Curriculum

Course of Studies

The following classes run through the academic year:

• English I, II, III, or IV (3 x 50 min. per week)
• Intermediate Algebra, Geometry with Trigonometry, Advanced Algebra with Analytic Geometry (Precalculus), or Calculus (4 x 50 min. per week)
• Spanish I, II, III, or IV or German I, II, III, or IV (4 x 50 min. per week)
• Physical Education (1 x 100 min. per week)

The following classes are block scheduled for 3-6 weeks:

• Seminars in Science, History & Geography, English, or Math (see lists below) (Block schedule: 5 x 100 min. per week)
• Fine Arts (See lists below; block schedule: 2 x 100 min. per week)
• Performing Arts (See lists below; block schedule: 1 x 100 min. per week)

Please Note: All of our courses are required. All of our courses are honors level. We do not rank students. We do not offer AP courses. We do not offer SAT or other test preparation.Transcripts will show actual courses and seminars taken, which may differ slightly from those listed.

Graduation Requirements: Except in extraordinary circumstances, noted on a student’s transcript, all students take all courses at our high school. Students generally earn 7.50 credits per year, each credit reflecting 120 class hours. Six of these credits are for academic classes. The rest are for arts and physical education classes. Transcripts may reflect credit earned while on foreign exchange, but, usually, we simply include the report or transcript of the foreign school.

Grading and Ranking Procedures: We grade from A+ (98 % or 4.33) to D- (60% or 0.67). Grades of F receive no credit but are marked on the transcript. We do not weight our students’ grades. We do not rank our students.

Courses: All academic, arts, and physical education courses are required for all four years of high school, with the exception of occasional choice in the arts. All courses are considered Honors courses. We do not offer AP courses.

Test Score Information: 100% of our seniors and juniors will take the SAT I this year. Mean scores for the SAT I for past tests are:
Critical Reading 650
Math 600
Writing 620

Please note that our school does not administer nor prep for standardized tests, SAT or other. Most of our students encounter the PSAT as a first standardized test.

School and Community Information: The Great Barrington Waldorf High School is a rigorous, college preparatory, independent, coeducational Waldorf day school. We enroll 22 students in grades 9-12 this year, and celebrate our third graduating class, of five seniors, in June. As a Waldorf school, founded on the educational principles of Rudolf Steiner, we aim to balance rigorous academic work with required fine art, practical art, and performing art classes. As a school on Main Street of a small town, we aim to integrate our school into our community, aiding community soup kitchens, a local environmentally-friendly river walk, and local community-supported organic farms, while using local resources—libraries, artists’ studios, museums and the great outdoors—to extend our small campus.

Great Barrington, a town of 9,000 year-rounders and 13,000 summer vacationers in the Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts, straddles the Housatonic River, site of several paper mills. Approximately half our students come from southern Berkshire County; the rest come from northern Litchfield County in Connecticut and eastern Columbia County in New York. Their parents are teachers, dairy farmers, doctors, publishers, building contractors, small business owners, and paper mill employees. Many but not all are college graduates.

Our school is open to all, regardless of ability to pay. The economic range of our students is significant.

Unique Elements of Our Curriculum:

Many academic courses—history, English, science, and some math—are taught in 3-4 week blocks as seminars that meet for 100 min. per day, five days per week. Other academic courses—foreign languages, mathematics, and some English—meet 3 to 4 days per week for 50 min. Arts and physical education meet 50-100 minutes, 1-2 times per week.

English: English classes meet 4 times per week to focus on reading, writing, and interpretation. Additional English seminars cover such topics as American literature, the Odyssey, Tragedy & Comedy, Bible as Literature, Poetry, Parsifal, Shakespeare, the Transcendentalists, and Russian Literature.

Math: In addition to a standard course of study that progresses from Algebra I through Geometry & Trigonometry and Algebra II to Precalculus and Calculus, we require seminars in Statistics & Probability and Projective (non-Euclidean) Geometry.

History: History seminars cover U.S. history and world history from the ancient world to the modern world. In addition, seminars in history through art, history through drama, history through music, and history through architecture present the development of human consciousness as evidenced by the cultural artifacts of the diverse civilizations that constitute world history.

Foreign Languages: We teach German or Spanish with an emphasis on conversational facility and reading. Each class takes a 3 week visit to Munich, Germany, or to a Spanish-speaking country (most recently, Cali, Colombia; in the past, Lima and Cuzco, Peru) in 9th or 10th grade; many, if not most, students then exchange with Waldorf schools in these cities in 10th or 11th grade. We host approximately 10 visitors from Germany and Peru or Colombia for visits of 3 weeks and exchanges of 6 to 12 weeks each year.

Science: In addition to sequential seminars each year of high school in biology, chemistry, and physics, we offer seminars in earth science, botany, geology, astronomy, and environmental science. Transcripts record those seminars that have a laboratory component.

Arts: All students take required courses in fine and performing arts each year. Student portfolios represent this work to colleges and universities.

Accreditation: The Great Barrington Waldorf High School is accredited as the High School of the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School by the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA).