Toward an
Attachment-Informed
Waldorf Education
Attachment-based continuing education and support for Waldorf-inspired homeschoolers
“What do we need to do so that education can have a heart again?”
-Rudolf Steiner
…Just over a century ago, Rudolf Steiner placed this query before the teachers of the first Waldorf school.
Here, at the Homeschooler’s Hearth, it is our observation that the relational-developmental approach of Dr. Gordon Neufeld, often referred to as “a psychology of the heart,” not only dovetails beautifully with Steiner’s yearnings for humanity, but also provides critical and timely answers to this seminal question of Steiner’s regarding education.*
Both thinkers are true developmentalists. Neufeld’s view of the human being is, like Steiner’s, genuinely holistic and both share an unwavering trust in Nature.
Several Waldorf schools in North America have hosted Dr. Neufeld as a guest speaker and many more Waldorf parents have studied his approach, providing them with a richer understanding of how relational attachment facilitates their children’s development.
Neufeld’s approach helps to answer Steiner’s question? -Really?
We think so and here’s how it helps…
The cultural milieu in which Rudolf Steiner offered his insights was one in which certain critical relational attachment dynamics were operating more robustly than they are in most places in the world today. A close consideration of the attachment tapestry in which they were offered, alongside a review of relational themes in Steiner’s work, helps us restore attachment-based care for humans to its fullness.
When Waldorf parents and educators behold the children before them through a relational-developmental lens; that is, when they incorporate and understanding of the psycho-emotional attachment needs that drive development in earthly life, they ensure that thinking, feeling and willing unfold as they were designed to.
In turn, Waldorf-minded caregivers become renewed in their ability to create the ideal conditions for the Pedagogy to have its intended influence.
“In a developmental approach, we assume that there’s order in the universe. …[we] start off from an incredible faith in Nature… that Nature has its reasons.”
-Gordon Neufeld
A relational-developmental view of the human being sheds new light on key areas in Waldorf Education including:
the flourishing of the imitative force through deeper relational attachment
understanding the source and resolution of “bullying” behaviours
Nature’s Discipline: activating attachment instincts for increased student focus and easier class management
identifying trauma and attachment-related factors that alter assessments for Grade One readiness
how to discern differences between attachment issues and temperament
counterwill in children as a built-in protector of development and how to work with it in healthy and supportive ways
the improvement of communication between teachers and parents
healing in the social sphere through working with emotional drivers of development, i.e. “alarm” and “frustration,” when they get in the way of the instinctive drive for closeness and connection
