Who keeps Waldorf education updated?

It’s the participants. Waldorf education evolves continually because if you’re involved in it, you agree to make an effort to evolve and grow as person. As a Waldorf education participant – parent, teacher, child, staff – you are on the “learning organization” path. On the learning organization path you learn from your experience as you go along.  It’s an “appreciative inquiry” path on which you solve problems by finding what works and doing more of it. On the learning organization path you don’t use your energy to find what’s wrong with yourself and others or to reward and punish. You motivate with your creativity, your enthusiasm and your know-how.

For example, the Waldorf classroom of today is far more individualized than it was in the primordial ooze of its inception.  Along the path, people found that the more of the right kind of attention you pay to a child, the more the child blossoms. Kids are different today and Waldorf education is different today because of it. Schools in different communities and in different parts of the world have different needs and each school adapts to local conditions.  Waldorf education is not a franchise and there is no centralized formula.  There are “indications” and “suggestions”, not rules. The three principles that hold all of Waldorf education together are learning to observe the child as a unique and original person, appreciating and connecting to the child unconditionally, and teaching to and being with the child at whatever level the child is actually capable of reaching without coercion or pressure.

Another principle keeping Waldorf education fresh is the principle, “if you want to teach the child to learn, be a learner yourself”. The bored, the burnt out, the tired need not apply. On the other hand, many a burnt out teacher has been refreshed learning to apply Waldorf education in their public school classroom.  For example:

“The Waldorf approach taught me a a whole new way of reaching my fifth graders—most of them English Language Learners—and lighting a fire of learning in their hearts. It keeps learning fun, fresh, and exciting and gives me hope in my teaching.” Bernard Hamady, 49th Street Elementary, Los Angeles Unified, CA

To keep Waldorf education alive and current, Waldorf educators continually write books and articles, form alliances for scientific and experiential research, share what they are learning at conferences, and observe current trends and realities in order to make the curriculum relevant to student’s future success in life.