School choice

Classical or Waldorf / Steiner?

The difference between Classical and Waldorf / Steiner is mostly one axis: when formal academics start. Classical sits toward early, and ambitiously; Waldorf / Steiner sits firmly toward when the child is ready, and late is fine. They agree, more than most people expect, on who else is there, technology at school and a view of the world. Neither is the correct one. What follows is what each asks of a parent, and where the difference actually shows up on a Tuesday.

Classical

A specified body of knowledge, taught in a deliberate order, on the argument that you cannot think critically about something you do not know. The trivium stages it: facts and memorisation while memory is easy, then logic, then rhetoric. Often Latin, usually history in chronological sequence, and always explicit instruction from the front.

What it asks of you

  • Comfort with memorisation and recitation, which are unfashionable and central here
  • Accepting a canon, and that choosing one is a value judgement however old it is
  • Homework, and a household that supports it
  • Checking which tradition a given school belongs to — the name covers a wide political range

Waldorf / Steiner

Childhood is divided into seven-year stages and the curriculum follows them: imaginative play and practical work before seven, then formal reading and writing, with art, music and craft running through everything. The day and the year have a firm rhythm, the same teacher usually stays with a class for years, and screens are kept out entirely.

What it asks of you

  • Holding your nerve while children elsewhere are reading and yours is not yet
  • Accepting an explicit worldview — anthroposophy is in the foundations, whatever a given school says about it
  • Real participation: festivals, crafts, and a good deal of parent presence
  • Fees, in most countries
Side by side

Where they differ

Classical is the filled marker, Waldorf / Steiner the hollow one. Widest difference first.

L2When formal academics start
when the child is ready, and late is fineearly, and ambitiously

Classical sits toward early, and ambitiously; Waldorf / Steiner sits firmly toward when the child is ready, and late is fine.

L3Measuring it
no grades, no testsgraded and tested regularly

Classical sits toward graded and tested regularly; Waldorf / Steiner sits firmly toward no grades, no tests.

E2Outdoors and the body
learning happens at a tableoutdoors and hands-on is the point

Classical sits toward learning happens at a table; Waldorf / Steiner sits toward outdoors and hands-on is the point.

V3What it is for
childhood is the pointit should set up university and a career

Classical sits toward it should set up university and a career; Waldorf / Steiner sits toward childhood is the point.

L5What a teacher is
a guide who steps backan authority who instructs

Classical sits firmly toward an authority who instructs; Waldorf / Steiner sits a little toward an authority who instructs.

C1What the family can put inwhat your life allows
school has to run without the parentsbeing in it, daily

Classical sits between the two; Waldorf / Steiner sits toward being in it, daily.

L4Where the curriculum comes from
it emerges from the childrena fixed body of knowledge, set in advance

Classical sits firmly toward a fixed body of knowledge, set in advance; Waldorf / Steiner sits toward a fixed body of knowledge, set in advance.

L1Who directs the day
the child chooses what to dotimetabled, and directed by adults

Classical sits firmly toward timetabled, and directed by adults; Waldorf / Steiner sits toward timetabled, and directed by adults.

Where they agree

Usually more than the argument between them suggests.

  • Who else is there. Both sit toward a community that shares our values matters most.
  • Technology at school. Both sit firmly toward kept out until late.
  • A view of the world. Both sit toward school should teach a view of the world.

Neither of these is the correct one

Which fits depends on what you value and on what your week actually allows — and the second of those is the half nobody writes about. The questionnaire scores both.

See which one you are already doing