Orientation in space and time, historical judgement and reflection: history teaching in the Waldorf curriculum is structured across three levels. The focus is on cultural history. Read an article by M. Michael Zech here.
Waldorf education is based on the premise that every human being carries within them their own biographical intentions, which must be acknowledged and respected. This latent aspect of individuality is realised over the course of a lifetime through various relationships with the surrounding world.
Today, the surrounding world is thoroughly shaped and formed by human civilisation. Today, when we engage with the world around us, we are confronted with the consequences of human actions, above all with the consequences of the industrialisation and colonisation of the world that originated in Europe and the Western world. This era, in which humans have a greater impact on nature than natural conditions have on them, can be described as the «Anthropocene»1.
The Anthropocene period has emerged from a changed relationship between humanity and nature. Authors such as the British-Indian thinker Amartya Ghosh, who explores the cultural conditions of globalisation, point out that during the European Enlightenment, the human spirit did not merely set out to grasp the individual’s free self-determination and rational orientation, thereby deriving the dignity inherent in every human being by virtue of their very nature, as well as a sense of equality with all other individuals, but these same philosophers (first in 1620 with Francis Bacon’s concept of «brute» in «The New Organon»), declared nature, living plants and sentient animals to be objects, mere things2.
With this, the dialogical relationship with nature was lost. That which has come into being, that which is alive, is declared a useful object, becoming a resource for our material-based civilisation. By labelling Indigenous peoples on other continents as «savages» (English: «brutes»), or as members of a «primitive people», they were stripped of their humanity and relegated to the status of a resource, turning them into objects of exploitation and enslavement. This is the shadow cast by the luminous age of the Enlightenment, or the dark side of ‘Enlightenment’. If we tell this story with the flow of time from the past into our present, we can recount the magnificent history of technological progress, the use of fossil fuels, machines and automation. We can describe how transport and communication technology has transformed our relationship with space and time. We can recount the development of global networks right up to the present day. We survey the path from the running messenger to AI.
If we illuminate the same story with the light of the future – that is, with what might be and is not yet, with what is yet to come – then we recognise the present challenge, which lies in our lost relationship, in the lost sense of balance and proportion in our actions. Then, we tell the story of loss and increasing estrangement, which transforms the «Enlightenment» into a realm of shadows – unless we reshape it by illuminating it from the spectrum of possibilities of a better future.
That which – to speak in terms of Gadamer’s hermeneutics – shines forth from the horizon of the future is the latent potential of our «ideal» self-aspirations, which lie within the biography of every individual human being. Interest, love and responsibility towards the world around us transform humanity’s relationship not only with the world, but also with itself.
The impetus for this transformation is stimulated in history lessons, in particular, that deal with early cultures and the diversity of life forms on this earth. In Waldorf schools, cultural history is taught on several levels and across different periods.
The three levels of history teaching in Years 5–13:
Level 1:Historical orientation in space and time (class teacher)
Years 5–8: an ascending chronological path
Level 2: Historical judgement (subject teacher)
Year 9: the early modern period to the present day
Year 10: prehistory to ancient Greece
Year 11: Ancient Rome to the Middle Ages
Level 3: Reflection on historical consciousness (subject teacher)
Year 12: Overview and reflection on historical consciousness
At the first level, pupils gain an understanding of place and time; then they are encouraged to form historical judgements; and finally, at a third level, they reflect on theories and assumptions from a philosophical and epistemological perspective. This curriculum differs from that of mainstream schools. Cultural history may be regarded as a distinctive feature of Waldorf schools. Before we address some of the issues associated with this, I shall outline the origins and rationale of history teaching in Waldorf schools.
When the first Waldorf school opened in Stuttgart in 1919, it came at a tragic high point of European nationalism. This affected Germany and France in particular. After the First World War, a centuries-long rivalry had reached yet another low point; instead of reconciliation following the deaths of hundreds of thousands of young men on both sides, national antagonisms persisted and sowed the seeds for the next war. Just as France had experienced the founding of the German Empire in 1871 in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles as a national humiliation, so now, in 1919, Germany regarded the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles as a disgrace. The National Socialists exploited this mood to establish their inhuman and criminal regime. Steiner, who had certainly been entangled in nationalist arguments during the early stages of the First World War, warned in 1919 – particularly with regard to Germany – against the destructive impulses of blood and race theories rooted in biologically-based racism. In this spirit, he proposed teaching a cultural history with a humanistic dimension in Waldorf schools. Contrary to the prevailing trends of the time, in 1919 he proposed neither national history nor a history based on Marx’s theory of dialectical materialism. Rather, he was concerned with a history that recounts the development of humanity. Its theme is the transformation of forms of life and consciousness.
Since its foundation in 1919, Steiner’s cultural history has been established in Waldorf schools as a sequence of advanced civilisations which, following the last Ice Age, shifted from India through the Persian region to the great theocratic river cultures of the Euphrates and Tigris and the Nile, and further into the Mediterranean region, into Greek and Roman antiquity. According to Steiner, the fifth post-Atlantic cultural epoch has been taking shape since the beginning of the modern era, following the European Middle Ages. (Due to space and time constraints, Steiner’s incorporation of the Atlantic myth into his theory of cultural development cannot be critically examined further here.) In Germany, this narrative is still taught today in Years 5–8 at Waldorf schools. This tradition raises major questions, which I shall address later.
History emerges as human beings recount their stories and situate themselves within time. In doing so, they give meaning to themselves and to time. This is how people express their cultural affiliations. In earlier cultures, this occurred through their participation in cultural rites and practices. Through this engagement, human beings entered into that which was, is, and will be. This magical consciousness is not memory in the strict sense, for it is not a matter of recollection; rather, in certain places, what was, is and will be is ritually and permanently generated; here, one is a bearer, a co-creator and a part of the cosmos. The external landscape at this level is a landscape of the soul; the places are magical and meaningful; here, in the performance of the participants memories of space and time are realised.
Mythical memory is a vast, all-encompassing narrative that is constantly changing and expanding; a cosmic-human context of images that undergoes constant re-evaluation, in which this world and the next, the world of humans and the world of gods, resonate together.
From this vantage point, there emerged in ancient Greece, among other places, what cultural scholars call «logos consciousness». Here, one’s own standpoint, one’s own collective origins and sense of belonging are narrated in distinction from the other. Here, the actions of one’s own group are legitimised through argumentation. One’s own culture is chosen as a significant and distinctive feature to be preferred over other ways of life3. The narrative thus also serves to establish collective identity. It was in this spirit that the great national historical narratives emerged in the 18th and 19th centuries which then, increasingly, became the subject of school education.
As early as the 19th century, this narrative was challenged by a universal history of humanity that portrayed the course of development as progress. It was conceived in Europe with the aim of creating a grand narrative that encompassed all cultures. In doing so, it primarily took the ideas of the European Enlightenment as its global yardstick. Progress and backwardness were assessed and described according to these criteria.
Not least in the French Annales School, cultural history in the 20th century shifted from a universal history of advanced civilisations or cultural epochs to a history that focuses on everyday life and culture in all their manifestations. It encompasses not only all forms of life and human production but also forms of government and society. On a global scale, exchange, confrontation, networking and transitions are at the centre of interest.
Digression: Steiner points to a paradigm shift which he locates towards the end of the 19th century. He sees the modern era up to that point as characterised by the endeavour to differentiate perceptible cultures with ever-greater precision. Modern natural science emerged from this endeavour. The tendency to establish clear criteria also gave rise to chauvinistic nationalism and racism. Steiner contrasts this with a new civilisation emerging from process-based thinking, a reconnection with life, and the establishment of relationships between diverse elements. He also places the educational aspirations of Waldorf schools within this context.
But how can an education that embraces diversity and the relationships between different forms of diversity be implemented in school teaching? In terms of a cultural history of humanity, this means moving away from a reductionist «master narrative», and thus also from a presentation of a sequence of advanced civilisations. The ideas Steiner proposed in 1919 must therefore be further developed in this sense, so that a history of cultural diversity with a humanistic dimension offers connections for all cultures. For the Waldorf school movement, which is spread across more than 80 countries on every continent, this idea holds the potential to establish connections with one another in order to exchange respective narratives.
My thesis is to approach history in Waldorf schools in such a way that cultural-historical phenomena are utilised as platforms to enable their diverse manifestations to be placed in relation to one another. This also does justice to the increasingly intercultural composition of the student body in our classrooms, with the narratives they bring from their diverse backgrounds.
To this end, the following topics are suitable for examination and historical and cultural analysis:
- The different designs of living spaces and settlements in the context of the settlement of communities
- The significance of borders
- The phenomenon of migration
- The relationship with nature and work
- Concepts of gender
- Legal systems
- Exploring the meaning of home
- National, religious and linguistic affiliation
- Forms of society
- Philosophies and conceptions of humanity
But even profound phenomena such as discrimination, slavery and exploitation, struggles for freedom, terror, war and conflict, displacement and genocide can be differentiated and explored as cultural phenomena.
This implied consequence of such an approach is that history ceases to be defined content to be memorised, but rather, concerned with relating the diversity of historical narratives to one another, and learning to understand history as dialogue and conversation. It is not collective content that should be taught, but rather history understood as a skill that enables every individual to shape their own narrative. Pupils should learn to recount history on the basis of facts, creating meaning and context. Beyond this act, they can practise engaging with historical objects and places in such a way that they can experience their atmosphere directly.
In the view of the historian and this year’s winner of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, Karl Schlögel, historical events can be understood more comprehensively and deeply when one engages with them by visiting the relevant sites. This, too, is a skills-based rather than a knowledge-based approach. In the upper years, history, in the sense of the philosopher Gadamer, must always be viewed within the framework of the horizons of the past and the future. History derives its meaning in the light of our ethical standards, our idealistic aspirations – that is, what might become – so that human coexistence may become more peaceful and our relationship with our biosphere restored.
We are currently striving for human self-determination, for the restoration of our relationship with life4, for justice and social solidarity, for relationships free from discrimination, and for respect for other forms of life – at least, when they acknowledge the spiritual autonomy of other human beings. None of these are givens, but rather intentions. They shine in their latent form from the horizon of the future, as soon as human beings willingly engage with them through their actions. These values express what Waldorf education intends to achieve through its promotion of individuation. The realisation of these values requires the proponents of this educational approach to bring them into political and academic discourse in a manner true to their spirit. Waldorf schools must be judged against the yardstick of this ethic of the thinking, freely self-actualising human being.
Critics suspect that Waldorf schools, by referring to Steiner’s anthroposophy, instead indoctrinate their pupils in a religious-spiritual manner. They suspect and accuse Waldorf educators of identifying with racist ideas and advocating pre-scientific positions. They scrutinise Steiner’s work for ambiguities and allege that Steiner’s statements are passed on as teaching content in Waldorf schools. And they also measure the reality at Waldorf schools against the ideals listed above. That is to say, they examine to what extent the claim of an education for freedom is actually put into practice; they examine whether respect for every individual is not called into question by discrimination; they examine whether scientific thinking is not supplanted by anthroposophical indoctrination; they examine how Waldorf educators respond to the racist statements actually found in Steiner’s writings; they investigate abuse at Waldorf schools; and they subject the cultural history taught at Waldorf schools to scrutiny in terms of respect for diversity and the avoidance of elitist hierarchies. Without disregarding the partly polemical and political intent of this criticism, it must nevertheless be noted that these critical questions are aired mainly on the basis of the very ideals against which Waldorf education measures itself. In this sense, this criticism is helpful and must be welcomed as an opportunity to examine one’s own reality.
Let us examine one of these critical points in more detail. It concerns the accusation that Waldorf schools, at least in their lower years, convey a historical narrative that is structurally racist, Eurocentric and rooted in colonial tradition. This accusation is based on statements from former Waldorf pupils, parents of former Waldorf pupils, and investigations that include pupils’ exercise books as well as the cultural-historical narrative inspired by Steiner.
It is worth examining these accusations and their reasoning. For if history teaching in Waldorf schools, adhering to a traditional conceptual framework, conveys a complex history in a reductionist, simplified and factually controversial manner, without the narratives that are continually passed on being scrutinised and thought through, then there is indeed a danger of offering as history teaching a mythical «fable convenue» established solely within Waldorf schools.
Yet the fundamental concept of cultural change could certainly be retained. A way of life in, and with nature, in which human beings do not so much stand in opposition to their environment but are actively connected to it on every level – what Steiner calls «unity consciousness» – has been and continues to be evident in a marvellous diversity across all regions of the earth. Such a way of life, which experiences in everything the expression of beings with whom one must relate because they condition and impact us, and to whom we therefore belong, need not be situated in a mythical, diffuse India; rather, such cultural forms were and are found everywhere across the globe.
It is evident that this «nature» world is transformed by a culture of cultivation and farming. Now it is a matter of distinguishing a cultural landscape from unattended nature. The vegetable patch and the field require attention and care; this area must be protected from overgrowth, drought, flooding, heat and frost, stones, storms and so on. However, this does not merely lead to two distinct areas in nature, but also differentiates two areas of the psyche. Cultivating grain from wild grass is a generational project in which one must refrain from immediately consuming the large ear of grain with its plump kernels. They must be set aside as seed and are thus removed from the immediacy of the soul. This occurred under the influence of new cultic orientations. The useful and the impactful must be distinguished in our dealings with the surrounding world as well as within our own psyche. The cultivation of the landscape presupposes a cultivation of the soul. Opposites must be negotiated; life takes shape through negotiation and dialogue. This, too, occurred not only in Persia, but across the Near East (various cereals), in South-East Asia (rice), in Central and South America (maize) and so forth. And it occurred much earlier than was assumed in Steiner’s time, though not simultaneously.
This is not the place or time to continue this discussion of the characteristics of the complex urban division-of-labour and theocratically organised riverine cultures with their geometric, astronomical-cosmic measurements of space and time. This cultural form, too, can be traced in various locations, each with its own distinct characteristics.
A brief remark on the history lessons covering the early modern period in Europe is intended to round off this proposal to think about cultural history in a contemporary way. The departure of European seafarers, who, amongst other things, laid the foundations for global colonialism, must today be addressed from a broader, multi-perspective standpoint. To truly honour people means that acts of discovery should no longer be glorified and presented as progress.
Given our global coexistence, it is important here to give the people whom the Europeans encountered their own cultural identity and a face, rather than lumping them together as ‘indigenous peoples’. Here, all historians with a European-Western background must broaden their horizons. We must consider what is currently being addressed in school lessons in regions outside Europe; we must take note of how narratives are increasingly emerging that are not only aligned with the standards of Western scholarship, but which incorporate the partly oral, partly written narrative traditions of other cultures. Does the global spread of Waldorf schools not offer an incredibly concrete potential for this, which can be put to effective use in our teaching if we take an interest in the narratives of our colleagues? In this way, Waldorf schools would step out of the shadow of the 19th and early 20th centuries and could become places of cosmopolitanism that honour diversity.
This article is a transcript of a lecture given by M. Michael Zech at the Congress of French Steiner Schools in Verrières-le-Buisson on 20 October 2025.
Footnotes
1: Yuval Noah Harari, 2025, «Homo Deus – A History of Tomorrow»
2: Amitav Ghosh, 2021, «The Nutmeg’s Curse»
3: M. Michael Zech, 2018, «Handbook of Upper School Teaching at Waldorf Schools», pp. 290–296
4: Corine Pelluchon, 2021, «Les Lumières à l’age du vivant»