Waldorf School in Sochi "Good Way": address, student enrollment conditions, date of creation, history of the school and a unique curriculum

In the world of Waldorf schools, there are more than a thousand. The Steiner movement is the largest among alternative education systems and continues to grow steadily. It should be noted that the activities of such schools are not licensed and alternative schools do not issue documents on the formation of a state standard. In Sochi in 2011, one of these schools opened.

School Creation

The family of Julia and Fyodor Mikhailovich from Sochi, having not chosen a worthy public comprehensive school for their daughter, decided to create a private one. Having studied various pedagogical methods, we settled on Waldorf education. So Fedor Fedorovich Mikhailovich became the creator and founder of the Waldorf school in Sochi, "Good Way."

In 2011, classes 1 through 4 were organized in a private school, as well as a kindergarten and nursery "Mom and Baby." The premises were rented in one of the sanatoriums of the Khostinsky district of Sochi. In 2018, from 1 to 11 grade, 150 children study here. The Waldorf school in Sochi (Razdolnoye) now has its own room with classrooms and 4 hectares of land.

History of the Waldorf Method

Rudolf Steiner, doctor of philosophy from Austria , known to the world as the father of anthroposophy, opened a new school in Stuttgart in 1919. The name Waldorf came from the name of the Waldorf-Astoria factory, for whose children the school was opened. A mystic, fond of esotericism, Steiner laid down anthroposophical hypotheses in the educational process. Anthroposophy affirms the concepts of the trinity of man, the four essences of man and the doctrine of human temperaments. Waldorf schools subordinate pedagogy to the needs of the child, relying on these three pillars of the Steiner teachings.

1. The purpose of pedagogy is not only teaching science, but also improving the emotional sphere, educating the will, because, according to Steiner, intelligence, emotions and will correspond to the spirit, soul and body of a person.
   
2. The founder of the Waldorf school believed that the human child is a child under 21 years old. Man consists of four entities: the spiritless spirit and the physical, etheric and astral bodies. These entities do not arise simultaneously with the appearance of the child, but are born in a subsequent sequence with a seven-year interval: the first is the physical body, after 7 years - the etheric body, at 14 years old - the astral, and only 21 years old - the spiritual part of the personality, I. The educational process is built in attachment to the "growing up" of a person according to Steiner and is a "non-advancement and favorable development".
3. According to Steiner’s teachings, the dominance of one of the human essences affects the temperament of the child. So, melancholy people are children with the essence of the physical body, phlegmatic people with the etheric body, sanguine people with the astral body, and after 21 years, the spiritual person with his own Self is choleric.

This concept is used in Waldorf schools for productive education and alignment of temperaments.

The Waldorf method has contradictions with Christianity. According to the Gnostic teachings of Steiner:

• The person of Christ is in all faiths, but is called differently.
• The truth of religion is only within the framework of the time and place of its birth.
• The forms of Christianity must be changed to match the level of civilization.
• The existence of two children embodied in Jesus Christ: one comes from King Solomon, the second from Nathan.
• The second coming of Christ will be visible only with spiritual vision.

Educational principles of Waldorf pedagogy

Waldorf schools in their activities adhere to principles based on anthroposophy: do not interfere with the process of forming the personality of the child, provide him with the maximum opportunities, but without interfering and not rushing. Schools are equipped with equipment and supplies made from natural materials. In the educational process, the spiritual growth of children is of paramount importance. The school day is divided into parts:

• spiritual (thinking is required from students),
• sincere (music and dance lessons),
• creative and practical (creative and applied art lessons).

The program includes subjects that have no analogue in other pedagogical areas: eurythmy - a kind of dance direction created by Steiner.

Waldorf alumni

The analysis was conducted in Genmania in 1981. It turned out that among graduates 3 times more received higher education, compared with graduates of public schools. Despite the Waldorf schools being presented as “greenhouses” for raising children and seemingly inevitable problems of adaptation to the social environment, there were many famous people among the graduates - Sandra Bullock, Ferdinand Porsche, Jennifer Aniston, Stanislas Wavrinka.

Parents who sent their children to Waldorf school are Mikhail Baryshnikov, Helmut Kohl, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Silvio Berlusconi, Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Mikhail Kozakov, Heinz Nixdorf, George Lucas, Paul Newman.

Unique teaching methods at Good Way School

The Waldorf School of Sochi, during training, develops precisely the activity in the student that he can master without effort. The priority is the method in which they do not interfere in the independent pace of the student’s progress, depending on his potential.

Classes are held without resistance to the body. At about the age of a child of 7-14 years old, teachers work with his imaginative thinking and involve not thinking, but feelings, in the educational process. Much attention is paid to the development of coordination, motor skills. In Sochi elementary Waldorf school, at the needlework lessons, children are engaged in applique, drawing, and rolling threads into balls.

These exercises are believed to be important for future intellectual growth. To develop memory, the Sochi Waldorf school uses the method of including feelings, since it is assumed that visual learning is ineffective before the age of 12. Support for memory are emotions. The Good Way school in Sochi, whose teachers aim to overcome the apathetic attitude of children to learning topics, is a place where children are not bored to study. Staging performances on historical topics, memorizing poems to the rhythm of pops - styles of rational improvement of memory.

The driving force of the child’s interest in learning is his interest. Under 9 years old, children are interested in playing, jumping, copying adults and listening to fairy tales. Using the activity of the child, depending on age, teachers at the Waldorf school build learning based on imitation, fairy tales, and creative imagination.

“Good Way” in Sochi is a school that applies the method of balance between subjects with enhanced mental activity and subjects with physical activity. Excessive mental stress during training negatively affects the health of children, teachers say. Therefore, in Sochi's private school “Good Way” there are many objects where children move or observe, or simply listen. This is painting, eurythmy, needlework, theater studio.

The Waldorf school in Sochi, whose work is in line with the Waldorf education system, follows a specific daily routine. In the morning - a 20-minute exercise with rhythmic clapping hands and stamping feet. The first lesson is always one general subject. After it is an object where rhythmic repetition is applicable: music or a foreign language, eurythmy, physical education.

After lunch - objects with physical activity: needlework, vegetable growing, mastering crafts. The Good Way school in Sochi holds on to teaching methods in which the teaching material is presented in large parts. Thanks to this, children manage to penetrate the era. In addition to theoretical training, the school organizes field trips. For example, to Vladimir for the reconstruction of costumes of medieval knights or to the Kuban for geological excavations.

Methods and principles of the educational process

The Waldorf School of Sochi pays great attention to the spiritual component of the education of its wards.

• A personal behavior pattern is an incentive to follow, a wordless parenting style is a priority.
• The use of simple toys that give room for the imagination of a child. The ban on multimedia. Ignoring technical toys.
• Strengthening feelings and emotions.
• Proverb in action “Habit is second nature”: observance of rituals.
• The rhythmic device of time periods.
• Surround the child with absolute attention at certain hours of the day.
• Constantly thinking about the baby.
• Be thankful, create a positive atmosphere around you.

Joint activity and individual approach

The Waldorf School of Sochi, reviews of which are different, is famous for its individual approach to each of its pupils. Children are free from stressful and conflict situations. The school does not give grades. Therefore, the absence of an adversarial part does not provoke a student's sense of superiority or inferiority. The measure of success for everyone is personal achievement, compared to yesterday.

Children develop free, there is no suppression of personality. The school team is harmonious, which contributes to the creation of a comfortable environment for each child. “Good Way” in Sochi is a school arranged with respect for childhood. Her desire is to expand the natural talents of each child and help to believe in her own strength. By using special and specific exercises, it is possible to identify unknown abilities of the child.

Student Admission Conditions

Autonomous non-profit educational organization Free School "Good Way" is recruiting children living in the city of Sochi to receive education in a family form of education. The cost of training is 30,000 rubles per month. Admission or transfer to school occurs according to the following rules:

1. On the ANOU website of the Good School "Good Way" fill out and send an application or call the school.
2. Parents will be assigned the date and time of the preliminary interview.
3. Come to a meeting with the class teacher.
4. Children and parents visit guest weeks to make an informed decision about studying at the Waldorf school in Sochi.
5. Conclude an agreement to receive educational services and pay for tuition.

School Address

The Waldorf school (Sochi) is located at: Razdolnoye village, ul. Strawberry House, 28-B.

How to get there by public transport:

Criticism and positive feedback from parents

The Good Way School (Sochi), reviews of which are very different, deserves the coverage of the opinions of both supporters and opponents. The most surprising thing is that the same controversial object has diverse opinions.

• Connection with occultism and contradictions with the Christian religion. The main critics are priests of the Russian Orthodox Church. Indeed, in their activities, teachers use meditation and involve parents and schoolchildren in them. When discussing the Waldorf school in Sochi, the reviews describe general meditation and the mystery on the occasion of the birth of the school. Also on the forum there is a review of the Foundation Stone Meditation, which was practiced by Steiner, it is pronounced in German by a common choir, then alternately. Parents also noted that there is something esoteric in this school. But this amazing, magical, unusual attracts children to go to school daily.
• Emphasis on personal development. Everyone can have their own opinion and embody it. Opponents say this is a minus: children do not know the limits of permissibility. Supporters: free creative individuals with sound mind are brought up here.
• The humanitarian focus of the school. Minus for children with a technical way of thinking. Plus - the study of several foreign languages, one of which is necessarily German. An annual student exchange for a three-week language workshop at a Waldorf school in Stuttgart.
• There is no homework. Children are not burdened with homework. No reinforcing exercises.
• Invalid teaching methodology. The positive aspect is in anti-stress training. Negative - it is problematic to transfer to another school, since knowledge is not confirmed by grades.
• Insufficient knowledge in general subjects. It is refuted by the successful passing of the exam, graduates without problems enter universities, but more often in the humanitarian professions.
• Separation from progress: they study without attracting technical means, write in notebooks with fountain pens. A positive aspect is the development of calligraphic handwriting and calligraphy.
• The school is private, paid. Due to the fact that not all parents can afford to pay for a child’s secondary education, children from families with an income above the average attend school. Waldorf parents are busy people with higher education who are willing to pay for the harmonious development and education of their children.

The Waldorf School of Sochi puts forward an alternative way of acquiring knowledge and raising pets, in which there is not just training, as the transfer of knowledge in a comfortable environment, but emotional growing up, increasing the motivation of education. The peculiarity of the school is an attempt to teach schoolchildren the knowledge they have learned to apply their whole life effectively.

Waldorf pedagogy is fundamentally different from what is generally accepted in public schools in Russia. The lack of a clear curriculum, textbooks, auxiliary teaching equipment and material, on the one hand, and the professionalism of the teacher, his love and care for each pupil, on the other.

When making an important decision about choosing a school, parents need to remember that although the Waldorf school is not a religious organization, it is based on the teaching of anthroposophy. Only by carefully checking your life position and principles for compatibility with these ideas can you decide on the choice of mass education or alternative education in the form of a Waldorf school.