Global Waldorf
Articles
Choosing a preschool to match your child's temperament
As a child’s first teacher, parents are in a unique position to understand their child's mood and energy. Many in the field of early education say it's important for parents to take this into consideration when choosing the right preschool for their child. Read more Tehran Times July 1, 2009
Extension to Waldorf School designed by Morten Schmidt
Schmidt Hammer Lassen architects has unveiled their new addition to The Rudolf Steiner School in Aarhus, Denmark. The innovative new building, which reflects an interdisciplinary approach to education, has been designed by the practice's partner Morten Schmidt, a former student of the school. Read more and view photographs Archinnovations.com June 3, 2009
A Framework that doesn't Fit
A recent article in The Guardian discusses how the government’s new ‘nappy’ curriculum will impact Waldorf schools in the U.K. Read more The Guardian May 9, 2009
Open-air gallery in Germany
A recent article in the London Financial Times Travel section describes the Villa Waldfrieden, home to the sculptor Tony Cragg, as "a remarkable structure built by Kurt Herberts in the late 1940s, a flowing and organic building whose strong sculptural presence was inspired by the ideas of the ethical individualist Rudolf Steiner." Read more London Financial Times May 9, 2009
David Johnson: Obituary
The obituary in The Guardian, U.K., for David Johnson, describes him as a prolific musicologist, composer, and expert on Scottish heritage. David Johnson attended the Rudolf Steiner School, Edinburgh. He started composing early, and two movements from a work for recorder consort were written when he was 14, and published by Robert Salkeld's Modern Music for Recorders
edition. He took up both the cello and recorder, and became proficient on both. Read more The Guardian May 8, 2009
CHILDREN and the 'wet on wet' watercolour painting technique
A recent article published in the Bangkok Post relates the importance of painting in the lives of young children, and quotes Khru Mos, art therapist and author of Our Children are Colouring the World, who says that parents should pay more attention to their child's process of creating art, which will allow them to see the unfolding of what he terms the child's Self-inner Development Read more Bangkok Post May 7, 2009
Students and playwright team up for The Temple
Top playwright Peter Oswald is teaming up with students at Stourbridge’s Glasshouse Arts Centre to take an original powerful drama featuring masks and puppetry on the road around the UK. Inspired by the Temple legend by Rudolf Steiner, the darkly humorous play explores themes of power and vulnerability and centres on wise King Solomon who has a vision of a temple
which could house God on earth, if only he could build it. Read more Stourbridge News May 5, 2009
School's Not Out Yet after 70 years for the First Pupils
The Spylaw Road School is this year celebrating its 70th anniversary, and former pupils have come back to the school to share memories and talk to youngsters. Surprisingly, not a lot has changed since the first went through the school gates all those years ago. Rudolf Steiner - which has more than 1000 schools across the world - has its own curriculum, which has remained relatively unchanged over the years. Read more News.Scotsman.com May 4, 2009
Good News from Namibia: School Focuses on Practical Training
The Waldorf School Windhoek (WSW) – established in 2000 – is creating a school and centre for vocational training. In addition to the excellent academic education – that already includes much practical training in accordance with the international Waldorf concept – learners of the WSW will, as of 2010, be exposed to craft and agricultural training over and above their normal school education. Read more New Era March 3, 2009
News from Egypt:
A crisis intervention team sent to Gaza by the international Waldorf organization, The Friends of Waldorf Education, to help traumatized children has been forced to leave the territory again on the urgent advice of the UN and the German foreign office. Read more February 2009
Gently Ranting for the Sake of Children
by Diane Hofkins The Guardian, September 16 2008
Waldorf Education in Russia
Renewal Magazine Spring/Summer 2008 PDF
Beyond Their Wildest Dreams
by Avis MacIntyre Hermanus Times August 14, 2008
Dutch Storyteller Engages Listeners' Imaginations
by Keiko Watanabe Daily Yomiuri Online July 29, 2008
Olympics for Peace
by Ariel Rubinsky Haaretz.com March, 2008
An event for children in seven Waldorf schools in Israel.
UK study says children starting school too early
by Andrew Hough Reuters February 8, 2008
Global Waldorf: A universal promise of social renewal
From the founding of the first Waldorf school in Germany in 1919, the intention for Waldorf Education has always been that it should be a worldwide force for social renewal. Emil Molt, the director of a German cigarette factory and a student of Rudolf Steiner, approached Steiner seeking a new kind of education for the children of his factory workers-one that would serve as an antidote to the despair gripping Central Europe in the aftermath of World War I. Steiner responded by opening a school, six months later, for those children. Read More...
Global Waldorf: Waldorf in China
By Harry Wong and Tammy Hughes with Ronald E. Koetzsch
Recently, Renewal received two reports on Waldorf Education in China. One was from Tammy Hughes, an American Waldorf teacher who has taught in the United States and New Zealand and who currently is living and teaching in China. The other was from Harry Wong,one of the founders of the Chengdu Waldorf School, the first Waldorf school in China. The following article is a conflation of those two reports. Since today one human being out of five lives in China and that nation has become a major economic, political, and cultural force in the world,what is happening there in education is of immense importance. Read More...
New Under-5s National Curriculum May 'Make Children Go Backwards'
by Alexandra Frean The Times UK February 16, 2008
Leading experts on pre-school education are mobilising in London today against the new national curriculum for under-5s, which they warn risks “making children go backwards” in their development.
Steve Biddulph, the Australian educational psychologist and author, is among a series of high-profile speakers at a conference questioning the basis of the new statutory Early Years Foundation Stage Framework. The Framework prescribes 72 early-learning goals for the under5s, ranging from the bland (“continue to be interested, excited and motivated to learn”) to the ambitious (“understand what is right, wrong and why”) and from the sweeping (“begin to know about their own cultures and beliefs and those of other people”) to the highly detailed (“use their phonetic knowledge to write simple regular words and make phonetically plausible attempts at more complex words”).
Friends of Waldorf Education
Friends of Waldorf Education (Freunde der Erziehungskunst Rudolf Steiners e.V.) support initiatives for a free education world-wide. We have actively promoted Waldorf Education and freedom within the education system since 1971.
We support Waldorf kindergartens, Waldorf schools, other educational initiatives, curative education and social therapeutic institutions as well social work projects.
Important facts about Friends of Waldorf Education in brief
- Each year we pass on over 3 million Euros in donations to over 200 projects.
- We pass on 100% of the donations and finance our co-workers and administrative costs out of members’ contributions and specific donations.
- You can find a list of all the projects we supported last year here.
- Projects co-financed by the Bundesministerium für Wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit with around 350.000 Euro per year.
- Individual sponsorships (around 300 sponsorships for 30 schools).
- Many voluntary services for 500 young people per year.
- Free newsletter twice a year.
- Large online-database with reports from projects world-wide.
- Many other services, e.g. proposals for class projects, job market.
- Many links regarding the world-wide Waldorf movement.
- Excellent overview about Waldorf world-wide in our publication (2001).
- Around 1,000 members (including individuals, Waldorf Schools and other institutions).
- Contact with around 400 institutions world-wide.
- World-wide there are around 950 Waldorf schools, 2,000 kindergartens, 600 curative education centres.
