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there are two motives for its existence. On the one hand, it is the starting-
point for a renewal of education based on a spiritual knowledge of the whole
man (the teacher‘s vocation as such). On the other hand, and at the same
time, it is the working model for a social community, it is an institution of the
free life of spirit. Remember that the Waldorf School was founded in 1919 as
part of the larger movement towards a threefold social order after World War
I. When this large-scale effort to renew the social order, nourished as it was
by Rudolf Steiner‘s impulse, found itself thwarted, the Waldorf School itself
remained, as a sort of ―living relic‖ after the storm, but also as a seed bearing
in itself the potential for the renewal of social life in our times. The school—
with its various examples of cooperation among different segments of its
community and with inhering self-determination as a faculty-run institution,
since 1919—has been a full-working model for an organization rooted in the
free life of spirit and as such it stands as a continuing impulse to re-awaken
awareness of the threefold social order and put it into practice. (Leist, 1987,
p. 13)
Anthroposophy doesn‘t proselytize directly belief in karma and reincarnation leads
Anthroposophists to believe that people who are destined for Anthroposophy will ask about
it when they encounter it. Waldorf parents who show interest in Steiner are invited to join
―study groups‖ that read and discuss Steiner. Often this leads to Waldorf teacher training.
As we have seen so many times, the school becomes a parent‘s first
introduction to anthroposophy, and this is happening in our greater
community, as more people become interested in participating in festivals and
attending study groups. (Leopold, 2001)
Waldorf brochures will claim that the school is based on child development. What isn‘t
explained is that Steiner‘s theory of child development differs radically from other theories
(see Steiner, 1960). Steiner‘s child development theory is based on what he calls an
understanding of the ―true nature of man.‖ Reincarnation and karma are essential tenets of
this doctrine. Humans have four interpenetrating bodies that incarnate in stages. The
physical body is born at birth. The ―etheric body‖ is born at age seven, signified by the
change of teeth. The ―astral body‖ is born at age fourteen (numerology dictates seven-year
periods), and the ―I,‖ the eternal part of the human that is reborn forever, is born at age
21. The web site of the Pedagogical Section of the Goetheanum, headquarters of
Anthroposophy, describes what the child is ready for in each period, with reference to
Steiner‘s three-system physiology:
Let us now take a closer look at specific ages. To that end let us consider
Rudolf Steiner‘s discovery of three functional systems in the human being:
Our motor activity happens in what can be called our metabolic/limb system.
Every movement is a bodily expression of will. Our rhythmic system –
breathing and circulation – is a bodily expression of experience and feeling.
Fear, joy, pain, etc., affect the breath and pulse. Our nerve-sense aspect, the
actual consciousness pole, which is centered in the region of the head (the
brain), corresponds to the activity of knowing. A person is healthy only when
these three systems work together and form a whole. Anyone can experience
the benefit of taking a walk after doing strenuous computer work, which uses
only the head. When we are digesting our lunch, we have to overcome a fair
amount of resistance to do concentrated thinking. A person is healthy when
none of these systems suppresses the others for too long.
We can relate these three systems to three phases of childhood development.
Before the change of teeth the child lives chiefly in motor activity, as a being

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of emotion and will. During this phase its sense activity, speaking and
thinking are all connected with its movement and are therefore linked to the
body to a considerable degree. We can observe this in the four year-old child.
When it sees or hears something, it immediately has the urge to convert what
it has perceived into its own movement. This is how it learns to speak this is
how it begins to play. One cannot picture a child before the change of teeth
that would wait for a meal with crossed arms. Perception causes direct will
activity in the limbs. Inner and outer movement still belong entirely together.
With the change of teeth the child‘s inner being begins to separate itself from
its outer movement. Its own inner place of experience develops and its
rhythmic system emancipates itself from its limb system. In this stage of life
the harmonious 1:4 relationship between pulse and breath falls into place.
With puberty finally, thinking begins to become independent. The human
being awakens to critical judgment. Simultaneously the voice deepens, the
limbs become heavy, the young person has arrived on the earth, as it were,
and is seeking its individual personality. (Goetheanum, 2002)
The consequence of this theory is what critics term an ―infantilizing‖ educational plan. In
recent years research has shown that children who don‘t master reading in the primary
grades are often left behind for the rest of their lives (Snow, Burns &Griffin, 1998, p. 21).
This has led to ―pre-reading‖ activity being common in kindergarten. Today children
entering first grade are expected to recognize letters and numbers, be able to read simple
words, and count. Waldorf is vehemently opposed to what they call ―pushing‖ children ―too
early.‖ Everyone would agree with that, but what is ―too early‖? Kindergartners in Waldorf
are not only not taught letters and numbers, but many teachers make efforts to protect
them from being exposed to print at all. Stories are told to them, not read. Parents have
even been advised that questions about road signs and words on packages should be
deflected, as too-early intellectual activity will damage the children (Ercolano, 2001).
Waldorf students learn letters in first grade, and basic reading in second and third grades.
This is in accordance with Steiner, who said that in the best of all possible worlds, reading
would be delayed until after puberty, but compromises had to be made with the demands of
society. Since standardized testing is frowned upon, and slower students are expected to
catch up in their own good time, children who still can‘t read in fifth or sixth grade are not
uncommon in Waldorf.
Steiner said over and over that children‘s health later in life would be damaged if they were
intellectually stimulated too early. Consequently, reasoning, the linking of cause and effect,
is avoided till sixth or seventh grade. Science lessons, which begin in fourth grade, consist
only of observations. No theories are taught until later. But it is impossible to teach science
without theory, so what is really happening is that by being protected from the
―materialism‖ of modern thought, the pupils are left open to accept the magical world view
expressed in the mythology in which they are immersed, that nature spirits and gods are
behind the illusions that appear to be the physical universe. Whether this system is actually
successful in turning out many Anthroposophists, however, is doubtful sophisticated kids
laugh at the more ―anthropop‖ teachers behind their backs. Waldorf schools may convert
more parents than children to Anthroposophy.
Teachers are supposed to start with a first-grade class, and stay with the class all the way
through elementary and middle grades, through the eighth grade. This makes the Waldorf
experience extremely variable, depending on the talents of the teacher. Since there is no
standardized testing, and teachers are hired more on their ability to represent
Anthroposophical devotion than their teaching ability, two successive classes graduating
from the same school may have very different levels of competency.