(article in eBook format)

The following article by Manfred Leist is taken from the January 1980 issue of the monthly magazine Erziehungskunst (Education as an Art), which was been published over many years by the Association of Waldorf Schools and related organizations in Germany. Dr. Leist, the author, was co-editor of the magazine together with the late Dr. Helmut von Kügelgen.

The American reader must bear in mind that the article is written primarily out of the experience of Waldorf schools in Germany or, in any case, in Central Europe. It is true that there, especially, these schools have seen an extraordinary development in recent years, in number and importance. The role of parents in the founding and supporting of Waldorf schools, out of an understanding and realization of their underlying all-human impulse, has been and continues to be a vital factor. We could say that this is true in the English-speaking world also—but in a different way and to a different degree. But it is well to make thoughtful allowances for the fact that situations, emphases and perspectives vary as we pass from one country, let alone from one continent, to another.