In Israel, more than 150 early childhood groups/initiatives are working according to Waldorf ideas and principles. The groups are spread all over the country, even in the rural surroundings.
The variety of the groups is vast: many mixed-age (3.5 years -7 years old) kindergarten groups are fully recognized and supported by the government; others are partially recognized, while others, mostly the groups for the youngest children, are private. The number of children in each group varies, but in general, in the officially recognized kindergartens there are approximately 25-30 children in each group. The younger age groups are smaller and include approximately 15 children each.
Most of the groups speak Hebrew. There are a few (albeit growing) Arabic speaking groups and a few mixed Arabic-Hebrew speaking groups.
The birth to three groups are mostly private and not always officially registered.
Short history. The first Waldorf kindergarten group initiated in 1985. The first Waldorf school opened its first grade in 1989. The first high school opened its doors in 1997.
Today the Waldorf movement in Israel is big and active and is spread all over the country.
The “Circle” is the association for the early childhood education and the “Forum” is the association for the schools. In some educational fields, there is a collaboration between the two associations.
Conferences and trainings. Twice a year there are early childhood conferences (birth to seven) with approximately 250 early childhood educators participating in each. Since Covid some conferences were on zoom in different forms.
There are several training programs for Waldorf education. Most of them are part-time and there is no early childhood full-time training yet. One program offers exclusively part-time early childhood training. Other training programs include conventional kindergarten training as well as general Waldorf education courses.
Burning issues
1. We want to extend the recognition of the “Circle” (the early childhood association) among Waldorf early childhood kindergartens and teachers and invite more people to participate and take up responsibilities in our activities.
The early childhood training is an issue to work with and to continue to develop in general. Especially the ‘birth to three’ field needs an extra attention.
3. Another field to work on is the collaboration between the early childhood association and the school movement in keeping together the continuity of the educational perspective.
4. The early childhood movement is in an ongoing process with the ministry of education in order to get the recognition of the early childhood Waldorf education as a unique educational current within the official educational system.
5.In the last year Israel has been in a continuous war situation and as educators, we deal with issues of trauma, anxiety, bereavement, regression, and over-sensitivity in children.
Michal Reshef is a former early childhood teacher. She is currently a mentor for early childhood teachers, an advisor for new initiatives, and a family counselor, and teaches in the teacher training program. She is a member of the IASWECE Council.