The History of Waldorf Education Worldwide

Nana Goebel has written a comprehensive, compelling, and thorough history of Waldorf Education.

Executive Director of the Freunde der Erziehungskunst and a Waldorf Graduate, Nana has been an indefatigable supporter of Waldorf schools around the world since 1976. At the behest of the International Forum for Steiner/Waldorf Education (IFSWE—formerly the Hague Circle), The History of Waldorf Education Worldwide 1919-1945 is a remarkably broad and deep history of the building of Waldorf schools around the world.

This first volume covers the beginnings of Waldorf education from 1919 through WWII and notes the remarkable and rapid appearance of Waldorf schools throughout Europe, Britain, and North America. It gives a picture of how thirsty the world was (and is) for a new way to educate children, free from nationalism, narrowmindedness, and self-interest. Many recognized immediately how possible these lofty goals become with the Waldorf educational approach.

Nana Goebel captures the mood of the early days of Waldorf education, keeping her story warm and lively, even as she reports on the many factual details needed for such a thorough and deep exploration of the history of its history. The vision and dedication of those who established schools in the first half of the troubled twentieth century are illustrated clearly without romanticizing.

Goebel’s steady, straightforward writing style is refreshing and compelling. Her devoted attention to the elements necessary to begin and sustain a Waldorf school pay ample tribute to her own life’s work. The book is a tribute to the development of Waldorf education, 100 years in. The History of Waldorf Education Worldwide 1919-1945 is filled with details that help readers understand the beginnings of Waldorf education. The foundation of her research and writing has also made Goebel a wonderful fundraiser, helping to make Waldorf education possible just about everywhere in the world. Nana is as powerful a writer as she is the leader of the Freunde der Erziehungskunst!

Those at Waldorf Publications (translator, Jan Kees, Douglas Gerwin, layout designer Ann Erwin, and editor, Patrice Maynard) have been much moved by what was accomplished by those pioneers, and the magnitude of what was wrought with Waldorf’s beginnings back in 1919. The mighty origins of our work today in Waldorf schools, celebrating now its century-long track record of success, couldn’t be better gathered up and delivered than it is in this fine history by Nana Goebel. Get it! Read it! You will be grateful to do so.

The Research Institute for Waldorf Education (RIWE) has simultaneously completed a survey of its Waldorf High School Graduates from the last twenty-five years, Into the World—How Waldorf Graduates Fare after High School. The verification contained in this work, scheduled to be published simultaneously to Nana Goebel’s History of Waldorf Education Worldwide -1919 to 1945, makes for irrefutably impressive documentation of the efficacy of Waldorf education in our deserving world!

Waldorf Publications
ISBN: 978-1943582884
Paperback
428 pages
7 x 10 inches