Waldorf Steiner Education - A worldwide movement

Our highest endeavour must be to develop free human beings who are able of themselves to impart purpose and direction to their lives." - Rudolf Steiner

In 1919 Emil Molt, owner of the Waldorf Astoria factory, invited Rudolf Steiner to help establish a school in Stuttgart, Germany for the children of his employees. Steiner took this opportunity to demonstrate how a curriculum and teaching methods could address the needs of the growing child.

Such was the success of this venture that his ideas spread rapidly throughout Europe and have since radiated across the entire world. There are now over 900 Waldorf schools in more than 45 countries, and the number continues to grow.

Of particular interest is the success of schools in areas of great need in the world today - e.g. in Russia, Bosnia, Africa, India and S.E. Asia, inner city areas in London and the United States, and the favelas of Brazil, - where often teachers work with few resources but with the same enthusiasm and love for their work. The schools share a common philosophical foundation, which encompasses education of the whole human being - the head, heart and hands.

Who was Rudolf Steiner?

Rudolf Steiner was born in 1861 and lived in a small village in Austria. As a child, he grew up in close contact with nature and with direct experience of a spiritual world. As a young man studying science and the humanities in Vienna, Rudolf Steiner became profoundly interested in the spiritual origins of nature and of humanity. He broke new ground in many areas of cultural, social and scientific thinking. The philosophy that arose from his work, which encompasses an understanding of the world and the human being, is known as anthroposophy.