"Receive the children in reverence, educate them in love, let them go forth in freedom" - Rudolf Steiner

By Kerry Boland

The Art of Steiner Education is built on a deep understanding of the spiritual and formative forces working through the different stages of a child’s life and calling forth strategies to support the gradual awakening of the child’s consciousness.'  

The physical body grows rapidly during the first seven years, where through the will sense, learning is through imitation, movement and play.  The child’s whole being has a ‘dreamy consciousness,’ responding to sensory impressions from their environment, which Steiner references as ‘one big sense-organ.’ (Steiner: The Child’s Changing Consciousness, p.44).  

Curriculum and pedagogical approaches offer age appropriate, child-centred and embodied learning that is attuned with the child’s developing faculties.   Stehlik describes Steiner education as the Art of ‘synchronizing teaching approaches with the rhythm of a child’s unfolding capacities.’ (2002, p.38).