News & Events
News From and About The World of Waldorf Education
Recent Stories
Answering the Bell: Public or Private School?
In Ontario, Canada, private schools offer various types of education that satisfy parents and students. Read more YourKanata.com June 11, 2009
Austin Teen Goes From Student To Young Athlete
A 10th grader at the Austin Waldorf School has been appointed to the 2009 United States Maccabiah Juniors Track and Field Team for the 18th World Maccabiah Games to be held this July in Israel. Read more Keyetv.com June 11, 2009
Ancient Farming Practices Motivate Students to Grow
When a class of second- and third-graders cheer wildly when offered a chance to return to school midsummer for physical labor and homegrown salad, somebody's clearly doing something right at the Waldorf School on Bend's north side. Read more The Bulletin May 29, 2009
Waldorf School Wins Lyons Award
HONOLULU - Haleakala Waldorf School has been selected as this year's recipient of the Bank of Hawaii Mike Lyons Maui Community Award. Read more The Maui News May 27, 2009
Sixth-grade students from the Waldorf School of Cape Cod - as well as three other Waldorf schools across New England - traveled to the small Bourne campus yesterday for the school's annual medieval festival featuring events such as jousting, archery and the hammer throw. Read more Cape Cod Times May 9, 2009
On Wednesday, May 6 Johns Hopkins sponsored a one-day Roundtable on Arts and the Brain, based on the report released last year from the Dana Foundation, indicating that the arts light up parts of the brain like nothing else can do. This was followed in Washington, DC by the tenth annual conference on Learning and the Brain. Both the Roundtable and the conference were attended by Patrice Maynard, AWSNA Leader for Outreach and Development, who sent this report. Read more May 6, 2009
Creating a Buzz at Kimberton Waldorf
Kimberton Waldorf School’s students and parents welcomed thousands of honey bees to new hives built by students recently at the school’s organic garden. Read more The Mercury May 6, 2009
Cape Cod Private Schools Ride out the Recession
Home budget cuts, financial aid, and scholarships - parents of Cape Cod private school students find a way to pay for their children's education. Read more Cape Cod Today May 4, 2009
IN THE KITCHEN: Taking the Lead on School Nutrition
At the first-ever statewide conference on bringing local, healthy food into New Jersey schools, Mary Capoferri of the Waldorf School of Princeton spoke about her school's successful school gardening program. Ms. Capoferri teaches gardening to pre- schoolers through eighth graders via the school's two-acre biodynamic garden, which is almost 25 years old. She described how
the gardening classes involve the entire school community, and how in 2007 a solar-powered geodesic dome was built with the help of parents. Read more Central Jersey May 1, 2009
INFORM Newsletter for our School Communities. Read the May 2009 issue here: [link to pdf]
Waldorf Students Bring Happiness
Eighth graders from the Waldorf School of the Roaring Fork started singing room to room at Valley View during Christmas, and liked it so much they make arrangements for hospital performances once per month, and some of them are considering volunteering during the summer. "We went to the house of a hospice patient," said one of the students. "She had trouble speaking,
but after we were done, she actually spoke several phrases, and the family busted out in tears."
Read more Post Independent April 29, 2009
In the New York Times "The Way We Live Now" section published on April 29, 2009, author Peggy Orenstein writes about Kindergarten Cram, and quotes from "Crisis in the Kindergarten," a report recently released by the Alliance for Childhood. Read the article New York Times April 29, 2009
KWS Students, Families Engage in Stewardship
The newly formed Green Committee at the Kimberton Waldorf School successfully completed the first of several phases to create a riparian buffer along an unnamed, first order tributary of the French Creek on the school property. Read more Phoenixville News April 22, 2009
Waldorf Schools Go Green for Earth Day
On Earth Day, all Waldorf schools affiliated with the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA) will be able to access detailed purchasing information about the best green products to use in schools by going to a newly-launched Green Resources on the Association’s web site: Why Waldorf Works. Read more ... April 20, 2009
Miami-Dade County Schools Go Green -- and Save Money
Children at the Waldorf school near Pinecrest not only recycle, they alsogrow organic vegetables, compost leftover food, utilize organic crayons made from beeswax and write on paper created from green processing, among other practices. Read more Miami Herald April 16, 2009
Waldorf School Partners with Germany
On March 20, the Waldorf School in Lexington received the Partner School plaque from German Consul General Friedrich Löhr and Dr. Inke Pinkert-Saeltzer, Washington-based German Language Consultant of the Central Agency for Schools Abroad. Löhr congratulated Waldorf School director John Anderson and German teacher Christa Clark on the school’s successful and long-standing German program and welcomed the East Lexington independent school into the network of more than 1,000 Partner Schools worldwide. Read more... Wicked Local Lexington Minuteman April 16, 2009
Waldorf School Composting Project Benefits Community
Whole Foods, along with several other Congress Park neighborhood businesses, have enthusiastically agreed to partner with The Denver Waldorf School in a school-wide composting project that will extend far beyond the school grounds itself.
Read more Your Hub Denver April 4, 2009
Hallapalooza, a Highland Hall Waldorf School Event, Draws Huge Crowd & Rave Reviews On Saturday, March 28th a crowd of over 1100 parents, faculty and friends gathered at Reseda High Auditorum for the biggest musical show in Highland Hall's 54 year history. Emceed by Melissa Etheridge, the event featured student performances ranging from classic rock to contemporary music as well as several classical music performances. Read more…
What is the Purpose of School?
In the most recent edition of Lilipoh, authors Douglas Gerwin and David Mitchell identify and set aside three widely held yet misleading assumptions given as reasons for going to school. They then go on to show how teaching is not just the transfer of knowledge but also a drawing out of students’ nascent capacities. Read the article Spring 2009: Redefining Education - Issue #55, Vol. 14
Waldorf Launches 'Forest' Kindergarten
In “Forest Kindergartens” the children are outside most of the day, year-round. The curriculum develops out of the environment, which is always changing — providing new problems to solve and situations to explore depending on the season and weather. Forest kindergartens began in Denmark in the 1950s and have steadily grown in popularity all across Europe. The trend has recently spread to the United States, and this is the first program of its kind to be launched in Saratoga Springs. Read more... The Saratogian March 29, 2009
Most Summer Camps Filling Up Despite Recession
A single mom with three sons, Maureen Wrinn knew she faced tough financial choices after losing her job last fall. But one decision was clear all along, despite its price tag: Her oldest son, Corey, would go back to camp in New Hampshire this summer. "Camp Glen Brook has offered him a sense of place where he's developed into his own self, in a way that only a summer camp can do." Parents like Wrinn are helping keep America's vast summer camp industry in a relatively upbeat mood as the recession takes a toll on many other sectors. The American Camp Association says overall enrollment for its 2,400 accredited camps is on track to match the past two summers. Read more... Associated Press / Yahoo News March 28, 2009
Recently Patrice Maynard, AWSNA Leader for Outreach and Development, attended the Council of American Private Education (CAPE) spring meeting in Washington, D.C. CAPE is a coalition of national organizations and state affiliates serving private elementary and secondary schools. Its fundamental principle is that independent education is "good for students, good for families, and good for America." Read the letter…
U.K. Cambridge Primary Review Report
According to the Cambridge Primary Review, children’s lives are being “impoverished” by school education that is “fundamentally deficient.” Read more … March 2009
Waldorf Seventh Grader Wins Spelling Bee
Anna Rose Canzano, a seventh grader from the Detroit Waldorf School, is headed to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in May! During competitions Anna Rose uses her fingers to write the words out in the air or on her arm to help visualize them, and she credits the practice with helping her win. She also likes to compete in jump-roping events. Read more The Detroit News March 15, 2009
Knitting Brainpower Stitch by Stitch
At the Waldorf School of Pittsburgh, boys and girls from kindergarten through fifth grade scrutinize their knitting, crocheting and sewing projects like students elsewhere might examine computer programs or graphing calculators.
Read more Dailybreeze.com (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) March 8, 2009
A Field-to-Fork Experience
The Prairie Moon Waldorf School in Lawrence, Kansas recently received a grant to establish a market garden on the school grounds. The garden will provide a vital focus for the school’s Waldorf curriculum, encouraging appreciation and connection to the natural world through active participation in planting, growing, and harvesting. Students will learn about plant biology, soil science, hydrology, gardening, mathematics, geology, geography, and business. Read more March 2009
Animals For Egypt
If a blind person wants to know what an exotic animal looks like, what is the best way to describe it? Dr. Kajsa Brimdyr, a parent at the Cape Cod Waldorf School, was curious about the answer. While working recently at the Mansoura Insurance Hospital on a project about birth and breastfeeding for the Egyptian Ministry of Health, she met Dr. Fatma, who had founded the School for the Blind in Mansoura, Egypt. Read more February 2009
Closer to the Art - Schools use Creative Pursuits to Enhance Academics
Some schools in Canada use creative pursuits to enhance academics: A well-rounded education needs to include exposure to music and the arts. Music, dance, drama, visual and media arts have been proven to teach students to think more creatively and critically, and to enhance their ability to work with others. Read more Calgary Herald February 12, 2009
Water's Edge Waldorf School Raingarden
A year ago, under the guidance of an imaginative and helpful parent, the students at Water's Edge Waldorf School planted a small rain garden in a low spot in the grounds where water pooled dismally during heavy rains. Despite some initial skepticism, the plants in the rain garden helped the water percolate into the ground instead of creating an unusable swampy area. Read more
International High School Student Eurythmy Tour
Twenty-five San Francisco Waldorf School students, ages fifteen to eighteen, offer its fourteenth annual gala eurythmy performance. The Eurythmy Troupe is renowned for the grace, variety and professional quality of its performances, and has toured world-wide, to Egypt, Japan, Italy, Switzerland and Germany, as well as in the U.S. This year's tour is to Mumbai, Udwada, and Hyderabad, India, at the invitation of several schools and communities there. Eurythmy, an enlivening of the art of dance inaugurated by Rudolf Steiner, reveals the essence of music and the spoken word in gesture and movement, in a breathtaking blend of choreography, sound, light, and color. Read more February 2009
A Little at a Time to a lot at a Time
Although the Merriconeag Waldorf School promotes non-competitive games, one of its graduates is a champion skier Read more Portland Press Herald February 4, 2009
Proceeds from Business Helping Waldorf Education and Children in Need
iPhone ringtones, has announced that a portion of every Apple iPhone ringtone sale will benefit Children of Nepal (CON), an organization that provides Waldorf Education, meals, and medical care to impoverished Nepalese children. Read more February 2009
Serious Need for Play
In the new issue of Scientific American free, unstructured, imaginative play is shown to be vital in the early lives of children. The article describes how and why
- Childhood play is crucial for social, emotional and cognitive development.
- Imaginative and rambunctious “free play,” as opposed to games or structured activities,
is the most essential type.
- Kids who do not play when they are young may grow into anxious, socially maladjusted adults.
Read more Scientific American January 2009
12th Annual Civil Rights Brunch
On a recent sunny, chilly Sunday more than 75 adults and students gathered in the Multi-Purpose Room of the Waldorf School of Baltimore for the 12th Annual Civil Rights Brunch. Read more
U.S. School Children Need Less Work, More Play: Study
CHICAGO (Reuters) – All work and no play may be a hazard for some U.S. school children.
Researchers reported on Monday that a growing trend of curbing free time at school may lead to unruly classrooms and rob youngsters of needed exercise and an important chance to socialize.
A look at more than 10,000 children aged 8 and 9 found better classroom behavior among those who had at least a 15-minute break during the school day compared to those who did not, Dr. Romina Barros and colleagues at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York reported.
Read more Reuters January 26, 2009
Kimberton Waldorf School Students Take Physics to a New Level
High School students at Kimberton Waldorf School took real pleasure in completing their physics projects, designing a Wimshurst machine, DC motors and Van de Graaff generators.
Read more The Phoenix January 23, 2009
Kimberton Waldorf School Students Experience Wilderness
Four Kimberton Waldorf School sophomores left for a sixth-month excursion that will include a 600-mile wilderness expedition by ski and canoe. The students will join other participants from around the world in a journey that will undoubtedly change their lives. Read more The Phoenix January 21, 2009
How Giving Kids a Test Became a Political War
On the website of the Fraser Institute, Christmas music tinkles as the conservative think tank's fellows express their wishes for the coming year. Peter Cowley, whose title is director of school performance results, hopes for the privatization of more schools. "I wish that Ministries of Education across Canada would remember that they are just that, ministries of education," Cowley intones. "Not simply ministries of public schools. I wish that they would introduce policies which would encourage many more private schools to establish themselves across the country. By doing so they will ensure that many Canadian families will be able to find a school that meets their kids' unique needs."
Read more The Tyee January 14, 2009
New Study: Home Computers Affect Grades Negatively
Waldorf educators are delighted that research is finally catching up with what they have known all along: excessive screen media has a negative impact on growing children. Three researchers from Duke University in Durham, N.C. used data gathered from a survey given to 1 million fifth through eighth graders for their paper: Scaling the Digital Divide: Home Computer Technology and Student Achievement. Read more (PDF with link to research paper) January, 2009
At Waldorf School, Kids Experiment with Solar Panels
The half dozen solar panels mounted atop the Chicago Waldorf School in Rogers Park power just a handful of light bulbs. But they provide students with the kind of hands-on experience in physics and environmental sicience that's not available in any book.
Read more Chi-Town Daily News, January 5, 2009
Waldorf School Unveils New Solar Installation
Students shoot hoops under the new solar panels recently installed at Waldorf School of the Peninsula in Los Altos.
Read more Los Altos Town Crier, December 31, 2008
The Art of Basketball
Starting last year with only six players, all freshman at the time, and a dedicated father who had never coached basketball, let alone a high school team, the Waldorf School of Baltimore's Upper School basketball team won nearly all its games, often with only five players and once with only four!
Read more (word document) December 22, 2008
Carrying More Than His Weight Boston Globe, December 4, 2008
No Child Left Inside
For students at the Waldorf School, outdoors is one big classroom Times NJ.com, November 19, 2008
Waldorf Alum Wins Architecture Competition
Reilly Hogan, a graduate of the San Francisco Waldorf High School, Wins First Prize in The
International Velux Award 2008 competition. November 2008
Read more - click 'Winning Projects' to see Reilly Hogan's project: Embodied Ephemerality
Siskiyou School Completes 'Green' Classroom Buildings Mail Tribune November 17, 2008
Accreditation Accolades!
This fall five Waldorf schools are completing their AWSNA accreditation by having site visits.
November, 2008 Read more
AWSNA 2009 Summer Conference
Planning is underway for the AWSNA 2009 Summer Conference next June at the Portland Waldorf School in Oregon, which will have the special focus on Weaving the Educational Task with the Social Mission of Waldorf Schools. Read more
Assessment without High-Stakes Testing: Protecting Childhood and the Purpose of School. A team of Waldorf educators and researchers has published an important research paper. Read more (12 page PDF)
The Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs, NY
A teenager from New York's most horse-crazy town is one of the first two women ever admitted to the world's oldest riding school. Sojourner Morrell, 17, this fall ended 436 years of male-only membership in Austria's prestigious Spanish Riding School, joining another woman to make history at a school renowned for training Lipizzaner stallions. Read more Times Union October 18, 2008
1st-grader at Haleakala Waldorf School inspires warm and fuzzy tale of comfort
The Maui News October 8, 2008
William Ward crossed the threshold on Sunday, October 5, 2008, in the presence of his wife Andy and their two daughters, Claire and Rosemary, at the age of 61. He was a beloved class teacher at Hawthorne Valley School from 1976 until his sudden retirement in 2005 when he retired to deal with the diagnosis of a brain tumor.
Henry Barnes crossed the threshold September 18, 2008, at 10:15 p.m. For the past several years, he was a resident at the Fellowship Community in Chestnut Ridge, New York. Those of us who were fortunate enough to know and work with him were always touched by Henry's generous warmth and endless optimism in life. His significant impact on Waldorf Education on this continent and around the world is powerful enough to make his departure the mark of the ending of an epoch.
Read more (pdf)...
Archived Stories can be found under Why Waldorf Works Articles
