Education Towards Freedom

A survey of the work of Waldorf schools throughout the world

Frans Carlgren

Softbound

$30.00

This is a gorgeous book, packed with children's artwork and photographs of one beautiful school after another. With it you can embark on a luxury tour of hte best Waldorf education has to offer - and learn a great deal in the process. This is a book to linger over and return to again and again.

Education towards Freedom was first published in 1976 and, since then, has sold more than ten thousand copies in English. When it appeared, there were around one hundred Waldorf schools throughout the world; now there are almost a thousand schools worldwide, as well as many independent playgroups and kindergartens.

During this time, Waldorf education has become known increasingly in the mainstream, and increasingly valued for its alternative approaches to children’s learning and development. The great breadth and richness of the approach has attracted many parents to its schools, as well as books on the subject, which have helped parents make the informed choices on a different route for their children.

The book covers all aspects of Waldorf education, dividing it into the preschool years, the first eight years (starting about age seven), and the last four years (from ages fourteen to eighteen). Also included are sections on the rhythm of the day, specific subjects, the use of textbooks, and school in the modern world.

Waldorf Schools
Kindergarten and Early Grades

33 articles from Education as an Art, Bulletin of the Waldorf Schools of North America

Selected and edited by Ruth Pusch, with an introduction by Betty Staley

Softbound

$14.95

For almost 40 years teachers of Waldorf/Rudolf Steiner schools have shared their thoughts and experiences in the bulletin Education as an Art. Now Ruth Pusch has gathered together in this volume 33 of the best articles that focus on kindergarten and the early grades, making them available to a new generation of parents and teachers.

Here you'll find some of the leading lights of the Waldorf School movement, speaking again upon these pages: William Harrer, Henry Barnes, Marjorie Spock, John Gardner, Frederick Hiebel, Francis Edmunds, Gisela O'Neil and many more. Really, many more.

The topics addressed range from very basic questions: What Do We Mean by Education as an Art? to the inner meaning of measles as a childhood disease to the importance of fairy tales. Truly a potent gathering of thoughts by those who paved the way.

Waldorf Schools
Upper Grades and High School

34 Articles from Education as an Art, Bulletin of the Waldorf Schools of North America

Selected, edited and with an introduction by Ruth Pusch

Softbound

$14.95

As with the first volume (directly above), Waldorf Schools - Upper Grades and High School is a rich and powerful gathering of some of the finest teachers to have ever taught in a Waldorf school. Included are several, from the very beginning in Stuttgart along with some still active in the classroom today.

Among the authors are Herbert Hahn, A.C. Harwood, Ernst Katz, Betty Staly, Stephen Edelglass, Christy Barnes, Amos Franceschelli, René Querido, and more.

The topics touch on every aspect of the curriculum and class life and offer that rare sort of "insiders view" that can come only from those with a true depth of experience and understanding.

Whether in the classroom or at home, anyone who teaches will want to read these articles - they are wonderful!

Each Parent Carries the Flame
Waldorf Schools as sites for promoting lifelong learning, creating community and educating for social renewal

Tom Stehlik

Softbound

$19.95

Here, at last, is a book that explores not just the pedagogy of Waldorf education (central though that is), but the broader life and possibilities inherent in Waldorf schools themselves. Tom Stehlik explores how these schools funciton not just as schools, but as centers for the possible social and spiritual renewal of the wider school community and ultimately society as a whole.

Stehlik suggests that parents who choose a commitment to Steiner Education embark upon a learning journey that is sustained and supported by the Waldorf school community. His observations resonate with my personal experience of the vibrancy that many Waldorf schools nurture and attract, and as such, he gives voice to what is, in my opinion, as wonderful about these schools as their pedagogy.

Completing the Circle

Thomas Poplawski

Softbound

$14.00

Every now and then, less often than we'd like but more often than one might hope for, a book comes along that takes a fresh look at old questions and, in so doing, enlivens not only the questions, but the subject they address. Completing the Circle is such a book.

Thomas Poplawski has taken up most of the questions most people, at some time or another, ask about Waldorf Education and has addressed them (and us) with great heart and a viewpoint that brings us into the living nature of human life. Open the book and you'll step into a world of quiet liveliness, a world at peace and in motion, at once magical and fully apparent. His is a book that will make you fall in love with life and the possibilities of education all over again.

Here's what he talks about:

• The Schooling of Angels
• Button Up Your Overcoat
• Losing Our Senses
• Taming the Media Monster
• The Power of Play
• Toys Are Not Us - Escaping from the Maw of Consumerism
• Children and Sports - Finding a Balance
• Etheric? Astral? Ego? - An Esoteric View of teh Human Being and Its Value in the Education of the Child
• Paradise Lost: The Nine-Year Change
• The Four Temperaments
• Watching Your Temper(ament)
• A Modern Path of Meditation and Inner Development

Childhood
A Study of the Growing Child

Caroline von Heydebrand

$14.95

Caroline von Heydebrand was one of the most beloved teachers at the original Waldorf School in Stuttgart, someone Rudolf Steiner looked to as a guiding light for the children. Childhood is the fruit of her twenty years experience teaching children and studying anthroposophy, and the book is filled with stories, examples, anecdotes - all couched in her deep love of nature and people. Some of the topics she addresses are: child development, the four temperaments, the growth of consciousness, and the development of moral, imaginative and other capacities. Highly recommended.

Adventures in Steiner Education
An Introduction to the Waldorf Approach

Brien Masters

Softbound

$22.00

An internationally acknowledged authority in Steiner education, Brien Masters has worked for decades as a teacher in both public and Waldorf schools, and has served as a teacher trainer, consultant, writer and lecturer. In Adventures in Steiner Education, he draws on his rich and varied experience to paint a vivid picture of Waldorf education in practice. Spicing the text with many personal stories and anecdotes, he brings to life the theory behind this increasingly popular educational approach, from the early years through to the Lower and Upper Schools.

This lively book serves not only as an informative and entertaining introduction, but also as a helpful refresher course for those seeking to become fully acquainted with the basic principles of Steiner Education.

Awakening Intelligence
The Task of the Teacher and The Key Picture of the Learning Process

Magda Lissau

Softbound

$15.00

Waldorf education awakens intelligence at developmentally appropriate times and prepares students for life through exercising a variety of thinking models. In this compelling book Magda Lissau unfolds the process of intellectual consciousness and discipline as practiced in the Waldorf school. In reading this book you can become aware of the depth that the curriculum provides for each student. Topics include: Age-appropriate learning and the three forms of memory: localized memory, rhythmical memory, and cognitive memory; coceptual and volitional intelligence; personal and impersonal intelligence; introduction to writing and reading in grade 1; introducing place value in grade 2; imagination as a tool of transition; introduction to fractions in grade 4; mythology and history in grade 5; astronomy—sky and earth; and the theorum of Pythagoras—a measure of balance.

Octave

Magda Lissau

Softbound

$17.00

Octave is a collection of eight essays from a master Waldorf teacher and includes chapters on how to motivate children, parent/teacher relationships, and the school organization as a living organism. There is a chapter in which the author questions whether moral principles can be taught, and another entitled “The Seven Cosmic Artists: an Artistic View of Child Development”.

Throughout Octave you will find a voice wise with experience and warm of heart - a lovely source of encouragement and advice.

Commonsense Schooling
A practical introduction to Rudolf Steiner's educational thought and methodology

Roy Wilkinson

Softbound

$12.95

Wilkinson's masterful skill at conveying complex things with clarifying brevity really shines in this book and makes it an outstanding introduction to Waldorf education. When Commonsense Schooling was first published, the London Times Education Supplement said of "this structured and well-written account" that "it translates Steiner's educational thought and methodology into practical English terms." The response to Wilkinson's work has more than justified this opinion. A great place to begin learning about Waldorf education!

An Introduction to Steiner Education
The Waldorf School

Francis Edmunds

Softbound

$17.95

This is an excellent introduction to the theory and practice of Steiner/Waldorf education, whether for teachers or anyone who would like to know more about Steiner’s ideas. It is especially useful for parents who are looking for a holistic education for their children.

The author explains, in a clear and lively style, many aspects of Steiner’s educational theories, especially the three stages of child development and how the Waldorf curriculum provides a healthy understanding, nurturing, and support for these phases.

Edmunds discusses the role of the class teacher, the “main lesson,” the four temperaments, attitudes toward discipline, competition, and examinations. His answers are based on the author’s many years of rich and varied experience as an educator of both children and adults.

Waldorf Parenting Handbook
Useful Information on Child Development and Education from Anthroposophical Sources

Lois Cusick

Softbound

$19.95

This is a classic, deservedly beloved handbook for any parent wanting a helping hand in understanding how to bring the Waldorf approach into their homes and hearts. Originally published in 1979, the present 3rd edition (1992) brings Cusick's work up-to-date without sacrificing its heartwarming good advice or compromising her straightforward answers to important questions.

The Waldof Parenting Handbook is like having a wise grandmother to help you nourish your children as the travel through their school years -- it's really a pleasure to offer this book!

Contents:

• The Child is Born - Hereditary/Genetic Stream and the Self; Embryonic Sheaths and the Threefold Nature of the Child
• The First Three Years - Growing Down; Walking, Talking, Thinking; Play and Fantasy
• The Temperaments - Fourfold Bodily Nature; The Developmental Sequence of Juvenile Temperaments
• Fantasy and Fact in Early Childhood - Circle of the Senses; Mechanical Fantasy and Language; Nursery School
• How: Methods and the Three R's - Writing before Reading; Arithmetic; Main Lesson; The Spoken Word; Arts and Crafts
• The Magic Years: First to Third Grade - Fairy Tale Meaning and Language; Sequence of the Curriculum
• Grades Four to Seven - Animal Study; History; Plants; The Twelfth Year and the Fall into the Point; Acoustics; Color
• Puberty: Birth of the Self - Seventh and Eighth Grade Polarities; Adolescence; High School

The Recovery of Man in Childhood

A. C. Harwood

Introduction by Douglas M. Sloan

Softbound

$14.95

The Recovery of Man in Childhood is perhaps the most comprehensive (and enjoyable!) presentation of the goals, the methods, the underlying worldview and, yes, the wonder of Waldorf Education and Rudolf Steiner's pedagogy. A.C. Harwood was not only a master Waldorf teacher, he was also a gifted writer, poet, and thinker. Additionally, his approach to children, to teaching, to education and the needs of the world is always informed by a very warm heart. I think you'll have a very, very good time reading this book - and reap a lifetime of insight and reflection in the bargain.

Education as Preventative Medicine
A Salutogenic Approach

Michaela Glöckler, MD

Softbound

$26.95

How and when something is taught affects the student's disposition towards health or illness for life. The whole Waldorf curriculum is built on an understanding of the development and physiology of the child. … The healthy development of the physical body is the basis for a healthy unfolding of the soul-spiritual individuality of the child. Therefore it is of great importance that doctors and teachers work together.

- Astrid Schmitt-Stegmann

Dr. Glöckler has brought together for the first time in English research and insights into the relationship between how we educate children and the health they enjoy both as children and later as adults. This is a book to read deeply, to ponder over. The application of these insights in our teaching and working with children has the power to resonate far into the future, creating a healthier world as it does.

In addition to Dr. Glöckler's insights, Education as Preventative Medicine also includes contributions by:

Johannes Bockemühl, Ernst Bücher, Wolfgang Göbel, Wolfgang Kersten, Daniela Greif, Mariana Kayser-Springorum, Armin Husemann, Gisbrt Husemann, Helmut v. Kügelgen, Karl-Reinhard Kummer, Hans Müller-Wiedemann, and Maria Theresia Pehm.

Educating as an Art
Essays on Waldorf Education

Edited by Carol Ann Bärtges and Nick Lyons

Softbound

$25.00

Twenty-five years ago at the Rudolf Steiner School in New York City, Ekkehard Piening, a long-time teacher, and Nick Lyons, a parent, edited a collection of articles on Waldorf education. Their efforts resulted in Educating as an Art, published in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Rudolf Steiner School.

Twenty-five years later in 2003, the Rudolf Steiner School celebrated its seventy-fifth year as well as seventy-five years of Waldorf education in North America. This new edition commemorates the work of the faculty members whose articles comprised the first edition, many of whom helped to establish the Waldorf movement in the US. Contributions have also been added from the newer generation of teachers in the New York City School and Waldorf teachers from around the country.

New articles reflect important developments in the last twenty-five years of Waldorf education in North America, both in curriculum and in approaches to classroom teaching. This new edition is a celebration and continuation of the directions and ideas in Waldorf education that began more than seventy-five years ago—ideas based on the idea that teaching is an aesthetic and moral enterprise.

This book is written by teachers whose deepest thoughts and actions are concerned with the work in the classroom—those who, in the words of Ekkehard Pienning, have brought the world to their students “on the wings of full engagement.”

Confessions of a Waldorf Parent

Margaret Gorman

Softbound booklet

$4.95

It's hard to know which is better about this little booklet - the laughter it produces or the warm I've-been-there-too recalling of the developmental stages of "Waldorf Parenthood."

You can follow the author (between your outbursts of laughter) as she searches out a school for her children, discovers Waldorf Education, goes through the almost inevitable (and so funny) "pure stage" and then comes back to earth with a fuller heart and a deep love of the education her children receive.

This is actually one of the best introductions to Waldorf Education I can think of - sort of the the pedagogy of becoming part of a Waldorf school or initiative community. And did I mention how funny it is?

Understanding Waldorf Education
Teaching from the Inside Out

Jack Petrash

Softbound

$19.95

Both teachers and parents just can't find enough good things to say about Jack Petrash's introduction to Waldorf Education. What I like best about it is that it is concrete, not abstract, and comes straight from the heart of a teacher with 30 years of classroom experience. Here the inquiring parent, grandparent or prospective teacher will find answers and explanations to just about every question I've ever heard in the course of 20+ years experience with the Waldorf school movement. In many ways, you'll feel like your stepping into a Waldorf classroom, but with a quiet guide at your side to help you understand the wonder you are witnessing.

This is a book that is lively, enjoyable and ultimately very, very informative. I always love it when something I like also teaches me a lot - that's probably why I became involved with Waldorf Education in the first place! Enjoy!!

Creativity in Education

René M. Querido

Softbound

$12.95

This now-classic collection of seven lectures given at the San Francisco Waldorf School present a concise summary of the purposes, philosophy, and methods of the Waldorf approach to education. This is an excellent introductory book for parents as well as teachers.

Topics include: The Rhythms in the Life of the Child; The Role of Temperaments; Geography and the Earth; World History and the Development of Wonder; Gratitude and Responsibility

The Esoteric Background of Waldorf Education
The Cosmic Christ Impulse

Five lectures given at the Annual Waldorf Teacher's Conference in Spring Valley, NY in 1993

René Querido

Softbound

$16.95

My recollection of René Querido from the years when I worked at Rudolf Steiner College is that the topic of this book was actually the passion of his life. For whenever he was able to speak publicly or privately about the Cosmic Christ, especially as the living foundation of Waldorf Education, he lit up with an enthusiasm that both captivated and inspired whoever listened.

I believe you will find in these printed lectures the same energy and spirit many of us were fortunate to experience first hand - and learn a great deal about both Waldorf Education and esoteric Christianity as well.

Waldorf Education

Christopher Clouder
and Martyn Rawson

Softbound

$14.95

Another great little book from the "Rudolf Steiner's ideas in practice" series! This is an ideal introduction, a as-close-to-perfect-as-you're-going-to-get first book on Waldorf Education - its schools, its pedagogy, its founder. Dozens of photographs add a richness and life to the clear descriptions of Steiner's ideas and how they have been put into practice. For anyone who's ever asked, "What's Waldorf Education?" - this is the book!

The Developing Child
Sense and Nonsense in Education

Willi Aeppli

$16.95

In this simple gem of a book, Willi Aeppli takes us to the very core of the task of education. His is not a picture of senseless cramming and memorization, but of service to each child and to humanity. All who seek an education make the greatest sacrifice, that of the self, all their gifts, and their future. They have the full right to expect that this self will be returned as a stronger and truer self. Aeppli describes a curriculum that can make this possible. This book develops not from theory, but from years of practical experience.

Willi Aeppli (1894-1972) was a master Waldorf teacher in the Rudolf Steiner School in BAsel, Switzerland. He is remembered as an excellent teacher who used his observations and daily experience to enrich his classroom teaching.

Teaching as a Lively Art

Marjorie Spock

$14.95

This is my all time favorite description of the 8 elementary school years in a Waldorf School. Marjorie Spock's year-by-year account is so brimming with enthusiasm that it is difficult to put the book down. Teaching as a Lively Art stands at the top of list of books about Waldorf Education written by authors other than Steiner. A four-star volume!

Renewing Education
Selected Writings on Steiner Education

Francis Edmunds

Softbound

$14.95

The name of Francis Edmunds will always be a part of the Waldorf School movement. He traveled widely and his talks and writings, emphasizing the responsibility of adults and educators toward children, have inspired and educated a worldwide audience. This collection of essays covers many different aspects of a Waldorf school and will be invaluable to all concerned with the spiritual basis of an individual's development from childhood onward.

School as a Journey

Torin Finser

$14.95

Where Marjorie Spock gives us the curriculum as an ideal picture, Torin Finser follows up with "and this is what happened when I set out to do it." This book is a lively, colorful, absorbing account of a class teacher's eight years with his students-an autobiography in motion through an incredibly rich education. School as a Journey is worth its weight in gold just to be able to see how it all turns out!

School Renewal
A Spiritual Journey for Change

Torin M. Finser, Ph.D

Softbound

$16.95

School Renewal speaks to the problems and challenges of developing healthy schools. Using mythology, personal experience, and his extensive research, Torin, M. Finser describes how teachers and parents can handle such common problems as burnout, organizational stress, interpersonal conflict, and change.

Most importantly, he urges, an educational community must address the many unseen dimensions of each human being. He shows how these little-understood aspects of the mind can be nourished to create an econoimcal, exciting, and lasting renewal of school life.

Multiculturalism in Waldorf Education

The Waldorf Multiculturalism Committee

Softbound pamphlet

$7.25

This jam-packed little booklet offers more richness per page than many books ten times its size. In it are articles about the concept of multiculturalism in a Waldorf context, fairy tales from around the world, kindergarten marionette plays, considerations for Waldorf in the public sector, a resource list of multicultural picture books and bibliography.

A Creative Life - Volume 1
The Power of Two

Memoirs of a Rudolf Steiner Teacher

Alan Whitehead

Softbound

$22.95

Alan Whitehead has done it again - this time with an intimate, upright autobiography that allows us to accompany him from his youth through courtship, marriage and the birth of their first child - right into the creation of a Waldorf School (Rudolf Stiener School in Australia). All the joy, challenge, anguish, and triumph - both of his personal life and of the school - are recorded in an amiable, straightforward, humorous prose that offers the rare combination of enjoyable reading and illuminating perspective. This account is so deeply honest and so warmly shared that I know you will find it as valuable as I do. Highly recommended.

A Creative Life - Volume 2
The Rainbow Years

Memoirs of a Rudolf Steiner Teacher

Alan Whitehead

Softbound

$22.95

In this second volume, we find our hero, Alan Whitehead, taking up his third teaching year (and going on through 6 more), helping to lead his school during roller-coaster rides of prosperity/poverty, smooth sailing/rebellion and into a new, expanded and fruitful life. We also watch as his children grow and blossom, and as Susan flowers as a kindergarten teacher.

Everything I said about Volume 1 applies here - with an emphasis on the intimately honest accounting of a school history personally lived. Anyone who has been involved with Waldorf schools will both recognize and admire the courage of Whitehead's accounts of the growing pains which could so easily have become the death knells of his school. This account is so valuable in so many ways - I hope many, many people read it.

A Creative Life - Volume 3
Into the Wind

Memoirs of a Rudolf Steiner Teacher

Alan Whitehead

Softbound

$22.95

In this third volume of A Creative Life, we join Alan Whitehead during the years 1979 to 1984, as he helps create a new teacher education institute, an Australian Waldorf schools associaton, a high school. The book closes with his (and Susan's) farewell to the school they had helped to create and nurture for over 15 years.

Throughout, as you can by now expect, Alan details with his characteristic honesty (and humor!) the background (and foreground) political tensions and battles, the successes and failures along the way, the goals met and lost. This is such a human account - and a great read, as well!

Education in Search of the Spirit
Essays on American Education

John Fentress Gardner

Softbound

$14.95

Previously published as The Experience of Knowledge

Real education will always seek to strengthen what is best in the human soul: its longing for the experience of spiritual truth that brings into the self and objective appreciation of hte noble aspects of its own nature, together with a subjective sense of real affinity with the rest of humanity, the earth planet as a whole, and the great cosmos above.

This excerpt really describes the author's perspective that the aim of true education is to help children activate the deepest center, their "eternal spirit" which, Gardener believes, becomes possible through thinking - not mechanistic, rationalistic thinking, but living, intuitive thinking whose organ is the heart.

The book is in three parts - the first poses the problem; the second describes the Waldorf appraoch to a solution; and the third deals with questions of special interest to parents and educators alike, such as authority, discipline, and freedom; the nature of "genius"; the question of cultural pluralism.

This is an exploration by someone capable of deep insight and a union of that insight with what he saw. I highly recommend it for anyone concerned with the deeper issues of education and human development.

A Steiner Primary School?

A Creative Approach

Alan Whitehead

$22.95

Everything you always wanted to know about starting a Waldorf/Steiner school, but were afraid to ask! Contents: Starting a school; Structure and Administration; 28 Principles; The College of Teachers; The Class Teacher; Body-Soul-spirit Overview of Class 1 to 7; 4 Temperaments; Computers in Schools; Storytelling

A Steiner High School?

A Creative Approach

Alan Whitehead

$22.95

An excellent overview of the needs and considerations of a Steiner/Waldorf High School. Contents: Teacher Education; first Steiner High School; Teachers; Class Guardian; Students; Qualifications; Curriculum; Religion & Moral Education; Eurythmy; The Future; Sexism; 7 Planet Personalities; Body-Soul-Spirit Overview Class 8-12; 7 Deadly Sins; Children of Aquarius; Equivalent Matriculation

A Steiner Homeschool?

An Overview for Those Planning a Natural Learning Program for Their Child/ren

Alan Whitehead

$22.95

The Steiner educational impulse was born in the world (1919 Germany) when homeschooling was something provided by parents of necessity because they lacked the wealth to send their children elsewhere. Even though Steiner's approach was created for school use, over the years it has proved equally beneficial for the new generations of homeschoolers: those who consciously choose to guide their children's education. The contents of this volume are: History and Structure; Bureaucracy-Community-Family; Resources & Facilities; Teachers & Training; Curriculum & Programming; Content; Creativity; Discipline; Extracurricular; Obstacles; High School and Qualifications; The Future; Childhood Illnesses; Children's Drawing as Therapy

Millennial Child
Transforming Education in the Twenty-first Century

Eugene Schwartz

$19.95

In Millennial Child, Eugene Schwartz present's today's children as an endangered species, deprived of the boundaries that once separated childhood from adulthood. Without these boundaries, modern children become not only (apparent) "little adults," but also become capable of promiscuous sexual behavior, drug addiction, and violence toward themselves and others on an unprecedented scale. Schwartz offers the radical paradigm of childhood development presented by Rudolf Steiner and embodied in Waldorf Education as a remedy.

The Great Discipline Debate

Alan Whitehead

$22.95

An outrageously funny, extremely well-considered look at the very serious topic of disciplining and caring for children and teenagers. Includes: the role of humour, parenting, family breakup, 7 canons of teaching, corporal punishment, expulsion, exclusion, forced labour, punishment, record keeping, teacher conduct, college of teachers, uniforms, smoking, delinquency, new stories, violence, nature and art therapy.

Truth, Beauty and Goodness
Steiner-Waldorf Education as a Demand of Our Time An Esoteric Study

Dr. Gilbert Childs

$18.95

Thinking, feeling, and willing manifest in civilization as truth, beauty, and goodness, which then become science, art, and religion. Child's aim in writing this book is twofold: to illustrate the practical application of the above nine factors of life, and to substantiate the assertion by Rudolf Steiner that his philosophy and practice of education arose as a demand of the age in which we live. This is a stimulating presentation for teachers, students and anyone interested in esoteric science.