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  6 0 Wikipedia actually has a pretty good rundown about Waldorf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_education education but in addition I would say that the people I know who were educated in Waldorf schools are insanely creative, loving, smart, and curious but are also completely feral, have problems fitting into structured environments, have problems keeping jobs, and get bored easily. This is just drawn from my small sample population, so it's probably not universal. Cedarthvader answered in Family & Kids about 1 year ago | Report 4 comments by CrazyCatLady, MyrnaMinkoff, and Cedarthvader… 1 0 Hee hee, that last bit describes almost everybody I know. Viva Seattle! CrazyCatLady commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 I appreciate the touchy-feely aspect of the Waldorf approach, but according to that Wikipedia page, they classify kids based on how their temperament relates to the four humors. Humorism originated in the classical period, and basically went out of vogue around the time when doctors realized that women didn't actually suffer from hysteria (literally, the belief that the uterus would travel around the body). I know that systems of classifying people are deeply satisfying because they bring order to an unordered world, but COME ON. This makes about as much sense as classifying kids based on their astrological sign. What a load of hooey. MyrnaMinkoff commented about 1 year ago | Report 3 0 I think I would enjoy an all-Virgo group. We could sit around and agonize about how imperfect our wood block structures were. Cedarthvader commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 The whole "humors" thing is something that they think about only lightly. The actual child is what they really consider. Just Asking commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  3 0 I'm a high school student at a Waldorf school, and my experience, from preschool until today has been nothing but positive. I would love to share my experience, as it is a education system that seems widely misunderstood, but it would take pages. Here is the mission statement from the Seattle Waldorf School We educate our students to be free human beings who impart purpose and meaning to their lives, who meet life with courage, and respond with initiative and creativity to the needs of the world and their fellow human beings. If you go to the website for the Seattle Waldorf School, you will find dates for open houses and lectures that you may find interesting/ educational. 4littlebirds answered in Family & Kids about 1 year ago | Report 1 comment by gkline1718… 1 1 From your little bro: AN educational system. gkline1718 commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  3 0 A lot of educational theory from this time seems to rely on ideology and pseudo-science. Salon.com has an interesting article about the dark, anti-semitic roots of Waldorf: http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2004/05/26/waldorf . However, the experience of the kids going through any educational system seems to have more to do with the dedication, sensitivity, and intelligence of the teachers than it does with the system itself. Tom Sackett answered in Family & Kids about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  2 0 I had my daughter in a Waldorf Mom and Tot program last year. We enjoyed it, but when it came time to pick a preschool it was pretty easy to pass over the Waldorf system. That article that Tom linked to is pretty good at describing what I found off-putting about Waldorf - it is a very structured system, and they demand that families comply with things like absolutely no tv or computers or even recorded music for young children. There are also things that are weirder, like the belief that reading and writing should be delayed until age 7. (Seven!!) My daughter's instructor went so far as to tell me that she didn't think it was good to read books to young children, and that they benefitted far more from seeing a puppet show acted out. That's lovely, but I just don't have the energy to put on multiple puppet shows every day for my kid, and I think books are a wonderful thing for children of ALL ages. There are also things that are just weird, like the eurhythmy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurythmy) and the "no black crayons" thing (something about black not occurring in nature, so they don't give the kids black crayons to color with). All of the materials that the children play with are natural and are often hand-made - again, lovely. Again, though, her teacher told me that children prefer to play with natural materials because they could sense the "life energy" or some such nonsense. All in all, it was a lovely environment to expose my child to once a week for a year. It isn't an educational community that I choose to participate in any more. Emily Steed answered in Family & Kids about 1 year ago | Report 3 comments by Luckier, Emily Steed, and Cedarthvader… 0 0 How old was your daughter? It sounds like a fun pre-school option. Luckier commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 We did the Parent-Tot (which, in my experience, meant "Mom and Tot") program. It's designed for kids 12-36 months old, but I found that it really depends on the age of the other kids in the program. Most of the kids, my daughter included, were between 22 and 28 months at the start of the school year. By the last quarter, most of our kids had outgrown it. The preschool program is several days a week and parents don't attend with their children. It requires that you sign a contract agreeing to limit media exposure and I might be mis-remembering, but I think there's a home visit during the interview process to check compliance. It was just way too invasive and controlling for our family. Emily Steed commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 Woah, fascinating! Cedarthvader commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  1 0 They teach the kids to knit. That can't be bad. Misty Brown answered in Family & Kids about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 0 We're having a great experience at the Waldorf school, overall. Our boys learned to read in 3rd grade, which seems outlandishly late, and was later than most children in their class, but they are reading far ahead of age level now...so this aspect worked well. One thing I especially like about the school is that it promotes positives rather than fighting negatives. Instead of focusing on waste dumps, the children learn to farm, recycle, and care for their environments. Instead of focusing on racism and sexism they learn to treat every human being as an absolutely unique human being. Graduates of the school come back and tell how they are the only ones at their work place who gets along with absolutely everyone - and they absolutely attribute this to their school experience. They seem able to do what they want in the world, whatever this is - and to trust their sense of this. I'm very much hoping my boys will end up with these qualities, too! Father of two answered in Family & Kids about 1 year ago | Report 1 comment by penuche… 0 0 I worked with kids in a public school until recently. At the beginning of third grade, many kids who had been labeled as behind in reading since first grade were suddenly experts. They weren't ready yet, but since they weren't ready at age 6, they had constantly been told they were not good enough and put in special reading groups and consequently hated reading when they were ready. Kids in public schools are expected to know more earlier than ever before. It's not helping. Some kids can read earlier, but that doesn't mean something is wrong if they can't. I found the answer to this question interesting. http://questionland.com/questions/17860-is-there-a-connection-between-baby-teeth-loss-and-development penuche commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 0 I hear ya'... Due to various circumstances, I had about a week to decide on a school for my kid. I knew he wouldn't do well at the public school near us and I called or visited every school in our community. I was and still am solidly convinced that I chose well with the Waldorf school...for kindergarten. I can list a huge number of things I find creepy about the Waldorf system including the little dolls, gnomes, fairies, princesses, kings, identical lunch baskets, lack of any sort of interaction with current events, standardized curriculum, the use of a specific tone in singing instructions to kids that makes even the most challenging child stop in their tracks and do as they are told, the lack of transparency and diversity and so much more. But, I keep my child there because it is a nice place. It is soft, beautiful, gentle and calming. We are exposed to so much in our world and knowing that my child is spending kindergarten in Mary Engelbreit's living room is comforting. I can think of nowhere else that would offer him the sweetness of his classroom. The kids in the older grades are a pretty nice bunch. They aren't overly woo-woo, drainbow, weirdos but seem to be reasonably responsible, creative, wise and talented folks. I doubt my kiddo will be there through high school since I am not seeing the cultural awareness, anti-racist and anti-sexist/heterosexist curriculum that I would like in the upper grades but for now I feel great about the choice. ChattyCathy answered in Family & Kids about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 1 I am a Waldorf parent and advocate. It is very difficult to encapsulate the entire thought, meaning, and purpose of the Waldorf philosophy and all its facets in just a couple of paragraphs. I include this direct quote about Waldorf: American schools are having a crisis in values. Half the children fail according to standard measures and the other half wonder why they are learning what they do. As is appropriate to life in a democracy, there are a handful of alternatives. Among the alternatives, the Waldorf school represents a chance for every child to grow and learn according to the most natural rhythms of life. For the early school child, this means a non-competitive, non-combative environment in which the wonders of science and literature fill the day without causing anxiety and confusion. For the older child, it offers a curriculum that addresses the question of why they are learning. I have sent two of my children to Waldorf schools and they have been wonderfully well served." Raymond McDermott, Ph.D., Professor of Education and Anthropology, Stanford University (..from www.whywaldorfworks.org) I, also, encourage those with questions and curiosity about Waldorf to go on a school tour and experience first hand how incredibly the children present themselves. waldorfparent answered in Family & Kids about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 2 Crazy Waldorf- cultish - home made dolls- no black crayons, creative but maladjusted graduates...so many enduring myths about Waldorf! Waldorf graduates are just like the rest of us: most are perfectly well adjusted individuals who perform well in the context they choose for themselves, while a few have a harder time of it. A few teachers in a few Waldorf Schools are still on a steep learning curve: communication and context is not their forte. Most others are pretty clear as to why they recommend telling stories rather than reading books, or playing outdoors instead of watching TV. At its best, Waldorf education offers a wonderfully open educational system, with a curriculum based on a solid understanding of human development. The learning environment is structured (debunking another Waldorf myth, that of a lucy-goosy artsy free for all freedom)yet there is a lot of space for individual expression and emergence. It is unfortunate that there are so many generalizations are out there which do not represent the wonderfully effective education that the children receive in Waldorf schools. There are a few Waldorf Schools in and around Seattle, so you can easily check them out. I recommend the Seattle Waldorf School. It is the most established and folks are very friendly. gkline1718 answered in Family & Kids about 1 year ago | Report 5 comments by Tom Sackett, Tom Sackett, and MLP… 1 0 The "generalizations" you mention are often accurate descriptions of Waldorf educational theory. Educational theory tends to be a bit wacky (especially given that you can't really experiment on children in a controlled study), but Waldorf is wackier than most. These generalizations are backed up by the real experience of people like Emily and the "Waldorf Survivors" mentioned in the Salon.com article. As a student, I found that the best teachers were the ones who cared more about individual students and the subjects they taught than they did about educational theory, the school district, or what any other authority had to say. Tom Sackett commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 Clarification: When I said "as a student", I did not mean to imply that I was a Waldorf student. I just re-read my comment and realized that it could be misinterpreted. Tom Sackett commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 Can you elaborate on the reasoning behind the not-reading part? To me, that's loony tunes. Makes me not want to listen to the rest of it. Much like "no pretending at school" with Montessori. MLP commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 I sent my daughter to a Waldorf school for a whole array of reasons, but here are a few answers: the "no black crayons" thing is because children are usually taught to outline everything in black and then fill it in; this way they learn to draw the way things actually work, with perspective and shading. The "no TV" rule has to do with the fact that TV right now is based on "JPMs" or "jolts per minute," something media people will recognize as elements in TV that make you feel inadequate or hungry and therefore ready to buy. Waldorf students, because they don't (usually) watch TV or play video games, tend to be slender and fit. No one I know ever paid attention to the "no recorded music" idea -- not a single parent, student, or teacher. As for the "no reading until age 7," the idea is that when parents read to their children, children learn to read. Most children teach themselves to read naturally by about age 5 or 6. So they "teach reading" at age 7 ONLY when a child has not taught him or herself to read by then. Knitting (which all the kids do, boys and girls) teaches hand-eye coordination and improves math scores. All the children play in the school orchestra. And now? My daughter is 16, has the vocabulary of a college student, skipped algebra I, Spanish I (and could have skipped German I as well because her German is even better than her Spanish), has won awards for her visual art, and is assured and confident and compassionate. NOTE: she wishes that she had gone to a "normal" school. Her friends wish they'd gone to Waldorf. Just Asking commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 That's hilarious - (that each wishes they'd gone to the others' school!) On late reading: every study I've seen (which is a fair number) shows that early learning of reading (before 6-7 years of age) gives absolutely no long-term advantage in skill level. By 3rd-5th grade the early advantage is completely lost. On the other hand, social capacities are far stronger in groups that played in kindergarten instead of trying to learn. Years ago (in the '80s) I even saw a study of kindergarten teachers that showed two-thirds believing it was wrong for the children to be taught reading at that level, but that they were doing it because parents demanded it. Ask your local kindergarten teacher what s/he thinks!!! Father of two commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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