Wondering About Waldorf?

Waldorf education is a rich, time-tested approach to education whose popularity continues to grow, with more than 1,200 Waldorf schools worldwide. Waldorf offers a balanced, academically robust education that inspires true intellectual curiosity and wonder in children. We do not race from one milestone to the next. Rather, we cultivate children’s capacities as they emerge, building confidence and a love of learning naturally along the way—without the performance anxiety and “teaching to the test” that today’s parents are trying to avoid.

Waldorf schools prioritize hands-on, experiential learning, fostering adaptability, critical thinking and creativity. Our campus is intentionally screen-free. Instead of relying on screens to teach core academic concepts, our teachers engage students in all their senses, leading to increased focus and well-being. Research increasingly points to experiential learning as key in helping young children learn, and to reading and writing on paper leading to better comprehension. Our teachers are able to work closely with students to help them understand concepts without relying on screens as “busy work.”

While Waldorf students’ days are not rushed, they do follow a steady and predictable rhythm. Teachers view this rhythm as breath, with “in breaths” of steady, focused work followed by “exhales” of movement and time spent outdoors. This predictable flow of the day is deeply nourishing for the developing child. Students can also rely on a predictable rhythm of the school year; cherished seasonal festivals ground them in the present and connect them to the natural world.

Waldorf students learn to write in first grade, studying each letter in depth—gaining a deep understanding of phonics—and using their senses to learn those letter shapes, tracing the letter “B” with their toes in the sand or forming the letter “S” out of the cushions they sit on. All the while, they build their literacy through story, song, movement and art, gaining vocabulary and narrative comprehension.

The Waldorf approach goes against the grain in American public schools of pushing academic subjects at increasingly younger ages. However, Waldorf’s slower, developmentally appropriate approach is actually borne out by current research, which suggests that a love of learning, and a sense of oneself as “a reader,” is more important than an early understanding of phonics or rote memorization of sight words.

This also aligns with high-achieving schools in countries like Finland, which teaches reading and writing starting at age 7. Waldorf teachers are able to tailor their teaching to the skills of each class, creating dynamic and developmentally appropriate lesson plans, so children are often joyfully and happily reading by age 7 or 8. Teachers have been known to light a candle to celebrate a class’ first reading of a simple reader, symbolizing that the light of knowledge is now theirs.

Waldorf teaches science and math with the goal of teaching students to think like scientists, making observations and discoveries for themselves, asking questions and collaboratively solving problems. In first grade, students are introduced to all four mathematical processes through story, and use manipulatives to make concepts like division (dividing gems among classmates) and fractions (slicing pizza for all) concrete realities. Middle school physics and chemistry use experiments to make sense of everyday experiences like the appearance of colors or the natural and industrial processes that lead to concrete. By eighth grade, students take these same processes into different number systems, like binary and octal, and sharpen the algebra skills they began the previous year.

Waldorf teachers understand that children learn not through lectures or memorization, but through action, art and nature. Our students employ engineering concepts through intricate woodworking projects, some of which take months to complete. Even our youngest children sew and knit, which require many engineering and geometrical concepts used in coding.

Instead of traditional letter grades to assess performance, teachers provide guidance and encouragement in the classroom that fosters a sense of inner satisfaction for work completed and well done. For math, this involves correcting mistakes rather than marking them wrong and not returning to them.

Though Waldorf students do take quizzes in middle school, teachers in elementary school and beyond use a holistic approach to assess how well students are grasping the subject matter they’re taught. Rather than judging their comprehension based on one moment in time, our teachers have the bandwidth to use a variety of metrics to assess a student’s learning, and have the freedom and flexibility to adjust the curriculum accordingly. Because the class teacher travels with the students through the curriculum for more than one year, the teachers have the time to learn who each student is and what will help each one learn best.

In lieu of report cards, children receive comprehensive year-end reports from their classroom teacher and each teacher of special subjects. True to the Waldorf approach, these narrative reports describe in detail how the child has progressed through the year, both where their strengths have emerged and areas of potential growth. Parents also learn about their children's academic progress, social development and emotional growth during two annual in-depth conferences, and through regular communication with teachers.

We define rigor not by how much information is presented, but by how deeply students are grasping each subject. Our teachers are attuned to not just how well students remember what was taught yesterday, but to how well they integrate their education across disciplines.

Homework is assigned at a teacher’s discretion, typically not until third or fourth grade. At that time, a teacher may start by giving students one assignment per week, with the goal of giving students the opportunity to practice personal responsibility. Emphasis is placed not on rote repetition of skills used in school, but on taking pride in one’s homework book, from their handwriting to the care they take in writing or solving problems. Students may also do work on class projects at home, using materials they already have at home to illustrate concepts they are learning in class, such as building a small model home from clay, sticks or other simple materials during the house-building block in third grade.

Though anthroposophy itself is never introduced as a subject to students, Waldorf education encompasses the anthroposophical understanding of the human being as body, soul and spirit. Our students and families experience their teachers' application of anthroposophy as a loving desire to nurture children as whole beings, taking care to support their social and emotional life and not just pushing for academic progress.

No, Waldorf schools are not aligned with the anti-vaccine movement. Per New York State regulations, the Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs requires that all students be fully vaccinated or submit a medical exemption.

Our students thrive at numerous private and public high schools, and they go on to attend a wide variety of excellent colleges and universities. Professors who teach them often say that Waldorf graduates are adept at assimilating information and approaching their work with curiosity and creativity, and are leaders driven by a deep desire to make the world a better place.

Waldorf schools are not affiliated with any religion, and our student body comprises a wide variety of religions and world views. Students do study various mythologies and religions as they become developmentally ready to analyze and discuss them.

Waldorf and Montessori both aim to create a curriculum that is developmentally appropriate and focused on the well-being of the whole child. While Montessori prides itself on being “child-directed” to foster independence, Waldorf instead aims to be child-centered, giving students ample time for imaginative play outdoors in early childhood while also providing a predictable rhythm and teacher-led activities.

Waldorf students are eligible to receive bus transportation through their school districts by filling out a non-public school transportation form.

Several of our students have IEPs through their school districts, and our administrators and teachers are adept at working with special education administrators in the public school system. Service providers such as social workers and Speech-Language Pathologists visit these students right at Waldorf, either in their classrooms or in the school’s resource room.

Yes! A 2024 study in Frontiers in Education found that there are significantly higher percentages of eighth-grade students in Waldorf-inspired charter schools in California meeting or exceeding state standards in English and math as compared to their non-Waldorf charter school comparison groups, even when controlling for the size of the school and socioeconomic status. The study concluded that "Waldorf's developmental approach to education can result in strong academic outcomes despite a slower, low-stakes approach to teaching."