Foreign Languages Throughout the Curriculum

“What is more quickening than light?
A conversation-an encounter through words.”
-Goethe

The purpose of the study of languages is to develop the ability to communicate. Through the art of communication, we confront the essence of the other person. This process raises one’s social conscience and fosters an important objective of Waldorf education: to cultivate an interest in others, which will inspire students to share their knowledge, abilities, and experiences. Those who are touched by such an interest will contribute to global understanding and to the progress of humanity. Here at the Marin Waldorf School we offer both Spanish and German classes through the grades.

Studying languages is a window into the soul of a culture, into its genius, individuality, and musicality. The manner in which we think is expressed through the language that we speak, and it is well known that learning another language expands one’s thoughts and ability to penetrate the feelings and the soul of the other culture. In capturing the spirit of the language that molds human beings, one begins not only to understand other cultures, but also to change one’s way of thinking, feeling, and acting.

Although language expresses the thinking of an individual or a culture, it arises from the life of feeling. The language is internalized in the child’s feelings, a realm of interplay between sympathy and antipathy, and this process works on the growth of imaginative thinking and the development of the human being.

Foreign languages in Waldorf schools are an integral part of the curriculum. Two languages of different origins are taught in Waldorf schools from first to twelfth grade. Each language satisfies different needs in the child, providing a balance for his or her soul. Each language, with its particular music and rhythm of intonation and articulation, and the structure of its parts, offers a special experience to the child. It is up to each school to determine, in accordance with local circumstances and needs, the languages that are taught.

In Waldorf education our objective is to offer students the opportunity to live in the “genius” of the language. We want them to write sentences and paragraphs, developing the capacity to think by letting the language penetrate their being. Also, through daily rhythms, repetition, continuity of instruction, concentration, and follow-up, the will of the student is developed. These activities help the individual transform the material to make it her own.

In the upper grades, when the students are more conscious of their own tongue, they discover alternative forms of expressing themselves, whether in prose or verse, and they become more aware of the intricate structures of their own language through study of the grammar, syntax, and idiomatic expressions of the foreign language.

In the workbook Forming the Lessons of Grades One through Eight, written for the Pedagogical Section, and published by the Rudolf Steiner College, we find the following reference about the mission of language:

"Through the inner flexibility of their speech organ, the children find their way to a flexibility of soul and an openness that has an effect on their entire later life and especially on their social abilities. The foreign language lesson is suited like practically no other lesson to encourage openness and awaken interest for what is foreign to oneself-and in our time of widespread racism and social conflict on both a small and large scale this is a pedagogical mission of the first order.”