Overview

Intentionally designed to address children’s physical, emotional and intellectual needs at each unique stage of their development, Waldorf Education strives to help create individuals who live up to their fullest capacities.  Rather than teaching “to the test,” the Waldorf curriculum understands that in order to foster critical thinking and creative problem-solving, instill intrinsic ethical and moral codes, and promote true joy in learning, education must connect to one’s essential nature and engage a child’s will, feeling and thinking.  By encouraging direct experience with lesson material, introducing subject matter in age-appropriate fashion, and providing purposeful activities that renew the soul, Waldorf Education promotes wholeness by bringing together body, mind and spirit.

Click here for a suggested reading list for parents and here for a list of books authored by Green Meadow Faculty.

The Waldorf Curriculum

A Waldorf education provides students with a harmonious balance of practical, physical, artistic and academic activities, each contributing to the development of a well-rounded individual.  Academics are presented in an experiential manner that fully engages the students, contributing to a greater understanding of and meaningful connection with their lesson. Across the spectrum of academic subjects, students create their own textbooks, recording what they have learned in beautifully illustrated books which contain lessons, experiments, descriptions, poetry, essays and stories.  Fine and performing arts - painting and drawing, movement and dance, choral and instrumental music - are infused across the curriculum at all grade levels, advancing a finely developed aesthetic sense and an ease with creative expression and performance.  Lessons in a variety of handwork mediums and practical arts, requiring an active engagement with the task at hand, promote patience, dexterity and confidence in one’s technical abilities. Waldorf students participate in a variety of physical education classes that teach spatial awareness, encourage coordination, balance and rhythm, and develop individual and team sporting skills.  They study eurythmy, a dance-like art form, in which movement is used to express music and speech.  Lower grade students are provided ample time to engage in unstructured recess, while older students may choose from among several extra-curricular sports offerings. In keeping with their aim of addressing all aspects of a child’s needs, Waldorf schools also seek to nurture the development of an individual 's spiritual life and a respect for the natural world.

In every Waldorf school, each class, from first through twelfth, starts its day with “main lesson.” These ninety-minute to two-hour long, primary-subject blocks, which meet every day for three to four weeks, allow students to explore one subject in great depth and with full concentration before moving on to the next. The content and delivery of main lesson is carefully chosen to speak to age-specific developmental needs and interests. First graders, still in the dreamy world of young childhood, are introduced to the alphabet through the imaginatively rich images contained in fairy tales. Third graders, shedding early childhood and becoming more conscious of the world around them, can relate to the expulsion stories they learn about in the Old Testament. Their study of farming and house-building serves to help place them firmly on the earth. Fifth graders, enjoying childhood’s balanced “Golden Age,” study classical Greek history and participate in an Olympic pentathlon with students from neighboring Waldorf schools. Rebellious eighth graders, at odds with parental and other authority figures, gain insight into their own struggles while examining the history behind the French and American Revolutions. Fifteen-year-olds, who tend to think in terms of “black and white,” study the polarity of heat and cold in physics and dramatic tragedy and comedy in ninth grade English. Eleventh graders, in the midst of their own journeys of self-discovery, find meaning and inspiration through the reading of the medieval poem Parzival and its hero’s epic quest for the Holy Grail.

With its continual building on previous academic lessons, the Waldorf curriculum has been described as being organized in a spiral formation. Over the years, as main lessons spiral “up” (along with a child’s development) and “out” (revisiting subjects learned earlier now in greater depth), students gain deeper insights, and learning becomes more and more internally driven. By twelfth grade, Waldorf students are situated on top of the spiral – and their education - having finally become their own fully realized selves.

The Waldorf Classroom

Teachers play a distinctive role in Waldorf Education.  Entrusted not to simply fill their students with information but to help them develop a genuine love of learning, and the capacity and the will to pursue their own directions in life, the function of a Waldorf teacher changes according to the grade level of the child.

In Early Childhood classrooms, teachers provide a reassuring sense of comfort and security for four- to six-year-olds who are newly discovering their place in the world.  Because children of this age learn naturally through imitation, the Waldorf Early Childhood teacher is a figure worthy of emulation.  Patient, gentle and nurturing, she (or he) quietly engages in domestic tasks and artistic activities, knowing the students will naturally follow. The teacher inspires her young children to develop their imaginations and investigate their world by encouraging dramatic play and allowing ample time for them to explore nature.  Whether standing alongside them chopping vegetables for a hearty soup or leading them on a walk to a nearby stream to sail handmade wooden boats, the Waldorf Early Childhood teacher's role is to gently guide her students in their important “work” of discovery and creative play.

The first grade child begins a more conscious awakening to the outside world.  Realizing that blind imitation is no longer enough, the students of elementary-school age seek out greater authority to help lead them in their next important discoveries.  Now, the Waldorf classroom becomes primarily teacher-centered. Ideally, one Waldorf school teacher will lead a lower school class through all eight grades, serving as main lesson teacher and key authority figure throughout the students’ entire elementary education, while specialty teachers provide lessons in such subjects as foreign language, handwork, music, physical education and eurythmy. This unique aspect of Waldorf schooling allows a child to develop a secure, stable relationship with his class teacher and allows the teacher to understand and work with that student’s learning style, strengths and weaknesses over a number of years. Parents and teachers develop long-term working bonds with one another, as the class teacher not only guides the children through their developmental paths, but imparts unique knowledge and understanding of these paths to the children’s parents through frequent class meetings and communication. While personality conflicts arising from this educational triad are rare, those that do occur are acknowledged and resolved much in the way difficulties in any relationship are addressed. By truly coming to know and understand each other over the course of many years, Waldorf teachers, parents and students enjoy a unique and mutually beneficial relationship absent in other educational systems.

As Waldorf students approach high school age and their individual and intellectual needs evolve, the Waldorf classroom adjusts to these changes by gradually shifting from being teacher-centered to student-centered.  Students seeking out answers to questions of greater intellectual depth now enjoy being taught by a myriad of subject specialists who are experts in their fields. At the same time, no longer in need of one main authority figure, high school-age students take on more and more responsibility for their own learning. Internships, senior projects and foreign exchange programs are a few examples of the opportunities afforded Waldorf high school students in directing their own education. Each high school class is guided by two teachers who serve as class advisors, providing individual students with personal and academic guidance, attending to the social well-being of the group and lending assistance to such whole-class activities as trips and plays.

Historical and Philosophical Background

Waldorf Education began shortly after World War I, when Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), an Austrian-born scientist, philosopher and educator, visited the Waldorf Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart, Germany. He was there at the invitation of Emil Molt, a leading German industrialist who asked Steiner to establish a school for the children of his employees. Molt's request arose from his belief that if the post-war generation of children were to create a brighter future, they would need an education which went beyond traditional intellectual skills to encompass capacities that would address their essential humanity. Rudolf Steiner responded with a radical proposal that turned the common educational practices of the day upside down. Five months after Steiner's visit, the Independent Waldorf School (Die Freie Waldorf Schule) opened its doors in Stuttgart in 1919 (decades later, Emil Molt’s own great-grandchildren would become students at Green Meadow Waldorf School).

Because of its visionary philosophical base and innovative teaching methods, the original Waldorf school grew, gaining international recognition and inspiring the creation of new schools. Today, Waldorf Education is one of the largest and fastest-growing independent school movements in the world. There are nearly 1000 independent Waldorf schools and numerous Waldorf-based initiatives flourishing in six continents and 38 countries all over the world, including Europe, Asia, Australia, Central and South America, the Middle East, and former Soviet-bloc countries. In the United States alone, there are over 150 Waldorf schools and countless Waldorf initiatives and Waldorf-inspired public charter and magnet schools. Waldorf schools (sometimes known as “Steiner Schools”) are independent in every sense, with ties to neither church nor state nor any other institution. They are linked with one another through common educational ideals.

The identity of every Waldorf school is profoundly affected by the spiritual values at the core of the Waldorf pedagogy. Anthroposophy (“knowledge of the nature of man,” derived from the Greek “anthropos”--human being--and “Sophia”--wisdom), a path of self-knowledge first articulated by Rudolf Steiner, provides the underpinnings of Waldorf Education.  Anthroposophy is a spiritual philosophy, based on a belief that all humans possess a spiritual dimension, and is a non-sectarian discipline. Green Meadow faculty draw upon anthroposophy for its insight into human development and its grounding in the spiritual core of Christianity, without an ideological or denominational character. There is no wish to impart any particular religion to the students, nor are there devotional services of any kind offered. Green Meadow Waldorf School is open to children of all backgrounds, and the curriculum is rich in the teachings of the many great religious traditions of the world. Through their experiences in the classrooms and in the celebration of the seasonal festivals of the year, students are enabled to develop understanding and respect for the diverse cultures of the world. Drawing primarily, but not exclusively, on Judeo/Christian traditions, the festival assemblies celebrate common humanity, not our separateness in belief or practice. Students from many religious and cultural backgrounds have been educated at Green Meadow, finding their essential spiritual nature uniquely recognized and honored and their private beliefs respected.

Beyond Waldorf 

A Waldorf education is imparted in such a living way that it grows with the student, “breathing” in him long after formal schooling has ended. In a study conducted in 2005 of over 500 Waldorf school alumni who graduated from 27 Waldorf high  schools between the years 1953 and 2005, communication, truthfulness, problem-solving abilities, ethical values and initiative were cited as the life skills most valued from their Waldorf education. Ninety-one percent of the respondents said life-long learning was of significant importance to them. Waldorf alumni go on to receive undergraduate and graduate degrees across a vast spectrum of the arts, humanities, math and sciences and pursue a wide-range of professions. Widely considered to be well-rounded individuals with high levels of social and emotional intelligence, former Waldorf students exhibit a broad range of talents, accomplishments and interests.  By addressing important developmental aspects of “feeling” and “doing,” thus transforming the student experience from being solely intellectual into one that addresses the whole child, Waldorf is rightfully termed "education for the hands, heart and head."  

GMWS challenged me to grow in areas that I may not have otherwise grown: I played the cello for eight years; I took art, bookbinding, sewing and knitting; I acted in plays; I sang in the chorus; I learned to throw the javelin and the discus. I may have tried one or two of these things in a different school, but because they did not come easy to me, I would have avoided them. By trying these, I really left Green Meadow believing that I could do whatever I wanted in life, that it was my choice, and that was a very powerful thing to believe.

~ Emanuel Hemsi, Class of 1993