What Is a Waldorf School?

Waldorf schools are unique.  Enter a Waldorf school in the morning and you know this immediately.  As you proceed down the hallway you hear children singing, reciting poems, playing flutes and stamping and clapping the multiplication tables.  The teachers say this morning circle time, a practice in all Waldorf schools around the world, wakes the children up, calms them down, and brings them together as one class. 

Lessons begin as soon as these opening exercises have come to an end.  The mornings, when the children are mentally fresh, are reserved for academic work.  For three to four weeks the class focuses on one subject area during this “main lesson” time, a practice in Waldorf that allows learning to go deeply and be remembered.   Every day, however, students practice skills such as mental math and spelling words, reading and writing.

When the children have completed their morning’s work a quiet mood is created in readiness for the story that the teacher will tell.  These daily stories, garnered from the world’s great literature, relate to the subject of the current block lesson and become the basis for writing and for art activities or creative dramatics.  For example, first grade children hear fairy tales.  Fourth graders are immersed in Norse Mythology.  In later grades Roman history, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Age of Exploration, etc. are brought through story and biography, all told by the class teacher. 

And then it’s time for recess-- old fashioned, unstructured recess.  Now you will see the children pouring out of the building onto the playground where they can breathe out from a morning of concentrated mental work.  They run and play, laugh and talk, organize themselves into games or just sit and day dream.

Refreshed after a period of play, the children return to the classrooms where they are engaged in the more rhythmical learning of foreign languages.  As a rule, Waldorf students learn two foreign languages from first grade through twelfth.  Each Waldorf school determines which languages will be taught.  The teachers, native speakers of the language, bring lively lessons that incorporate movement, games, songs and drama, making the learning of a language great fun.

Afternoons in the school find the children attending to a variety of handwork—knitting, crocheting, needle work, sewing, and woodworking.  They create practical things such as hats, bags, flute cases, clothes, shoes and wooden spoons or bowls.  The story is told of a Waldorf graduate whose girlfriend, upon seeing him start to sew on a button, remarked in astonishment, “I didn’t know you could sew on a button!”  “Sew on a button?” he retorted.  I can sew a whole shirt and make a pair of shoes!”

Academic instruction is strong in Waldorf schools, resulting in a strong reputation internationally for  academic excellence.   Waldorf schools enjoy a very high rate of high school and college graduation .  Some professors seek out Waldorf graduates because as one such professor stated, “One Waldorf student can change the whole culture of a classroom.”

 Unique in Waldorf schools is the relationship between class teacher and student, a relationship that spans eight years as the teacher meets his or her class in first grade and travels with them all the way to eighth, bringing the core academic subjects.  The bond that is formed between teacher and student brings continuity, security and a deep knowledge of the child that is rare today.

Beyond the main lesson, students are taught by specialty teachers who teach foreign languages, handwork, chorus, strings, gardening, woodworking, games and sports and eurhythmy, an art of movement.

Beauty is at the heart of Waldorf education, whether  in the quality of the music and the art, in the careful speech of the teachers, in the poetry chosen for recitation, or in main lesson books created by the students .   Step into the classrooms and you feel enveloped in the living colors seemingly in the walls that change from the warm side of the color spectrum for the younger classes to the cool side of the color spectrum for the upper grades.  Where possible, the desks are made of warm natural wood; natural light bathes the room; In place of prefab displays and commercial posters, you see framed pictures by the Masters that mirror the curriculum and original art work by the teachers.  There is no clutter. 

From 1991 to 1998, a small group of parents and teachers formed the initiative group that worked to found the only Waldorf School in Pinellas, Hillsborough, and Pasco Counties -- Suncoast Waldorf School in Palm Harbor.  The school, located at 1857 Curlew Road, invites visitors to come to Thursday mornings “Breakfast at Waldorf” to enjoy coffee and muffins and to take a guided tour of the classes in session.  Make a visit and see for yourself why Waldorf is unique, as unique as your child.  If you come early enough you’ll catch the lively morning circle work!

Source: www.suncoastwaldorf.org

About the Author: Barbara Bedingfield, founder and first grade teacher for the new incoming first grade class.