Mission 
We strive to actively address issues of discrimination and inequity in our school community; to dismantle systems of oppression within our school, organized on the basis of race, class, gender, sexuality, ability and/or religious affiliation; to hold our school, as an institution, accountable to the highest standards of equity and inclusion; to always seek ways to better prepare our students to engage in the long fight to end injustice and inequity in the broader world; & to take whatever measures necessary to identify and challenge White Supremacy culture as it manifests in school policy, curriculum, and praxis.

Praxis 
Our praxis for achieving our mission is in development; at this time, we have identified three primary objectives: 1) to educate the school’s faculty and staff on the necessity of the work of this committee, generating broad-based support for its work 2) to exhort the school enroll all faculty in anti-oppression trainings, particularly around and relating to racism in Asheville, the opus of Steiner’s writing, and society at large & 3) to recommend changes to school policy and curriculum on the basis of research and dialogue conducted by this committee.

Reporting Discrimination
The Equity and Diversity committee is available to receive any reports of discrimination based on the premise of race, class, gender, sexuality, ability and religious affiliation.  We can assist in mediating any conflict that a child may experience at school or a parent may experience in the school community. We are also open to hearing any feedback or ideas from the parent body.

Please contact committee co-chairs David  Saulsbury (d.saulsbury@ashevillewaldorf.org) and Julia Krusenbaum (j.krusenbaum@ashevillewaldorf.org).

The following position statements of the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA) regarding diversity and inclusion have been adopted by the Asheville Waldorf School:

Waldorf schools are independent schools, which are designed to educate all children, regardless of their cultural or religious backgrounds. The pedagogical method is comprehensive, and, as part of its task, seeks to bring recognition and understanding to any world culture or religion. The Waldorf School, founded in 1919 by Rudolf Steiner, is not part of any church.

Waldorf schools are committed to developing the human potential of each child to its fullest. Admission to the schools is open to everyone, without regard to race, sex, creed, religion, national origin, or ethnicity. In company with many other tuition-based independent schools, Waldorf schools are actively seeking ways to increase the economic and ethnic diversity of their student populations.

It is a fundamental goal of our education to bring students to an understanding and experience of the common humanity of all the world’s peoples, transcending the stereotypes, prejudices, and divisive barriers of classification by sex, race and nationality. We most emphatically reject racism in all its forms, and embrace the principles of common humanity expressed by the founder of Waldorf education, Rudolf Steiner: “[We] must cast aside the division into races. [We] must seek to unite people of all races and nations, and to bridge the divisions and differences between various groups of people.”