Editing Rudolf Steiner (section)

=== Education ===
[[File:Ecole Steiner-Waldorf Verrieres2.jpg|thumb|The Waldorf school in [[Verrières-le-Buisson]] (France)]]
{{main|Waldorf education}}
As a young man, Steiner was a private tutor and a lecturer on history for the Berlin ''Arbeiterbildungsschule'',<ref name="zander2007">{{Cite book |last=Zander |first=Helmut |title=Anthroposophie in Deutschland: Theosophische Weltanschauung und gesellschaftliche Praxis 1884–1945 |publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht |year=2007 |isbn=978-3-525-55452-4 |location=Göttingen |language=de}}</ref> an educational initiative for working class adults.<ref name="njacobs">{{Cite journal |last=Jacobs |first=Nicholas |date=Spring 1978 |title=The German Social Democratic Party School in Berlin, 1906–1914 |journal=History Workshop |volume=5 |pages=179–187 |doi=10.1093/hwj/5.1.179}}</ref> Soon thereafter, he began to articulate his ideas on education in public lectures,<ref name="Ullrich" /> culminating in a 1907 essay on ''The Education of the Child'' in which he described the major phases of child development which formed the foundation of his approach to education.<ref>The original essay was published in the journal ''Lucifer-Gnosis'' in 1907 and can be found in Steiner's collected essays, ''Lucifer-Gnosis 1903-1908'',
GA34. This essay was republished as an independent brochure in 1909; in a [https://wn.rudolfsteinerelib.org/Articles/EduChild/EduChi_note.html Prefatory note to this edition]{{Dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, Steiner refers to recent lectures on the subject. An English translation can be found in [http://waldorfcurriculum.com/FREE/THE%20EDUCATION%20of%20the%20child.pdf ''The Education of the Child: And Early Lectures on Education''] (first English edition 1927, Second English edition 1981, London and New York, 1996 edition {{ISBN|978-0-88010-414-2}})</ref> His [[Definitions of education|conception of education]] was influenced by the [[Johann Friedrich Herbart|Herbartian]] pedagogy prominent in Europe during the late nineteenth century,<ref name=zander2007/>{{rp|1362, 1390ff}}<ref name="Ullrich">{{Cite book |last=Ullrich |first=Heiner |url=https://archive.org/details/rudolfsteinercon00ullr |title=Rudolf Steiner |publisher=Continuum International Pub. Group |year=2008 |isbn=9780826484192 |location=London |pages=[https://archive.org/details/rudolfsteinercon00ullr/page/n168 152]–154 |url-access=limited}}</ref> though Steiner criticized Herbart for not sufficiently recognizing the importance of educating the will and feelings as well as the intellect.<ref>Steiner, [http://steiner.presswarehouse.com/sites/steiner/research/archive/spirit_of_the_waldorf_school/spirit_of_the_waldorf_school.pdf ''The Spirit of the Waldorf School''], {{ISBN|9780880103947}}. pp. 15-23</ref>

In 1919, [[Emil Molt]] invited him to lecture to his workers at the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart. Out of these lectures came the first Waldorf School. In 1922, Steiner presented these ideas at a conference called for this purpose in [[Oxford]] by Professor [[Millicent Mackenzie]]. He subsequently presented a teacher training course at [[Torquay]] in 1924 at an [[Anthroposophy]] Summer School organised by [[Eleanor Merry]].<ref name="Torquay">Paull, John (2018) [https://www.academia.edu/36404489/Torquay_In_the_Footsteps_of_Rudolf_Steiner Torquay: In the Footsteps of Rudolf Steiner], Journal of Biodynamics Tasmania. 125 (Mar): 26–31.</ref> The Oxford Conference and the Torquay teacher training led to the founding of the first Waldorf schools in Britain.<ref>Stewart Easton (1980), ''Rudolf Steiner: Herald of a New Epoch'', Anthroposophic Press. {{ISBN|0910142939}}. p. 267</ref> During Steiner's lifetime, schools based on his educational principles were also founded in [[Hamburg]], [[Essen]], [[The Hague]] and London; there are now more than 1000 [[Waldorf education|Waldorf schools]] worldwide.

Benjamin Lazier calls Steiner a "maverick educator".<ref name="r012">{{cite book | last=Lazier | first=Benjamin | title=God Interrupted | publisher=Princeton University Press | publication-place=Princeton (N.J.) | date=2008 | isbn=978-0-691-13670-7 | page=29 | quote=By the 1920s gnosticism (the term) had hardly a vestige of an agreed-upon meaning. That gnosticism had returned in some form was a sentiment shared by many, but what that meant was up for debate. Some, notably those on the occult scene inspired by the maverick educator Rudolf Steiner, greeted the new age with enthusiasm.}}</ref>