A growing number of parents and teachers say that there is something wrong with the schools because children aren't learning. Parents blame teachers and teachers blame the administration although they don't quite know why.

It seems obvious that something definitely is wrong and it's time to look at education in a totally different way, a way that has been the foundation of the Waldorf Method of Education since 1919.

Rudolf Steiner was an amazing man whose parents recognized his brilliance as a child and gave him the best education possible. As a college student, he began writing scientific and philosophical books and articles and spent most of his adult life editing the works of Goethe, who is renowned as a poet but not widely recognized for his scientific work.

Steiner was interested in, and knowledgeable about, children, disabilities, medicine, education, agriculture, religion, art, music, dance and spiritual development. His genius seems to know no bounds and his work of 100 years ago is more meaningful today than it was then since he forecast a future of children and adults without a spiritual basis as one of materialism.

He wrote about the coming technological age and how it would adversely affect people, especially children. He wrote in detail about the effect of the arts on the spirit of children and how important music, art and dance were to the development of all people.

THE FIRST WALDORF SCHOOL
He was asked to start a school for the children of workers at the Waldorf Astoria company in Germany in 1919, based on his revolutionary ideas of education and the developing spirit of young children.

Steiner's work, along with other work that promotes the spiritual development of people as free human beings, has been persecuted by Nazi Germany and others who wish to mechanize human beings. Hitler couldn't tolerate programs that taught individual freedom and closed the school during the Nazi regime. It was reopened and has continued ever since, expanding throughout the world.

THE 3-FOLD HUMAN BEING
Steiner's approach to education was radical but effective. It is based on the growing child's place in nature and the fact that children are three-fold human beings: physical, mental and spiritual. All three aspects must be nourished for the child to mature into a balanced and productive adult.

In fact, the child's spirit is--from the moment of birth--yearning for expression and the most effective way to encourage this part of a child is through music, art and dance.

Today we live in a world where technology is a god. More than that--it governs our lives. In an intellectual age such as ours, there is little provision for developing one's spirit and we feel this loss. People know they have unfulfilled dreams, unexpressed desires, untapped gifts and many cry, "There has to be more to life than this!"

Our focus on technology and intelligence at all costs has brought us war, drugs, crime, lack of integrity and respect, political unrest, deterioration of family life, stress and depression. It's created a country of adults and children who feel unaccepted if they don't have the latest clothes, the slimmest body and the newest car. No wonder there are so many counselors, psychiatrists and psychologists in our country.

WHERE'S THE JOY?
There are few people who really feel joy in their lives. People say they're happy, but still feel unfulfilled. Joy springs from one's spirit; happiness is a transient emotion, usually based on materialism or physical attraction.

Steiner wasn't influenced by popular opinion or current fads. He explored the world around him and his beliefs were founded on his own observations that man was more than a physical body left to its own devices and tossed about by the whims of others. He was convinced that every person was a spiritual creation and it was our duty and privilege to discover our individual talents and gifts in order to cultivate and stimulate the spiritual forces we were born with.

Rudolf Steiner felt that the entire universe was spiritual in nature, therefore everything and everyone was part of that universe. He left an astonishing legacy of over 6000 articles and books that have guided people in their lives and work for 100 years.