Play's relation to health and well-being in preschool and kindergarten: a Waldorf (Steiner) education perspective

Abstract

In most US pre-k/kindergartens play is justified as serving academic goals. However, Waldorf education, an independent alternative to public schooling, leverages play to promote child health and well-being. This paper examines Waldorf education's approach to play with reference to the underlying cultural model of/for child development that Waldorf teachers subscribe to. It describes how teachers orchestrated play in four pre-k/kindergarten classrooms and examines, from the teacher perspective, how keeping children ‘in movement’ both physically and spiritually encourages healthful sensory-motor integration while nourishing children's ‘will forces’ and ensuring good health and flexible thinking in adulthood. In addition to providing insight into how we might foster more play in non-Waldorf settings and informing the theoretical construction of play-as-mood, the findings indicate that Waldorf education is not immune to the work-play opposition common to US educational discourse; accordingly, the pedagogic and pediatric work done by play becomes a selling point for the system.