Quotes

”...Waldorf education remains to become better known to Americans. Other independent educational movements, much less thoroughgoing in their attempts to integrate at every level of education art, science, and an appreciation of the fully human, have curiously been given much more attention. At a time of searching and reappraisal in American education, the Waldorf Movement with its unique understanding of the education of the child and its years of teaching practice and institutional experience deserves the informed consideration of those genuinely concerned with education and the development of human wholeness.”

Douglas Sloan, Ph.D.
Professor
Columbia University

Grade School

Grade 6

The approach of puberty often involves a loss of the relatively harmonious and graceful movements of the 5th grader, as the children seem to “fall” into gravity. On an inner level the children are entering into their skeletal system, the most rock-like and mechanical part of the human organism, as the long bones of the limbs begin the growth spurt associated with puberty. It is at this stage that physics and geology are first introduced. The children have a love for things delineated as absolutes; everything is experienced as black or white, and the nuances of shades of gray are distant at this age. Roman Law, black and white drawing, specific gymnastic exercises involving the overcoming of obstacles, and the teaching method of “compare and contrast”, all speak to the developmental stage of the children.

The Roman era epitomizes historically what the children are experiencing in their bodies. Of all the ancient cultures, the Romans most strongly dominated and transformed the physical world.

Whereas geometrical shapes have been drawn freehand in earlier grades, the sixth grader learns exact constructions with compass and straightedge, and the mathematical properties of these shapes. Business math and perimeter and area provide the means of introducing simple formulae.

The approach to astronomy, which may also be saved for 7th grade, is geocentric or navigational astronomy. How does the night sky actually look to a person here, or at any other location on the earth, at different times of the day, and of the year? This orientation between earth and sky can support the children emotionally as they become ever more aware of the world around them. With the children’s increasing awareness of their physical bodies, the time is right for geology, the study of the physical body of the earth. The approach to physics is first through art, e.g., acoustics begins with music.

Language Arts

  • Writing, Reading, Spelling, Grammar
  • Speech Formation/Dramatics
  • Composition / Creative Writing

Mathematics

  • All Four Processes
  • Geometric Movement
  • Fractions, Decimals, Ratio

Natural Sciences

  • Physics—light, sound, heat, cold, electricity
  • Botany

Earth Sciences

  • Geography/Surveying
  • Astronomy

Social Sciences

  • Roman/Medieval history
  • Ancient History

Foreign Languages

  • German
  • Spanish

Fine Arts

  • Painting, Drawing, Woodwork

Handwork

  • Knitting, Crochet, Sewing

Music

  • Recorder, Singing

Eurythmy Physical Education

  • Games
  • Sports