About 30 years ago, two years after I had graduated from high school, TV Guide ran an article about the Galloping Gourmet. They wanted to know what he attributed his excessive energy, zaniness, willingness to experiment, and ease in conducting a cooking show on live TV. "Oh," he said, "I went to a Waldorf School."

So did I, and that about sums it up for me. Going through a Waldorf School has made me willing, and able, to see life kaleidescopically. It has made me able to see things from the perspective of The Other. It has given me the confidence to look for creative solutions to difficult problems. And it has given me the sense that I am part of a long continuum of human beings whose consciousness has evolved from ancient mind to the present, and that while I am unique, I am not alone. How, you may ask, can a school do that? Well, you need several ingredients.

One thing you need is an adult, a teacher, who accepts the notion that all children are "spiritual" beings. That is, the teacher must believe that not only are children born with a physical body, which is the product of the genetic combination of two other people, and not only are children influenced by the environment in which they find themselves, but also that children come into the world as themselves--wholly who they are in some other, third respect, and that the teacher's job, so to speak, is to help harmonize these three elements of the child's being into a well integrated adult. Thus the teacher is working with Nature, Nurture, and The Child Herself. That already makes Waldorf Schools different.

Then you need that teacher to have an understanding that ontogeny recapitulated phylogeny. That is, we all go through the stages of evolution in our individual lives that human beings in their entirety have gone through since their beginnings. With this overview we can see certain things right off the bat: we are on our hands and knees before we stand upright, as did our most ancient ancestors. We learn to name and visually represent objects that are familiar to us, as did our ancient ancestors.

We put to song stories that we are taught. We learn that our little family unit is part of a community, and that community is part of another community, larger than our own, and that each enlargement of the community carries with it more and more complexity and people, some like ourselves, some very different, yet all sharing certain fundamental aspects of "humanness." Eventually our perspective is wide enough to imagine what we cannot see--a planet, a solar system, a universe. The more we broaden our vision, the more we can see ourselves in relation to what is not us, and also in relation to what is inherently common to us all.

Each of these larger visions comes at different stages of our lives. At age two we can say "no," because we know we are distinct from others around us, separate. At six or seven we begin to truly understand right from wrong, bad from good. We begin to make moral judgments that the four year-old cannot make. This is the traditional beginning of academic education in most cultures, this onset of the moral perspective.

At nine we not only know we are separate from others, and that some actions and people are better than others, but we begin to see ourselves and others critically. This is the stage, Piaget noted, when a child can tell that a flat saucer with two ounces has more water than tall cylinder with one ounce of water. It is at this time that children also become hypercritical, that they discover the glaring faults of their previously perfect parents.

At twelve or thirteen, children begin to turn that kind of hypercriticism inward, noticing their own defects, often watching with dismay or horror the changes in their own bodies. And at this time criticism begins to develop into the more highly developed sense of critical reasoning and the beginnings of a natural inclination toward scientific procedures, including the use of inductive and deductive logic.

Now add to that the belief that all people are first and foremost artistic and musical beings, and that whatever is taught, and at whatever age or stage a person is at, art and music must be at the core of what is being offered. In a Waldorf School this takes the form of children learning music that parallels the curriculum right from first grade, and in creating books containing all that they are learning. These books are written and illustrated by the children. Young children get the written material from simple stories written on the chalkboard by their teacher and then copied into their books. As the children get older they learn to take notes and create their own compositions. Children who graduate from Waldorf Schools are consummate note takers and often very fine writers. But no matter what the subject matter, whether it is science or history or literature, children create beautifully illustrated notebooks which they then use to study the material that they have learned. It is a unique system, and it works.

Finally you need the vehicle for all this--a curriculum that can help the teacher to tie the ideas, the creative effort, and the essence of each child together. The overall structure of the curriculum presupposes that all people are spiritual as well as physical beings; all people are artistic beings, and that all people can learn best on the outside what they themselves are experiencing on the inside. Thus it is unnecessary, and perhaps even harmful to try to teach scientific method to a six year old (of course there are, and always have been those children to whom this does not apply). It is better to meet the average six year old where she is--at the moment of the dawning of the existence of opposites--black and white, good and evil, right and wrong.

The Waldorf curriculum uses fairy tales at this stage. Adults who are horrified at the goriness of some of these stories need only spend time with children of this age to see exactly how preoccupied they are with witches, demons, monsters and Good Guys. Let me give you an example of the kind of story that would typically be taught to children of this age.

There are countless stories of kings who have three sons, one of whom must complete a task set by the father in order to inherit the kingdom. The oldest is usually the favorite, but when he sets out on his journey he resents the intrusion of beggars and others who would impede his mission. This child is usually selfish and often comes to a bad end. The second son then begins the same journey, and often actively interferes with the same sets of obstacles placed in his path as were placed in his brother's. This son is also mean and selfish, and comes to a bad end. The third son then begs to be allowed to take the journey, but is considered such a simpleton by the father that he is at first refused. Finally the father relents, and this child sets forth. At every "intrusion," this child sees opportunity. At every interference, this child sees challenge. Of course, this child is the one who succeeds in his mission, not only because he is not selfish or mean, but because he is actively kind.

Usually it is the very things and people that seemed to the first sons to be obstacles in their path that help the youngest, the "fool," to attain his goal. If each of us could learn this lesson, we would live in a very different world. Children educated in a Waldorf School at least have this image to carry them. Most people are not even exposed to it.

The curriculum moves through the years in much the same fashion, meeting children where they are with stories of people and their exploits. Even history taught in the upper grades is taught from biographical perspectives, rather than from events as free standing occurrences. Let me give you some examples--this is not an exhaustive list of all subjects taught, but an overview of the tenor of a Waldorf curriculum.

To follow along in the "social science" path, 2nd Graders learn fables, stories that tell of the exploits of people and creatures who are sometimes good, sometimes bad, but more often just plain silly or conceited. Children this age understand the lessons in these stories perfectly.

The nine year old in 3rd Grade hears Bible stories that are not only moral, ethical and religious, but which also give actual historical data that begins to figure into what we know about the development of Western Culture. Mathematics goes from learning to count and learning multiplication tables to doing more complex functions, like multiplying large numbers together, and even the beginning of long division. In music, rounds can be introduced.

In 4th Grade, when children are fully into their hypercritical phase, and their awareness extends beyond themselves to the possibility of decay and death, the stories that are taught come from the mythologies that deal with death--Norse and perhaps Babylonian mythology. The beginnings of teaching about the life cycle from the birth to death are introduced in the form of zoology.

In 5th Grade, Greek mythology and some history are introduced--the beginnings of democracy--as well as Indian and Eastern creation stories which keep their mystical focus even into the historical aspects of their evolution. Botany and plant science give form to growing things, just as the children's bodies are beginning to take on forms new and unfamiliar to them. Local geography extends to the whole United States, just as the children's horizons are extending beyond themselves and their immediate families and friends, to include a wider community. In this year those children who do not play musical instruments also learn to read music, and two-part harmony is introduced in choral music.

6th grade is a kind of watershed time. Physics--the actual laws and mechanics of movement, the laws of Rome, and geometry with its laws and exactitude fill this year. Geography and literature extend beyond what was learned the year before to include what we now refer to as Third World countries and cultures. This is also the time in children's lives when they go beyond simple curiosity about what is foreign or different and actually become interested in social governance. This is the year when student councils, etc. take on real importance, and bossiness seems to reach a fever pitch--which really is governance run amok.

7th grade leaves all mythologically based cultures behind and plunges into European and American history. Literature is more complex and demanding, and algebra, with its skeletal structure is introduced. Children also explore the skeletal structures of matter and their own bodies through the studies of inorganic chemistry and human physiology. Some of the most interesting discussions are born during physiology lessons when children realize that the systems that they are learning about are actually inside them. Classes can be very challenging, as children explore their own mortality in the workings and also failings of the human body.

Finally, in 8th Grade, history and geography of the present world are taught. Chemistry, algebra, literature and physiology continue in this year. Choral music is now sung in four-part harmony.

High schools tend to follow the subject patterns of most American high schools, with the difference being that the emphasis is still on the children creating their own material, rather than using text books.

The genius of the Waldorf Curriculum is that it sets out to meet children along their path at exactly that moment when they are receptive physiologically and spiritually to what is being taught. The result is young men and women who emerge with a sense of being part of a structure, having arisen from a stream that has flowed from the beginning of time, and which now flows through them. Such people are capable of leadership because they have confidence in their own perceptions and intuitions, and a willingness to see whatever comes their way as an opportunity, rather than as an obstacle in their path.

Publisher's Note:

Jill Brody attended The Waldorf School in Garden City, New York from 1949 to 1963. Later Jill became a Waldorf teacher and taught for a time at the Rudolph Steiner School in New York City. She is now a photographer with her own graphics business in Providence, Rhode Island.

The German curriculum of the schools was crystallized as early as the 1920's and has remained much the same to this day. The Waldorf Schools in America are here as a result of Rudolph Steiner. This early 19th century educator and philosopher was influential in Europe long before there were any schools here.

There are now Waldorf Schools (in some cases known as Rudolf Steiner Schools) throughout the United States and Europe. One of the closest is pictured above. It is the Hartbrook School in Hadley, MA, built about six years ago.