CENTENARY OF WALDORF EDUCATION: THE PHASES OF SCHOOL MOVEMENT DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

This paper investigates the 100 years history path of a Waldorf School as an education system and the stages of development of World Waldorf Education Movement. Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), Austrian scientist and thinker, cultivated the spiritual-scientific research on a human being is a threefold being of spirit, soul, and body whose capacities unfold in three developmental stages on the path to adulthood: early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence. His ideas were embodied in 1919 in Stuttgart (Germany), where the first Waldorf School (die Freie Waldorfschule) was opened. Since those times, Waldorf Education became a world education movement with 1182 Waldorf and Rudolf Steiner schools in 66 countries and 1911 Waldorf Kindergartens in more than 69 countries (Waldorf World List 2019). Waldorf Education’s independence of national boundaries and its capacity for taking account of regional, cultural elements have been made visible today by the expansion that has taken place. This paper observes the development of Waldorf Education and analyses its future questions and challenges.