Background

Waldorf education began in the early twentieth century. Rudolf Steiner, an educator, philosopher, scientist and artist based this new form of education on a knowledge of the developing human being he called anthroposophy. Today there are over 700 Waldorf schools and 900 kindergartens worldwide.

Anthroposophy, from the Greek anthroposophia ("wisdom of humanity"), offers an artistic and spiritual view of the human being and of human potential. Anthroposophy can be thought of as a spiritual humanism, an approach to human existence wherein art, science and religion/morality are not separate disciplines within the broader framework of culture, but are joined together in a celebration of the Divine-Human.

The insights of Rudolf Steiner touch on all areas of culture: education (Waldorf education), work with the developmentally disabled (the Camphill Movement), agriculture (Bio-dynamic farming), medicine (Anthroposophically extended medicine, a form of healing related to homeopathy), economics (the three-fold social order), religion (the Christian Community for Spiritual Renewal), and the arts of architecture and the art of movement called eurythmy.

There are three Waldorf schools in southeastern Michigan: The Detroit Waldorf School (K-8) in central Detroit; Oakland Steiner School (K-8) in Rochester Hills; and the Rudolf Steiner School of Ann Arbor (K-12) in Ann Arbor. The Waldorf Institute of Southeastern Michigan has its offices in Ann Arbor, and offers weekend classes on Friday at the Oakland Steiner School and on Saturday on the Rudolf Steiner School of Ann Arbor, lower school.