Supporting the Mission

To be a leader is an interesting calling. Tenacity, perseverance, and hope are all required. Rudolf Steiner’s declaration that “our highest endeavor must be to develop free human beings who, of themselves, are able to give purpose and direction to their lives,” is no small undertaking. The founders knew that living into that calling would be an expensive, daring, and extremely rewarding quest.

For the first year, Molt’s School in Stuttgart was a “company” school, with the teachers being paid as employees of the Waldorf Astoria Cigarette Company. A year later, in 1920, the school was made independent. Independence is an integral value in all Waldorf Schools. The Austin Waldorf School is an independent, Texas non-profit corporation with 501(c)3 status from the IRS.

The Austin Waldorf School has been blessed by incredible philanthropic support from the very beginning. For much of America’s history, education was provided not by formal taxation but by committed citizens coming together to provide for the needs of their children. Even in the public system, this is true today as well.

In addition to Steiner’s voluminous work in child development, he wrote and lectured extensively about other topics: agriculture, medicine, architecture, religion, and economics, to name a few. In his economic writings, Steiner imagined separating work from pay. He spoke of working on behalf of the community and the gesture of the community then providing for all of one’s needs. Small social experiments of this kind are beginning to emerge worldwide, many with help of the internet. Until such a bright future emerges, philanthropic money gives us a small experience of this ideal, where my gift and your gift come together to make possible something that seemed impossible only moments ago.

The school’s mission – by creating a school environment that balances academic, artistic, and practical disciplines, the Austin Waldorf School cultivates a love of learning, creative thinking, a sympathetic interest in the world, self-confidence, and an abiding moral purpose – is the most vital part of our fundraising appeal. Such a mission makes the school worthy of philanthropic support, and philanthropic support in its demonstration of sympathetic interest in the world and abiding moral purpose, makes such a mission worthy.

To Support the Mission with your secure online donation, click here.