Dorit Winter is Director of the Bay Area Center for Waldorf Education. Jeff Loubet is a Grades teacher at the East Bay Waldorf School in El Sobrante, CA. Here, they speak about the core values of Waldorf education as an alternative model needed in today's materially-obsessed society..
There are 1,026 "recognized" Waldorf schools in sixty countries and approximately 2000 early childhood centers. Waldorf presumes that each child is an individual, a unique spiritual entity. Waldorf is education for life, enabling the child to develop into an adult who can navigate the storms and vicissitudes of life.
The three realms of the school are: early childhood, grades, and high school. The grades teacher works with the same group of children for eight years (with many additional "subject" teachers). The approach is holistic in that it does not address only the child's memory and intellectual capacities, but includes the child's soul and spirit.