In this first chapter in the book "The Child, Teacher and Community" provides a clear overview of the spiritual dimension of waldorf schooling.

" Waldorf education is a very concrete, dense reality, a human reality .  I am not speaking of perfection or lack of perfection, but actually a concrete, dense, human reality .  It is what happens during every lesson — where we meet the children, where children meet the teachers, and where we see what importance these meetings have on the long journey from birth to adult life . We see what importance these moments have in the development of these human beings as they make small, new steps, as they overcome themselves, as their new faculties increase, and so on .  And just as much of a dense, concrete reality is the meeting between teachers in the teachers’ meeting and in the meeting of the college of teachers .  I do not mean perfection or lack of perfection .  I do not mean happiness . What I mean is also a kind of dense, concrete reality in such meetings .  And just the same, if you look upon the whole school community, if you follow up what happens there in the founding of a new school, in the early growth of the school community, and during the following years, then you can find a kind of spiritual biography .  Moreover, in every school it is a different individuality, a different spiritual being which is found in the whole school community, and this,too, is what I mean by a concrete, dense reality .  But if you look around in the present times, this is not the mood that is usually found .  In all cities, in all countries, there is a tendency of masks, of ghosts . You have the feeling that what you see is not, in reality, what it actually looks like . What is the reality behind the masks? What is going on? Are they really human beings or are they only ghosts who are speaking? That it appears that they think is also, somehow, a non-reality .  But if you then once more look at this very concrete, dense reality of human existence and at the development of the students and of the teachers together, you come to a great challenge .  For there you find very great human possibilities . And all of us know those very great human possibilities which are within this path of education and of the possibilities in meeting together with the children and the students .  How, then, does this very great ideal live within this concrete, dense reality?"... read more"

View the article here   The Child, Teachers and Community -Ch 1- Spiritual Impulse of WE- J Smit

View the book here  The Child, Teachers and Community - J Smit

This book is available from AWSNA Publications