Will a Waldorf Education Prepare my Child for High School?

On January 25, 2017, three members of the of Sturgis Charter High School faculty joined the Waldorf School of Cape Cod Board of Trustees for a discussion about high school preparation. Sturgis is the #1 ranked high school in Massachusetts. We asked them how our students handle the transition to high school and their skill levels in specific areas of study.

“Will my child be prepared for high school after they graduate from a Waldorf School?” This is a question often asked by parents of prospective Waldorf students.

We asked Maxanne Most, Chemistry teacher at Sturgis West, Aaron Dunigan-AtLee, Math & Computer Science teacher at Sturgis East, and Kate Dunigan-AtLee, former Sturgis Librarian, how our students handle the transition from Waldorf School of Cape Cod to Sturgis Charter School in the 9th grade.

Transition & Adjustment

Sturgis faculty members agreed that every child has a different period of adjustment no matter what elementary and middle school they attended.

Some parents worry about not getting enough science or math to prepare for high school in a Waldorf School. The teachers find that many students from other schools are really only trained to repeat back memorized facts. Students from public schools may have been exposed to a higher volume of content but many do not have the skills to be present and ready to learn.

Mr. Dunigan-AtLee noted that these basic learning skills are much harder to teach at the high school level. Students from Waldorf School of Cape Cod approach learning with an eye for problem solving and reasoning and are capable of sitting down in the classroom and engaging which is something that shouldn’t be taken for granted because high school teachers don’t see this in all students.

Technology

High school students are exposed to technology, which may be the first time for some Waldorf students. The Sturgis faculty explained that there is a lot of variety in the mastery of technology and not every student comes in with technology skills. Kate Dunigan-AtLee said that 90% of Sturgis freshmen use index fingers to type.

Science

The teachers shared that there is a wide variation of knowledge in the sciences among entering Sturgis Freshmen. Science is an area in which Waldorf takes a different hands-on approach to learning. This teaching methodology is sometimes questioned but Sturgis faculty members haven't seen any disadvantages from Waldorf students learning science in this way. What is most important is that our students show up with the willingness to learn and sense of inquisitiveness.

Waldorf School Benefits

The Sturgis teachers recognize there is rich educational experience happening at the Waldorf School of Cape Cod. It’s not so important that students know memorized facts. The most important things for success include a sense of inquisitiveness, a desire to ask questions, and a genuine interest in pursuing the answers to their own questions. Waldorf is very strong in cultivating these qualities.

At Waldorf School of Cape Cod, children learn a sustained focus - 1st graders knit scarves for 9, 10, 12 months. It doesn’t matter how long it takes but they keep coming back to it. The overall diversity of experiences Waldorf students are exposed to gives students the ideas, activities, background, and knowledge to draw upon in their future education. In high school it’s too late to learn these things.

Is Waldorf Education Inspiring Scientific Curiosity?

A few weeks ago, middle school students in our marine ecology elective at the Waldorf School of Cape Cod demonstrated a wonderful example of how Waldorf education is inspiring scientific curiosity in our students.

Our middle school grades (Classes 6-8) have the opportunity to take an elective class on Friday afternoons. Many of these classes are taught by members of our parent community.
One of the choices for the Fall session this year is Marine Ecology. Dr. Joy Lapseritis, scientist and member of our parent community, introduced students to the relationships of organisms with the marine environment through experiments and observations.  Over the course of 5 weeks, the class was engaged in asking questions and observing diverse organisms such as mollusks, horseshoe crabs, and marine mammals.  These organisms offered entry-points to discuss animal classification, coastal and open ocean ecosystems, life cycles and food webs, and interactions between human development and local estuaries. 

During a recent class, the students took part in a salinity lab. Salinity impacts deep water currents, which affects everything in the ocean, from seaweed to whales to submarines. The students experimented with how water of different salinity (labeled with dye) separates according to density. They also talked about the importance of water and salt balance for organisms that live in the ocean.

A small body of red salty water remains separate from blue fresh water.

Experiments like this one, challenge students powers of observation - an important component of critical thinking. After taking part in a lesson such as this, students are often asked to draw illustrations to accompany their written text in their main lesson books that they create. They have time to reflect and speculate about the results of the experiment.  

Dr. Lapseritis was struck by the curiosity and creativity exhibited by the Waldorf School students during the salinity lab lesson. She has used this salinity experiment in other school outreach lessons, where those students were very concerned with following the procedure exactly and finding the “correct” answers or observing exactly the same result as everyone else in the room.  While the Waldorf middle school students were great at following directions, they also showed exemplary scientific curiosity in the variability between the results from one student to another, and explored beyond the constraints of the protocol.  They freely experimented with what they could do with the simplest of lab materials - water samples of various salt concentrations - and made their own discoveries.  

Students compared their results with each other, discussing what was different and why, then created new protocols to explore further.  

“I realized midway through the lesson that I was nervous about the experiment going as I had planned,” confessed Dr. Lapseritis.  “But then I realized that the students were doing exactly what a scientist should: they accepted the results they were observing, generated hypotheses to explain their results and then came up with new questions, new experiments!  Although I had structured this elective to focus on process and observation, and learning to ask questions rather than find answers, the students have already learned to do this and they taught me so much!”  

There Was Never A Question

by Anita Beinikis, Waldorf Parent since 2007

There never was a question.  My child would go to The Waldorf School of Cape Cod.  It made no matter that I didn’t actually have a child yet; it would be a few years before that came to pass.  On a cold November Saturday, I found myself in the middle of a loud, colorful school teeming with happy children.  Banners, beeswax and blocks emphasized the tactile environment in which they were immersed.  Adults were laughing and everyone was caught up in the spirit of the season.  Hallways spilled over with enthusiasm as well as bulky coats and hats leftover from outside play.  Classrooms were full of both seasonal and traditional Waldorf color and flair. I was enchanted. One afternoon spent at the school’s annual holiday fair awoke in me the realization that a school could be a place where there was joy in learning.  I brought home a brochure outlining the school’s curriculum, read it closely, and vowed that any child of mine would find her way to the Waldorf School.  

That was more years ago than I care to remember.  The child-yet-to-be is now my 7th grade daughter. She is nearly at the end of her years at the Waldorf School; which both excites and overwhelms me.  This impending milestone provides me with the opportunity to reflect on how that initial exposure to the Waldorf School spurred what would soon be a decade long immersion in Waldorf education for my daughter.

I think the question “Why did I choose a Waldorf education for my girl?” should really be “Why do I continue to choose Waldorf for her?” After all, we live in an area with a solid public school system and the opportunity to choose from several good private middle schools.  We are surrounded by an abundance of academic riches.  I admit it; when I am asked by friends if I will continue to enroll her now that she is in 7th grade, a time when many families start thinking about preparing for high school and beyond, I struggle to share what I know in my heart about this place and all it has provided both my daughter and me as her parent.

My girl is surrounded daily by literature, numbers, languages, sciences, hand work and music, all of which create a rich environment that has fostered her love of reading and quest for knowledge.  At present math and Latin are her favorite subjects.  Learning through a developmentally-appropriate curriculum has allowed her to meet challenges when she is ready, forging ahead on her own when she is eager to try more complex material.  The result is a confident young woman who never doubts that she can do what she needs to do.  Beyond her school work she has absorbed the lesson of what it takes to be a thoughtful, kind, collaborative member of her community.  She does not learn by memorization and repetition.  Instead she is a problem solver, ready to step up and participate in all that awaits her.  This is the child I am privileged to call mine and offer to the world as part of the next generation of creative thinkers and doers who believe that anything and everything is possible.  This is why she continues to attend The Waldorf School.  This girl will be, and already is, a young woman of substance.