I. Pine Hill's Mission
Table of Contents
III. The Curriculum
Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian born philosopher and natural scientist (1864-1924), founded the first Waldorf School in Germany in 1919. His intention was to found a school movement, based on spiritual wisdom, to renew the art of education so that modern children could develop the full range of their capacities and become free, self-reliant individuals capable of contributing fresh insights and cultural initiatives to the world. The curriculum of his first school is still most relevant today in achieving this goal. In fact, many new schools using this curriculum are being formed around the world at this time.
A school is itself a cultural initiative. Steiner organized the first Waldorf School with people who believed, as he did, in the right of teachers to manage this initiative according to their own insight and experience, free from interference by the state and local school boards whose members are not themselves involved in practicing the art of education. Steiner and his supporters considered this right to be a governing principle for any school. Pine Hill and the other schools in the Waldorf movement continue to stand by this principle. Therefore Pine Hill is an independent, faculty-run school and has been since its inception in 1972.
People today feel the impulse for individual freedom more and more strongly. Giving full freedom to teachers to manage the pedagogical affairs of their school enables them to realize this impulse and to feel fully responsible for the work for which they have been trained and to which they have dedicated themselves.
Through the course of his life, Rudolf Steiner developed a body of knowledge and path of human development he entitled Anthroposophy, meaning "the wisdom of mankind". This world view is based on a centuries-old wisdom concerning the evolution of man and of the world which Steiner reformulated in a manner accessible to our modern, scientific consciousness.
According to this world view, the nature of every human being is comprised of three parts: the body, soul and spirit. The 'spirit' in each person is our eternal self, which incarnates in repeated earth lives. Through the course of these lives, the spirit gradually matures until it achieves a realization of its true nature and becomes a free and fully conscious participant in the further evolution of the world. The 'soul' is the vehicle of awareness and feeling through which the spirit experiences the body and the world around it.
At conception, the spirit and soul enter into the germ of the body which then begins to develop. As the child matures after birth, its spirit and soul gradually learn to use the body as their instrument, in willing, feeling and thinking. By this means the child gradually comes to understand and participate actively in the world. For this learning process to occur properly, parents and teachers need to provide the appropriate guidance. With their help, the child's spirit and soul are able to incarnate in a healthy way and to continue the spirit's development toward self- realization.
Steiner developed the Waldorf curriculum as a means of helping the child's spirit and soul to take proper hold of the body, to unfold fully the functions of thinking, feeling and willing and thereby to learn about the world and be active in it in a healthy and constructive way. Many elements are involved in this education through the grades, among which are the following:
The Waldorf curriculum is meant to unfold according to the stages of development of the growing child, which can be summarized as follows:
The child's spirit first becomes active in willing through his/her limbs, then in feeling and thinking. Education at home and at school should support this gradual process. In the first seven years of life, the child gains control of the limbs. S/he is helped in so doing by imitating the activities of older people, especially practical and playful activities around the home and in the nursery/kindergarten setting. S/he learns best by 'imitative doing' at this age.
From seven to fourteen, the child lives strongly in his or her feelings. S/he learns and remembers best whatever has stirred the feelings. For this reason, Steiner encouraged teachers to teach children of this age through an artistic presentation of every subject which engages a wide range of feelings. The child will learn more if the teacher speaks and acts in this way than he will if the content is presented in a dry, intellectual manner or simply read out of a textbook. Most important for the child to experience, at this age, is a love, reverence and wonder for the world, and the teacher must strive to impart these qualities by his own example. The child's thinking becomes active during this time as well but is still strongly colored by the feelings.
From fourteen to twenty-one, the young person gradually unfolds his or her powers of thought and independent judgment. Teachers need to guide him/her particularly in the task of mastering his thinking. They can help best by providing challenges where he can develop his analytical and synthetic powers, his idealism and the ability to consider issues from several points of view.
Education thus proceeds in three major steps as the child incarnates. During this process, the child's consciousness develops. Up to age 12, it is largely a pictorial and imaginative consciousness; from then on it adds the element of reason. Until age 12, the Waldorf curriculum works with the child's imagination, proceeding from fairy tales, legends and fables through Bible stories and ancient mythology. In the fifth and sixth grade, the transition is made to actual history and science. From then on, without losing its imaginative and artistic elements, the curriculum is presented in a more scientific manner, increasingly relying on direct observation, objective description and reflection in all subjects.
I. Pine Hill's Mission
Table of Contents
III. The Curriculum