The Learning Community in a Waldorf School as a Spiritual Community

Waldorf (also known as Steiner) education arranges school in classes of students of the same age that are non- selective for their entire school career, which means they form a heterogenous community of learning and practice. Waldorf education theory assumes that each person has a spiritual core of being- the Self- that becomes progressively embodied as the child grows and is the locus for agency, perception, experience, thinking and feeling. This spiritual core is ultimately bound up with the spiritual in the world. Waldorf education acknowledges the spiritual dimension in the world, taking the view that everything has a spiritual nature that can gain meaning through the productive cognitive activity of people. Young children may be intuitively aware of this though this experience is often marginalized by the rationality promoted by conventional education. In particular adolescents retain a largely unconscious longing for spiritual meaning. Waldorf pedagogy seeks to enable and empower the Self to form meaningful relationships to the body, other people and the world and thus a sense of belonging . In my presentation I will offer some examples of this.