Why Waldorf Dolls don't have Faces

I was chatting with the school's ensemble teacher one other day and he mentioned that his friend told him that Waldorf Schools are cults.

I asked what made his friend say so, the friend gave him one question as an answer "Why do your dolls don't have faces?"

Our ensemble teacher didn't know that fact, for one he teaches middle school and up so he hasn't seen lower school and kindergarten dolls, two we got him for his love of children, talent as a motivator and as an accomplished musician. One thing I like about him is he's always eager to learn and is up to any challenge.

This cult and faceless dolls myth was a long time coming, I finally got to encounter the question.

Fact 1: ALL our school dolls are faceless and have cylindrical bodies, except for the marionettes in upper grades.
Fact 2: ALL our school dolls are hand made by the teachers, students and parents.

I love those faceless dolls, my daughter has seen them in school during puppet stories, she treasures the few she received as gifts, and she's looking forward to making one in craft class.

Those faceless dolls stir up my daughter’s imagination. She can use any expression she can imagine when making stories with the dolls, and my daughter always makes at least three stories in a row. Her stories are not confined to the dolls' shapes, colors and sizes. She uses a few props to change the dolls gender and age to suit her stories. Stories have a wonderful way to make children grow and improve, and these dolls help.

One more reason I love those faceless cylindrical bodied dolls is that my daughter’s sense of beauty is not affected by commercialism and is not skin deep. Beautiful for her is not long blonde hair, blue eyes, big breasts, and long legs with small feet.

Beautiful for her is security, calm, awe inspiring, relaxing.

Beautiful for her is someone she can trust and depend on, one who would never let her down, one who would set her straight and tell the truth.

For her, the most beautiful person in the world is her mother who gives her security, courage, warmth and love. I imagine my daughter's protagonists would always have her parent's faces.