Are children in Waldorf schools prepared for the “real” world?

It is easy to fall into the error of believing that education should make our children fit into society. While we are influenced by what happens in the world, the fact is that the world is made up of people, not people by the world. However, the shaping of the world is possible in a healthy way only if the shapers are in possession of their nature as human beings. Education in our materialistic, Western society focuses on the intellectual aspect of the human being and has chosen to largely ignore the various parts that are essential to our well-being. These include our feeling life (emotions, aesthetics and social sensitivity), our willpower (the ability to get things done), and our moral nature (being clear about right and wrong). Without having these developed, it may become evident years later, that feeling of emptiness. That is why in a Waldorf school, practical and artistic subjects play as important a role as the full spectrum of traditional academic subjects offered by the school. Practice and art are essential in achieving a preparation for life in the “real” world. Waldorf education recognizes and honors the full range of human potentialities. It addresses the whole child, striving to awaken and ennoble all latent capacities. Children not only learn to read, write and do mathematical operations, but they also study history, geography and science. In addition, all children learn to sing, play a musical instrument, draw, paint, model clay, carve and work with wood, speak clearly and act in a play, think independently. And to work in harmony and respect with others. The development of these different capabilities are interrelated. For example, boys and girls learn to weave in the first grade. The acquisition of this basic and enjoyable human skill helps to develop a manual dexterity, which after puberty will transform into an ability to think clearly and from his personal “point” to have thoughts in a coherent whole. Preparation for life includes the development of the whole person. Waldorf education has as its ideal that a person who is knowledgeable about the world and human history and culture, who has many varied practical and artistic skills, who feels a deep reverence for and communion with the natural world, will be able to act with initiative and freedom in the face of economic and political pressures. There are many Waldorf graduates of all ages who embody this ideal and who are perhaps the best proof of the effectiveness of this education.