Education & Faculty
Special Subjects
Eurythmy
Movement has always been a means through which children learn. In recent years, educators have found that it is a critical learning component for all children and the primary learning style for many.
A unique component of the Waldorf curriculum from the beginning, Eurythmy is an artistic form where music and speech are expressed through movement and gesture. It is the artistic expression of language through story and verse that separates Eurythmy from classical dance. The art of eurythmy brings speech rhythms and musical rhythms into the experience of the whole body, enabling the student to orient himself in space, develop coordination, and create forms while moving in a group.
Faculty: Holly Brashares and Abby Brill
Foreign Languages
French and German are both taught from first grade through grade eight. In grades one through three, languages are taught using imitation and repetition. The emphasis is on conversation and learning through doing, singing songs, and reciting poems, playing games, and performing plays. In the upper elementary grades French and German lessons increasingly include written work, reading, grammar and vocabulary in addition to perfecting oral skills.
The purpose of the language classes, beyond the evident goal of learning French and German, is to develop a certain flexibility of outlook. An attempt is made to foster in the students a feeling for the special character of the people who speak a specific language.
In the High School, students choose to concentrate on either French or German, and the foreign language class increases to four times a week. In addition, those students who qualify and are approved by the High School Faculty are able to take advantage of a program unique to Waldorf education, the Foreign Language Exchange Program. Drawing on the worldwide network of Waldorf Schools, this program enables our students to spend time in Germany or France in order to develop fluency.
Seniors are offered foreign language as an elective only in the first semester.
Faculty: Sydney Morrell, Mark Riccio and Patty Hrebenach
Handwork
As human beings, we use our hands regularly in our daily lives. Handwork as an integrated part of an educational program, however, is taught almost exclusively in Waldorf schools. Here the Handwork curriculum is broad and includes, but is not limited to, skills such as knitting, crocheting, hand sewing, embroidery, felting, paper crafts, pattern design, and machine sewing. More complex weaving and pattern design are introduced in the High School.
Many of the benefits of the Handwork program are obvious: hand-eye coordination; basic math skills such as counting, the four math processes, and basic geometry; the ability to understand and follow a process from concept to completion; and the ability to focus on a project for an extended period of time.
Faculty: Anne-Marie Furhrmeister and Cynthia Wright
Movement Education and Games
In a culture where organized team sports hold such high status, children can sometimes think of movement only in those terms. The Movement Education curriculum tries to give children basic coordination and movement skills that will help them if and when they decide to play organized sports. In grades one through five, movement education is taught through various games to help develop an enhanced awareness of personal space, with clearly defined boundaries. Physical activity is emphasized through games using imagery, story, rhythm and imitation. In the fifth grade there is a focus on beauty and form and in the spring the fifth graders participate in the Greek Games, a gathering of fifth grade classes from several regional Waldorf schools.
From the middle school through the high school, more conventional sports are introduced into the physical education curriculum. Only now can the students have a real respect for the law of rules and understand how a team works together. At the same time, they are developing their own self-discipline and competitive natures. They aspire to a finer exactness, technique, timing and spirit of the law, as they also become more aware of the world.
Faculty: Carla Gandy and Kathryn Hampson
Music
Music is an integral part of the curriculum throughout the school. From the first grade, all the children sing and play the recorder, with the music and the technique becoming more demanding as the years progress. Each fourth grader chooses a stringed instrument and group string lessons are part of the fourth grade weekly curriculum. In fifth grade, woodwinds and brass instruments are introduced, enabling the children to expand the instrument range from which they may choose. In grade 6, the students join the Lower School Orchestra with their instrument of choice. In the middle school, string ensembles, recorder groups, and choirs are formed and offer musical performances to the community within and beyond our school. Elements of musical theory are woven into the musical curriculum each middle school year. Singing in a choral group and playing in the orchestra continue throughout the middle school and high school years.
Faculty: Richard Fron, Katie Hooper and Jan Zemba
Woodworking and Modeling
Woodworking and clay modeling are introduced in the lower grades specifically in relation to the curriculum, but in the middle school they are given more emphasis as subjects unto themselves. Students benefit greatly from learning to shape wood or clay into intentional form, honing skills of observation, design, and the use and care of tools.
Faculty: Colin Boyd and Abby Brill
Based on a comprehensive, integrated understanding of the human being, a detailed account of child development, and with a curriculum and teaching practice that seeks unity of intellectual, emotional and ethical development at every point, Waldorf education deserves the attention of all concerned with education and the human future.”
– Douglas Sloan, Ph D, Professor of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University