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WALDORF EDUCATION Founded in Europe in 1919 by Dr. Rudolf Steiner, Waldorf Education now includes schools on every continent. Our school is named in his honor. The Oakland Steiner School is one of a large international network of over 900 kindergartens and 650 grade schools. Each school is non-denominational and independent, directed by its Faculty. Waldorf’s time-tested educational philosophy and methods are designed to address the whole child: the thinking self (head); the feeling self (heart); and the action self (hands). This approach stimulates the mind with a full spectrum of traditional academic subjects. It nurtures healthy emotional development by conveying knowledge experientially as well as academically. Children work with their hands throughout every day, both in primary academic subjects and in a broad range of artistic handwork and craft activities. The uniqueness of the Waldorf curriculum lies primarily in how and when the children are taught, rather than in what is taught. In presenting material, first comes the encounter; then the encounter becomes experience; and out of the experience crystallizes the concept. Perception, feeling, idea: three steps in a learning process that prepares the intellect for the abstract and conceptual thinking of adolescence.
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Waldorf education strives to awaken and ennoble. Waldorf education emphasizes creativity, wonder and a reverence for nature. Learning moves beyond the acquisition of information to a voyage of discovery of oneself and the world: an education that develops the child’s full human potential. “Our highest endeavors must be to develop free human beings who are able of themselves to impart purpose and meaning to their lives.”
— Rudolf Steiner
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