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Waldorf Parent's Master Checklist

Throughout OpenWaldorf.com you'll find questions and exercises to help you evaluate your own Waldorf school. This "master checklist" gathers these questions from throughout the site, and consolidates them for your convenience. Printing this list, and filling it out yourself will help you better understand Waldorf.

What do you think of this checklist? Sound off with your opinion, pro or con in the OpenWaldorf forums!

The best place to ask these questions is at Parent's Night or on your School Tour, when you'll have access to the most experienced members of the Waldorf faculty and parent-body.

Waldorf Art Curriculum

  1. How do you encourage self-expression in art at Waldorf? How will I see this expressed in the classrooms and in the halls?
  2. Does Waldorf offer rich exposure to all kinds of different art methods, media and techniques?
  3. What sort of art do children do other than wet-on-wet painting, beeswax modeling, and form drawing?
  4. When do children learn to make line drawings? When do children learn to draw faces?
  5. When are children given black crayons and paint?
  6. What percentage of the time do students try to replicate a specific image? What percentage of the time do they work out of their own imaginations?
  7. Is it OK if my young child draws with lines at home?
  8. Is it OK if my child uses black crayons?
  9. Is it OK if my child uses fine markers and pens?

Questions on Eurythmy

  1. Is it OK if my child studies different forms of dance? Ballet? Country? Tap? Folk? Urban? Ethnic?
  2. If eurythmy is visible speech, what are the children saying? Do they know what they're saying?
  3. Do the children ever spell words in Eurythmy? What do they spell? Do they know what they're spelling?
  4. What sort of science-based medical research has been done on the efficacy of therapeutic eurythmy? If it's so effective why haven't I heard of it? How long has it been in practice?
  5. Is therapeutic eurythmy studied in American medical schools?
  6. Might Waldorf prescribe additional eurythmy practice for my child? Would this cost extra money?

Anthroposophical Medicine

  1. Does the school administer Anthroposophical medicine?
  2. What types of diagnoses and treatments would this include?

Anthroposophy and Waldorf

  1. What are the core teachings of Anthroposophy?

Exploring Academic Differences at Waldorf

  1. BE SENSITIVE! Don't preface your questions with "is it really true that..."
  2. BE POSITIVE! Ask "when?" and "how?" (e.g.: Instead of asking "Is it true you teach the heart is not a pump?" simply ask, "When do you cover the circulatory system, and how do you teach that the heart is a pump?")
  3. BE THOROUGH! It is YOUR responsibility as a parent to make sure that your children learns what you want them to learn.
  4. SEE FOR YOURSELF. If you have a concern about how a certain subject is taught at Waldorf, ask to see the "main lesson books" that cover that particular subject.
  5. THINK AHEAD: Don't just ask questions about your child's current grade. Some day, your Class 2 student will be in Class 6. Understand the whole curriculum.
  6. RESPOND APPROPRIATELY. You will always have disagreements with ANY school your child attends. If you discover something you disagree with, you may be able to address them by supplementing books and other learning aids that address your concern. You may want to try working with your faculty to correct any differences you might discover. Occasionally, parents find these difference unresolvable, but that is serious decision each parent has to make for themselves.

Waldorf's Child Development Theory

  5. What happens if these phases of development are ignored?


  2. Is it OK if I immunize my Waldorf child?
  3. Does Waldorf track the immunizations of the school population?

Discouraging Early Reading

  1. Why does Waldorf delay teaching kids how to read?
  7. When do you talk to parents about this?

Questions on Birth History Survey

  4. How is this information used?

Cameras and Video at Waldorf


Waldorf Advent Spiral

  1. What happens at Advent Spiral? How long does it last?
  2. What is the meaning of Advent Spiral? Where did it come from?
  3. Is Advent Spiral a traditional Christmas celebration? What groups have practiced it, and when?
  4. Is Advent Spiral unique to Waldorf and Anthroposophy? Who else performs this ritual?
  5. What myth inspired the Advent spiral? Are there any myths about Christmas and Advent that incorporate light and the spiral form?
  6. Was the spiral form important to Steiner? What did it mean to him?
  7. How does Steiner's myth of the end of the Atlantean era, and the dawn of the Aryan epic inform the Waldorf Advent Spiral? How is this myth relevant to Christmas? Is the spiral symbol at Waldorf Advent Spiral different than the spiral symbol in Steiner's Christmas lecture?
  8. Is Advent Spiral mandatory? Why? Is it OK we choose not to have our child participate in this ritual?

Verses and Prayer

  1. Why do children recite verses at Waldorf?

College Success

  1. Define your own personal criteria for "college success." What kind of college opportunities do you want for your child?
  2. Determine what preparation is necessary to satisfy your personal definition of college success for your child.
  3. Talk to the admissions departments in the specific colleges that you are considering for your child. Find out what they think about Waldorf, how Waldorf students fare in the admission process, and how they perform as students at that particular university.
  4. Compare the requirements of your target colleges with the curriculum at your Waldorf school.

Media Restriction at Waldorf

  1. What are the risks associated with children watching television?
  6. Is it possible that being called Ahriman is present in electronic media?
  7. Questions about different kinds of electronic media activites:

Improving Playground Safety

  2. IDENTIFY areas that require improvement.

Steiner's Science

  1. What is Rudolf Steiner's greatest scientific contribution that I would have heard of? Is he an essential part of scientific canon to most scientists?
  2. What motivated Steiner in his scientific endeavors?
  3. What is the relationship between Steiner's science and Anthroposophy? Are they the same thing? How does Waldorf distinguish between Steiner's practical science, and his occult science?
  4. What is the difference between Anthroposophy and "Spiritual Science?"
  5. What do you think of Anthroposophists who claim Rudolf Steiner was the reincarnation of Aristotle?
  6. Is there anything Steiner says that disagrees with generally accepted modern science? Who do you think is right, Steiner, or modern science?
  7. Is it OK if I teach my child something that differs from Waldorf science at home?

Rudolf Steiner's Authority at Waldorf

  1. Is there anything that Steiner says that you disagree with?

Rudolf Steiner's Clairvoyance

  1. Did Rudolf Steiner have any important or unique abilities?
  5. How do Steiner's clairvoyant revelelations inform Waldorf education? Could Waldorf exist as it does today without Steiner's clairvoyant knowledge?

Waldorf and Atlantis

  1. What do teachers read about Atlantis in the Waldorf Teacher Training?
  2. How is this material handled in the training? Do teachers learn about Atlantis? Is it treated as fact?
  3. How do teachers apply their training on Atlantis in Waldorf the classroom? If it is not applied in the Waldorf classroom, why is it taught in Waldorf teacher training?
  4. Does Anthroposophy make sense without the assumption that Atlantis really existed?
  5. Is it OK if our family does not believe in Atlantis?

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