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Rudolf Steiner Waldorf Education
Rudolf Seiner Waldorf education is a continually expanding movement, with over 870 independent and autonomous Rudolf Steiner or Waldorf schools around the world, and including 11 schools in New Zealand, four of which have full high school (or secondary) education. Worldwide these schools educate over 150,000 students at pre-school, primary and secondary school levels.
The first school was opened in 1919 by an industrialist, Emil Molt, who recognised that education was the key to finding a way out of the social chaos of post-WorldWarI Germany. He invited Rudolf Steiner, founder of a science of the spirit and path of knowledge called Anthroposophy, and who had spoken of a new impulse in education recognising the individuality of every child, to direct a newly founded school - the Free Waldorf School in Stuttgart.
Steiner's clear views on child development, the constitution of the human being and the purpose of existence were like a shaft of light to the educationalists who heard and worked with him.
In the six years that Rudolf Steiner directed the school he gave many indications that are still very relevant today despite the lapse in time. He promoted an art of education that balanced scientific, aesthetic and moral values, that involved head, heart and hand, and incorporated art and movement particularly with the introduction of two new subjects: eurythmy and form drawing.
The goal of Rudolf Steiner Waldorf Education is to enable young people to go into the world, not to fill slots created by past society for its perpetuity, but with a sense of their own unique destiny, able freely and confidently to give direction and purpose to their lives.
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