ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses Rudolph Steiner's unique approach to human development, embedded within a specific spiritual view of humanity's place within the world, which led him to a concentrated focus on holistic development during the period of childhood. The term Steiner schools is used to refer to schools using the Steiner framework, both in the past and present, which is the British custom. From 1884 to 1890 Steiner supported himself through private tutoring. Through deep self-reflection, Rudolf Steiner believed that human beings would rediscover a lost ability to bridge the material world and the spiritual. Steiner proposed that teaching was a moral and spiritual endeavour, comparing the teacher to a gardener who nurtures his plants to maturity. He believed that teachers should be aware of the orientations of their students and respond to them as such. Steiner's anthroposophical ideas did, however, attract the interest of Emil Molt, the owner of the Waldorf cigarette factory in Stuttgart, Germany.
