Research On Rudolf Steiner's Educational Ideology And Its Practice

Educator, philosopher, artist and scientist, Rudolf Steiner (1861—1925) engaged in the spiritual-scientific research, known as anthroposophy. Based on anthroposophy, his viewpoints on education, medicine, the arts, architecture, agriculture, and so on, are unique. As an important person of the new education movement in Europe in the late 19th and early 20th century, Steiner has not yet come into its own in the educational field in China.Rudolf Steiner was born in the transitional period from laisser-faire capitalism to monopoly capitalism in Germany, when there were radical changes in the aspects of politics, economy and culture.Steiner's educational ideology came into being in this context, connected with his character and experience.Steiner's educational ideology is based on anthroposophy. In Steiner's view, the human being comprises body, soul and spirit. The human soul, which mediates between the human spirit and the bodily organism, is endowed with the capacities of thinking, feeling and will. It is the task of education from birth to adulthood to develop the child's body, soul and spirit, and make his inherent potential and spirit free.Steiner emphasized education should follow the human being's inherent laws of growth, which he called seven-year developmental stage of growth. According to Steiner's educational ideology, curriculum structure contains main lessons and specially lessons. Grading teaching and teaching as art is of vital importance. Teachers should have many accomplishments, having more freedom in the teaching and school management.Under the guidance of Steiner's educational ideology, plenty of Waldolf schools has been founded in the world, for example, China, the USA. the U.K, Germany, Russia and India, since 1919, when the first free Waldolf school set up by Rudolf Steiner at Stuttgart in Germany.Steiner's educational ideology has survived across time and been able to travel across politics, economy and cultural. The main reason might be that it is human-oriented, which can't be ignored by the progress of the times. Steiner's educational ideology meets the demands of society and people to some extent, and it might provide some references to current educational reform in China.