High School

Video about Waldorf High School

created by Karl Schurman and 10th Grade student, Cyrus Fenderson

“There is a knighthood of the 21st century whose riders do not ride through the darkness of physical forces, as of old, but through the forest of darkened minds. They are armed with a spiritual armor, and an inner sun makes them radiant. Out of them shines healing, healing that flows from the knowledge of the human being as a spiritual being. They must create inner order, inner justice, peace, and conviction in the darkness of our time.”

    Quotation by Karl Konig

Adolescents are like questing knights. They long to find truth, in themselves and in the world. They need an environment that will help them make sense of the fundamental life questions they are asking:  Who am I, and who do I want to become? Who are my fellow “knights,” the people who honor and share my ideals? How can we make a difference in the world? 
      
The Waldorf high school provides such an environment. For students who have grown up in Waldorf schools, the high school years offer the blossoming of previously planted seeds. The fairy tales that nourish first graders also develop the imaginative faculties high school students rely upon when they delve into the more adult tales of Gilgamesh, Odysseus, Hamlet and Faust. Simple form drawings that second graders practice transform into explorations regarding the nature of infinity in eleventh grade projective geometry. The French and German songs they learn in the elementary school often lead to a term abroad at age 16 or 17 in Switzerland or Germany or France.
     
For students coming from other educational settings to a Waldorf high school, they find a community of teachers dedicated to meeting the needs of the emerging individuality in every young person. Our teachers endeavor to stimulate in their students an enlivened thinking, at once objective and imaginative, a thinking warmed by enthusiasm for learning and capable of inspiring decisive action in the world, akin to what Ralph Waldo Emerson termed “the active soul.” The teachers recognize that every question contains a quest; with this understanding they approach their students and their subjects.
      
Holistic long before it became fashionable, the curriculum weaves together the multi-colored strands of human history in a rich, interdisciplinary tapestry, one in which the arts  are as important as academics. Students discover mathematical principles underlying their study of poetry and music; they consider a line of Emily Dickinson’s poetry in the light of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity; they make their own African drums from scratch and learn to play rhythms native to the region of the Mbuti pygmies, whom they meet in an Ancient Cultures course.
     
To see the whole in the parts, to see oneself and the world more clearly through the study of humanity’s strivings—such capacities can be powerful aids in a young person’s quest for truth. The world needs what a Waldorf high school can foster in its graduating “knights”—mobility of thinking, heartfelt empathy, a sense of stewardship for the larger world and a belief that they can, indeed, make a difference.

Waldorf Graduates

     Waldorf graduates attend a broad spectrum of colleges and universities, and undertake a wide variety of professions and occupations, including medicine, law, science, engineering, computer technology, the arts, social science, government, and teaching at all levels.

     Merriconeag Waldorf High School offers a highly individualized college counseling program that is tailored to the developmental needs of our students. From 9th grade we support students in learning about themselves and the world in order to better make the transition after high school. Beginning in 11th grade, our college search program is guided by a private consultant with many years of experience with selective college admissions. Our goal is to engage both students and parents in a thoughtful, thorough process aimed at an

appropriate post-secondary “fit” for each student.

     While our high school curriculum does not include AP classes, the depth and difficulty of most of our courses are comparable to the highest level found in area high schools. All of our students – in every year of their four-year high school experience – take foreign language, choral and instrumental music, fine arts, practical arts, and movement classes.

     Waldorf high schools have a reputation for excellent college placement, and each year Merriconeag students are admitted to competitive colleges and universities across the United States. Graduates in our first two senior classes (2010 and 2011) were accepted to the following colleges and universities:

Alfred University, School of Engineering, Antioch College, Bard College, Becker College, Bennington College, Centre College, Champlain College, Clark University, Colby Sawyer College, Colby College, Endicott College, Evergreen State College, Franklin Pierce College, Gettysburg College, Green Mountain College, Goucher College, Guilford College, Hampshire College, Hobart and William Smith College, Husson College, Kalamazoo University, Lasell College, Lewis and Clark College, Johnson and Wales College, Skidmore College, St. John’s College (New Mexico), St. Lawrence University, Roger Williams University, Rochester Institute of Technology, University of New Hampshire, University of Maine (Orono), University of Maine School of Engineering (Orono), University  of Maine (Farmington), University of Southern Maine, University of Puget Sound, University of Vermont, Warren Wilson College

Survey of Waldorf Graduates

In recent years, the Research Institute for Waldorf Education conducted an extensive survey of graduates from Waldorf high schools throughout North America.

• 94% attended college or university

• 47% chose humanities or arts as a major

• 42% chose sciences or math as a major

• 89% are highly satisfied in their choice of occupation

• 91% are active in lifelong education

• 92% placed a high value on critical thinking

• 90% highly value tolerance of other viewpoints

Three Key Findings about Waldorf Graduates

1. Waldorf graduates think for themselves and value the opportunity to translate their new

ideas into practice. They both value and practice life-long learning and have a highly developed sense for aesthetics.

2. Waldorf graduates value lasting human relationships – and they seek out opportunities to be of help to other people.

3. Waldorf graduates are guided by an inner moral compass that helps them navigate the trials and temptations of professional and private life. They carry high ethical principles into their chosen professions.

Learn more:
www.whywaldorfworks.org/01_WhyWaldorf/studies.asp

Testimonials by College Professors

Waldorf education addresses the child as no other education does. Learning, whether in chemistry, mathematics, history or geography, is imbued with life and so with joy, which is the only true basis for later study. . .By the time they reach us at the college and university level, these students are grounded broadly and deeply and have a remarkable enthusiasm for learning. Such students possess the eye of the discoverer, and the compassionate heart of the reformer which, when joined to a task, can change the planet.
Arthur Zajonc, PhD, Associate Professor of Physics, Amherst College

I think that it is not exaggerated to say that no other educational system in the world gives such a central role to the arts as the Waldorf School Movement. There is not a subject taught that does not have an artistic aspect. Even mathematics is presented in an artistic fashion and related via dance, movement or drawing to the child as a whole. Steiner’s system of education is built on the premise that art is an integral part of human endeavors. He gives it back its true role. Anything that can be done to further his revolutionary educational ideals will be of the greatest importance.
Konrad Oberhuber, Professor of Fine Arts, Harvard University

I was introduced to Waldorf education by a student and since then have done some research on my own. I am so favorably impressed that I have enrolled by daughter in a Waldorf program.
Randye Ruberg, Professor, Hunter College

I have deep concerns about scientific education in this country, partly because I continue to be disappointed by the training and abilities of the many undergrad and grad students that I encounter as a teacher and researcher at one of the so-called top medical centers in the country. . . What I saw yesterday (Waldorf high school student workbooks) convinces me that there is still hope. As I studied the workbooks, I became excited, thinking, “This is it – this is what’s missing! If all of our students knew how to work in this manner, just think of the marvelous science we could do!”
Daniel Kenan, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pathology, Duke University Medical School

The Waldorf student I taught had a breath of interest, willingness to explore new areas and to make connections to what she already knew, artistic sense and ability to apply it to scientific problems. She also brought a strong, highly individualistic (non-sectarian) spiritual sense to her work – her world was larger and more interesting than herself.
Stan Rachootin, Professor of Biological Sciences, Mount Holyoke College

Very self-directed. She took responsibility for her education – she turned things in on time – but more importantly, she did not simply do the minimum. She was clearly interested in learning. She had a great sense of humor and had excellent interpersonal and intrapersonal skills. She was a great knitter! She was without question one of the most outstanding students I have had the good fortune to mentor.
Timothy Crews, Professor, Prescott College

Being personally acquainted with a number of Waldorf students, I can say that they come closer to realizing their own potential than practically anyone I know.
Joseph Weizenbaum, former professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology