How is reading taught in Waldorf schools?
Waldorf schools do not rush literacy. The schools teach reading in a deeply integrated manner: building comprehension first, by engaging children orally through stories, then engaging the children physically through art and writing, and finally by engaging them visually through reading what they’ve written. Teachers enthrall their young students with folktales, myths, rhymes and puppet shows. These stories are not merely entertainment for the children; the teachers are giving children the gift of living language. Rather than reading the stories, teachers tell them from memory, and they change and flow as all oral traditions do. Stories are repeated many times, and the children are exposed to a wide and changing vocabulary–one of the cornerstones of reading. The storytelling of Waldorf schools teaches the children to listen, to deeply listen. There are no pictures on the pages to tell the children what they ‘should’ be seeing; each child creates their own inner story with their own ima
