Waldorf Principles

For over a century, families around the world have chosen Waldorf education for its nurturing, holistic, and innovative approach to learning. Since 1919, more than 1,200 Waldorf schools across 80 countries have been guiding students through this meaningful and time-tested method. At Maine Coast Waldorf School, we’ve proudly carried that tradition for over 40 years, cultivating a learning environment that nurtures curiosity, creativity, and a lifelong love of learning.

Choosing a Waldorf education means choosing an education that honors the whole human being—intellect, imagination, and will—while preparing students to meet the world with purpose, courage, and compassion. At Maine Coast Waldorf School, our student experience is grounded in eight core principles of Waldorf education, which are brought to life each day through meaningful relationships, a rich curriculum, and a deep and authentic connection to the rhythms of the natural world.

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A teacher speaks with a small group of elementary school students while in the winter woods at our Waldorf School in Freeport, Maine

Core Principles of Waldorf Education

The image of the human being as a spiritual being informs every aspect of the school.

Waldorf schools work actively with insights from Rudolf Steiner about the incarnating human being. One core insight is that the human being is a threefold being of body, soul, and spirit. Waldorf Education enlivens the physical, emotional, intellectual, social, artistic, and spiritual capacities of the human being as the individual moves through the phases of this life.

Waldorf schools foster social renewal by cultivating human capacities in service to the individual and society.

Anthroposophical understanding of child development guides the educational program.

Waldorf schools work with the gradual development of the human being from child to adult. This development follows an archetypal sequence of three seven-year phases. During this time, the soul and spirit progressively take hold of the physical body. Each child's development is a unique expression of the human archetype. Each phase has characteristic physical, emotional, and intellectual dimensions.

The educational program is developed out of this understanding. Core components of the educational program include the student-teacher relationship; the artistic approach; working from experience to concept; working from whole to parts; use of rhythm and repetition; and observation as the foundation for assessment. Each approach is tailored to meet the students in each phase of child development.

Thus it is essential that teachers have formal preparation in Waldorf pedagogy or are engaged in such preparation.

Waldorf schools support freedom in teaching within the context of the school's shared agreements.

The educational program of each Waldorf school is founded on Rudolf Steiner's insights about the growing child, informed by the teachers' ongoing study of anthroposophy and their professional development in Waldorf Education.

The faculty of the school works collaboratively and cooperatively to develop, refine, and periodically review the educational program. Individual teachers work creatively with curricular, pedagogical, and assessment components of the program out of freedom and in a way that serves their individual students, the class as a whole, and the school community. This work reflects and respects the shared educational understandings and agreements of the faculty.

The conscious development of human relationships fosters individual and community health.

Enduring human relationships between students and their teachers and among the children themselves are at the heart of Waldorf Education. The teacher's task is to work with the developing individuality of each student and with each class as a whole within the context of the entire school. These relationships gain in depth and stability when they are cultivated over multiple years.

Healthy human relationships with and among parents and colleagues are essential to the well-being of the school. Members of the community are invited to join in developing meaningful, collaborative, transparent forms for working together. Each individual's self-development is encouraged since it is key to the well-being of the whole.

Spiritual development in support of professional growth is an ongoing activity for the faculty, staff, and board.

Collaboration and shared responsibility provide the foundations of school leadership and governance.

Waldorf schools are self-administered. This work is strengthened by cultivating a shared anthroposophical understanding of social interaction. Faculty, staff, and the board share responsibility for guiding and leading the school in the following manner:

The educational program is developed by the faculty under the guidance of the pedagogical leadership of the school.
Administrative activities further the educational program.
The board works strategically to enable legal and financial health in order to realize the mission and vision of the school.

Governance of the school is structured and implemented in a manner that both cultivates collaboration and is effective.

Waldorf schools honor and embrace human diversity and dignity.

Waldorf schools celebrate the diversity of humankind. Faculty, staff, and board pursue a path of human dignity and equity in organizational, leadership, and pedagogical realms. Schools are engaged in understanding and addressing the current and historical roots of inequity. These endeavors are of spiritual, moral, and educational importance and are rooted in Waldorf education's founding vision, which included addressing contemporary social struggles within the context of the life of the school.

Rejection of Racist Statements and Indications by Rudolf Steiner

The dignity of each human being is inviolable. Waldorf education is grounded in deep respect for the dignity and worth of every human being.

At the same time, we recognize that some statements made by Rudolf Steiner conflict with these values. Maine Coast Waldorf School unequivocally rejects those racist statements and upholds the human-centered, creative, and compassionate spirit that guides our work with students today.

Waldorf education began as a single school over 100 years ago in Germany and we celebrate that it has grown to more than 1,000 schools in over 70 countries, encompassing myriad languages and cultures.

Maine Coast Waldorf School affirms its commitment to embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion and, as a member of the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA), upholds the guidance and principles set forth by AWSNA.

Statement from the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America

Waldorf education espouses principles of respect for human dignity and recognizes that diversity, inclusivity and equity is a journey of both moral and educational importance.

We, the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America, recognize the history and ongoing impact of racism on our continent and in our institutions and we hold the dignity of life and the human being at the center of our work. Any speculations made by Rudolf Steiner that are in contradiction to this principle are not the basis for Waldorf education and we unequivocally denounce such statements.

We acknowledge that we have room to grow as an association and as individuals in our understanding of oppression and social justice. We strive to make equity and inclusion central; when we do, we get closer to the world that we want for our youth.

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View from behind of a middle school student paddling a canoe on a calm lake, with two other canoes of students ahead, from our Waldorf School outdoor education program in Freeport, Maine.

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Maine Coast Waldorf School is fully accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) and the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA).