The Futures of Waldorf Education--Part I

There are roughly 53 million K-12 school children in the U.S.

Of this number, 44 million (83 %) attend public schools.

A few more than 6 million (11 %) attend independent (private) schools.

Approximately 1.5 million (3%) are homeschooled, a number that has grown significantly in the past decade and that continues to grow. Homeschooling, however, seems generally to be a reaction against available options—public or private—rather than a positive choice in itself. Can it represent a viable future for educating children in the U.S.? I don’t believe so.

About 1.1 million (2%) attend charter schools, a number that is growing but, given the grassroots energy required and the opposition of school districts and teachers' unions, also seems unlikely to be a route to the solution of educational ills in the U.S.

Finally, lumping independent and public/charter Waldorf school students together yields a number around 30,000, or 1/18 of 1 percent (.06 percent) of students in the U.S., and perhaps 1/2 of 1 percent of private school students. [The post just previous to this says 25,000, but, as comments point out, I neglected some early childhood programs. Either way, the order of magnitude is correct, if not the number itself.]

The number of independent Waldorf schools, which grew at a rate approximately doubling every ten years from the 1930s through the 1990s, appears to have plateaued. The curve is sigmoid; such a curve is sometimes called a saturation curve. That is, given the configurations of people's lives across roughly the past century, the demand for small, independent, relatively expensive, alternative Waldorf schools may be reaching its limit. Waldorf schools of this type may have saturated their possible markets.

(It also seems like the failure rate for Waldorf schools--which was low--a handful of schools--through the first six decades in the U.S., is increasing. I don't have hard numbers here--I'm working on that. But it does seem like the conditions for the growth of new schools has changed. Maybe they're being founded in some new, less hardy way. Or maybe the climate--cultural, economic--has changed. Or maybe the way they represent Waldorf education has become unpalatable. Regardless, it’s certainly true that service industries—like education—can’t benefit from economies of scale; hence the increasing cost of all education.)

This is not to say that new private Waldorf schools won't continue to be founded, but that their survival will be less assured, their road to sustainability harder. But, without some fundamental change in how Waldorf schools see themselves and conduct themselves--or without some fundamental change in the conditions in which they exist--their growth will be arithmetic, let's say, not geometric.

If the path to the future includes growth, it is likely not private school growth. Perhaps it’s public school growth. There are between 30 and 40 Waldorf charter schools (some call them “Waldorf inspired,” but I don’t care for this distinction) in the U.S., and the number is likely to continue to grow as the charter movement grows. But for how long will this be true? What is the saturation of charter schooling in the U.S.? Urban districts can absorb charter schools, but rural districts cannot. Charter schooling seems not to be a panacea for public education in the U.S., and therefore not a permanent growth area for Waldorf schools.

Homeschooling, too, is burgeoning, and many homeschoolers receive an education that is based on Steiner’s educational ideas. How many homeschoolers use Waldorf methods, and how they interpret them, is impossible to say.

Altogether, however, charter schools and homeschoolers represent fewer than 3 million school-age children. We may estimate that, like private schools, they represent a higher percentage of Waldorf methods than public schools—say 1/2 of 1 percent versus 1/20 of 1 percent, roughly an order of magnitude. If these numbers grow significantly, and if Waldorf methods grow as a constant percentage within this growth, they may represent the most significant possibility for the growth of the number of students receiving an education based on Steiner’s ideas.

In the long run, however—the next decade or beyond—it seems unlikely that charter schools and homeschoolers offer real solutions to whatever ails U.S. education. These movements exist within the framework of intractable teachers’ unions, increasing education costs, and pressure toward standardization from Washington that seems not to change from administration to administration.

How many Waldorf School students are there in the U.S.?

My estimate is around 30,000--about 150 independent schools of approximately 150 each plus another few thousand charter school students. Maybe a few more--if you count homeschoolers, especially--maybe a few less.

Given that there are roughly 50 million K-12 school students in the U.S., that means that about 1/16 of 1 percent are in Waldorf schools of one kind or another. That's a tiny number. To a large, 200 pound person, 1/16 of 1 percent is 2 ounces--a gulp of water, a fish stick. If you make $50,000 per year, 1/16 of 1 percent of that is about $30, barely a tank of gas or a movie night. To put it in further perspective, New York City public schools educate about 1 million students per year, or 33 times as many Waldorf school students as there are in the U.S.

Iron Forging and Metaphor

In his first class, John Graney (http://www.graneymetaldesign.com/) gives each student a length of square iron stock and teaches how to round, taper, flatten, bend, and drill it to form a hook. He also teaches how to maintain a coal fire at the right temperature, and how to tell by color the temperature of the metal.

In two hours, students go from complete novices to novices who have learned a lot, taken a few steps on a path to discipline, and been shown a door through which they may glimpse mastery.

We call blacksmithing a "practical art" in our curriculum, but not because we expect that students will become blacksmiths or because we believe these skills are practical in today's world.

Blacksmithing is practical in a metaphorical sense. It teaches care and balance and consequence--each blow of the hammer impacts the world, literally, as each human thought and action does metaphorically. Light blows don't work and heavy blows damage the work. Rhythm guides the work, and an arhythmic approach fatigues. Cold metal won't forge, and too-hot metal is weak and won't hold its shape. A careless touch leads to a burn, not soon forgotten.

The more I live and teach, however, the less I believe that such work is merely metaphorical. Who is to say that the experience of working with hot metal and a hammer isn't internalized directly, that physical, outer experience doesn't become inner experience, literally? That the lessons of the hand and body don't become lessons of the mind?

If this is so, the reverse is likely so, too. Lessons of the mind become lessons of the body--what we think or have thought visible in the ways we move and work.