Rhythms of Learning

by Rudolf Steiner, Roberto Trostli

Waldorf education, an established and growing independent school movement, continues to be shaped and inspired by Rudolf Steiner's numerous lectures on education. In Rhythms of Learning, key lectures on children and education have been thoughtfully chosen from the vast amount of material by Steiner and presented in a context that makes them approachable and accessible. In his many discussions and lectures, Steiner shared his vision of an education that considers the spirit, soul, and physiology in children as they grow. Roberto Trostli, an experienced Waldorf teacher, has selected the works that best illustrate the fundamentals of this unique approach. In each chapter, Trostli explains Steiner's concepts and describes how they work in the contemporary Waldorf classroom. We learn how the teacher-child relationship and the Waldorf school curriculum changes as the students progress from kindergarten through high-school. This book will serve as an excellent resource for parents who want to understand how their child is learning. Parents will be better prepared to discuss their child's education with teachers, and teachers will find it a valuable reference source and communication tool.

Genres: Education, Parenting, Nonfiction

408 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1998

About the author

Author also wrote under the name Rudolph Steiner.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...


Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a literary critic and published works including The Philosophy of Freedom. At the beginning of the twentieth century he founded an esoteric spiritual movement, anthroposophy, with roots in German idealist philosophy and theosophy. His teachings are influenced by Christian Gnosticism or neognosticism. Many of his ideas are pseudoscientific. He was also prone to pseudohistory.
In the first, more philosophically oriented phase of this movement, Steiner attempted to find a synthesis between science and spirituality. His philosophical work of these years, which he termed "spiritual science", sought to apply what he saw as the clarity of thinking characteristic of Western philosophy to spiritual questions,  differentiating this approach from what he considered to be vaguer approaches to mysticism. In a second phase, beginning around 1907, he began working collaboratively in a variety of artistic media, including drama, dance and architecture, culminating in the building of the Goetheanum, a cultural centre to house all the arts. In the third phase of his work, beginning after World War I, Steiner worked on various ostensibly applied projects, including Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, and anthroposophical medicine.
Steiner advocated a form of ethical individualism, to which he later brought a more explicitly spiritual approach. He based his epistemology on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's world view in which "thinking…is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas." A consistent thread that runs through his work is the goal of demonstrating that there are no limits to human knowledge.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful survey of Waldorf education that is both insightful and accessible. Trostli begins each chapter with a general overview of Steiner's philosophy and its application in education and follows with sections from Steiners's own lectures. The book is also sequenced in such a way that it presents a comprehensive trajectory of Waldorf education, from kindergarten to high school, providing the reader with a broad perspective on what exactly is achieved with these methods. I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in learning about Waldorf Education as a whole.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've learned much about temperament and teaching; it is more important HOW you teach than WHAT you teach; but the curriculum bases for each age are outlined as well...along with the how.

[Doni · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first book on Waldorf Education I've read that gave me a good enough sense of the foundational concepts of Waldorf Education that I could decide whether I agreed with its approach or not. Before reading it, I had a generalized sense that it treats the whole child which must be good, right? Now, although I still like that it moves away from education being a solely intellectual pursuit, many of Steiner's ideas strike me as arcane and fanciful. For example, he categorizes people into four temperaments based on the medieval doctrine of the four humors. While this could potentially be insightful even while based on extremely outmoded science, I do not find the four profiles sufficient to describe the complexity of individual personalities. Many of Steiner's claims do not strike me as true based on my extensive work with children and makes me question the legitimacy of his expertise. At the same time, it is refreshing simply to be exposed to a vastly different take on education from the usual canon.

[Christina Goodison · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading heaven on earth and you are your child's first teacher, I was ready to move into some steiner lectures. This was a great overview of K-12th and the "why" behind what is taught and when. Also loved the examples in how math is taught! This just further confirms the choice I made to homeschool using a Waldorf curriculum.

[Suzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely one worth coming back to. I think more of the book is underlined than not, now. This was a great book for an introduction to reading straight Steiner lectures, which are next on my curriculum reading list . . .

[Laurie Rockenbeck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another Waldorf book.