rudolf Steiner Institute in Kassel, thinks not. She calls for a new way to present the seasonal table. [more]
Waldorf worldwide
Waldorf education is attracting lively interest in Turkey. An alternative to selection
Growing numbers of people in Turkey are developing an interest in Waldorf education. Kindergartens are being started, there is training and further training in Waldorf education and educational conferences and information weekends are being held. Public goodwill is evident and gives hope that Waldorf education can establish itself in the Turkish educational landscape. A Waldorf initiative in the southern Turkish city of Alanya aims to open a first Waldorf school on the Turkish Riviera in September 2013. [more]
Series
A lesson in phenomenological chemistry
Polarities collide and form something completely different and new – that is how we might sum up the fields of teaching in class 10 which also resonate with the central questions of this age group. In the chemistry main lesson we deal with that from the perspective of the contrasting pairs of bases and acids as well as the salts they produce. [more]
Bund der Freien Waldorfschulen e.V.