The French educational system compared to Waldorf pedagogy

 Children will one day be the adults that compose the society. We should therefore educate them in order to make them responsible citizens. The better their education is, the better the society of tomorrow will be.

There are two major kinds of educators for a child: his family and his teachers. Parents all educate their child in their own way according to the context of the family. Each child has his own education at home (which is one of the reasons they are all different) and it is hard to influence this education. However, it is possible to think about the way we educate children at school. This allows a balance that is very important. For example, school imposes some basic rules to live in society that might be missing to some children that live without rules at home. On the contrary, parents can help a child to take distance from what teacher says, which is not always right. When those two sources of development are very different, it is of course confusing for the child, who doesn’t know who to believe anymore. Communication between teachers and parents is therefore very important, but it is not enough to change the way parents are, and not always desirable. The role of those two actors is essential, and if we can try to change the way parents are, it is also important to concentrate on how making the public educational system a better one. It is already a great chance for French children to go to school: we all know that many children in the world would like to go to school. But it is a shame that most of the children that have the possibility to go to school do not want to.  So if we have to continue working on offering education for every child in the world, we also have to continue working on making public schools fulfilling places for children. There are already a lot of initiatives and projects to enhance the educational system. It can be alternative schools like Waldorf or Montessori, but some public systems are also very efficient, for example in Finland. The French public system is far from perfect (France is the 28th best country in sciences according to the 2017 PISA assessment), but there are more and more initiatives to renew it. And we can all help to develop those initiatives.

I would like to share some information about Waldorf pedagogy and to compare it to the French educational system by referring to some books, magazines and websites (links and sources down below) and to my own experience. After studying in France until high school, I stay one year in Germany to work in a Waldorf school and to discover its pedagogy, which is why I would like to share my experience.

I) Waldorf pedagogy

*Who is Steiner Waldorf?

He is an occultist philosopher of the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, founder of the anthroposophy, that he qualifies as a "way of knowledge", "to restore the link between the man and the spiritual worlds". He wrote a lot about his various theories concerning medicine, science, agriculture or pedagogy.
“The real anthropology, that is to say the knowledge of the being in the making and the knowledge of its individual capacities, is the foundation of the education.” (Rudolf Steiner, Educational foundations and objectives of the Waldorf school)

This theory gave birth to a movement of Steiner-Waldorf schools, which are nowadays more than 1000 in the world.

*What is Waldorf pedagogy?

 “The transmission of knowledge is not enough.

The crisis of the school shows everywhere the limits of the educational system, which aims exclusively at the training of the intellect and the transmission of abstract knowledge. The Steiner-Waldorf school has been based for 75 years on the idea of freedom, convinced that love, confidence and enthusiasm, instead of ambition, fear and competition, endows children of serenity and strength which will be essential for them to move forward in an uncertain world, realize their project of existence there, by contributing to the progress of the man.”

(Fédération des écoles Steiner Waldorf en France)

II) Waldorf pedagogy compared to French educational system

In the school where I work, children have lessons in the morning with their teachers. They eat at 12 under the watch of the educators, who are not teachers. They sometimes have a lesson after lunch, but if not, they stay under the responsibility of the educator the whole afternoon until 16:30. This is a free time for them, and they can choose the activity they want to do until their parents come to pick them up.

*The positive aspects of the Waldorf pedagogy

After two months in a Waldorf school, here are some positive aspects I noticed:

-First, the child is free to choose the activity he wants to make. This is an excellent way for him to learn with pleasure. There are many things a child can do in a Waldorf school after the lessons: creative activities like drawing, painting, making origami, practicing for a theatre play or for a circus show, knitting, making board games or playing chess, reading in the library, playing football or other sports outside, or just playing, chatting and being imaginative. According to his mood, a child can choose if he wants to do some quiet activity or a more active one. But each activity will participate to his development and sharing those activities will teach him how to behave with other children. For example, I was impressed to see how the girls of my class created a circus presentation, showing great skills of organization, patience and creativity. It is also surprising to see that writing, reading or counting is like a game for them, and not homework. 

-Then, I really appreciate the transmission in both ways: just like the educator, the child has a lot to teach and has the possibility to do it.  He will be listened with attention, by an educator or by other children. This is a pleasure for the child to explain what he knows, and a pleasure for the one that learns what he says. And then the exchange is endless: a child taught me how to make a box in paper, and I taught it to a child who taught it to another child. I taught a child how to make a lanyard bracelet, and he taught it to another child.  Children teach me German words and I teach them French words. We all have something to share. During the afternoon, children can share all they want to. It is of course different during the lesson time, but children participate really more to the course in a Waldorf school than in a French public school. In France, students listen to the teacher and if the lesson doesn’t interest them, they will stay passive and don’t learn anything. In a Waldorf school, the children are active and the teacher tries to make his lesson in a way that will involve and interest the children. For example, they don’t use textbooks but they realize their own notebooks, illustrated by many drawings and diagrams, which is a way to be involved in learning.

- “Art is a powerful stimulant of learning’s pleasure. This previous example shows that a creation arises between the children and the teacher.” (Waldorf, une école à vivre)

-The child is the centre of the attention. The way each child feel is very important, and everyone makes sure that children feel happy. Every child is unique, and this individuality is accepted: teachers and educators help children to be integrated and not to suffer or their differences. For example, disabled children are in the same class as “normal” children, they are not isolated in other institutions, which is an excellent way for them to be accepted. They are friends with other children, they grow up together, and we can imagine that those children will be more comprehensive and respectful with other disabled children. There are also disabled students in some French colleges, but not in primary schools, so their integration is harder. There are a lot of efforts to make this situation a better one in France, and the inclusion of disabled children in schools is possible, as we saw it in Waldorf schools.

- "Cette pédagogie est ancrée dans la vie et l'authenticité. Il ne trompe pas les sens mais utilise des matériaux nobles et naturels comme le bois, la laine, la soie, la terre ... Les cours sont d'une manière abstraite mais sont totalement ressentis et vécus dans le béton. Par exemple, il est nécessaire de développer la dextérité mais aussi d'apprendre l'arithmétique (il est nécessaire de compter les points); jouer des décorations, des costumes ... La préparation prend du temps, le temps de la réalité. Doigts habiles produisent des pensées agiles. L'éducation de l'environnement est présente dans toutes les disciplines, les enfants comme la nature et les enseignants approfondissent cet amour pour qu'il devienne une base solide pour son futur et des relations diverses avec la nature ". (Une école à vivre)
- Il n'y a pas de système de notation mais un système d'appréciation: l'enseignant a les forces et les faiblesses du travail plutôt que de le juger. Tous les étudiants avancent sans compétition.

* Les aspects négatifs de la pédagogie Waldorf

La troisième partie de mon rapport est sur ma page!

II) Waldorf pedagogy compared to French educational system

*The negative aspects of the Waldorf pedagogy
The few negative points I noticed are more related on the school itself and its teachers than on the pedagogy. Those problems are mostly about organization and teamwork.
-For example, the organization is not perfect despite the many meetings between the educators. Those little organization problems (about lunch’s preparation for example) can take a lot of time and energy… sometimes because the educators think about temporary solutions instead of the source of the problem.
-There are some tensions between the educators: some don’t like the way another behaves with children, or with ones’ colleagues; and some don’t like this democratic system and would like to have a boss. The Waldorf system works on autonomy and teamwork, and a professional coach would probably help everyone to work together.
-Some teachers may abuse of this pedagogy to give too much freedom to the children, which can sometimes be dangerous (some rules are important to live together or to be safe).
-In the Waldorf system, a teacher stays with the same class for many years, which can be very positive: this continuity creates a climate of trust, attention and respect for all the main courses. But it can be more negative if the teacher is not competent, and the teacher can have a big influence on the children by accompanying them for years.
-Waldorf is a private school that works thanks to the money of the parents, therefore the educators have a lot of pressure to satisfy the parents and sometimes have to face their unjustified reproaches.  Most of the parents appreciate the work of the educator, but when they don’t it can be very stressful for the educator.
*The proof that this pedagogy is efficient
-Children don’t want to leave the school when the parents come to pick them up. It means they are happy there. In the French public system, most on the children don’t want to go to school and are happy to come back home.
-They want to write, to read, to count; no one has to tell them to do so because they have to (for most of the children, but of course a lot of children prefer playing football to reading a book).
-They are curious, active, creative and enthusiastic; they always want to learn new things. They are happy.
-Different studies show a good success of the pupils from Waldorf schools, and they also show that those students are more self-confident, are interested in many things, are more open minded to new ideas and accept to assume a social responsibility.

Conclusion

Let’s get inspired by the various pedagogies as Waldorf, Montessori or Freinet to offer a better education for everyone. How is it possible to have influence on our own way? We can start by discussion: many parents don’t even realize that their children should want to go to school and not be forced to. If more people are aware of the importance of pedagogy, there will be more influence on the educational system and change will be faster.

There are already many initiatives in France that should be developed. The private Waldorf system is of course very different from French public educational system, but some aspects of its pedagogy can be very inspiring. The next step is to apply those theories concretely, which is of course complicated. For example, if we want French teachers to create relationships of trust with children, we should first create this relationship of trust between the teachers and their superiors: the teachers themselves are judged and controlled. Many of them wish they could work more often in team, they feel alone in their class, and they are not ready to develop a fulfilling pedagogy for their students because their formation in mainly based of the subject that is taught, and not on the way it is taught. Thus, a starting point to enhance the educational system is to offer a better formation of the teachers. Besides, “the National Education encourages the teachers to innovate by suspecting them as soon as they do!” (Philippe Meirieu, specialist of the sciences of education and pedagogy).

Influencing the actual political system about education is possible by continuing to promote the change to which we aspire.