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Schools and Education General Discussion
Green Acres, Waldorf, Oneness
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Anonymous
OP. I agree. The current regimen that most of our kids are subjected to is a bit scary. Childhood comes only once (for most of us  , and it would be nice to avoid the rat race in the tender years.
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Anonymous
| Aren't there some public/charter Waldorf schools? |
Anonymous
I've read about some charter schools using Waldorf methods but don't know if there are any in the DC area. I don't think there are. |
Anonymous
| The charter idea sounds interesting. It would be nice to have some charter Montessori schools. Does DC have any? |
Anonymous
| I think that all of those schools mentioned by the OP use experiential learning as their main method. The retention is supposed to be better, and the child is said to focus better by being involved. |
Anonymous
| FWIW, my sister was an admissions officer at a well known independent school in the Northeast and said that kids from Waldorf schools applying to 9th grade were the most lovely, kind, creative kids but had HORRIBLE test scores, beyond the obvious guess that Waldorf just doesn't practice rigorous testing...she said the tests suggested elementary school Waldorf kids have little exposure to academic fundamentals. |
Anonymous
OP: Thanks for the feedback. That was very helpful information. The discussion helps. |
Anonymous
Exposure to academic fundamentals? Or to regular high-stakes testing, and strategies intended to produce high scores on assessments? Because there's a real difference. And I am curious about her speaking to elementary school experience, when she was doing admissions for a secondary school. This is useful information in one sense, but I'm interested in the questions I've raised here. I'm also curious as to why Waldorf-educated kids would be seeking admission to an independent high school that wasn't a Waldorf school. Can you give us more information about the profile of your sister's institution, so we have some sense of where these kids were applying? Thanks! |
Anonymous
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PP: I'm the poster who has a sister who was an admin. officer. You have to forgive me because we had a conversation 2 years ago about Waldorf schools when I was looking for a preschool for my daughter. She said that her experience with kids with a Waldorf school education pre-HS application (I abbreviated this to "elementary school" but could have included middle school too), was that they were great kids whose scores on the SSAT were remarkably low, as a rule. The kids were interesting kids, but academically worrisome. She did not give any insight to why that may be, although she said specifically she doubted complete lack of exposure to testing would be the only explanation. My sister's insitution is included in this list:
Phillips Academy Andover Phillips Exeter Academy Taft Hotchkiss Middlesex School Again, for what it is worth. |
Anonymous
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I worry about either extreme. Teaching only to achieve outcomes on tests does kids a disservice on creative thinking and later analytical thought. Throwing out any type of non-right brain feeling learning sounds equally bad. Memorization, the infamous drill and kill, or even learning to read quickly and develop faster compression skills have their place. These skills are not about just being able to repeat back the memorized answers. They provide pattern recognition and a familiar vocabulary or structure for later math and reading skills. A combination of "fuzzy" math to inspire interest connected to a more rigorous structured program would be ideal. Pacing also has its place. It isn't necessarily a bad skill to learn the confidence to work through a stressful test. It is important to learn how to focus, recall relevant information, and challenge yourself against your peers as well as yourself.
I wish that public schools offered a better balance of extra curricular activities, art, and music to balance out the more traditional academics. I would worry about the Waldorf style for a full K-12. |
Anonymous
Thank you from the 12:43 poster! |
Anonymous
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OP Agree with PP. It seems that the competitive practices need to be reserved for the higher grades ( after grade 3). I have heard that the early years need to be as experiential as possible. But back to the original question, what risks do we take when the curriculum is too experiential, drawn out, and possibly incomplete. The kids retain more of what is presented, ...but is less being presented???
At some point, all students need to "step up to the plate" and be tested or challenged. That is the real world. However, we need to question the value of things like homework in kindergarten. |
Anonymous
FWIW, Washington Waldorf School says virtually all of their graduates go to college (and their graduating classes typically have about 20 students). Here's the list of colleges chosen by the 2007 graduates: William and Mary, University of Colorado, Eckerd College, Wake Forest University, Oberlin College, University of Maryland School of Music, College of the Atlantic, Georgetown, Connecticut College, University of the Arts, London (UK), University of Vermont, University of Puget Sound, Carleton College, Franklin Pierce College, Scripps College, James Madison University, and Allegheny College Not Harvard and Yale, but some very fine liberal arts and other institutions in there. Their website also talks about SAT and other testing and their place in secondary education. I guess it all comes down to knowing your child and the best fit for him or her. For the OP, though, perhaps some of this is useful information. I'd guess the other schools provide similar information. |
Anonymous
| Why do we measure educational success on college admissions? Isn't this putting too much faith in college admissions officers? There are quite a few students who make it into prestigious undergraduate schools and do not do well which can come from deficiencies in early education. |
Anonymous
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OP. Agree that a prestigious college acceptance is not the only measure, but something has to be tested. Yes, "EQ" is very important, but will anyone measure that.
I would prefer that my child get the best out of a good school to be in an academic situation where he/she has choices of different schools. If that includes highly ranked school then so be it. I do have some concerns about Waldorf that can be said to be cultural. The curriculum seems a bit too heavily weighted towards the arts (European lit) rather than hard science. It seems that many of their grads tend to end up in non-science fields. Is that because of poor preparation? I hope that someone can comment on Progressive and Montessori systems. |