École Rudolf Steiner de Montréal

An academic curriculum rich and open to creativity

"At the Waldorf school that I knew (Princeton, New Jersey), the child is recognized for what he is unique for; the academic curriculum is rich and open to creativity; students progress across the range of human gifts and are honored with discretion. Waldorf students are committed to enter into life with confidence, with respect for anything living and conscious of the task that the world expects from them .. "

Ernest Boyer, President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

"The fact of having spent the last two years of high school in a Steiner School (High Mowing School in New Hampshire) has changed my life. I have consistently built on the bedrock values acquired then. "

Nancy Huston, Writer

"I know Steiner pedagogy for I have studied it during my research in anthropology of education. I consider it the most complete and more balanced than I have ever experienced. It would be a shame for our country if it were to be threatened. "

Pierre Erny, French Ethnologist

"My wife and I chose this chain of schools for their educational quality, their spirit of openness and comprehensive knowledge to pass on to children. We are very satisfied in all aspects and our child feels fine there. "

Rudolf Berger, Managing Director of the National Opéra of Rhine

Exceptional understanding of the child

"Curiously, other independent educational movements whose efforts on the synthesis of educational, scientific and human values have a lesser depth, nonetheless have attracted more public attention. In this era of investigation and reassessment of values in education, the Waldorf movement, with its unique understanding of the child and her years of teaching and institutional experiences merit careful consideration from all who have concern for education and development of the human being as a totality. "

Douglas Sloan, Ph. D., Professor of Education Teachers College, Columbia University

"Greet each child as a unique person to establish a relationship of mutual trust and enable them to discover, deploy and enhance its capabilities and potential, is the role of the school. In any case, as conceived by the International Movement of Waldorf schools which joined in so doing, thinking and action that leads Unesco education. "

Federico Mayor, former Director General of Unesco

Waldorf education, based on observations of the child

"The importance of observations of Gesell and Steiner was recognized by educators. Forcing children to perform tasks for which they are not yet mature make them failing biological beings... Since it is based on observations of the child's development, it is not surprising that the Waldorf education reaches the same conclusion (that Gesell Institute) and found the same guiding principles for the development of curricula. "

Sidney MacDonald Baker, M.D. Director of Economic Gesell Institute of Human Development, New Haven, Connecticut.

Art for Education

"I think I can say that in no school system in the world other than the Waldorf school movement, is such importance given to art. There is no single discipline that is taught in which we do not discover an artistic aspect. Even mathematics are transmitted artistically, presented to the child through dance, movement or drawing.

Education - in the sense of Rudolf Steiner - based on the idea that art is an integral part of all human aspiration. It makes its real meaning. In what may be undertaken, it is very important to support his revolutionary educational ideals."

Konrad Oberhuber, curator at the Fogg Art Museum New York, Professor of Fine Arts, Harvard Universityy

Higher concentration and discipline

Ms. Beau Leonhart, who has taught math for twenty-two years at Marin Academy - a school in California which does not belong to the Waldorf movement - and her husband, James Shipman, also a longstanding teacher of Marin, noted that students coming out of Waldorf schools tended to demonstrate an ability to concentrate above average. Mr. Shipman said: "This is not the Waldorf pupils who disappear at the first tinkling bell. Instead, they want to linger and chat. They take time to reflect on the question. " Ms. Leonhart adds:" If they fail to solve a certain way, they approach another. " Mr. Shipman, who teaches aikido among other things, told me: "In thirteen years I had two black belts, both Waldorf students. They understand what is concentration and discipline. They are very deep and present.

Source: "Schooling the Imagination" by Todd Oppenheimer, published in the The Atlantic Monthly, September 1999

Child development from the perspective of freedom

"Regarding the Steiner schools, I had occasion to note, as part of my duties in the Council of Europe, from 1985 to 1991, the favourable opinion they enjoyed, especially in Germany, both among authorities and academic teachers. I heard praise for their selflessness and their commitment to the values of personal autonomy, and their search for anything that could contribute to the personality development of students in a context of freedom and solidarity, which so opposes sectarian educational practices."

José Vidal-Beneyto, university professor, former Director of Education, Culture and Sport in the Council of Europe

"Steiner Schools at all times, have sought to provide tools for children to become themselves, for they walk in their shoes and their own way, instead of becoming a carbon copy, duplicate. Each bird sings like his beak is made, and it seems that the mission of a school is to help a child become who he is and not someone else. Is it worth it for a child to become an ordinary open doors breaker, a follower? If each child became himself, unemployment would no longer exist, it would reveal a host of new inventors and creators who enrich their country and the world through their engineering staff. (Tourinnes-La-Grosse, 10/06/01)

Julos Beaucarne, singer, writer

Creativity, the dominant principle

"When parents are not satisfied with what is offered by public schools, they can find other ways:  Waldorf, Montessori movements, many private schools offer classes in small numbers, a individualized instruction, flexible and child-centered programs, where it is not the child who must necessarily adapt ... The academic organization of schools displeased Rudolf Steiner, he felt that the aesthetic sense of the child was neglected, although these abilities there should be cultivated as well as intellectual forces. In Waldorf schools, creativity is the dominant principle in all aspects of child labor. The same teacher accompanies the class for eight years. He must therefore grow with children and learn with them: this is an excellent example of teaching and learning quality."

David Elkind in "Miseducation: Preschoolers at Risk"

Education adapted to the level of development of the student

"As a psychiatrist, particularly interested in issues affecting the development of personality, and as a mother of two girls who attended the New York Rudolf Steiner School CIW since kindergarten until the end of high school, what fascinated me most is the adequacy of education with the level of development of the student. I feel that my daughters - the first has almost completed his medical studies, the youngest is in first year of law – do not only have fruitful intellectual knowledge, but also have developed imspired social, cultural and aesthetic skills and this is due to the breadth and depth of academic monitoring by teachers."

Iona Ginsburg, MD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Columbia University; Board member of the New-York Society for Adolescent Psychiatry Ex-President of the Metropolitan Mental Health Association

"It's a great pleasure for me to say a few words about Waldorf Education ... My son attended the High Mowing Waldorf School and this has clearly been a success for him. In three years, for their outstanding commitment, teachers are able to guide their aspirations in the sense of spiritual progress and human responsibility. I think the originality of High Mowing is associated with a particular atmosphere. The school knows how to use the best latent forces of young people. Of course, this does not happen overnight, but the values that are transmitted through contact with teachers, give them a foundation for their entire lives on which they can truly rely. I am deeply grateful to all that the educational community of High Mowing has brought to my son in terms of patience, sensitivity, interest and ability to commit. I can say, in summary, only one thing: this system  works.

Gilbert M. Grosvenor, National Geographic Society President