Understanding Waldorf Education : Teaching from the Inside Out

Rating:
Summary: At last! An accessible description.
Review: I've been a Waldorf parent for 4 years and have been pleased with the education and life experience my kids are getting at school. But I haven't been able to describe to people who ask about the Waldorf school what makes it so different, so special. I've found most of Rudolf Steiner's (Waldorf education's original mastermind) work to be impenetrable; probably due to weak translations, but still. I've read a lot of dense stuff in my day, but Steiner's is unsloggable. This book by Jack Petrash, however, I loved. It's written so 21st century mortals can understand it and relate to it. Right from the first chapter, I understood it and felt it understood me. In the second chapter I thought, "Oh, now he's really captured it. He should have put this chapter first." I thought that again about the third, fourth, and fifth chapters and then decided he probably had the order okay in the first place.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Overview of Waldorf Education
Review: I've never read a book that explains the Waldorf Education philosophy in such a captivating way as this book! It is so enjoyable to read. The author uses interesting anecdotes from real-life situations to explain his ideas. The entire book is excellent, but the chapters on the three stages of childhood (preschool, grade school and high school) are so well suited to all parents that I wouldn't limit this book to only those that adhere to Waldorf principles. The author has been a teacher for over 30 years, much of that time at the Washington Waldorf School where he has taken three classes of children from grade one to grade eight. And if this book is any indication, he knows his stuff!

Rating:
Summary: Serves as a warning!
Review: This book does a fair job of conveying the Waldorf philosophy. It provided a useful forearming prior to the Waldorf School indoctrination pitch that I endured when seriously (a brief moment of insanity) considering Waldorf for our daughter. Having read the book, I was far better prepared to challenge the director's delusional utopian drivel on numerous levels. I think anyone who is considering Waldorf as an "education" option for their children SHOULD read this and read it carefully, but consider all the while how unequipped for the REALITY of life this approach will leave them. Read and be warned.

Rating:
Summary: Serves as a warning!
Review: This book does a fair job of conveying the Waldorf philosophy. It provided a useful forearming prior to the Waldorf School indoctrination pitch that I endured when seriously (a brief moment of insanity) considering Waldorf for our daughter. Having read the book, I was far better prepared to challenge the director's delusional utopian drivel on numerous levels. I think anyone who is considering Waldorf as an "education" option for their children SHOULD read this and read it carefully, but consider all the while how unequipped for the REALITY of life this approach will leave them. Read and be warned.