Hi Andy, I asked a similar question recently here. Please see this reference:Oberman, I. & Sloan, D. (2008). The Waldorf movement from european cradle to american crucible, 1919-2008. Edwin Mellen Press.
and the attached paper.
Attachment:
Uhrmacher Uncommon Schooling.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document
As for their effectiveness, at least here in Chile, they seem to be very effective protecting children from early consumerism and early competitiveness, which seems to be the case in other parts of the world according to communications I got from this list, on and off-line.
Again in Chile: since their emphasis is not on traditional skill drilling, their effect on standardized measures of learning depends more on the capital background of the kids´parents and individual characteristics of the children they serve. My own kid goes to a school that adopts some Waldorf techniques, and I can attest that it works pretty well as regards the prevention of bullying, emotional development and emphasis on the human dimension of learning.
If you google them, you will find very emotional pro and anti-Waldorf advocates. I assume the positive or negative criticism of the Waldorf movement depends on how it has settled in different countries and schools. In the USA, there is a concern about how secular they really are, so it seems. My own school here in Chile is very secular, although the emphasis on fantasy can be judged by some as "religious". In my view, fantasy in early childhood is not a bad thing and may help foster an imaginative mind. Certainly, Waldorf schools seems to be mostly private and it biases their results. I am not aware of public Waldorf schools.
One of the things that I strongly value from a Waldorf education these days is that it protects kids from the overachievement mania that is plaguing elementary schools and preschool education worldwide because of the misuse of academic testing, a topic of concern for many in this list, and from pseudocientific applications of neuroscience. This attitude to a humane schooling has been as well advanced by constructivist scholars as well such as David Elkind in the USA. I would love to find a school where the humane dimension of Waldorf schooling meets a pedagogy inspired in learning science and cultural psychology, but this is a non-existing link.
Best, DP On Jan 9, 2010, at 10:59 AM, Leif Strandberg wrote:
Hi, I recommend reading ofPeter Staudenmaier (Vermont USA) Antroposofi och ekofascism (I only have the Swedish version, perhaps the English title is "Antrophosofy and Ekofascism"We have a lot of Waldorf schools in Sweden, and there are some interesting estetichal features in their pedagogy, But their philosophical backrground (Steiner) is not as "green" as they say - more of a brown nuanceLeif Strandberg 9 jan 2010 kl. 12.46 skrev Andy Blunden:I have been researching Goethe and his scientific ideas, and after a long time I came across a book which tells in detail of how his ideas originated and explains them very clearly and convincingly. The point I am interested in of course is the Urphaenomen, a.k.a., unit of analysis, and as Goethe and Davydov both insist, a unit of analysis which is given to the senses.The author of the book is *Rudolph Steiner*, the same Rudolph Steiner who started up Steiner Schools. I can get an idea of his life and work from Wikipedia and so on, and it certainly is way off the mainstream, if I could put it that way. However, I would be interested in a brief response from xmca-ers on the success or otherwise of his schools.Andy -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hegel Summer School http://www.ethicalpolitics.org/seminars/hss10.htm Hegel, Goethe and the Planet: 13 February 2010. _______________________________________________ xmca mailing list xmca@weber.ucsd.edu http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca_______________________________________________ xmca mailing list xmca@weber.ucsd.edu http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
David Preiss http://web.mac.com/ddpreiss/
_______________________________________________ xmca mailing list xmca@weber.ucsd.edu http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca