Waldorf Education - Origins and History

Origins and History

Rudolf Steiner wrote his first book on education, The Education of the Child, in 1907. The first school based upon these principles was opened in 1919 in response to a request by Emil Molt, the owner and managing director of the Waldorf-Astoria Cigarette Company in Stuttgart, Germany, to serve the children of employees of the factory. This is the source of the name Waldorf, which is now trademarked for use in association with the educational method. The Stuttgart school grew rapidly and soon the majority of pupils were from families not connected with the company.

At the invitation of Professor Millicent Mackenzie, Steiner presented his ideas on education at Oxford in the summer of 1922. Steiner gave twelve lectures at Oxford's Harris Manchester College and other lectures of the Oxford Conference occurred at Oxford's Keble College. The Oxford Conference from 15 to 29 August led directly to the proliferation of Waldorf education in Britain.

In the next few years schools began to open in many other locations (Hamburg, The Hague, Basel). The first school in England, now Michael Hall school, was founded in 1925; the first in the USA, the Rudolf Steiner School in New York City, in 1928. By the late 1930s, numerous schools inspired by the original school or its pedagogical principles had been founded in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Hungary, the USA, and the UK. Political interference from the Nazi regime limited and ultimately closed most Waldorf schools in Europe, with the exception of the British and some Dutch schools; the affected schools were reopened after the Second World War. There are currently over 1,000 independent Waldorf Schools worldwide.

Waldorf schools have traditionally been numerically clustered and culturally centered in Europe; the number of non-European schools has been slowly increasing, however, leading to a trend toward reinterpreting the formerly Euro-centric curriculum.