ARTICLES

Articles in the Online Waldorf Library come from many sources. Quite a number are from the archives of journals and publications published over the past 50+ years. When possible we have noted the specific source although this is not always possible.

Included in the "article" search database are all articles in currently in print journals: Gateways, the Research Bulletin and the Waldorf Journal Project.

The Online Waldorf Library includes:
Education as an Art, the first widely circulated journal about Waldorf education in the United States. It began in 1940 as the Bulletin of the Rudolf Steiner School Association. The purpose of the journal was to inform Americans about Rudolf Steiner's pedagogy. In 1969 the journal became known as Education as an Art: A Journal for the Waldorf Schools of North America.

To search for articles specifically from Education as an Art, please enter the journal name into the search box "with the exact phrase".

Lectures from the 2002 AWSNA National Teacher's Conference, to search for the 8 lectures presented, please enter AWSNA lecture in the search box and click "exact phrase"

Arts and Their Relationship to Adolescent Development

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AWSNA lecture given at AWSNA Teachers' Conference Kimberton Waldorf School,
by Van James
Tuesday, June 25, 2002

To begin with I'd like to place a wonderful aphorism of Rudolf Steiner's before us: "Art must become the lifeblood of the soul." I believe this is an essential ideal to live by in our work as educators. I will explain why as we proceed.

The author Robert Fulghum who wrote the bestseller, Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, claimed that if you go into any kindergarten and ask, "How many of you can draw?" All the children hands will go up. If you ask, "How many of you can sing?" All the hands go up again. "What if you don't know the words?" We make them up, is the children’s response. "How many of you can dance?" All the hands go up yet again. The young child shows in kindergarten that the human being is an artist.

This is really what we are—it is part of our essential nature that we are creators—we are artists. Art is for the child, already, the lifeblood of the soul.

Aspects of Adult Education in the Light of Anthroposophy: A Former Student's View

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Published in Renewal, A Journal for Waldorf Education, Vol. 9 #1, Spring 2000

What is the most fruitful relationship between teacher and student in adult education? Norman Davidson, the former head of teacher training at Sunbridge College looks at this question from the viewpoint of spiritual science.

Keywords: Waldorf teacher training, Anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner, teaching

Astronomy Verse for the Middle School

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From the Waldorf Science Newsletter, 2004
by John Trevillion

Written by John Trevillion, class teacher at the Chicago Waldorf School,these wonderful verses help orient the children to space as well as provide them with vocabulary for understanding Astronomy.

Audrey McAllen’s ’The Extra Lesson’

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by Joep Eikenboom, December 2014

The Origin and Source

Years before the first Waldorf School was founded, Rudolf Steiner unfolded his views and insights on the education of the child. The first stage of development takes place on a bodily level. The child learns by moving, playing and using the total system of the senses. The nerve cells are fully developed at birth, but there are only few connections between them. During the first years the brain and total nervous system are further developed while the child exercises and their senses and movement system matures.

The sense of touch gives the child an inner image of the physical space that she occupies, the sense of life teaches the child to adapt to the general rhythm of life, along with an awareness of the general, organic or constitutional condition of the child’s body itself. Essential for the coordination of movement are the senses of balance and self movement.

The foundation for learning is laid by the development of these four basic senses; it consists of the capacity for spatial orientation and one’s own body awareness—body geography.

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