Roudolf Steiner's Ideas On the Early Years Environment

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  TURGENEVA LIANA                                                            BA QTS (ASEY)

Year 1 ASEYS 2001/2002 – Semester One

Assessment 2 (19th October 2001)

ROUDOLF STEINER’S IDEAS ON THE EARLY YEARS ENVIRONMENT

To understand the modern concept of the early years environment it is essential to be aware of the historical development of this concept. No one concerned with the problems of creating the right educational environment can afford to ignore the effect, which an Austro-Hungarian philosopher and practitioner, Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), have had on the current understanding of the idea.

Steiner is most widely known for his innovative approach to children's mental, physical and emotional development and as the founder of the Waldorf Schools based on the belief that creative activities are psychologically valuable for educational purposes. The first Waldorf School was opened in Germany in 1919 to serve the needs of Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory workers’ children. Considered revolutionary at the time, the methods have proved themselves to be thoroughly practical and effective.

Steiner developed a totally new conception of educational environment where a child is recognized as a being of body, soul and spirit, and consequently environmental scheme aimed to attend to all three. Rudolf Steiner believed that children should be given a complete education and not simply some kind of training, which meant that the education was to help each person to find his/her right space in life and to fulfil a personal destiny, and one of the main factors in achieving this aim was creating the right environment. According to Steiner,

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“not until the age of nine or ten does the child really learn to distinguish himself from his environment” (R.Steiner, 1974, p.44), that’s why in the Waldorf Schools the role of the environment in the early years education becomes paramount.

        Once we realize how extremely sensitive to the influences of their surroundings young children are, then the role of primary education also becomes clear: it has to serve as a protector and a healer so that human beings shall not grow up empty of soul and weak in spirit. (L.Francis Edmunds, 1962, p.13)

The Waldorf School builds its ...

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