Educating the Whole Child

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Understanding the needs and stages of childhood is critical to the success of an education. Children have a multiplicity of talents and needs that vary from individual to individual, yet all children yearn to be engaged in three distinct ways in a school setting: actively, emotionally, and thoughtfully. All three of these aspects are important to a child's healthy development, but in the Waldorf classroom, one particular aspect of this triad becomes the paramount focus during each of the three phases of childhood.  These phases which last approximately seven years are:

  • The Young Child - from birth to seven
  • The Grade School Child - from seven to fourteen
  • The Adolescent Years - from fourteen to twenty-one

Based on the insights of Rudolf Steiner, Waldorf Schools throughout the world have developed a unique curriculum and method of education that endeavors, year by year, to appropriately address the needs of the developing child.

The Young Child - Birth to Seven
A Time for Activity

The active nature of the young child is undeniable.  During the first weeks of childhood, this energetic nature is already evident. It can be seen in the curling toes and fingers of a nursing infant or the flailing arms of a crying baby.  Once the young child starts to crawl, stand, and walk, the pace of life quickens. Any adult who has tried to watch over a toddler or pick up after a three-year-old knows from experience how their expenditure of energy exceeds our own. There is so much that young children are eager to learn about the world and the way they learn best is by doing.

Because young children are inclined to be active learners, they are fascinated by what adults do and, in fact, are often compelled to do it too.  This is because imitation is the young child's natural learning style. It is through active imitation that children learn everything from the complexities of language to how to navigate the terrain of family life. Because children are unreservedly open to their environment and do not assess or judge the behaviors they observe, they can readily imitate inappropriate behavior as well. For this reason, what adults do in the presence of young children is of tremendous importance because through our actions we provide the model for children's behavior.

Waldorf Schools understand that the active, imitative nature of the young child must be engaged in the early childhood classroom.  Dynamic, energetic participation thus becomes the foundation of a child's educational experience preserving their natural vitality and enthusiasm for learning.

The Grade School Child - Seven to Fourteen
The Heart of Childhood

The urge to be active and imitative does not disappear when a child enters first grade. Rather, activity and imitation gradually recede in importance over time and are superceded by a growing inwardness during the grade school years. Over the course of the second phase of childhood, from the age of six or seven until around the age of fourteen, a child begins to show a growing emotional capacity. This second developmental stage can easily be called the heart of childhood, a phase marked by a deepening in the emotional and imaginative life of children. It is a time of connectedness when children's feelings for their friends, their teachers, and for the subjects they study deepen. It is now out of these growing emotional bonds that a love of learning is fostered.

To touch the hearts of children, education must be an experience that fosters emotional connectedness to what is taught through the methods of instruction. Yet, for that to be possible children must be taught by individuals who are passionately committed to the work they do.

In Parker Palmer's insightful book The Courage to Teach, this matter is addressed directly: "Good teachers join self, subject, and students in the fabric of life because they evoke in their students a capacity for connectedness. The connections made by good teachers are held not in their methods but in their hearts." [i]

As the grade school years unfold, the academic demands of education increase. In the elementary school years more is asked of the children.   To balance the active, cognitive and emotional demands of education requires a disciplined, yet heartfelt approach to teaching, one that recognizes that education is an art. If our schools fail to maintain this balance, we run the risk of educating students who can be highly intelligent yet morally indifferent.

The Adolescent Years - Fourteen to Twenty-One
The Birth of Independent Thinking

The journey of childhood leads to independence. In all three developmental phases, children experience a growing sense of self. But it is with the coming of adolescence and the teenage years that this growing independence becomes most pronounced. After puberty, our children take up the important work of learning to think for themselves. This is a gradual process occurring over a period of years.

Engaging and exercising the thinking faculties of high school students is essential. To do this a diverse curriculum must be offered, one that engages the full range of human intelligence. In-depth study of subjects furthers the kind of inquiry that fosters critical thinking. But at this age, it is not only what is taught that matters, but how students are engaged in the learning process so that sound judgment and open-mindedness are developed. The types of questions that are put to students, the varying perspectives that they are asked to adopt as they consider differing points of view, and the richness of the conversation that takes place in classrooms will all play an important role in helping teenagers increase the facility and flexibility of their thinking.

"Sound intelligence cannot be developed apart from a balanced care for all faculties of the human soul." [i] When clear thinking is developed out of a foundation of activity and a framework of emotional connectedness and loving interest in the world, it becomes thinking that is warm and lightfilled, yet practical and original. Through its well-rounded educational approach the Waldorf School fosters health, capability and a tue humanness in its students, qualities that our young people will need in full measure when they enter the adult world.

Jack Petrash
Nova Institute

[i] Palmer, Parker, J., The Courage to Teach, Jossey-Bass, 1998, San Francisco, CA, p.11.

[ii] Gardner, John, Education in Search of the Spirit, Anthroposophic Press, 1996, Hudson, NY, p.76.