Careers of former Rudolf Steiner/Waldorf school students
Questions and answers for Steiner/Waldorf school parents.
What will become of my child?

prepared by
THE EUROPEAN FEDERATION OF
RUDOLF STEINER/WALDORF SCHOOL PARENTS
in 1996

• 1. Why do we ask?
  
• 2. What do we want to know?
  
• 3. What do we know?
  
  A. Range of Professions
  
  B. Distribution of Professions
  
  C. Performance in the Job
  
  D. Access to further Education and Training
  
  E. Modernity of Education
  
  F. Self-Evaluation

• 4. What is the real value of Steiner/Waldorf education
  
• 5. APPENDIX
  
  A. List of professions (Separate document)
  B1. Short biographies (De Vrije School Den Haag 1923 - 1993)
  B2. Short biographies (Luzius Gessler: Bildungserfolg im Spiegel von Bildungsbibliographien, 1988)
  C. General comments

1. Why do we ask?

As parents we often think about, and are concerned as to what will become of our children after leaving the Rudolf Steiner/Waldorf school.

We might have such questions as the following:

- Is my child sufficiently prepared for modern professions, for general competition on free markets and for orientation in modern life?

- Will certain areas, levels or accomplishments be restricted because of the school?

- Will my child need to do extra work for additional training in special subjects (languages, computers, natural sciences)?

- Did I really choose the right school?

As parents we need to ask similar questions and - we look for answers of Steiner/Waldorf Education!

Answers can be given by teachers, by other parents with longer experience, by data collected by the school, by the national school organisation or by empirical research.

But before we look into possible answers we should ask ourselves why do we ask? And - what do we expect from answers?

Thinking about `why do we ask´ we meet basic problems that we should be aware of:

1. Do we ask because we expect to get to know the "timetable" of our child´s life? Would we stop worrying if we knew that they will get the "trains" we think of: secure, well paid professions, marriage, two children, their own house?

But life is not travelling on a railway network. It is rather an expedition where equipment plays a greater role than the tickets.

2. If we ask, it is because we feel insecure and lack confidence. And this we will communicate to our child!

So, the real question is: How do I get confident in the school´s contribution to the future career of my child?

Wouldn´t we stop worrying if we could feel that our children will master all life`s difficulties by themselves, and not fear this expedition, but rather show courage, enthusiasm, and interest in undertaking this adventure? Wouldn`t we feel happy if they not only want to survive this world but help to shape it, if they have confidence in themselves, in their own strength and in this world?

2. What do we want to know?

We would like to know

- will my child pass all the necessary final or entrance exams, e.g. for an university education?

- will all professional branches be open to my child?

- will my child be trained sufficiently enough in modern science, technologies, languages, computers etc.?

- will my child be sufficiently experienced in the competitiveness necessary for modern markets and employments?

Again we have to meet two basic problems, which we have to consider before we can make any sensible use of statistical data and figures we might get as answers to our questions.

First, no information on the careers of former R. Steiner/Waldorf school students wherever gained (rumours, private sources, school experiences, research) can give valid knowledge about your own child´s future. The best is only probability.

Secondly, even this is not reliable in regards to the effects of the school. Whatever will become of former Steiner/Waldorf-students may not be (in a strong sense of empirical research) due to the school´s impact but the result of social intellectual, and individual preselection.

So, whatever the correlations between school and career are and whatever they tell, the figures alone never can give you, as an individual person with an individual child, the security you look for.

How then to obtain confidence in Steiner/Waldorf Education?

But first let´s have a look at research results.

3. What do we know?

The material used here comes from different sources:

a. A scientific research study (Hoffmann u.a. 1981), which shows valid and reliable results, but is no longer representative, because attendence from grade 1 to 12 now in German Waldorf Schools has changed greatly?

b. Surveys by Steiner/Waldorf organisations using empirical data: Brater et. al. 1982 (Germany), Viinisalo 1982 (Finland), van de A 1992 (Netherlands), Thuesen 1992 (Denmark), Jackson/Steiner schools fellowship 1995 (U.K), Arvas/Öhmann 1994 (Sweden), Bugjerde 1995 (Norway). These give valuable figures on various topics but comparison with pupils of other schools are only to be found in the last two mentioned.

c. A report by Rudolf Steiner/Waldorf schools: de Bruijn 1993 (Netherlands), with an interesting list of professions and individual reports on careers.

d. An evaluation study by a state-school teacher: Gessler 1988 (Germany), selection of interviews with former students.

Only if we keep in mind that the following figures are not valid in a causal sense, that they don´t tell anything about the specific future of an individual and come from different national and historical settings, can we find the following answers to our questions:

A. Range of Professions

There seems to be no limits, all the general professions can be taken up after a Steiner/Waldorf school education.

Source: The report of the Den Haag School by de Bruijn (Netherlands 1993) lists i.e. over 300 professions of former students of this school (see Appendix A).

B. Distribution of Professions

We have some figures on areas in which a training or further education was obtained and which were finally (different age-groups depending on the surveys) taken up.

From this it is clear that pupils who attended a Steiner School tend to move into three main occupational areas:
Over 20% are teaching, either at university, college or school; over 10% have become Waldorf teachers.
Nearly 20% work as nurses, doctors, for the armed services or the police.
Over 15% work in the Business services industry.“
If we look now at these figures we find the following: although there is no comparison with the national average distributions we see no very strong bias towards particular areas.

C. Performance in the Job

We don´t have any real figures on this topic, but there are indications that former Waldorf school students do their work quite satisfactorily.

Thuesen 1992 and Bugjerde 1995 show that fewer become unemployed and Gessler 1988, pp 50-60 gives an example (hospital administration) of particular faculties influencing the quality of work and products (see Appendix B2).

Denmark 1992: 1,4% involuntary unemployment, below national average.

Norway 1995: In comparison with the National unemployment statistics the unemployment rate among former Waldorf students is only half (2.7%) of the National average in the same age groups (5.3%).

D. Access to Further Education and Training

Although the conditions for school leaving exams and their acceptance by Higher Education establishments very greatly across Europe, we find in general that the percentage of Steiner/Waldorf students who go on Higher Education equals the national average or is higher:

Germany 1982 (35%) Denmark 1992 (24,5%)

Sweden 1995 college and university 47%

Norway 1994 college and university 60,8%.

Social preselection is not the only explanation. Some schools with average social profile also have a high rate (i.e. Hibernia school in Germany).

There are indications that it might take Waldorf students longer to find their way (sometimes because of necessary additional exams or experience of other countries) which can mean: problems with orientation or a strong will to find the personally satisfaying solution, or a wish for a break from study to travel, do voluntary work etc. before going on to Higher Education.

E. Modernity of Education

Modernity of education can be an expression either for teaching "modern topics" or meeting the expectations of the modern labour market or developing a modern person with all his/her physical, social and mental abilities.

It looks as if ´modernity` is changing, through the impact of computers, plurality, open societies, knowledge explosion, from learning scientific information and traditional information - processing to the need to develop personal stability and individual identity, general competences, initiative, creativity and the responsibility required in shaping the relatively autonomous units of modern society. Waldorf education especially seems to cultivate thoroughly the development of these capacities which today are so often lacking, neglected and merely presupposed by so called modern educational methods (i.e. social learning, project - method).

F. Self-Evaluation

Sources of self evaluation are the judgment of former students, the rates of early leavers, the time of existence of Waldorf education, the spread and growth of the number of schools, instances of resistance by authorities and criticism from competitors.

The 75 years of Waldorf education show a continual growth accelerating in the last decades (now about 600 schools worldwide spreading out into 42 countries). This seems only possible if there are no experiences of structural failure of those educated.

Beside prejudices and rumours academic criticism is entirely lacking any empirical evidence and only founded in aversion to the quite different approach of anthroposophical anthroplogy.

Former students´ judgments are best measured by the rate of sending their own children to Waldorf schools.

All these figures show at least that if your child is attending a R. Steiner/Waldorf school it belongs to a group of students which by the special profile of their school education at least are not hindered from reaching all levels of further education, and finding access to all professional branches and professions, and might do very well.

So at least the statistics are not against R. Steiner/Waldorf education.

But you can not really build your confidence on them, especially for your individual child. So, to deepen our confidence let us ask:

4. What is the real value of Rudolf Steiner/Waldorf Education and what can I do to strengthen it?

The real value of Waldorf Education compared with other educational approaches lies in the basic and comprehensive development of physical, psychical, cognitive and social competences which become more and more important in the modern computer-world. First hand experience, familiarity with phenomena, and aquaintance with a lot of basic technologies strengthen the personal judgment and give confidence in the world. Wide and deep esthetic training, growing up in a stable, comprehensive group of peers and experience at first hand the civil society of an autonomous school, develop those human qualities so much asked for in modern economy and the importance of which other school systems are becoming increasingly aware.

Most of these qualities can not be tested or expressed by grades, but they are the ones which make the difference.

Gessler 1988 quotes a nursing staff manager who, with these qualities (in his own judgment founded in his Waldorf-school training), developed an excellent hospital atmosphere and staff profile, conditions which for an hospital nowadays are rare and probably could be expressed as favourable even in monetary terms (see Appendix B2).

So, overall, Waldorf education can be a very successful and modern education equipping your child with those tools she or he will use on her expedition of life. Waldorf education can develop confidence in the world to live in and confidence in one`s own strength to be able to master it.

Interestingly enough, modern state school administration, educational scientists and progressive schools develop tendencies and techniques especially in those directions (quality of learning, practical work, autonomy of school) in which Rudolf Steiner/ Waldorf schools have already 75 years of experience internationally.

No wonder we find therefore the following judgments on their Waldorf Education:

To sum up:

If you make sure that your child gets this education under the best possible conditions by your active interest in your school then you might gain confidence in what will become of former R. Steiner/Waldorf school students and of your child, too.

5. Bibliography

van der A, Marjan: Onderzoek naar schoolverlaters aan het einde van de Vrije School tijd. Netherlands: 1992

Arvar, F./ Öhmann, H.: Kristofferskolan. en utvärdering fran tidigare elever. Stockholm: 1994

Brater, M./ Wehle, E.-V.: Bildungs- und Berufsbiographien ehemaliger Kasseler Waldorfschüler. Erfahrungen mit der Integration beruflicher und allgemeiner Bildung in der Freien Waldorfschule Kassel. Nachbefragung von Absolventen einfach- und doppelqualifizierter Ausbildungsgänge. Frankfurt: 1982

Bruijn, M.A. de: Spiegelend Perspectief. De Vrije School Den Haag 70 jaar, 1993

Gessler, L.: Bildungserfolg im Spiegel von Bildungsbibliographien: Begegnungen mit Schülerinnen und Schülern der Hibernia - Schule (Wanne-Eickel). Frankfurt a.M.: 1988

Hofmann, U./ Prümmer, C.v./ Weidner, D. (Bearbeiter): Forschungsbericht über Bildungslebensläufe ehemaliger Waldorfschüler. Eine Untersuchung der Geburtsjahrgänge 1946 und 1947. Stuttgart:1981

Jackson, B.: Old Scholars Research. a report produced for the steiner schools fellowship in December 1995. U.K.

Rudolf Steiner School in Odense: Investigation of Class Twelve Leavers. What do the Students do after Class Twelve? Denmark: 1992

Rudolf Steiner School i Norge: En sporreundersokelse blant elever som har fullfort Steinerskolens videregaende trinn. Norway: 1995

Viinisalo, K.: Steiner School and Research. Finnland: 1982

APPENDIX

Appendix A: List of professions (separate document)

Appendix B1: The short biographies
from: De Vrije School Den Haag 1923 - 1993

Iris Beyer, 1991
De Vrije School (Waldorf School) did mean a lot to me. It has been a part of my daily life for seventeen years out of twenty. But at the present while I have already been studying pedagogy at Leiden State University for one year, the Waldorf School seems very far away.

My Primary school-time floated past before I realised it I went to school in the big building at the Waalsdorperweg. In the lower classes the accent for me was on the artistic subjects like arts, crafts and singing. This did not really change in the upper classes, but I began to realise that this was not an ordinary school. I was offered so much that in the end I was able to make the right choice. I left the Waldorf School feeling satisfied.

Feeling like this I started my present study, satisfied and able to do it. Why did I chose pedagogy and not, for instance, singing which I like so much? Children, I have always loved them, but that is not a sufficient basis. It all started with my social training period when I was still at the Waldorf School. I spend it at the Camphill House `Bosch en Duin`, together with my friend Jasmijn. To work with the mentally handicapped appealed to me very much.

Now I have studied for one year and I have to make a decision about the direction of my specialization. I say "Thank you" to my training period. I have seen a part of the pedagogical field. My specialization will be remedial education with special attention to multicultural education. I will occupy myself with foreign children in the Netherlands and the various problems they have, among other things because of cultural differences.

Here I wish to stop, as I do not know how the future looks. Anyway, I am grateful for my time at the Waldorf School.

The Hague 1993

Guido Loffree, 1962
Because my father was an Upper School teacher at De Haagse Vrije School (Waldorf School) the question as to whether this was the right school for me was never raised at the time. However I can remember to this very day that I was sent out of the lesson on the very first day by our class-teacher Mr van Bemmelen, I had to stand in the corridor during a part of the lesson. Mr van Bemmelen and I never became good friends.

Now that I have reached middle-age and can look back more objectively over the eight or nine years I spend in this school, it is my opinion that the wide general education and also the stimulus of slumbering creative talents, made my wife and me decide to send our three children 14, 11, and 7 years to the Waldorf School.

My own biography went as follows: After a period in the Marines I got one job after another without any perspective. This does not matter that much when you are still young. A psychological test (vocational guidance) turned the scales, I was born to be a welder. That was what I became after a scholarly professional training and it was my vocation most of the time in a management position. I worked in Germany at a nuclear power-station, Denmark, Nigeria, Israel, where I married my girl-friend at the Dutch Embassy (1978). Mental and physical objections against the construction and repair of (unsafe) nuclear power-plants led to the fact that I stopped practising this profession in February 1983.

And now the positive things, the ones that make me say: without the Waldorf School background things would have been different. What did I do? I bought an instrument (trombone) which in the meantime has been changed into an outdoor-light next to the door-plate. Now, with myself as third trombone the Dixieland orchestra, which I raised and conducted, by 1994 has been going for 10 years. Meanwhile this orchestra has become a business which performs as far as South of France. And, most importantly, I have never had so much pleasure in my `work`as I do now.

Zaandam 1993

Appendix B2: The career of Martin
from: the Hibernia School (Germany)

(Gessler: Bildungserfolg im Spiegel von Bildungsbibliographien, 1988)

"...Ich habe Destillationsanalysen gemacht und wurde hinterher vom damaligen Abteilungsleiter ins Labor umgesetzt zu den gaschromatographischen Analysen, weil dazu eine besonders ruhige Hand gebraucht wurde. Die aber hatte ich mir mit Stricken und Häkeln, das uns die Frau unseres Klassenlehrers beibrachte, gründlich geschult." (Gessler 1988, S.53)

"...Ich hatte zwar als Arbeitsmann mein Analysegerät oder meine Destillationskolonne, die ich zu betreuen hatte; aber wie das in so einem Technikum ist in einer Forschungs-gruppe: man arbeitet in ganz kleinen Einheiten oder sehr eng zusammen." Die Fähigkeit zu derartiger Zusammenarbeit fand er durch die Schule bestens ausgebildet. (S.53-54)

"Danach war ich viereinhalb Jahre als Unterrichtspfleger tätig, habe an einer Schule unterrichtet mit 150 Ausbildungsplätzen und war zuletzt stellvertretender Schulleiter im Bereich Krankenpflege. Wenn heute noch an dieser Schule Pflegeschülerinnen so gut wie ihre männlichen Kollegen Sauerstoffgeräte demontieren und wieder zusammen-setzen lernen und aus vielen Rohren und Winkelteilen Extensionen aufbauen und, wo immer es technische Aufgaben zu lösen gilt, nicht jedesmal einen Krankenpfleger herbeirufen, so geht diese Erweiterung des Ausbildungsprogramms und der technischen Kompetenz der angehenden Schwestern auf M. zurück. "In der Hiberniaschule waren wir Jungen ja auch immer mit Mädchen zusammen in den Werkstätten und im Labor, und die Mädchen haben immer alles gemacht, was wir auch. Vor gut drei Jahren habe ich dann dieses Krankenhaus hier übernommen und bin jetzt als `Pflegedienstdirektor` tätig, wobei mich niemand im Haus unter diesem offiziellen Titel kennt." (S.54)

An diesem düsteren Ruhrgebiets-Schneemorgen strahlt der in warmen Ocker- und Rostbrauntönen verputzte Hauptbau eine Wohnlichkeit aus, die einen zunächst wirklich nicht an ein Klinikgebäude denken läßt. Die angeschwärzten Fassaden hatten kürzlich der Erneuerung bedurft. Obwohl das eigentlich keine Frage des Pflegedienstes war, hatte M. sich mit seinem Vorschlag durchgesetzt, beim Neuanstrich vom toten Krankenhaus-Weiß abzugehen und lebenszugewandte `Farbe zu bekennen`. Daß auch im Inneren ein Krankenhaus seine Keimfreiheit nicht durch kalt blendende Glanzanstriche zur Schau zu stellen braucht, zeigen eindrücklich die im Laufe der zwei Jahre von Martins Wirken bereits erneuerten Stationen: eine unaufdringliche, aber bewußt auf die Funktion der Räume abgestimmte Farbgebung schafft überall eine Atmosphäre, die nicht aufs Kranksein ausgerichtet ist, sondern aufs Gesunden. In der Wachstation, deren sorgfältig ausgewählter Wandschmuck mir besonders aufgefallen ist, gelangen wir mit dem diensthabenden Oberpfleger, der gerade keine Patienten zu betreuen hat, von aesthetischen und psychologischen Fragen zu ganz zentralen Problemen der Menschen, die als Gesunde ihr ganzes Leben im Krankenhaus verbringen. Da ich den Eindruck gewinne, Martins scharfer Blick für diese Probleme und seine Art, mit ihnen umzugehen, hätten etwas zu tun mit seiner Schulvergangenheit - tatsächlich fällt wiederholt der Name des Klassenlehrers an der Hiberniaschule - , halte ich ein paar Gedanken fest, die ich an diesem Gesprächsmorgen verstanden zu haben glaube. (S.56)

Um diesem Gespräch auch institutionalisierte Rahmen zu geben, hat M. regelmäßige Wochen- und Monatsbesprechungen mit den verschiedenen Gruppen seiner Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter eingeführt. Auch wenn es da oft um scheinbar nebensächliche Fragen geht, um das neu anzuschaffene Geschirr, um das Grün der zu ersetzenden Pflegekittel oder um die farbliche Gestaltung des Verbindungsflurs zwischen dem Operationssaal und dem Krankenzimmertrakt: immer wieder bringen diese Gespräche wichtige Fragen des Berufs ins Bewußtsein aller. Und je mehr Menschen in Entscheidungsprozesse, die sie irgendwie betreffen, miteinbezogen werden, desto mehr fühlen sie sich für ihr Haus mitverantwortlich. Dadurch aber bringen sie sich in ihre Arbeit selbst mit ein. Ob ein Krankenhaus ein lebendiges und menschliches Haus ist oder nicht, hängt maßgeblich davon ab, wieviele Mitarbeiter sich so einbringen wollen und können. (S.56)

Das gute Arbeitsklima hat seine Auswirkungen. Das Theresienhospital hat eine besonders niedrige Personalfluktuation, hat selten offene Planstellen und dafür in der Regel so viele Bewerber, daß der Pflegeleiter sich bei Einstellungen überlegen kann, wer in den bestehenden Mitarbeiterstab paßt. Dadurch läßt sich der Ton, in dem man miteinander umgeht, noch einmal entscheidend mitbestimmen. Daß seinerzeit in der großen Schulklasse bei Klassenlehrer B. jeder Schüler für alle wahrnehmbar ernstgenommen wurde, war für M. eine der entscheidenden Schulerfahrungen gewesen. Er ist davon überzeugt, daß auch im Krankenhaus jeder, ob Pfleger oder Gepflegter, sich als Mensch ernstgenommen fühlen muß, "sonst kann hier keiner gesund bleiben und niemand gesund werden". Wo das nicht begriffen ist oder durch die Größe der Institution im vorherein in Frage gestellt ist, ist alles Gerede von einer `Humanisierung des Krankenhauses` leeres Geschwätz. (S.57)

Im praktischen-handwerklichen Unterricht in eben diesen Schulwerkstätten hatte Martin seinerzeit Einblick in die verschiedensten Felder der praktischen Arbeit gewonnen. Schon bei seinem Einstieg in den Pflegeberuf merkte er, daß ihm das in unerwarteter Weise zugute kam. "Ich merkte plötzlich, daß ich mit manchen Patienten sprechen konnte über seine Arbeitswelt. Alsbald hatte man nicht nur Krankheit im Vordergrund. Wenn jetzt ein Schlosser da war und der hatte einen Arbeitsunfall gehabt, weil er an der Drehbank nicht aufgepaßt hatte, so wußte man genau, wie sowas zustande kommt". Und dadurch, daß man persönlich auf seine Arbeit eingehen konnte, denn ein Wort gab dann das andere, kam man von der Drehbank auf die Familie zu sprechen, auf seine Kinder, seine Schwierigkeiten mit dem und jenem" und konnte vielleicht doch etwas helfen.
Wer die Arbeitswelt seiner Gesprächspartner kennt, wird für ihn glaubhafter. Diese Erfahrung machte M. nicht nur als Pfleger, sondern auch als Pflegeleiter, wo man ja dauernd mit den verschiedensten Berufsleuten zu tun hat, die zusammen den kompli-zierten Betrieb eines Krankenhauses reibungslos in Gang halten sollen. (S.58)

Mit dem Blick eines Allround-Handwerkers, der auch das Schreinern wenigstens grundberuflich während fast einem Vierteljahr gelernt hatte, erkannte M., das sich da ohne verhältnismäßigen baulichen Aufwand auf gemessener Höhe Blenddecken einziehen ließen, die nicht nur einen optischen Gewinn brächten, sondern mit dem Haus auch etwas von seiner Kälte nehmen könnten. Mit dem Blick des Installateurs, den er sich in der Elektroausbildung der Schule angeeignet hatte, erkannte er die Möglichkeit, die über den Blenddecken entstandenen Toträume als Kabelkanäle zu benutzen und auf diese Weise ohne Lärm- und stauberzeugende Unterputzarbeiten jene Kabelstränge einzuziehen, die es erlaubten, gleich alle alten Krankenzimmer neu mit Energie, aber etwas auch mit Sauerstoff zu versorgen. Mit der Organisationsphantasie des Pflegeleiters, die er sich mittlerweile auch angeeignet hatte, erkannte er sogleich die Möglichkeit, über die neue Ausrüstung der Krankenzimmer mit all jenen Anschlüssen, nach denen die heutige Pflegetechnologie ruft, von alten Krankenhausstrukturen loszukommen und die herkömmliche Abteilungsorganisation grundsätzlich neu zu überdenken. Nach gründlichen Besprechungen mit allen betroffenen Mitarbeitern löste er zum Beispiel die bisherige Intensivstation auf und durchmischte auf allen Stationen Zimmer für Intensivpflege und Zimmer für Routinepflege. Damit kam man los von einer ärgerlichen Hierarchisierung der Abteilungen und des dort arbeitenden Personals und von der Gefahr einer psychologisch ungünstig wirkenden Überbetreuung der als `schwerkrank` eingestuften Patienten und einer notorischen Unterbetreuung auf den Stationen für `Normalfälle`. So zog eine Maßnahme die andere nach, und noch immer ist, zusammen mit der fortschreitenden baulichen Erneuerung, der Veränderungsprozeß in Gang. Ohne lange Diskussionen fiel auch die vielerorts für absolut unverzichtbar gehaltene Trennung zwischen Männerabteilung und Frauenabteilung, und dies in einem Krankenhaus in gut katholischer Trägerschaft.
Die Welt des Krankenhauses gilt vielen als eine besonders schwer veränderbare, und kirchliche Institutionen gelten in der Regel für besonders konservativ. Dennoch hat sich das Theresien-Hospital in den gut zwei Jahren, seit M. hier seine Stelle als Pflegeleiter angetreten hat, mehr gewandelt als in den vorausgegangenen drei Jahrzehnten. (S.58-59)

M. ist zwar überzeugt, daß die 4 Jahre, die er auf der Hiberniaschule verbracht hat, für den Berufsweg, den er gegangen ist, von großer Bedeutung waren. "Ohne sie stünde ich jetzt in einem Labor oder in einem Elektrobetrieb, irgendwie in der Masse unterge-gangen." (S.59)

Appendix C: General comments

SPIEGELEND > < PERSPECTIEF
De Vrije School Den Haag 1923 - 1993

About 3000 pupils attended the school for one or more years.
In 1993 220 pupils wrote a short biography as a gift to the school.
Here are some quotations from the book of these collected biographies.


1957 I had to learn to develop my own thoughts.

1964 Children - important - "How will they become as people in this world."

1966 The highest quality that in my opinion Waldorf Education possesses is the development of one`s initiative...

1976 ...more universal education.

1976 With a Waldorf education, you can do everything you would like to do.

1979 I still agree that R.S. did have marvellous ideas and good common sense. It is a pity that people sometimes use these ideas in a very dogmatic way. I think that it was his intention that people should develop it according to their own times. Everybody is responsible for himself and his own action.

1977 ...the strong tie with my classmates.

1976 Waldorf schools are, I believe now, one of the best inventions of this century.

1976 ....the many-sidedness of the education.

1978 Society transforms at a high speed. Therefore the school has to keep in mind that only the adaptable survive if all other break. Besides preservating the past, one has also to create the future.

1982 The arrogant behaviour of the teacher toward other forms of education.

1983 ...the less concrete way of working.

1986 ...rejected for military service: did not fit in the system.

1987 School, be critical of yourself. Move with the times and what they ask of you.

1987 School inefficient for high-performance children...

1988 ...no longer hesitates to renew certain traditions in order to make it more understandable for the children of today.