The Great Barrington Waldorf High School provides an education for adolescents that seeks truth, develops imagination, nurtures growth, fosters responsibility, and honors inner freedom in an atmosphere of academic excellence, artistic fulfillment, openness, and mutual respect.
For 2010-2011 we enroll 35 students in grades 9-12 and we look forward to graduating our 5th senior class on June 12, 2011.
Extraordinarily qualified teachers lead students through a rich and varied array of block-scheduled seminars that range from thermodynamics to Shakespeare, from statistics to the history of the modern world. In addition to seminar subjects, students complete a college preparatory curriculum in mathematics, English, and a foreign language. Music, drama, eurythmy, fine arts, practical arts, and physical education provide our teenagers with additional opportunities for creative expression and demanding activity. In addition, high school students are required to do community service. Each student applies to college with an Honors transcript and an impressive portfolio of academic and artistic work.
Our students also travel at least once during high school, to Munich if they study German, and to Peru or another Spanish-speaking country if they study Spanish, attending Waldorf schools abroad, staying with local families. All students also have the opportunity to spend from 6 weeks to a semester abroad.
Although we are a small school, we have competitive soccer and basketball teams, and offer cross country running and ultimate Frisbee for those students who wish to participate. We also assist students in finding opportunities to participate in other competitive sports, including baseball, track, and skiing. As we grow, our sports programs will grow.
All students in our school participate in all courses and activities at the school, including music and drama. Our chorus performs twice a year, and the entire school performs a play each spring. Past plays have included Uncle Vanya, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Skin of Our Teeth, Blithe Spirit, The Tempest, and Saint Joan.
Our school year begins with a three day Orientation at nearby Camp Hi-Rock. Students complete low and high ropes course challenges and group dynamic exercises, and, around bonfires each night, get to know each other and the school. Seniors introduce the culture of the school to First Year Students and new students. By the first day of classes, every student knows every other student’s name and more.
All students receive individual attention and guidance, their academic and personal progress thoughtfully supervised. Our students are fully prepared for the most demanding universities and colleges. Teachers and parents are active partners in our school and in guiding children through the joys and struggles of adolescence.
Advisors provide parents with information about curriculum and programs, serve as a liaison with the school, and conduct twice annual parent-teacher conferences.
Waldorf Education
Waldorf education is a humanistic approach to pedagogy based upon the educational philosophy of the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy. Learning is interdisciplinary, integrating practical, artistic, and conceptual elements. The approach emphasizes the role of the imagination, developing thinking that includes a creative as well as an analytic component. The educational philosophy’s overarching goals are to provide young people the basis on which to develop into free, moral and integrated individuals, and to help every child fulfill his or her unique destiny. Schools and teachers are given considerable freedom to define curricula within collegial structures.
The first Waldorf school was founded in 1919 to serve the children of employees at the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart Germany. As of 2010 there were 995 independent Waldorf schools located in sixty countries throughout the world; as of 2001 there were 1400 kindergartens and 120 institutions for special education world-wide. There are Waldorf-based public (state) schools, charter schools, and homeschooling environments; in addition, other state and private schools are increasingly using methods drawn from Waldorf education. (From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_education)
The Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA) is an umbrella organization that helps to foster Waldorf education in the United States. For more information about Waldorf education, go to www.whywaldorfworks.org.