Englisch_EKS_01-26 "":Layout 1
16.12.2011
18:25 Uhr
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INTRODUCTION
”Children should receive two things from their parents: roots and wings.” Where the journey takes us is determined by ourselves as freely acting people. In 1992 the slogan ”Think global, act local” emerged from Rio de Janeiro, encapsulating in a down-to-earth way how a global culture of responsibility can arise. But as simple as this slogan sounds, as difficult it is to put into practice: without living thinking, an interest in the world and resolve nothing will come of it. That is why it is one of the central educational tasks of the present time to develop these three capacities on every continent, in every culture. Anyone who wants to find their bearings in the future must first learn to trust their own experiences, their own senses and thoughts, and their own heart. They require people around them who work creatively, places in which they can develop trust in people, test out their own powers and share them with other children.
Anyone who wants to find their bearings in the future must first learn to trust their own experiences, their own senses and thoughts, and their own heart.
Waldorf education builds on people’s ability to develop It is these requirements which are causing people all over the world to look for alternatives to the state school programmes. In doing so, many of them encounter Waldorf education because instead of relying on standardised programmes, they place their trust in the ability and the will of adults and children to develop. Rudolf Steiner’s numerous suggestions for teachers all have as their objective to let children become active themselves. Waldorf education works neither with a closed canon of knowledge (input) nor does it strive to achieve standardised results (output). On the contrary, it stimulates children to discover for themselves how they can harmonise their thinking, feeling and will – a very demanding path of schooling across all ages and stages of development. How else are they one day to find their unique task in the world? It is this different view of the human being, and the educational tools it produces, which allows Waldorf educators to work with children and adolescents under the greatest variety of conditions. More than a thousand Waldorf schools and more than two thousand Waldorf kindergartens have in the meantime been set up worldwide to enable children to experience a true education beyond the increasingly standardised knowledge contents.
2011 | December erziehungskunst special
Waldorf education works neither with a closed canon of knowledge nor does it strive to achieve standardised results.
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