What Is Waldorf Education?

Educators, parents, and others interested in learning more about Waldorf education are invited to the Waldorf School of Cape Cod's upcoming Grades Open House on Thursday, October 20, 2005. Several presentations will be made by the school's faculty, and attendees will have the opportunity to tour the school, meet faculty, and observe student work.

Bourne, MA (PRWEB) October 3, 2005

Attendees at the Waldorf School of Cape Cod’s upcoming Grades Open House on October 20 will have the opportunity to learn what, when, why, and how Waldorf curriculum is taught to students in grades 1 through 8.

The school’s faculty will make several presentations on topics ranging from “Moving Gently into Reading” and “Concrete to Abstract Mathematics” to “The Role of Music and Art in Waldorf Education” and “Cows and French Grammar.”

Developed by Rudolf Steiner in 1919, Waldorf education is based on a developmental approach that addresses the needs of the growing child and maturing adolescent. Waldorf teachers strive to transform education into an art that educates the whole child-—the heart and the hands, as well as the head.

Elementary and middle school students learn through the guidance of a class teacher who stays with the class ideally for eight years.

Waldorf Education recognizes and honors the full range of human potential. It addresses the whole child by striving to awaken and ennoble all the latent capacities. The children learn to read, write, and do math; they study history, geography, and the sciences. In addition, all children learn to sing, play a musical instrument, draw, paint, model clay, work with wood, speak clearly, act in dramatic productions, think independently, and work harmoniously and respectfully with others. The development of these various capacities is interrelated. For example, both boys and girls learn to knit in the first grade. Acquiring this basic and enjoyable human skill helps them develop manual dexterity, which--after puberty--will be transformed into an ability to think clearly and to “knit” their thoughts into a coherent whole.

Preparation for life includes the development of the well-rounded person. Waldorf education has as its ideal a person who is knowledgeable about the world and human history and culture, who has many varied practical and artistic abilities, who feels a deep reverence for and communion with the natural world, and who can act with initiative and in freedom in the face of economic and political pressures.

There are many Waldorf graduates of all ages who embody this ideal and who are perhaps the best proof of the efficacy of Waldorf education.

Although the Grades Open House event is designed specifically with prospective parents in mind, educators and others interested in learning more about Waldorf education are welcome and encouraged to attend.

The event will be held at the school from 4:00-6:00pm. The event is suitable for adults only.

Founded in 1984, the Waldorf School of Cape Cod is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and serves more than 150 children each year in its parent-child, preschool, kindergarten, and grades programs. The school is located in the historic Coady building at 85 Cotuit Road in Bourne, Massachusetts.

To obtain further information about the school, contact the school’s Enrollment Director, Meredith Hunnibell, at 508-759-7499 or visit the school’s web site at http://www.waldorfschoolofcapecod.org.

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