The following saying is one that is oft-quoted on Steiner websites, largely due to the fact that it is perhaps an apt summary of our core business as a Steiner school:

“Our highest endeavour is to produce young men and women who out of themselves are able to impart meaning and direction to their own lives.” Rudolf/ Marie Steiner

How exactly does a Steiner education help young people growing up in a post covid world to find meaning and direction? Andrew Hill, CEO of Steiner Education Australia, recently penned his thoughts on this matter.  Here are his seven reasons why. 

1. The Human Story:

The Steiner curriculum provides a glimpse into the global and historical story of humanity, the long journey of the human mind. Through story and text, our students pursue the huge story that charts the rise and fall of epochs across the globe, preparing them to take their place as global citizens ready to play their part in the next chapter of the grand narrative that is human life. They also experience the Australian story within the world story, locating them as citizens of this country on First Nations land.

2. Creating beauty: 

Our students learn the creative arts, to draw, paint, sing, sculpt and act. We are not art schools, we simply teach our students the arts so they learn to think in multiple perspectives, to enrich their feeling lives, and to be able to create beautiful moments that can provide them with fulfillment throughout life.

3. Designing and making useful things: 

Our students learn to make things, both useful and beautiful, designed by themselves. From sewing in Kindergarten to blacksmithing in high school, they build skills of the entrepreneur which enables them to create products and artefacts able to be communicated to an audience.

4. Learning to collaborate rather than compete:

The most successful world leaders through covid time have brought diverse people together and built community. Our non selective, non ranking classrooms prepare future leaders to work collaboratively in building communities of individuals who can work together. Every day in every class we work on fostering each student’s unique gifts, and learn to build community out of diversity.

5. Living in Nature:

As a T shirt I saw recently says, Nature can help us heal. We immerse children in the natural world, helping them see with wonder the wisdom in the world around them. Our outdoor education experiences challenge students to go beyond their physical and personal limitations to reach a level of resilience and strength that can surprise their parents. When some adults are paying good money for “Soil to Soul” wellness retreats, our schools offer regular doses of the healing power of Nature.

6. Play: 

We are most human when we play, said Schiller. We value play as a form of learning in the early years and as a creative expression of our humanity. From self-directed play in early childhood, to intense sport and games in high school, our students bring a sense of the playful to all that they do.

7. Transcendence: 

A sense of the sublime, the “phosphorescence” of life, weaves through our classrooms, our schools and our community life. Morning and afternoon verses bring mindful moments to the classroom each day, while festivals give shape and colour to the turning year.  Our lessons draw out the meaningful connections between the inner world of humanity and the outer world of nature.  We are inspired by the sublime moments of all cultures, founded on Australia’s First Nations roots in The Dreaming. 

We humans are fundamentally beings of meaning. Our Steiner schools seek to realise the image of the whole human being in all that we do. What could be more meaningful than that?

Source: Andrew Hill, Steiner Education Australia