About Waldorf Education

The purpose of the Waldorf School of Pittsburgh is to educate children using Waldorf curriculum and methods of teaching which acknowledge and honor balance of the academic, emotional and spiritual needs in child development and seeks to engage families in education to create learning partnerships; and to create a community of head, heart and hands learning opportunities for the various audiences in the larger Pittsburgh area.

The aim of Waldorf education, as stated by its founder, is "to develop free human beings who are able, in themselves, to impart purpose and direction to their lives." This can only be done through educating the whole child -- head, heart, and hand -- toward the three great ideals of truth, beauty, and goodness. These three ideals taken together set the standard of education at a Waldorf school. Rudolf Steiner expresses them in the following way: "The need [is] for imagination, a sense of truth, and a feeling of responsibility -- these three forces are the very nerve of education."

This goal of education, to develop a balance of intellectual achievement, spiritual growth, physical health and personal responsibility, is based on a profound understanding of the process of human development. Each subject is introduced to the child when he or she is most ready for it, and in a manner to which the child is naturally receptive at that stage.

Year by year, the content of the curriculum expands with the ever-growing powers of the child, nourishing the inner life successively through stories from fairy tales, legends, myths and history, and the outer life with the development of individual and social skills. Waldorf education recognizes the uniqueness of the individual and the spiritual in life. It lays the foundation for a truly healthy adult attitude by developing the child's sense of beauty, wonder, and interest in the world of nature and in all humanity.

For More Information About Waldorf

There are numerous resources providing information about Waldorf education. Here are some excellent places to start:

Why Waldorf Works

Here are three articles from a series that appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about child's play and effective education:

Development experts say children suffer due to lack of unstructured fun

Creative play makes better problem-solvers

Experts call unstructured play essential to children's growth.