Via RSS feed.April 15th, 2008
Waldorf Education, Is it Christian?
Every once in awhile on one of my homeschooling lists a dear sister in Christ will ask for opinions about Waldorf education. This is a bit of a controversial topic in Waldorf education circles. Christian educators will claim that Waldorf education is compatible with Christianity, whereas secular educators will claim that Waldorf education is not religiously based. But what do we find when we examine the facts? The foundation of Waldorf education – anthroposophy? Here is what I have found in my own explorations of this educational philosophy, this is an expansion upon what I usually send to a questioning sister regarding Waldorf education.
We haven’t been involved in a waldorf school (and the vast majority of the Waldorf educational impulse takes place within schools, although there is a growing homeschooling movement), but I did research the educational methodology before I was saved as a potential for a homeschooling technique. That was when I was a pagan, the Lord saved me a year and a half ago, and now my perspective is very different than it was then, and here it is for what it’s worth 
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Waldorf education is based upon anthroposophy which, while it seems to include some Christ-like elements, is not Christian. The Christ
Presented in anthroposophy is NOT entirely the Christ of the Bible, he’s a different Jesus. That being said, anthroposophy is part of what pointed me to Christ. In fact, if you delve deeper into anthroposophical teachings and interpretations of the Bible, you will find many frightening, and indeed heretical interpretations of the Bible. The most frightening perhaps are some anthroposophical interpretations of the Gospels that claim that there were two Jesus infants, and that the Bible does in fact support the Eastern philosophy of reincarnation.
Anthroposophists do believe in a form of evolution, and believe that our children go through life stages based on the stages of evolution. Some of these teachings include the small infant child going through the stages of various animals, and ‘casting them off’ as they evolve. How does this fit with the biblical teaching that we are CREATED in God’s image? There is also a strong emphasis on nature ‘spirits’, fairies, sylphs etc. which are all presented as being real and actual (again, I can testify from my own experiences that this can plant dangerous seeds in a child’s heart that can later spring into occultism etc.). Jesus is presented as being a sort of abstract ‘light’ bringer, who helps to guide us further in our evolution to Christ consciousness (salvation and being born again have never been presented to my knowledge).
As a result of all these things our family has chosen to no longer be involved in waldorf education or anthroposophy, though we do use some of their lovely crayons, toymaking supplies and arts and crafts materials for the glory of God . When we became Christians we realized how important it was for all aspects of our lives to center around Christ, particularly in the raising and homeschooling/discipling of our children. Some of the positive aspects of Waldorf education that we have chosen to retain, as they are not anti-Christ or heretical and can be used to glorify God (we can make small dolls to use in acting out family devotions etc.) are: delaying formal education (workbooks etc), focus on play, natural toys (my DH is an excellent wooden toy maker!), natural clothing fibers, singing songs, finger plays, handwork with natural materials etc. which is all very lovely (and also emphasized in Charlotte Mason educational methods). My main caution would be that we do need to look at the root of the teachings (Rudolf Steiner a man who could apparently ‘see’ into the
‘spirit world’). There is also an emphasis on mythology in various grades again, we have chosen not to expose our little ones to pagan mythology no need. I believe that my early childhood exposures to mythology encouraged my eventual turn to full blown witchcraft and paganism (no this won’t happen to everyone, and yes, my family already had a tendency towards the occult, but the Bible does tell us to put things that are TRUE before our eyes, Philippians 4:8).
So in Waldorf education there is a teaching that truth is to be found in many places, I certainly never encountered anything like John 14:6 in my readings, anthroposophists also believe in reincarnation, karma etc. (it is appointed unto man once to live?) and have some very odd ideas/interpretation about the bible (see above).
I definitely am not an expert and don’t know everything there is to know about the topic, but I would be cautious if anyone were interested in exploring it further. Definitely look beyond the Waldorf-y side of things, and take a look at the anthroposophy that Waldorf education is based upon and see if it rings true to you.
Thanks, jennifer! There was an Waldorf booth (not called that, but it was!) at our homeschool conference (were you there?) – and my sister was asking what the controversy was about Waldorf… it’s been a long time since i did the research and came to the same conclusions you did – but i’m going to point her here for some better answers than i could remember
…
Hi Stephanie,
! Yep, two families is a BIG visit for us!
No – we weren’t there, but there was a Mamma asking about Waldorf ed. on a homeschooling email list I’m on. It comes up from time to time, so I thought I’d post it here on my blog permanently. Glad it’s helpful to you! Hope you had a good time – I was thinking of you over the weekend! We had a couple of families visiting our small house-church, so we had a busy couple of days of fellowship over the weekend
We actually used to sell waldorf materials in an online store, but after we got saved we gave it up. I just couldn’t promote a philosophy that didn’t put Christ first anymore.
Hope your babe is doing great!
Love,
Jennifer
Quiver Mama,
I make “waldorf-style” bible people. Mine are free-standing (doll-pin) with wool roving hair and any manner of fabric or wool felt for clothes. I was initially inspired by Godly Play materials and books
by Sonja Stewart but couldn’t help but embellish it with little waldorf dolls. Glad to know someone else loves making dolls and uses them for bible storytelling.
Geo
Quiver Mama,
Wonderful to find you. I am in a very real dilema. I am a Waldorf teacher and have been for ten years. Three years ago I returned to Jesus after years of new age/eastern spirituality. My children have been in Waldorf for a long time. In the last year I have been plagued by the incompatibility of certain Waldorf/anthroposophical beliefs with true Christianity. I am at a mighty crossroads. This is my profession and as a form of education it has some great methods (learning through arts and movement and music primarily.) I am really struggling with what to do. I need to work because my husband is also a Waldorf teacher and we have 7 children to support. The last thing I would say is this: Waldorf schools are full of very unChristian behavior. Obviously, some members of the community are good, community minded people, but I have seen some very selfish behavior in these communities, which I can’t help but blame on the relativism of morality present in the new age movement. Would love to hear from you–please pray for me that I find the strength to leave my job and jump into the vocational unknown.
Mari
Mari! I will pray for you! Bless you for your courage and faithfulness to the Lord…He will bless you abundantly…
This is a beautiful, godly, inspiring, and to my mind totally accurate account dear sister. God bless you and your family and thank you for giving your time to this post so I can direct people to who seek the truth behind this issue. I feel at this time I am being called by God to encourage people (who are seeking!) towards the natural, gentle style of education which I believe God would have our family involved in – if it is right for them before God. I will continue my research and bookmark your site for further delving as time permits. Bless you. Debbie
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experience. I am a Christian homeschool mom. I love the gentle, creative aspects of waldorf style education. The learning through story telling is so great. But I too do not like the spiritual aspects behind it. I believe that Steiner came up with great methods for teaching children but his reasons behind it are incompatible with what I believe. I think he had good observations of children but rather than just saying “this works because this is how a child’s mind works” he brought everything into that weird woo-woo world of anthroposophy. I believe that children are better off delaying certain aspects of education but I do not believe it has anything to do with evolution, it is just how we grow. It is a matter of great technique and bad explanation behind it in my opinion.
THanks for this information! My husband and I almost made the mistake of involving our daughter in a homestudy Waldorf class…We had no idea how spiritual it was…very unnerving the things I read…thank you for such a biblical analysis..I totally agree…
Thank you for your article. I was once attracted to the Waldorf style after I had my second child and was frequenting cloth certain cloth diapering websites! lol It’s funny how certain things seem to go hand in hand. I had been long since saved by that point, which helped me to see very quickly after looking into Steiner, that his teachings were NOT an option. It’s hard not to go for the learning materials though (toys, ets…) especially since I was already using many of those same elements… We ended up settling on something more Montessori type, with a granola twist…fibers, food, nature study, heavy arts, literature, hands on learning, disciplines of the home (I have 3 girs). We certainly still celebrate God’s creation in nature and the changing of the seasons and can easily continue this without dipping into the pagan bowl per se. Thanks so much for your article!
This is a really helpful post ~ I resonate with the Waldorf aesthetic, but am a Christian. After reading the reply from Mari, from 2 years ago, I wonder how she is doing?
I would love to be able to instill a more nature oriented culture at our school, because in my belief it is God”s creation we should be celebrating!
We need to look deeper at any education ‘system’, to find the core belief, because ultimately one that is at odds with our own, will cause tense and grief in the long run.
Thank you