Why Waldorf Works Articles

 




"The importance of storytelling, of the natural rhythms of daily life, of the evolutionary changes in the child, of art as the necessary underpinning of learning, and of the aesthetic environment as a whole..."
Paul Bayers



 

Articles found throughout Why Waldorf Works are also posted here to ease your research needs. Many thanks go to the Online Waldorf Library for sharing its wealth of articles and other resources for use on Why Waldorf Works.

NOTE: Some of the articles listed below are PDF files. In order to access the information, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader.

 


Waldorf Education

New York Times

A Silicon Valley School That Doesn’t Compute

Excellent New York Times education series continues on why Silicon Valley, Google, and other high-tech parents choose to educate their children in low-tech Waldorf schools. Read the article here New York Times October 23, 2011


NBC Nightly News discusses "The Waldorf Way"

From the moment you walk into the Waldorf School of the Peninsula there are clear signs that something different is happening. Allysun Sokolowski, a third-grade teacher, greets each one of her 29 students by name and shakes their hand as they enter the classroom. Read more  NBC Nightly News November 30, 2011

CBS National News Covers Waldorf Education
As teachers across the country turn to laptops and iPads as education tools, one school in Silicon Valley, Calif., has actually banned computers. Priya David Clemens reports on why The Waldorf School of the Peninsula has gone low-tech. Watch Video CBS News December 5, 2011

Suncoast Waldorf School in Palm Harbor, FL on the Local Evening News

Watch Video WTSP 10 News December 1, 2011

Why Waldorf Works: From a Neuroscientific Perspective

Until MRIs and other sophisticated measures of the brain were developed, we had no way to prove or disprove any of Steiner’s theories, not with the kind of precision and accuracy we can now. An overwhelming body of evidence from the last 20 years of neuroscientific inquiry supports Steiner’s theories, including some of the most fundamental foci of Waldorf Education. Read more the Magic Onion blog October 7, 2010

The Gift of Learning - Short Film

The Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship commissioned ITN to make this short film to look at some of the key features of a Steiner School including:
- how Steiner Schools nurture spiritual development in keeping with the cultural setting of the school and without being tied to a particular faith;
- the emphasis on "doing" to complement academic learning;
- how the absence of testing in the younger years nurtures enthusiasm for learning;
- the importance of quietness and contemplation as part of the school day.

Watch Short Video 11:12mins

 

How Handwriting Trains the Brain

Forming Letters Is Key to Learning, Memory, Ideas

In many schools, handwriting is hardly taught any more. At Waldorf schools it is a mainstay of the curriculum throughout the elementary grades. New research shows that the fading art of handwriting can benefit children's motor skills and their ability to compose ideas and achieve goals throughout life. An article in the Wall Street Journal describes how, by using advanced tools such as magnetic resonance imaging, researchers are finding that writing by hand helps with learning letters and shapes, can improve idea composition and expression, and may aid fine motor-skill development. Another recent study demonstrated that in grades two, four and six, children wrote more words, faster, and expressed more ideas when writing essays by hand versus with a keyboard. Read more Wall Street Journal October 5, 2010

Democratic Leadership in Waldorf schools

From RoSE (Research on Steiner Education): This paper explores the democratic nature of school leadership in Waldorf schools and compares this with the wider framework of the principles of holistic democracy. The study is set against a background of calls for the reform of international educational policy and what the author sees as the need for reform in school leadership within the Waldorf movement. Read more by Martyn Rawson Plymouth University, UK December 2011

A Look at Waldorf and Montessori Education  by Barbara Shell

There is more to reading than meets the eye by Barbara Sokolov

 



 

Early Childhood and Play

Serious Need for Play

In the new issue of Scientific American free, unstructured, imaginative play is shown to be vital in the early lives of children. The article describes how and why
- Childhood play is crucial for social, emotional and cognitive ­development.
- Imaginative and rambunctious “free play,” as opposed to games or structured activities,

         is the most essential type.
- Kids who do not play when they are young may grow into anxious, socially maladjusted adults.

Read more Scientific American January 2009

U.S. School Children Need Less Work, More Play: Study

CHICAGO (Reuters) – All work and no play may be a hazard for some U.S. school children.

Researchers reported on Monday that a growing trend of curbing free time at school may lead to unruly classrooms and rob youngsters of needed exercise and an important chance to socialize.

A look at more than 10,000 children aged 8 and 9 found better classroom behavior among those who had at least a 15-minute break during the school day compared to those who did not, Dr. Romina Barros and colleagues at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York reported.

Read more Reuters January 26, 2009

The Vital Role of Play in Early Childhood by Joan Almon

The importance of play in promoting healthy child development and maintaining strong child-parent bonds

American Academy of Pediatrics, October 2006



Waldorf Alums

Many Hands Make Light - and Beautiful - Work

Last spring, over one hundred Waldorf volunteers lit up the Waldorf School of New Orleans to create a playground, an organic vegetable garden, and walls that glowed with Lazure color and texture. Here's a short video about that first AWSNA alumni service project and what happened during the remarkable, transformative weekend. Link to Video by filmmaker Kyle Curry of Maison Post. 2011

Waldorf Alumni Forum Renewal Magazine

Scott Williams -Waldorf School of Garden City 1985

Waldorf Alumni Forum Renewal Magazine

Rebecca Schmidt - Charlottesville Waldorf School

Waldorf Alumni Forum Renewal Magazine

Jelena Jaehnig - Denver Waldorf School

Waldorf Alumni Forum Renewal Magazine

Colyn Cameron - Vancouver Waldorf School  2008

Stage Shy Songstress
Michaela Kuzia prefers to be heard and not seen. The 27-year-old Great Barrington native, who now lives in Boston, says she's still stage shy. But the Berklee College of Music graduate has recently released her second CD: "Never Gonna Look Back." She recently was interviewed by Berkshire Eagle reporter Jenn Smith, who asked her about her musical career and what she's been up to since she graduated from Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School. Read more The Berkshire Eagle October 15, 2009

Ben Taylor on Music, Education, Family

Back home on Martha's Vineyard for a few weeks, musician Ben Taylor talks about his summer plans, what it’s like to have famous parents, and reflects on his years a the Rudolf Steiner School in New York City. Read more The Martha's Vineyard Times August 6, 2009

Carey Mulligan's in a Class of Her Own
Waldorf graduate Carey Mulligan received rave reviews for her role in An Education. Next up is Wall Street 2 for Oliver Stone, and Jim Sheridan's Brothers. James Mottram talks to Britain's fastest-rising star. Read more The Independent November 6, 2009

PEN/Faulkner Award Winner: Kate Christensen (PDF)  June 13, 2008

With a Hammer, Finding Ghosts in the Glass - by Caroline Winter New York Times 2007

For the past year, Seth Wulsin (Green Meadow Waldorf School Class of 2000) has been working on a project that uses the former Caseros Prison, an urban skyscraper jail in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as raw materials for a dynamic artwork.

Learning to Learn - Essays written by Waldorf graduates
Learn More

Life After Waldorf High School by Abraham Enten
Learn More

Standing Out Without Standing Alone: Profile of Waldorf School Graduates

An article-synopsis based on the Survey of Waldorf Graduates II. Based on a sample of around 550 participants spanning some sixty years, starting with the first Waldorf senior class in 1943 and culminating with the class of 2005, the report issued by the Waldorf Research Institute offers an invaluable portrayal of Waldorf graduates.

Link to PDF of article

Survey of Waldorf Graduates Powerpoint presentation (PDF)

Link to Powerpoint

Waldorf High School Graduates Survey, Phase II
Editors: David Mitchell, Douglas Gerwin
The final compilation of an extensive and in-depth survey of North American Waldorf high school graduates. The full text of 171 pages is available by clicking below. Link to PDF of Survey

Renewal Goes People Magazine

Famous Waldorf Graduates and Waldorf Families

It is always encouraging when graduates of Waldorf schools go on to be outstanding in a particular field and achieve a measure of fame. Also,it is interesting to know that many well-known and successful people choose Waldorf Education for their children.
Read More »




Technology & Media

High-Tech vs. No-Tech: D.C. Area Schools Take Opposite Approaches to Education

The Washington Waldorf School in Bethesda is trying its best to stay unplugged. Its teachers think technology is a distraction and overhyped. They believe children are better taught through real-world experiences in the school’s vegetable garden and woodwork shop. Educators here fear that the immediate gratification of texts and Wikipedia threatens face-to-face communication and original thinking, so they ban cellphones, laptops and tablets and require students to hand-write papers until high school. Read more The Washington Post May 12, 2012

David Gelernter: Make It a Summer Without iStuff

In an excellent article in the Wall Street Journal Mr. Gelernter declares: "Yes to the Internet, yes to the cybersphere! Yes to modern iMachines and pads, pods, smartphones—and to liquor, fast cars and sleeping pills when you need them. But not for children." Read more Wall Street Journal May 10, 2012

New York Times

A Silicon Valley School That Doesn’t Compute

Excellent New York Times education series continues on why Silicon Valley, Google, and other high-tech parents choose to educate their children in low-tech Waldorf schools. Read the article here New York Times October 23, 2011

NBC Nightly News discusses "The Waldorf Way"

From the moment you walk into the Waldorf School of the Peninsula there are clear signs that something different is happening. Allysun Sokolowski, a third-grade teacher, greets each one of her 29 students by name and shakes their hand as they enter the classroom. Read more  NBC Nightly News November 30, 2011

CBS National News Covers Waldorf Education
As teachers across the country turn to laptops and iPads as education tools, one school in Silicon Valley, Calif., has actually banned computers. Priya David Clemens reports on why The Waldorf School of the Peninsula has gone low-tech. Watch Video CBS News December 5, 2011

Suncoast Waldorf School in Palm Harbor, FL on the Local Evening News

Watch Video WTSP 10 News December 1, 2011

Tech Gets a Time-Out

Charges of hypocrisy be damned: Some Silicon Valley tech wizards are quietly raising their kids outside the lurid digital landscape that their own industry calls childhood. Read more  by Dan Fost, Photography by Jonathan Snyder San Francisco Magazine 2010

Computers in Schools Could Do More Harm than Good

One of the things that makes human beings so distinct, and so brilliant, is that our brains are constantly being rewired – a phenomenon known as "plasticity" which means that we can react to and learn from our surroundings. But, as a neuroscientist, there is a question that worries me: given that the brain adapts according to its environment, and the learning environment for our children has been changing in dramatic and unprecedented ways, could that have an unprecedented impact on their development in ways that might be adverse? That certainly seems to be the message from research reported yesterday, which suggested that students are losing the ability to study properly.

Read more The Telegraph February 12, 2010

Students pull plug on their wired world Saying No to TV, video games and web surfing - except on the weekend by Andrea Gordon Toronto Star January 29, 2007

Taming the Media Monster by Thomas Poplawski

 


Attention-Related & Learning Disorders

The Waldorf Approach to Attention-Related Disorders by Kim Payne, Arthur Zajonc, Martha Hadley

 


Events

Winning With Waldorf III: A Resounding Success (PDF) June 13, 2008

Winning with Waldorf II - hosted by Austin Waldorf School & Barton Creek Country Club Austin, Texas

 


Development and Outreach

Many Hands Make Light - and Beautiful - Work

Last spring, over one hundred Waldorf volunteers lit up the Waldorf School of New Orleans to create a playground, an organic vegetable garden, and walls that glowed with Lazure color and texture. Here's a short video about that first AWSNA alumni service project and what happened during the remarkable, transformative weekend. Link to Video by filmmaker Kyle Curry of Maison Post. 2011

Letter from Washington

Patrice Maynard, AWSNA Leader for Outreach and Development, attended the Council of American Private Education (CAPE) spring meeting in Washington, D.C. CAPE is a coalition of national organizations and state affiliates serving private elementary and secondary schools. Its fundamental principle is that independent education is "good for students, good for families, and good for America." Read the letter…

 


Green Articles

For more Green articles visit Green News on the Why Waldorf Works Green Pages

Fairy Tale Strawbale Cottage is a Charming Waldorf Preschool in Cuernavaca, Mexico
A charming straw bale classroom in Cuernavaca, Mexico is actually a Waldforf preschool that was designed and built with the help of the local community over an 8 week period. Laboratorio Arquitectura Básica Mx led workshops and building sessions to raise the roof on this strawbale building, bringing the community together in a really positive way. The teacher of the Tecilli Classroom requested that the school be like a fairy tale building with curved walls, round windows, and playful details. The end result is an adorable, organic, natural, and healthy building. Read more  Inhabitat.com October 13, 2011

San Francisco Waldorf High School First School in SF to Receive LEED Gold Certification

The San Francisco Waldorf High School is the first school in San Francisco to be awarded the coveted LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The centerpiece of the project involved the conversion of a 1970s-era 23,000-square-foot concrete structure into a sustainable learning environment featuring classrooms, science labs, art studios, a library, and administrative spaces. This marks the first time that a school in San Francisco has obtained LEED Gold certification.

Read more September 2011

School's New Building to be Made From Shipping Containers
In a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday morning, kindergartners sprinkled both water and wishes on the vacant lot that will soon house the Waldorf School of Orange County's new $2-million building. The private school for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade on Canyon Drive invited all 326 of its students to join faculty, parents and the community to see where it planned to erect what was said to be Costa Mesa first building made from recycled shipping containers. Read more Hartford Courant February 8, 2011

Brookford Farm Partners with Tidewater Waldorf School in Farmers-in-Schools Program

The fields of Brookford Farm may be covered in a heavy blanket of snow today, but the grade school children at Tidewater Waldorf School in Eliot, ME are already gearing up for spring planting. As part of just one of the farm's collaborative school partnership programs, Brookford Farm and its growers, located in Rollinsford, NH, are teaching Lisa Sweeney's 2nd and 3rd grade Tidewater students about farming. From growing, to harvesting, to preparing fresh, seasonal food, Mrs. Sweeney's enthusiastic students will travel to the farm each week once the ground begins to thaw, and immerse themselves in the daily
activities of farm life. Read more Brookford Farm February 8, 2011

Solar Energy Project at the Rudolf Steiner School, Ann Arbor

The Rudolf Steiner School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, received funding through two grants last June for a solar energy project at their school. Read more The Ann Arbor Chronicle, September 6, 2010

Lessons in Life at the Forest School

Thousands of pupils in Denmark learn tree climbing not times tables. But this carefree life for the under-7s is under threat. It’s a chilly, breezy afternoon in Klampenborg, an affluent suburb just north of Copenhagen. Two dozen children are playing in woodland that lies off the busy main road that leads into the city. Some are clustered around a teacher playing his guitar, others are running in and out of the oak trees in some made-up game. Empty lunch boxes are stacked by a tree and mats are strewn across the grass, evidence of a recent picnic, although it is not quite picnic weather. The children are well wrapped up in fleeces, jumpers and wellies. It looks as if it is an afternoon outing for the local children, a break from the classroom and a chance for a little fresh air. But something quite different is going on here. The wood is the classroom for these children who are pupils at the Klampenborg Skovbo, a forest school. From 8am to 4pm, five days a week, the 25 or so children come to school here, rain, hail or shine. Read more ... The Times October 6, 2009

Waldorf School Composting Project Benefits Community

Whole Foods, along with several other Congress Park neighborhood businesses, have enthusiastically agreed to partner with The Denver Waldorf School in a school-wide composting project that will extend far beyond the school grounds itself. Read more Your Hub Denver April 4, 2009

A Field-to-Fork Experience

The Prairie Moon Waldorf School in Lawrence, Kansas recently received a grant to establish a market garden on the school grounds. The garden will provide a vital focus for the school’s Waldorf curriculum, encouraging appreciation and connection to the natural world through active participation in planting, growing, and harvesting. Students will learn about plant biology, soil science, hydrology, gardening, mathematics, geology, geography, and business. Read more March 2009

At Waldorf School, Kids Experiment with Solar Panels

The half dozen solar panels mounted atop the Chicago Waldorf School in Rogers Park power just a handful of light bulbs. But they provide students with the kind of hands-on experience in physics and environmental sicience that's not available in any book.

Read more  Chi-Town Daily News, January 5, 2009

Waldorf School Unveils New Solar Installation

Students shoot hoops under the new solar panels recently installed at Waldorf School of the Peninsula in Los Altos. Read more  Los Altos Town Crier, December 31, 2008

 


Archived Stories

William Ward crossed the threshold on Sunday, October 5, 2008, in the presence of his wife Andy and their two daughters, Claire and Rosemary, at the age of 61. He was a beloved class teacher at Hawthorne Valley School from 1976 until his sudden retirement in 2005 when he retired to deal with the diagnosis of a brain tumor.

Read More (pdf)

Henry Barnes crossed the threshold September 18, 2008, at 10:15 p.m. For the past several years, he was a resident at the Fellowship Community in Chestnut Ridge, New York. Those of us who were fortunate enough to know and work with him were always touched by Henry's generous warmth and endless optimism in life. His significant impact on Waldorf Education on this continent and around the world is powerful enough to make his departure the mark of the ending of an epoch.
Read more (pdf)...

Whole Childhood: The Prime Sustainability Issue of Our Time  Vision Magazine August, 2008

The New Face of Waldorf School - Lexington, MA  Lexington Minuteman July 23, 2008

Winning With Waldorf III: A Resounding Success (PDF) June 13, 2008

Golf Event Sponsors page

8th-Grader Rides for Electric Vehicles (PDF) June 13, 2008

5th-Graders Relive Glory of Greek Olympiads The Oregonian May 15, 2008

Steiner Teacher Awarded Prestigious Klingenstein Fellowship May 2008

Bestselling Author Carl Honore writes about endangered childhood and how to save it April 2008

Learning, Arts, and the Brain April 2008

Green Chemistry Award March 2008

AWSNA Representatives Attend NAIS 2008 National Conference March 2008

Successful Internship with AWSNA March 2008

Strengthening Our Message February 2008

Old-fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills by Alix Spiegel Morning Edition NPR February 21, 2008

Taking Play Seriously by Robin Marantz Henig New York Times February 17, 2008

WINNING WITH WALDORF A TEXAS-SIZE SUCCESS
Photo Gallery - Photography by Bill Pitts
Thank You to the Sponsors of Winning with Waldorf II

Green Meadow Robotics Team Wins Championship Alliance

Poly-Gnome Robot Image

January 2008

Why You Can't Grow a Business Without Growing People by Jeffrey Hollender, CEO of Seventh Generation Fall 2007

Art For Our Sake by Ellen Winner and Lois Hetland Boston Globe September 2007

Green Meadow Robotics Team Wins Championship Alliance

The Death and Life of American Imagination
How a Generation is squandering its most critical resource The Rake November 2007

Waldorf Education Lauded At Cape Board Meeting  December 2007

Waldorf Report on School Choice Praised Nationwide  December 2007

Where Creativity Flows  By Kathryn Boughton  October 26, 2007


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