Our children, the younger generation, are the key to the future. It is they who are the ones to find solutions to the global challenges we face. Finding solutions demands human capability in fields we have barely begun to understand. Today an education is needed which enables children to unfold faculties which go beyond mere tradition or the conventional wisdom of our times. Waldorf education seeks to do this. It seeks to participate in the development of human beings who will become the initiators of cultural progress.

Schooling and education play a decisive role for the future of human civilisation. Human rights and democracy, international understanding, tolerance and peace will only be achieved through a new understanding of what is possible in educa­tion. The ideas and intentions which will shape civilisation tomorrow must be awakened within children today.

Not only the present discussion of the possibilities of school autonomy but also questions concerning minority rights and the ethical basis of a rnulti-cultural society, ques­tions that affect directly the future of society, lead inevitably to the question of what role education shall play in the world today.

We wish to thank Mr. C. N. Power, Assistant General Director of UNESCO, and Dr. H.-W. Rissom, Assistant Director, Department of Education of UNESCO, for the invitation to present Waldorf education and the contribution Waldorf educators are making in education today during the 44th Session of the International Conference on Education. We also wish to thank Mr. J. C. Tedesco, Direc­tor of the International Bureau of Education in Geneva and Mr. V. Adamets, Head of Studies Unit of the 1BE, for their support during the preparation of this exhibition.

Many authors have contributed their time and effort in the preparation of this project. We wish to thank all of them for their help. It was conceived in co-operation with Karl Lierl, Munich, and Magda Maier, Stuttgart, who also prepared the English translations. The design and production of the exhibition and the catalogue were also done by Karl Lierl. Both of them deserve special thanks for an extremely productive collaboration. We want to thank Jon McAlice, who has shared responsibility for the conception and production for his untiring efforts. Without the ongoing help of our friends in the European Council of Waldorf/Rudolf Steiner Schools, especially Christopher Clouder and Martyn Rawson, we would not have been able to cope with the extensive workload involved in bringing such a project to completion. Finally we would like to thank the entire Waldorf school movement for the openess with which they have supported the project.  

Nana Göbel
Bochum, in September 1994