Waldorf News

Waldorf: From the Bottom Up

“Waldorf: From the bottom up” is what former Bundestag president Rita Sussmuth calls the movement that the Intercultural Waldorf School in Mannheim has started.  The school, founded in 2003, educates poor and ultra-poor immigrant children alongside middle-class and upper middle-class children.

Waldorf schools are considered fairly elitist.  You wouldn’t expect to see children from lower-income or immigrant families there.  Emil Molt, the director of the Waldorf Astoria cigarette factory wanted a new form of education for his workers’ children.  He invited Rudolf Steiner to develop a school for these children.  It was a revolutionary event; foreign languages starting in first grade, co-education, self-administration, and don’t forget – the exotic movement art of Eurythmy.  And all of this was for “lower-class” children.

Waldorf schools all over the world, from Russia to South America, are experiencing a boom.  Of the 1,000 Waldorf schools world-wide, a few are in the poorest and most afflicted regions; in the slums of Calcutta and Sau Paulo, in the townships of South Africa, in Palestine and Israel, and on Indian reservations in the US.  They encompass all ethnic groups, religious beliefs, and philosophies.  In Germany, there is a movement to renew the original Waldorf impulse.  In Germany, there are at least six Waldorf schools in any of the really big cities and schools are popping up in smaller cities and in the seemingly deserted German countryside.  Their “clientele” comes from all walks of life.  These days, at least half the children are from divorced families, single-parent homes, or from children in the care of social services.  Without the support of high-earning families, the schools couldn’t survive.  It seems like social segregation has reached the Waldorf schools.

Almost a hundred years after the start of the Waldorf schools, the Intercultural Waldorf School in Mannheim has taken up the founding impulse of Rudolf Steiner and Emil Molt.  Between the Asian shop, an off-track betting kiosk, the Verdi supermarket, a carpet wholesaler, and a mosque, the school opened its doors in a run-down factory building.  You might just pass by if you were looking for a typical Waldorf school until you chance to glance and see a small wooden notice board.  A bare staircase, like in an anonymous apartment block, leads up to a door.  It’s only when you come through the door and enter a large central foyer that you begin to notice the typical Waldorf paintings hanging on the walls.

Class is in session and there’s no one, students or teachers, in the hallways.  Behind one door you can hear the feet stamping in rhythm as the class recites a Turkish poem.  Behind another you can hear a guitar accompanying songs in English.  Behind yet another door it’s completely quiet.

As I came into the first grade the children were standing and enthusiastically singing “Now I Can Sing My ABCs”.  The class teacher, Christoph Doll, accompanied the children on the guitar.  Next they recited a poem while rhythmically clapping.  The children were totally engaged.  In the rhythmic part of the main lesson the sense of language is strengthened through music and speech.  The multicultural theme continues in the story part of the lesson.  The children dive into the world of fairy tales from different lands and the myths and sagas of different cultures.  The bell rings, the doors fly open, and light- and dark-skinned children storm into the hallway.  It’s lunchtime and the international menu today has falafel, chickpeas, salad, and yogurt on it.

Without mutual respect, you can’t have integration

The school neighborhood has about 45% foreigners and the school itself has just over 50% immigrant children.  The families range from very poor and unemployed, a few upper middle-class, and traditional Islamic families, to American parents who intentionally choose a multi-cultural experience for their children.  Over 40% of the children have learning difficulties.

250 students from 20 different ethnic groups in nine grades are taught by a faculty of 30 teachers from 16 different countries.  In spite of this diversity, they manage to avoid a Tower of Babel-esque confusion of languages.  The main language used in the school is German and it is especially emphasized starting in the first grade.   There are a lot of children who can’t speak their own language or German properly.  The “Mannheim Model” is utterly simple and convincing.  The normal state integration school has over 90% immigrant children.  They have all the expected problems, both learning and social, and these schools are considered “ghettos”.  “How is my child supposed to integrate, if only two kids in the class speak German?” asks a Turkish mother.  Integration only makes sense, if you know what you’re integrating into.  Once the children become acclimatized, it rubs off on the families and you end up with a rich doctor exchanging her life story with a Turkish mother.  “All the prejudices disappear,” says Mr. Doll.  Mutual appreciation begins to grow.

You’ll see a teacher taking the family to the barbershop or to the welfare office.

The teachers go into the families.  The teachers make home visits and take on the role of a social worker.  They accompany the families to the hairdresser, the doctor, or to the welfare office and try and break through the “pattern of hopelessness”.  Normally these families don’t place a very high value on education.  They spend more on Nike sneakers, cell phones, and Nintendo games than they do educating their children.  Their financial contribution is low, due to their income.  30% of the families can’t pay anything, not even $50 a month per child.  The shortfall is covered by funds from the city as well as from foundations and private sources, such as Turkish businesses.

What it’s like for a German student to experience being a foreigner?

Educational researchers have taken note of the school.  The universities are now sending their doctoral candidates to observe the school.  There’s also an ongoing research project that is focusing on language acquisition and the school’s success with teaching German to immigrant children.

Entrance tests show that none of the children can speak and use German properly at the beginning of the first grade.  After three years, by using their concept of “Moving Language”, and without any other tutoring, learning difficulties as well as social problems disappear.  To intensify the integration-based approach that’s used every day, the children have two lessons a week from first through third grade in different languages.  “The social benefit for the students was enormous,” praises Albert Brater, head of the Institute for Intercultural Pedagogy.  When a German student experiences what a foreigner would when the lessons are held in Serbo-Croatian or Turkish, the children with an immigrant background might experience for the first time what it’s like to have something introduced in their own language.  It really increases their self-esteem when they can hear stories and sing songs in their native tongue.  This approach is intensified by the afternoon lessons.  They are always group-oriented, such as theater, reading projects, gardening, and conflict resolution.  And don’t forget that there are a lot of religious and world festivals from all the different cultures that everyone celebrates together, often with musical and culinary contributions from the parents.

Integration is a testing ground for society

A Waldorf school that bridges the gulf between social strata has really got its pulse on the founding impulse of the Waldorf school movement.  Other intercultural Waldorf initiatives have sprung up in Stuttgart, Hamburg and Dortmund.  People are becoming active there, because politicians and school boards aren’t addressing the problem.  The school in Mannheim has really fulfilled its mission: “Overcoming Alienation”.

Written by Mathias Maurer, Erziehungskunst, March, 2010, translated by David Kennedy and Elise Kennedy for Waldorf Today.