INSPIRING THE WHOLE CHILD

Head, Heart and Hands

Our school cultivates three principal faculties in children: thinking, feeling and willing. This three-fold approach, “Head, Heart and Hands” permeates the curriculum in an ascending spiral of learning, spanning early childhood through high school and at each developmental stage—from toddler to young adult. Head refers to the ability to think clearly and independently. Heart refers to the capacity for feeling emotionally connected to one’s work and the world at large. Hands refer to the willingness to take action to achieve one’s goals and to contribute to the world.

Our experiential and arts-based Waldorf curriculum creates intellectual, emotional and physical connections to learning while fostering creative thinking and compassionate feeling. We recognize that all children are born with the capacity for wonder, gratitude and responsibility. We are committed to meeting the essential phases of child development and delivering age appropriate education.

The Waldorf early childhood philosophy is a program that cultivates and works in support of the young child’s deep, inborn natural belief and trust in, and basic reverence for, the world as an interesting and good place to live. The lower grades in elementary school use artistic elements in different forms as a means of learning to understand and relate to the world. The upper grades and high school step to an ever more conscious cultivation of an observing, reflecting and experimental scientific attitude of the world, building an understanding of what is true based on personal experience, thinking and judgment.

This holistic approach to the phases of the child’s development turns the process of education into an art. Our teachers view their students as unique and seek to give them particular care towards their development. They have the task of awakening faculties within the child, helping young people to discover within themselves the strength, enthusiasm and wisdom to become creative shapers of civilization.