Click on a link to listen to a lecture.

Between Aspergers and ADHD
A Lecture Given by Eugene Schwartz
at Green Meadow Waldorf School, Chestnut Ridge, NY
Back in the 1980s, Eugene Schwartz was the first Waldorf educator to lecture publicly about ADHD, and a few years later he was also the first to discuss Aspergers. In this groundbreaking lecture, he compares these two learning and behavioral challenges, delineating their differences, but pointing our some striking similarities. Above all, he helps us understand that both syndromes are clarion calls from the spiritual world announcing the necessity of entirely new ideas in education.
As Kay Hoffman, Green Meadow’s Administrator, tells the audience in her introduction,
“I am certain that you will enjoy and be stimulated by what he has to say, and you will understand why we who work with him here at Green Meadow affectionately call him ‘EuGenius.’”
Click here for the lecture

Religion in the Waldorf School
Three Lectures Given by Eugene Schwartz
at Green Meadow Waldorf School, Chestnut Ridge, NY
Even as Independent Waldorf schools work hard to present a secular face to the world, and public Waldorf schools work within the values-neutral setting of state education, religion remains a charged subject in Waldorf education. These three lectures were given by Eugene Schwartz at Green Meadow Waldorf School to an audience composed of Jewish, Sufi, and Buddhist parents who were concerned about the school's emphasis on Christian Festivals. In spite of Eugene's frankness and unapologetic approach to the subject, the number of participants grew dramatically from one lecture to the next. These lectures represent the clearest and deepest treatment of this controversial subject to be found anywhere.

Lecture 1: Religion in the Waldorf School
Parents are justifiably frustrated by the vague responses they receive from faculty when they ask about religion in the Waldorf school. And many parents are justifiably up in arms when faced with the "November Surprise" of weeks of Advent that lead up to the "January Shock" of Three Kings' Day -- holidays they did not even know existed. Eugene cuts to the quick and gives a bracing and sometimes revelatory picture of the Christian underpinnings of Waldorf education.

Lecture 2: Cosmic Christianity
"When Steiner says Christian,"Waldorf teachers like to say, "He doesn't mean what YOU think of as 'Christian.'" All right, then just what DOES he mean? In this lecture, Eugene condenses the content of hundreds of Steiner lectures to give an insightful response to that important question.

Lecture 3: Christianity on Earth
Christ is not only a "cosmic" being, however. In Steiner's view, Christ is actively engaged in earthly life, and the Waldorf schools are a manifestation of His connection to modern humanity. Drawing on Steiner's difficult lectures on "The Fifth Gospel," Eugene presents rarely-expressed thoughts about the nature of Waldorf education. At the conclusion of this lecture, an Orthodox Jewish mother said, "The picture of Christ that you elicit from Steiner is not about 'religion.' It is all about how we face LIFE. I am thrilled that my children are in a Waldorf school."
Click here for the three lectures

A Talk with Fathers:
Is Waldorf Education a Good Investment?
A Lecture Given by Eugene Schwartz
at the Westside Waldorf School, Santa Monica, CA
It is a truism that it is almost always the mother who immediately intuits that Waldorf education is right for her child, while the father goes along, slowly but surely recognizing the school’s high caliber. In our times, many parents of both sexes embody Oscar Wilde’s description of the man who “knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.” Speaking to an audience of L.A. dads, Eugene goes straight to the issue of money, and examines whether the value of a Waldorf education is commensurate with its high price. This serious and weighty issue is taken up with humor and levity. This is a lecture meant to be listened to on your morning commute!
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The Child from Nine to Twelve
A Workshop Given at the Circle of Seasons Charter School,
Allentown, PA
While imitation serves as the primary means by which the young child apprehends the world, between ages seven and nine authority becomes the window through which the child views her surroundings. In the Waldorf school the Class Teacher serves as the central source of authority, helping her students make sense of the world through her own poise and confidence, organization and enthusiasm. Although the very word “authority” is anthenama to many parents, the child needs it nonetheless, and Eugene provides a number of examples that illustrate the importance of authority in school and home alike. In the second lecture, we explore the ways in which this authority breeds healthy rebellion among the adolescents who gratefully accepted it in the primary grades. With the advent of sixth grade, the child’s developing inner life calls for an approach that is more personalized and respectful of the young person’s nascent life of soul.
Click here for Lecture 1: The Nine Year-Old
Click here for Lecture 2: From Nine to Twelve

Letting Stories Teach
A Lecture Given at the Merriconeag Waldorf School
Freeport, ME
Rich and diverse as they may be, but all the subjects in the Waldorf grade school curriculum have one thing in common — they are filled with narratives. From fairy tale in Grade One to contemporary biographies in Grade Eight, from tales of adventure in the primary grades to scientific and mathematical discoveries in the Middle School, the Waldorf grade-schooler is regaled with the myths and sagas, chronicles and histories that give life and meaning to every subject that she or he learns. In this lecture, Eugene Schwartz shares some of these stories and how they affect the child's changing consciousness.
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The Other Two-Thirds of the Class
A Lecture Given at the Cedarwood Waldorf School,
Portland OR
No North American Waldorf practitioner would deny that twenty-first century parents are profoundly different from Waldorf parents of the last century. These differences are often explained in terms of such dismissive sociological categories as “Generation Y Parents” or “Helicopter Parents.” Eugene Schwartz argues that the new generation of parents -- and the generations that will follow them -- are actually a great blessing to Waldorf education, indeed, they are the ones who will help schools meet and form the future. In this lecture Eugene describes the surprising and profound ways in which parents are rightfully connected to their children, and encourages schools to envision a dramatically different relationship to their parent body.
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Mindfulness Parenting
A Workshop Given at the Circle of Seasons Charter School,
Allentown, PA
There is no shortage of advice offered to today's parents about raising their children! Although Eugene Schwartz has been reluctant to add his voice to the chorus, in his over forty years as a Waldorf teacher, a father of four, and a grandfather of seven, he has learned something about the subject. He will share the methods that Waldorf teachers use to bring order and joy into their classroom and show how these may be adapted to the home setting.  "Mindfulness Parenting" begins with the inner life -- and inner path -- of the parent and works from there, and that makes all the difference.
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The Karma of Education
Four Lectures Given by Eugene Schwartz
at Rudolf Steiner House, London, UK
In these lectures, given at the invitation of the St. Michael Steiner School in South London, Eugene explores the multifarious descriptions of life after death given by Rudolf Steiner. He traces the progress of the human soul and spirit through the “planetary spheres” as the consequences of one life become the foundation for the next, and he pays special attention to the pedagogical ramifications of this modern understanding of Karma. Click on the lecture links to access them.
Click here for Karma and Education
Click here for The Threefold Path of Karma

Building the Waldorf Community
A Lecture Given at the San Francisco Waldorf School,
San Francisco, CA
One of the most salient qualities of a Waldorf school is its capacity not only to educate children, but its ability to create a strong community encompassing teachers and parents (and grandparents!) as well. Eugene discusses why the efficacy of the Waldorf classroom is contingent upon the health of this larger community and the myriad ways in which the children's learning experiences help to strengthen the bonds of their own parents and the bonds of all families to one another.
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Light in the Darkness / Darkness in the Light
A Video Perspective on the Media and the Waldorf Schools
This 50-minute long video is a companion piece to The Media and Its Message lecture below. Warning: This presentation presents perspectives that, in some respects, are widely divergent from the views of many Waldorf schools and practitioners.
Click here to view the video on Vimeo.com


Combined Classes: Nostrum or Elixir?
Comments from a Discussion with Eugene Schwartz
in Squamish, British Columbia, Canada
Sponsored by the Whistler and Cedar Valley Waldorf Schools
In this short (ten-minute long) commentary, Eugene points to an important issue: The chronically depressed economy of the past few years has led many schools -- even “established schools” -- to consider or implement “combined classes,” a measure always considered extreme or even last-ditch. Speaking to two developing schools in British Columbia that have always had combined classes, Eugene thinks the unthinkable and asks teachers to consider that combined classes may be here to stay. In the same way that Rudolf Steiner made clearly delineated classes the “signature” of Waldorf education in the 20th century, “the Economy” may compel schools to understand that combined classes are the signature of 21st century Waldorf education.
Click here to hear the comments