Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2003, Page 108
-three excerpts from lectures by Rudolf Steiner sent with summer information
packet
-the first lecture of Study of Man
-the first lecture of Rudolf Steiner‘s Three Lectures on the Curriculum
Required reading for the basic education courses include:
Rudolf Steiner, Study of Man
Rudolf Steiner, Practical Advice for Teachers
Rudolf Steiner, Discussions with Teachers
Rudolf Steiner, Waldorf Education for Adolescence
Rudolf Steiner, Balance in Teaching
Rudolf Steiner, Love and Its Meaning in the World
Rudolf Steiner, The Work of the Angels in Man‘s Astral Body
Rudolf Steiner, The Education of the Child
C. von Heydebrand, The Curriculum
E.A. Karl Stockmeyer, Rudolf Steiner‘s Curriculum for Waldorf Schools
Early Childhood Education students will also need:
Rudolf Steiner, Understanding Young Children
Karl König, The First Three Years of the Child
Freya Jaffke, Toymaking with Children
It is assumed that anyone going into teaching work in the Waldorf schools will
have a copy of each of the following and be familiar with the contents:
Rudolf Steiner, Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment
Rudolf Steiner, Theosophy
Rudolf Steiner, Occult Science
Rudolf Steiner, Philosophy of Freedom
Rudolf Steiner, Christianity as Mystical Fact
Rudolf Steiner, The Spiritual Guidance of Man
Rudolf Steiner, The Younger Generation
Rudolf Steiner, Kingdom of Childhood
In addition, the following are strongly recommended as very useful
references:
Rudolf Steiner, The Festivals and Their Meaning
Rudolf Steiner, The Cycle of the Year as a Breathing Process
Rudolf Steiner, Man as Symphony of the Creative Word
Rudolf Steiner, The Poetry and Meaning of Fairy Tales
Grimm‘s Fairy Tales (Pantheon Edition)
Padraic Collum, Children of Odin
H. Baravalle, Teaching Mathematics in the Waldorf School Plan
D. Harrer, Mathematics for Elementary Grades
H. Niederhauser, Form Drawing
R. Kutzli, Creative Form Drawing, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2
Roy Wilkinson, Man and Animal
René Querido, Man‘s Responsibility for the Earth
J. Sterit, And There Was Light
D. Harrer, Chapters From Ancient History
D. Harrer, Roman Lives
C. Lindenberg, Teaching History
B. Zahlingen, Plays for Puppets and Marionettes
Nancy Foster, ed., Let Us Form a Ring: An Acorn Hill Anthology

Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2003, Page 109
Seasonal story and song books from Wynstones Kindergarten: Summer,
Autumn, Winter, Spring, Gateways, and Spindrift
Waldorf promoters have argued that there are special summer courses for public Waldorf
school teachers that don‘t include Anthroposophic content. A public school teacher who took
one of those programs reported to me that there was a whole section of the Rudolf Steiner
College library that was ―off limits‖ to the trainees! That‘s rather strange behavior for a
teacher training college.
The argument is specious for two reasons. First, a public Waldorf school (―Waldorf Method‖
or ―Waldorf-inspired‖) will be likely to hire teachers who have had the full Waldorf training
program certified Waldorf teachers are more desirable than partly-trained teachers
indeed, some public Waldorf schools advertise that their teachers have both Waldorf and
State certifications. Second, the ―sanitized‖ courses actually contain a lot of Anthroposophy,
i.e., things that only Anthroposophists believe. One example will suffice for this
presentation. Teachers who took the public school teachers program at Rudolf Steiner
College in the summer of 1996 gave the author this handout:
The mood of the fairy tale, even in a quite superficial sense, is truly the
means to prepare human souls, such as they are today, for the experience of
what can shine into them from higher, supersensible worlds. The simple fairy
tale, approaching modestly with no pretension of copying everyday reality but
leaping grandly over all its laws, provides a preparation in human souls for
once more accepting the divine, spiritual worlds. Rudolf Steiner 1911 [sic]
Understanding this sheds quite a different light on what Waldorf teachers are up to when
fairy tales are the primary literature (recited by the teacher, not read) in kindergarten and
first grade.
What‘s remarkable about the Waldorf teacher training is what‘s missing. Waldorf teachers
don‘t study any of the other educational theorists in more than a cursory fashion. They
aren‘t given any training in core academic subjects at all. They don‘t study classroom
management. In Waldorf, devotion to Anthroposophy is all. Everything else is supposed to
take care of itself—somehow.
Concealing Anthroposophy: Prayer and Ritual
Waldorf schools use various denials and subterfuges to conceal Anthroposophy. Here‘s a
particularly interesting one from the parent handbook of a publicly-funded Waldorf school:
A prominent aspect of the Novato Charter School‘s educational community is
a nature-based philosophy. As parents, educators, and administrators of this
community, we believe that humans have a connection with all life forms on
our planet, and with the universe that sustains us. We believe that nature
serves as a common ground for all cultures. Observation and
acknowledgement of our natural environment allows us to more fully
celebrate our likeness, appreciate our differences, and come together as one
in learning about ourselves and the world around us. (Blue Oak Charter
School, 1998, p. 8)
The high-sounding idealistic language covers the crucial issue, which is, just what is a
―nature-based philosophy‖? Perhaps they‘re talking about a world view, the business of
religions. The handbook states further:
―The Earth, the universe, and the natural elements are acknowledged and
celebrated in a variety of ways...‖ (ibid.)