Innovative Teaching Strategies: The Main Lesson

In most educational models the vehicle for teaching is contained within a class period, usually 40 minutes, and the focus is on one subject such as math, music, and science. Waldorf Academic, Roberto Trostli writes, “When Rudolf Steiner inaugurated the first Waldorf school, he established the “main lesson”— effectively, an ‘immersive’ in which the same subject would be the main focus during a two-hour morning class for 3 to 4 weeks. The rest of the day is filled with specialty classes such as French, math, English, art, civics, etc. 

Teaching main lessons in blocks has become one of the most successful and distinguishing features of Waldorf education, allowing teachers to cover the curriculum intensively and economically, and providing students with the fullest possible immersion in a subject. Students document and journal their learning by hand in special ‘Main Lesson Books’ which solidifies their learning and becomes their personal educational archive. 

The time between the main lesson blocks in a subject allows students’ concepts to develop gradually and to mature. Knowledge needs time to take root, blossom, and bear fruit. The main lesson block assures that students have sufficient time to experience a living process of learning.