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Re: Physics and the Paideia Process v Waldorf



Joel-

After a few minutes of browsing the Paideia site, I would say that there
are some superficial similarities between Paideia and Waldorf, but
basically exist in totally different realms. The essence of the
uniqueness of Waldorf education is that the teachers recognize, and try
to educate, the whole child with respect to an understanding of stages
of the child's development and evolution throughout an entire life (from
birth to death) and beyond.

I cannot express the depth and breadth of Waldorf education in a single
sentence or even a single book, but suffice it to say that there is a
comprehensive philosophical, spiritual, pedagogical, and scientific
background to it which takes as a central question: "what is a human
being?" In a certain sense this is a cosmological question. Waldorf
education endeavors to explore this with respect to the usual
pedagogical conundrums.

The Paideia site seemed to focus on specific types of teaching
strategies, mainly designed to increase certain limited aspects of
student learning. From Paideia's intro:

"The Paideia philosophy celebrates the fundamental notion that to be
fully educated is a lifelong adventure that only begins with an
individual's formal schooling. It is based on the assumption that all
human beings are by definition activist learners, capable of a fully
humanistic life defined by intellectual growth. Thus, Paideia schools
should ultimately be judged by how well they prepare students for a full
and active life of the heart and mind."

In Waldorf education, pedagogy is intended to address much more than "a
fully humanistic life defined by intellectual growth", although compared
with many other pedagogical philosophies, this aspect of Paideia is
closer to the Waldorf approach.

I hope this addresses your question, at least a little!
Regards-

-Seth Miller
Physics and Math
Denver Waldorf High School


-----Original Message-----
From: Forum for Physics Educators [mailto:PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu] On
Behalf Of RAUBER, JOEL
Sent: Wednesday, February 05, 2003 9:52 AM
To: PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu
Subject: Re: Physics and the Paideia Process

Tony,

A quick 60 second look at the website (not really enough to judge by)
gave
me the impression that these "paideia" schools may have a lot in common
with
Steiner schools (more commonly known as Waldorff schools in the US).

Is that a mistaken impression?

Joel R.