I recently read Rudolf Steiner: His Life, Work, Inner Path and Social Initiatives as a next step into my study of Waldorf education and Steiner’s work. I felt that a biography that gave overviews of the many areas in which he worked would be helpful, and it was. I really came away with some context for the work he did and the disciplines touched by his work.

The discussion of the four bodies is a good introduction of the concept (page 68), and Chapter 7, “Building Alternatives,” is a helpful overview of many of Steiner’s initiatives and the disciplines in which he was involved.

About Waldorf education in particular, this passage made an impact on me:

When working with teachers Steiner continuously stated that he hoped to bring about a new art of education, thereby emphasizing the creative role which each teacher, the educational artist, could play. If people later spoke about a method and called it perhaps the Waldorf method they committed a twofold betrayal of Steiner. They divorced the work from the man who inspired it, and they began to establish a new tyranny: “This is the way things are done here.” (page 111)

Lissau states that teachers in Steiner schools have insisted that the only way to compare the achievements of their students against those in more orthodox schools (in the absence of a traditional model of grades) is to compare the adult lives of children educated in the two disparate fashions:

“What are the respective contributions of the two groups to the furtherance of social relationships? What about their involvement in public affairs? What is the social value of their work? Do they differ in their ability to come to terms with themselves and find fulfillment in their lives?” 

This is interesting for many reasons, especially since many Waldorf schools are moving toward a more mainstream letter-based grading system.

Around the same time I read this, I watched the new film The Challenge of Rudolf Steiner, which I also highly recommend!