Strengthening a Gem of Waldorf Education

World languages are vital to fulfilling the mission of Waldorf education, to educate children to reach their full potential as human beings who have the capacity to freely choose empathy and peace. By design, Waldorf schools offer two world languages starting in grade one. This fundamental part of the curriculum is instrumental in developing the flexibility of thinking and feeling necessary for true communication out of empathy. Including the local tongue, the three languages form a free space in the center for the individual to embody the mindset of a language and culture appropriate for the circumstances.

On this continent and particularly in this country, it is often difficult to build and sustain strong, effective world language programs in Waldorf schools. Even though it is key to the curriculum and mission, some schools struggle to fund full time positions, training and professional development for two world language teachers. The result is that these schools offer only one world language, perhaps only part time. Pervasive ideas from the dominant culture, (i.e., that learning languages is somehow non-essential and that all time should be spent on “core curriculum”) can bleed into the programming and funding choices made by Waldorf schools.

Many programs are not fully supported or even cut due to a high rate of turn-over in world language teachers. This lack of retention stems from an interlocking set of circumstances. School initiatives often begin with one very part time language program, perhaps taught by a parent or community volunteer. Then they wait and see if the program is successful before investing further. Sometimes this kind teacher is not trained in language teaching or Waldorf pedagogy and paid very little. Often, they are not welcomed into the faculty due to a lack of understanding and valuing of the subject, dogmatic ‘I know and you don’t’ attitudes, and a lack of understanding of cultural differences. In the end, these courageous teachers feel so isolated and unsupported with little or no professional development funded by the school, rare and expensive Waldorf trainings and no community of peers, that they are unable to stay with the program long enough to strengthen it and begin to advocate for more support from the school. I have heard several Waldorf school administrators say, “We haven’t budgeted for full time language teachers because they don’t seem to stick around.” In those circumstances, would you? And this is just getting the first world language program going!

In an ideal world, Waldorf schools would plan at the outset for two full time world language teacher positions with sufficient funds for mentoring, training and professional development.

This is not the case at this time on this continent.

Here is what we can do in the meantime:

Empower the teachers themselves to build engaging, efficient and sustainable programs so they can advocate for increased programming and funding based on their strong outcomes.

This can be done by offering accessible mentoring, professional development, encouragement, ideas and inspiration to all world language teachers in Waldorf schools.

I was fortunate enough to be supported at Cedarwood Waldorf School in my development as a world language teacher. I was able to attend and graduate from the Foreign Language Teacher Training at Rudolf Steiner College. I have learned so much in my 20 years as a world language teacher; from master teachers and mentors, from my students and from my own studies of Anthroposophy and language teaching methods. In 2010 I felt it was time to begin to pass on some of what I had learned and to offer practical tools and support to other language teachers in Waldorf schools. Each February, the World Language Teachers Conference has been a haven for learning and a community for teachers. Workshops have been offered on:

• Anthroposophical underpinnings of Waldorf education

• Developmental stages of the child

• Waldorf world language curriculum

• Age appropriate class content

• Planning and organization

• Artistic development for the teacher

• Proficiency based language teaching

• Staying in the target language

• Movement and song in the language class

• Teacher health (meditation, movement, balance)

• Collegiality

• Advocacy

Teachers have come away with knowledge and skills that give them the confidence and strength to continue this important work in Waldorf schools and to advocate for having two fully supported world language programs at their schools.

It is my continued mission to empower world language teachers in Waldorf schools to build engaging, efficient and sustainable programs. When schools also fully fund these teachers’ hard work, the teachers remain with the school, establishing strong programs that are vital to the greater mission of fostering the development of free human beings capable of empathy, compassion and peace.

Why World Languages are Integral to Waldorf Education

Consonants and vowels, emphasis and intonation.

These are the building blocks of language. Each language expresses the folksoul of a people through sound and structure, the way in which consonants and vowels come together, and how they are pronounced and emphasized. This folksoul can include not only the social conventions and cultural history of a people, but also the very way in which the world at large is perceived. 

Students at Cedarwood Waldorf School interact in Spanish and Japanese almost daily, moving smoothly between these and the English language. As the Spanish teacher at Cedarwood, I have been privileged for the past 20 years to be part of the growth of our students’ capacities for flexibility of thinking and compassion through their experience of our world language program. 

In human development, movement precedes language. The gestures and movements of a baby’s limbs are transformed into the movements of their larynx, bringing about the sounds of speech. When a baby hears speech, their tiny larynx also begins to move in sympathy and imitation.

We all begin life as citizens of the world, ready to adapt to the place, culture, language, and family we have arrived in. 

Later, in toddlerhood, we begin to internalize the language in order to use it in our thinking processes. This is where a culture, through its language, begins to form how we view, think, and feel about the world. 

The place where a language is born -- the very geography, climate, flora, and fauna -- gives form and feeling to the sounds of speech. The conundrum of the western hemisphere is that the languages that are most widely spoken did not originate here. The feeling of the land and the original indigenous languages seems to have seeped into the sound of these european languages over time, softening consonants and opening vowel sounds. 

In all speech, consonants bring the essence of form while vowels bring feeling into play. The consonant to vowel sound ratio in a language can give us a sense of the nuances of the worldview of a culture. 

English has many consonants and words ending in closed sounds, expressing some of its Germanic roots. In Spanish, the vowels are more predominant, with most words ending in an open sound. In Latin America, even the consonants are pronounced in a softer way than in Spain, while in some Caribbean areas the vowels sound even more open and some ending consonants fall away entirely. In Japanese, the consonants and vowels are carefully balanced and attention is given to the quiet spaces between: the words not said. 

When students have the opportunity to experience and learn these languages from a young age, as they do in a Waldorf school, they can develop the flexibility of thinking that is at the heart of Waldorf education. Indeed, this should be central to all education in the future. 

This flexibility of thinking goes beyond the ability to think creatively about diverse subjects to actually develop the capacity to think from different mindsets and perspectives. 

With three languages balancing each other, a person can stand freely in the center, choosing the language and mindset that best fits any given task. They are not inextricably tethered to one way of thinking about and interacting with the world. This flexibility of thinking can lead to the expert problem-solving skills needed in today’s changing job market. 

Most importantly, the capacity to think in different modes and worldviews can offer human beings the freedom to let go of fixed ideas about one another, develop interest in and empathy for one another, and engage with the world with compassion.