A Parent's Perspective on Waldorf Education

One of the most worrisome areas that I had developed when my kids were small is that I would suffer with my children through public education. How was I going to make it through years of policies, teaching practices, and poor peer treatment without falling into my own black pit of despair? So, my oldest entered school and we were okay the first years. But, by 2nd grade my building fear became a nightmare living in reality. And this was a nightmare that I would not put up with, so I searched for another alternative. We found a dream in the fast-growing public charter Waldorf school. It took a move and still a 30-minute drive every morning to make this dream real for us. Since that time, we have been part of two Waldorf charter systems, and our life has found such peace. I am thankful every day for the blessings of the Waldorf system and its impact across the world.

So, what is drastically different that I could go from nightmare to dream that quickly? As I'm not one to be overly negative, I will highlight the principles that make the most difference. You will see the gaps instantly without me having to make any comparative remarks. Research has shown that a key driver of relationship and life success is being able to apply critical thinking skills to our lives. Waldorf education focuses on the development of imaginative thinking. With imaginative thinking, kids not only uncover answers to a problem, they take it a step further and envision many different solutions to the problem. How different is life when you have access to selecting or even designing the best possible solution for any problem that comes your way? I know the difference. It is living an extraordinary life, not an ordinary one.

But, we can't just be good problem solvers in order to tackle life eloquently. We have learned over the last few decades that even more important than IQ is emotional intelligence. Oh, but why should the education system care about a child's inner world? Because if emotional intelligence is a greater determiner of life success than IQ, why wouldn't we give our kids every opportunity to learn to be sensitive to their own and others' feelings? If our kids learned the skill of resiliency early on, bouncing back from life's storms would be quicker and less painful. Developing a strong emotional intelligence should be a #1 goal of our school system. Let's add one last ingredient for the life success formula. What if we raised willing, well intentioned children who know how to turn dreams into reality? Isn't this what the U.S.A. was built on? Waldorf education facilitates these talents and capacities within children through a very specific rhythm built into each day. In addition, the developmental focus shifts 3 times as the children grow through the grades. Waldorf understands how to build structure and discipline into a compassionate and safe school environment. Is it even possible to put discipline and compassion together? Of course it is. Is it done well? Most of the time, no. This picture is of a kindergartner's dining table where the kids learn manners, socialization, etiquette, order and helpfulness.

One day my now first grader brought home a placemat-size drawing paper excitedly trying to tell me that these were her chores. As she explained the step-by-step drawings, I was awe-struck by how she had assimilated her entire day's routine into what she was responsible for. Early on, kids in Waldorf schools have chore charts and participate in keeping their classrooms clean and tidy.

In imitation of that learning, my daughter had organized her brain in a systematic way to make her responsibilities make sense to her. I still have a picture of this system and I've written my own words by her drawing so that I understood the brain map of my child.

Oral stories used to be the way we passed on knowledge in past generations. For children, oral stories for children are a very important tool in developing imaginative thinking. Today, we don't leave room for imagination as we illustrate our books, we push visual stimuli everywhere, and we diminish day dreaming as wasteful time. What Waldorf gets that we've missed in the broader educational system is that they ask the question: how can our kids develop their own creativity and problem-solving skills if we hand-feed them to our children?

It's the early years of our children's development that plants the seeds of learning (how to learn and the love of learning itself). Once you've earned the heart of a child, the child will go leaps and bounds to embrace the next level of development. This is a picture of Gabi and myself in honor of her birthday where the teacher reads a beautiful story and presents a book of pictures about Gabi drawn by the kids in her class. This activity combines an oral story honoring the individual as important, while allowing classmates to show compassion to the birthday child through their own imaginatively created book.

Could our high illiteracy rate be more a factor of motivation than skill? When we force kids to read before they are developmentally and emotionally ready, we can scar them for life. This almost happened to my oldest, Lexi. Lexi began to detest reading by the middle of second grade. It was a battle to meet our required reading minutes every night and picking up a book to read for fun was not even a possibility. I have such great joy for reading that my heart was withering away with a foreseen conclusion that my child would not see books as a lifeline to adventure, knowledge and emotional connection. She wouldn't know the worlds it could open to her. Once we moved to Waldorf education, our house once again became excited about books of all kinds. I have the endless joy of reading to my kids every night. We pick our books to read together with excitement.

We constantly have a reading wish list of what we want to explore next. It's a far distance from a mother's broken heart and a resistant child who said she hated reading. There is no doubt that I am biased about education for our children. But, when you find the secret to living life fully and successfully, why wouldn't you share boldly? If you haven't been convinced to move your kids to a Waldorf school, I hope it gives you a deep pause for reflection and opens a door for future action.