WALDORF PEDAGOGY

By Sandra Naranjo González

“Educating for the future means facing, from the school

organization itself, the main challenges that the
entrance to the new millennium proposes”

The Waldorf Method was created in 1919 by the philosopher Rudolf Steiner, who founded the
first school in Germany at the request of Mr. Emil Molt, director of the Waldorf Astoria cigarette
factory in Stuttgart, so that his workers could receive lectures related to social and economic
issues. educational. As a consequence, the desire arose among workers for their children to
receive a school education more in line with the real needs of human development in
modernity.

The main foundation of Waldorf Pedagogy has to do with a particular conception of man, that of
accompanying him from childhood in his different evolutionary stages through a comprehensive
education respecting his individuality and thus leading him to be a free and autonomous man.

Anthroposophy is the backbone of pedagogy as it studies man in relation to himself and the
universe.

That is why Rudolf Steiner, through Waldorf Pedagogy, conceives man as a physical, emotional
and spiritual totality:

In its PHYSICAL part

• The Neuro Sensory system that includes the representative and cognitive faculties
(Conscious Pole) of the head and is related to the outside world through the senses.
• The Rhythmic system that includes breathing and blood circulation is the mid-thoracic
part (semi-unconscious pole). It relates to the outside world through breathing.
• The metabolic-motor system that includes the motor and volitional faculties that are
concentrated in the digestive system and the extremities. It relates to the outside world
through nutrition.

In its ANIMICAL part it manifests itself through the three faculties

• The thought
• The feeling
• The will
In its SPIRITUAL part it manifests itself in the possession of a unique and individual SELF.

Each of the three organic systems acts throughout the human organism, has its own relationship
with the outside world and is predominantly related to one of the three soul faculties mentioned
above.

THE SEPTENIA

In Waldorf Pedagogy, we work by seven-year periods that represent the evolutionary stages of
the child and adolescent. Early childhood extends until the age of seven and its central activity is
the development of the physical body. In middle childhood from the ages of seven to fourteen,
knowledge of the world is done through the imagination and the third seven-year period,
adolescence, is the period of personality maturation and when the intellectual capacity of the
young person is completed. .

FIRST SEPTENIUM

The ideal that stands out at this stage is THE GOOD. Everything that the child learns in the first
phase of life is assimilated by imitation, which is determined by internal factors such as
temperament, type or character. Imitation goes far beyond speaking or the playfulness of the
activities that are observed in the environment. Even before the child reaches the point where
this is possible, he already assimilates much of his environment unconsciously.

In this first evolutionary period, it is the parents who carry a great responsibility towards the
child, whose soul is so open to the influences of the world that it registers not only the
movements of the father who angrily slams the door, but also the moral content of that
behavior that remains resting in the depths of his later subconscious.

The desire to imitate is evident when we observe how the child begins to paint letters, copying
them long before understanding them. In fact, it is beneficial to start by copying them and only
later learn their meaning, since the first seven years belongs to the evolutionary period of the
physical body and the child uses the will through the METABOLIC MOTOR system to
communicate with the world; while the meaning appeals to the etheric body and the intellect
and should not be acted upon until after the second dentition.

At this stage, children must carry out activities that have to do with the senses and the
development of corporality; it is about achieving skills thanks to the child's natural imitation
capacity. The garden teacher is in charge of guiding him in different daily activities such as
kneading and baking bread, working in agriculture, watercolor painting, making small looms,
free play, circles and fairy tales. Each room has baskets with seeds, snails, blankets, bark, wool
and wooden logs that the children turn into cars, fruits or dolls in interaction with their
classmates. All these elements allow the child to direct his forces towards the purest perceptions
to develop fantasy and the senses through play and lay the foundations for thinking.
SECOND SEPTENIUM

The basic ideal that stands out in the second seven years is beauty and its characteristic is the
artistic and imaginative. The child of this age is a poet, we must help him to express himself.
Introspection and extroversion characterize the child of this age.

Education globally must place special emphasis on the development of its RHYTHMIC system and
use rhythm precisely to transmit teachings. The basic virtue of the second seven-year period is
the predisposition to love, which leads to the veneration and devotion that are essential -
beloved authority - which constitutes one of the fundamental pedagogical principles.

The child must cultivate respect and veneration for those who teach him, the presence of a
being, the teacher whom the child can love deeply, is absolutely essential in order to receive the
content of his teachings, for the child, what the teacher transmits. it's true. It is through this
longing for loving authority that his newly awakened feeling of love reacts in the intimacy of the
child. This translates as a first level of balance between sympathy and antipathy that the child
will have to decisively face in the next seven years. The exercise of the role of the beloved
authority by the teacher helps the child to overcome this ordeal. Parents must become the first
exponents of the beloved authority.

Between the ages of 9 and 11, the passage of the ego through mental life determines feelings of
loneliness, incomprehension and sadness, which is why the child needs a lot of love and
affection to be able to relate socially.

The notable figures of history, the biographies of great men and women, should determine the
moral conscience and the orientation of the mind. At this age, oral narratives should provide
images of life that encourage imitation, as well as the strengthening of good habits.

At this age, the emotional faculty that requires the most attention is memory, which is worked
on through diction and the rhythmic part of the classes.

Discovering the world is the objective of this second stage of Waldorf Pedagogy. School work is
developed in periods lasting one month, where students address and deepen a work area with a
central theme, for example mathematics. The next four weeks they will study another basic area
and so on.

This resource allows the learning object to be approached from different points of view and,
through images, favors the incorporation of concepts in a vivid way. The alternation between
some contents and others facilitates learning.

At the same time, artistic, physical and practical activities are encouraged such as modeling in
clay, wood carving, crafts, weaving with two and five needles, loom, mineralogy, astronomy,
geology, flute, the Greek pentathlon, a physical-spiritual experience that they experience
students in fifth grade as if they were in ancient Greece and pedagogical outings according to the
grade themes.

The relationship between teacher and student is woven over the course of eight years, during
which time the teacher tutor accompanies the group and closes the cycle with a classic play.

THIRD SEPTENIUM

At this stage the human being is no longer creative in terms of his own organs, but he is creative
in the sense of creating his own individuality because only after this seven-year period is the
human organism structured and formed to address the world; This is how social maturity
appears, the formation of groups and communities. It is the time in which the physical body
presents disharmonies and incongruities, the body becomes even more subordinated to the
earth's gravity, the harmony and balance achieved by the child in the middle of the second
seven years is altered.

At this stage, young people between 14 and 21 years old are in search of THE TRUE, which is why
autonomous thinking and understanding of the complex facts of the world are exercised.
Interdisciplinary work is also carried out in addition to the artistic workshops: painting, stone and
wood carving, music, crafts, basket weaving, bookbinding, machine sewing, surveying, theatre,
computers in 10th and 11th grade, Bothmer Gymnastics, outings. pedagogical and social service
with less favored communities from 6th grade. In the last year, the young people also present
their play and present their annual research as an academic goal.

WORK METHOD BY LEVELS

GENERAL PROGRAMMING

In the Waldorf school, instead of seeking an abstract goal or uniform training, the aim is to
strengthen the individual characteristics of the being so that its deployment in the social sphere
and in coexistence is possible. The teaching plan and method is adapted to the developmental
stages and individual characteristics of the child. The school climate is not influenced by fear of
grades since the evaluation includes broader criteria that encompass every human being. Above
all, it is about establishing a collaborative work environment that allows the child to learn, grow
and mature.

In Waldorf Schools, intellectual, artistic and manual skills have the same importance since all the
child's abilities and talents must be given the opportunity to develop. It tries to stimulate the
different intellectual, artistic and manual aptitudes because basically it wants to enable the
development of the faculty of judgment as well as a healthy feeling and all this together with the
volitional affirmation of each individuality. This is how the path to freedom and responsibility is
prepared.

The basic principle of Waldorf teaching indicates what the goal of every teacher should be:
“Awaken the child's individual faculties to learn to learn” that is, to learn to create his own
knowledge for himself.

According to their age and the developmental stage of the students, specific subjects are
presented in each grade. But it is also very important to know the ideal way and time to make
that presentation. This must respond to the needs and possibilities of the student. That is to say,
the Waldorf pedagogical plan takes into account the phases of the child's development (Any
acceleration causes irreversible damage in the long term).

THE KINDERGARTEN:

In the Waldorf teaching garden, all intellectual learning is avoided; it is much more important to
stimulate the imagination and social sense, before filling the child prematurely with data. The
child learns to write and read in the first year of primary school, “Never before.”

BASIC EDUCATION:

At the beginning of primary school, the child gradually loses the imitative faculties typical of the
first seven years and gains a new way of understanding the world. Children from the same class
are accompanied by the same teacher from first to eighth grade.

SECONDARY EDUCATION:

The evolution that occurs in the way of understanding the world must be taken into account.
This period is linked to a crisis of individualization of the being. To help the young person it is
necessary to propose great ideals. You begin to understand the world with the help of personal
critical judgment. During this period the main class teacher disappears and teaching is given by a
team of specialist teachers.

SCHEDULE

In the dynamization of pedagogical work, the school schedule is fundamental and is established
according to criteria of need, operability, convenience and, most importantly, taking into
account the nature of the human being. This implies focusing the pedagogical activity on the real
needs of the student, which requires taking into account the educational-therapeutic
importance of rhythm. It is then about relating the annual plan with the great rhythm of nature
and the different individual and social rhythms. The school year is divided into two semesters,
each semester is subdivided into periods and the weekly schedule is formed by observing the
impact that each of the subjects offers in terms of concentration or expansion. Each hour of class
is planned with the same criteria in order to contemplate and harmonize the healthy and
balanced alternation between concentration and relaxation, between intellectual activity and
practice, between effort and rest, between remembering and forgetting. This is how the annual,
monthly, weekly and daily plan is planned as carefully as possible, as well as each hour of class to
achieve the appropriate rhythm for the phases of understanding, assimilation and production of
learning.

DAILY ORGANIZATION OF THE SCHOOL SCHEDULE

THE MAIN CLASS: It is the initial part of the day, the student has an easier time with intellectual
tasks, that is why the school day begins with the areas that require greater knowledge and
understanding, thinking and abstracting. The subjects of the main period are axes of work.

The main class begins with the rhythmic activity that involves a general greeting and the joint
recitation of a poem. In the pedagogical approach, the rhythm at the beginning of the day is at
the service of concentration, observation and the development of the visual-audio-psychomotor
coordination of the students. This activity is a didactic resource that awakens and properly
predisposes the students. for the knowledge.

Like all pedagogical activities, this “RHYTHMIC PART” is closely linked to the central theme of the
time. Thus, for example, in an age of language, said rhythmic activity will focus on linguistic
exercise (recitation, singing, musical practice, playing instruments), in an age of mathematics,
the emphasis will be on rhythmic sequences related to calculations, progressions. numerical and
mathematical games. After the rhythmic part, we continue with the TEACHING OF THE PERIOD,
but not before doing the retrospective of the previous class. The subjects of the main class are
axes of work; Each period lasts three to four weeks and is studied during the first two hours of
the school schedule. To develop the period, a fundamental theme is selected around which the
contents of the subject are developed with the support of other areas. The areas studied in the
main class are: Geometry, Mathematics, Spanish, History, Chemistry, Biology. Subjects that
require constant practice are also seen in the weekly schedule as courses. After the teaching of
the time comes thought, deduction and practice

Until the end of primary school, the group teacher is the one who always teaches the main class.
From eighth grade onwards, the most advanced explanation of many topics requires specialists
in other fields.

Our civilization trains men with purely cerebral knowledge. Ideas rest only in the head like a bed.
There they sleep, without a life of their own, they only “mean” this or that, we carry them stored
in countless compartments without them having any relationship with the rest of our being.

In Waldorf Schools, students not only have an idea, they feel it, because it penetrates their
entire emotional life. Its soul lives in the very substance of the idea, which is no longer a simple
concept, but a plastic form. The entire complex of ideas in the end takes human form and figure
and all this is manifested in the will. The child learns to transform what he thinks into action.

INTERMEDIATE CLASSES

Following the main class, a schedule is organized that remains stable throughout the school
year. In this intermediate space of the day, the subjects that require constant rhythmic
repetition are established, such as English, Religion, Eurythmy, Sports, Painting, Modeling, Wood
Carving and Theater.

Waldorf schools do not aim to train specialists in art, this has a different purpose as it provides
deep inner experiences. There is no more effective activity for the cultivation of basic activities in
early childhood than artistic activity. Through it, man becomes accustomed to committing
himself with all his mental capacities and with every fiber of his body in the struggle to solve a
problem that confronts him. seems important.

With artistic activity, the foundations are laid for the ability to observe, create, attend, cultivate
interest, awaken fantasy and strengthen the will. There is no better education for the will than
practicing something with insistence and joy, over and over again, overcoming difficulties and
obstacles.

END OF THE DAY

The end of the school day is dedicated to manual work and workshop practice: Crafts, carpentry,
pottery, bookbinding, gardening and other activities. The teaching plan by periods is also
suitable for the practice of these workshops in higher grades.

THE CLASS TEACHER

In Waldorf pedagogy, a single teacher accompanies the same group from 1st to 8th grade,
teaching the contents of the main class and if possible some special subjects (Form Design). The
continuity of a teacher gives stability to the class and creates a climate of emotional security for
the child. The teacher reaches a deep knowledge of his students and as each year he provides
new content, this stimulates and does not allow him to fall into routine or repetition. His effort
to master and teach different subjects keeps him dynamic, which has beneficial effects on the
quality of teaching. The child's contact with special teachers prevents any one-sidedness.

In addition to the above, the class teacher has other responsibilities: Frequent contact with
parents, group meetings, guidance and accompaniment to the other teachers in his group,
helping some students who have difficulties, and also participating in the co-administration of
the school and is permanently trained in Waldorf Pedagogy and Anthroposophy. From grades 9
to 11, young people are guided by a new tutor.

Because the Waldorf Schools' curriculum is based on the correspondence between the somatic
and psychological development of man, it is of vital importance that all children are
approximately at the appropriate age for each school group.

ASSESSMENT

The school, by highlighting the total personality, ignores the QUANTITATIVE judgment formed
regarding the student, it does not resort to grades, tests, exams that are the cause of many
frustrations for the students. It is about them studying out of interest and enthusiasm. The
teacher, due to the intimate coexistence with them over the years, resorts to other ways to be
able to evaluate the application and degree of achievement of each child.

Teachers keep a cumulative record of each student on aspects of his psychosomatic

development, general behavior, achievements and efforts made.

In this way and with many other elements that cannot be mentioned here, Waldorf Pedagogy
integrates a human conception from all its dimensions in an intimate relationship with the world
and explains and bases the development of human beings according to general cognitive-
evolutionary principles. Education understood in this way, transcends the mere transmission of
knowledge, becomes the support for the integral development of the student and ensures that
all work tends to the formation of his will, the cultivation of his sensitivity and his intellect...