Challenges Facing Waldorf Education (2010)

Research is an international activity, and is nowhere more important than in the Waldorf schools movement, where large social trends conflict with core aspects of a holistic and healing impulse. James Pewtherer kindly agreed to share this report of international work some time ago, and we are glad to round off our presentation of research activity with it.

Hague Circle Report (The Hague, Netherlands, May 12-24, 2009)

by James Pewtherer, Chairman, Pedagogical Council of North America

The Hague Circle, active for 40 years, aims to renew itself from time to time. The group has expanded to 37 members now including representatives from Italy and countries as far flung as New Zealand, South Africa, Japan, and Chile. Two new members from North America joined the Hague Circle at this writing: Dorit Winter from California and Frances Kane from Minnesota.

Education in 21st Century Society

Waldorf education is faced with challenges that go far beyond the realm of education alone. Thinking that has produced our global society with its endless merchandising of consumer items, increasingly restrictive accountability standards, and hypersensitivity to individual rights, also surrounds Waldorf schools wherever they may be. In discussions over four days in the Steiner School in The Hague (one of only a handful founded during Rudolf Steiner’s lifetime), these pressures were evident. Contributions came from more than twenty countries. The conversation turned repeatedly to the challenge of educating free human beings in the context of our times and our culture.

Much of the appeal of Waldorf/Steiner education is based on values that run counter to considerations that see education as a “product” that can be purchased. If it is a product, then product standards and testing from the world of business make perfect sense. What happens then, when education is presented as a process? How is accountability to be implemented without cutting short the process itself? This is at the heart of a question that parents and governments and society as a whole are obliged to think about in a different way if education is to be properly supported. It is especially the case when they seek to understand and gauge the educational practice in Waldorf schools. Because we in Waldorf schools understand that education is a partnership lasting many years among parents, teachers, and society, we need to make clear that enrollment of a child in the kindergarten is just the first step in a long-term process that really can’t be thought about as a finished product.

In light of this, what happens in the realm of accountability? Here, the thinking behind often well-intentioned government mandates tries to reduce education to a common denominator for ease of comparison, so that “no child is left behind.” Yet we can see that measuring only a narrow band of student performance through use of standardized tests strangles an approach to holistic learning such as the one we use in the Waldorf school. Finally, the wish to live in a society based on individual freedom has to balance the individual needs of the child with the social responsibility of accommodating the needs of the group. The wishes of the parent to make sure his/her child’s needs are always met and always paramount need to be broadened to include all the children in the class. We know that the class community is an essential element in our schools. So we strive to provide an education in which every child is expected to be in every subject so as to provide a rich basis for the individual choices in school and in life and which will come later.

Holland as a study: pluralism vs. uniformity

The Waldorf/Steiner schools in Holland provided a point of study for our meetings this time which illustrated some of what is noted above. It also demonstrated an increasing tension in deciding how to administer our schools. The Dutch government offered to take on the support of the Steiner schools after World War II, providing state salaries as well as school construction and maintenance. The schools were assured that they could teach as they had before and did so for many years. In the last decade or so, difficulties have emerged. One challenge on the institutional level has to do with running an effective, efficient, transport business, accountable to the government education ministry. The Ministry is looking for economies and decides, for instance, that there must be only a limited number of high schools and that these should be separated from elementary schools. This means effectively that there are almost no 12-year Steiner schools. Moreover, some 50% of the HS students are new to Waldorf education at the 9th grade level. What happens to the ideal of a 12-year education in such circumstances?

In contrast to the view which emphasizes schools as a business, others emphasize the educational process as an artistic endeavor which meets child and class and student body with creativity and something of a process—which is not easily defined or measured. Tension between these two views has been increasingly evident over the last ten years around the world. But it seems to have hit an extreme in the Netherlands, of all places, the country that offered sanctuary to the Pilgrims to worship as they chose when that freedom was denied them in England. Yet now the laws have developed to such a point that equality has eclipsed freedom—and too often the equality has come to mean “being the same.”

Meeting with representatives from Dutch Steiner Schools, the difficulties with the government were made manifest. A national Waldorf business manager association negotiates funding and salaries with the government on behalf of some 52 schools and 1,500 faculty and staff. Yet it has little influence because it is a small group among many other schools which are negotiating with the government on behalf of their teachers, all of whom are government employees. Moreover, the possibility to find funding for special aspects of Waldorf curriculum like eurythmy under a 1902 law guaranteeing free choice by parents has been progressively restricted under socialist governments. All early childhood places must be connected to a school and the elementary school is obliged to end at grade 6. Increasing numbers of tests accompany these restrictions.

Waldorf teacher training has flourished in Zeist where 80% of the students are in their 20’s and 30’s and the training runs four years. It combines early childhood and elementary training for two and a half years and then specializes for the next one and a half years, providing a BA degree with the possibility for an MA with additional study. There is currently no high school training, so this need has to be met by the schools themselves. Even with the robust enrollment, there are only enough graduates in a given year to fill about half the 66 openings in early childhood and elementary schools. It is encouraging that so many young people seek out this education as a career.

When Steiner Schools do not meet government standards

The education ministry tested all schools in Holland three years ago and found that there were 19 Steiner schools which tested “very weak” according to their test results. In addition to poor scores in math and language skills, these schools were found lacking in effective leadership and record keeping. The Steiner School Association, which is represented by delegates from 53 of the 70 schools (many of whom are board members from their respective schools), has decided that it will aim to have all schools meet government expectations and then push to have acceptance and support for the “Waldorf” requirements. In the meantime, there are a number of faculties which feel that their creativity and effectiveness as Steiner educators is being bargained away and are dissatisfied.

Pedagogical Section support

The Pedagogical Section has been active over the last 17 years and is working to help to think through the approach to some of these questions. It has been especially active in working with teachers on the Study of Man, the role of reincarnation and karma, on meditative work and lately on addressing the child from the point of view of doctor, teacher, and priest. The School Association provides some funding for its activities and to support on-going exploration of educational themes.

In conclusion

The Hague Circle is an organ of the Pedagogical Section and so is there to offer advice or suggestions when asked and not to issue dictates. But it was clear to us that the matter of balancing the wish to offer universal education regardless of income along with a truly free and creative education continues to be a knotty issue. We found it highly instructive to see what these challenges look like on the ground and expect that more wrestling with these issues will be necessary. One of the strongest expressions we heard from our Dutch colleagues was the solidarity they felt from their international colleagues was crucial as they struggle to maintain pluralism of education. As this term of pluralism is now being written into European Union law, some colleagues feel that this will be the principle which will win out in the end.