Upper School: Grades 5-8

“Is there a way to educate children that will help them develop into human beings capable of bringing peace to the world?”

More than 100 years after Rudolf Steiner dared to dream of a world healed by the innate goodness of children, Waldorf Education is a thriving global movement, deeply committed to the founding purpose of helping children become creative, independent, moral individuals who seek to do meaningful work with their lives. 

At ten or eleven years old, the fifth grader can be seen as standing on a bit of a fulcrum or precipice. As if on a see-saw, one minute they can be looking back, acting like second graders, playing imaginative games or singing songs they learned years earlier, then the next minute they are acting like moody teenagers, trying on all the vivaciousness and attitudes they have observed in older students.

Sixth grade students are often interested in establishing structure and order, and in finding lawful relationships; the study of Ancient Rome and the medieval times are the perfect backdrop to explore these themes.

Many seventh graders look forward to the social and learning opportunities this year as sailors about to embark on a voyage. The Age of Exploration, which meets the students' inner drive to see over the next ridge and to find a path no one has ever found before, is a main lesson study block that encourages each student to broaden their view and consider new possibilities.

Eighth grade marks the culmination of an eight-year primary school journey, and brings students to a crossroads as the time with their grades teacher comes to an end. Class work also becomes more challenging as preparations for the independent thinking that will be expected in high school begins.

WALDORF SCHOOLS HONOR AND EMBRACE 

HUMAN DIVERSITY AND DIGNITY

Waldorf schools celebrate the diversity of humankind. Faculty, staff, and board pursue a path of human dignity and equity in organizational, leadership, and pedagogical realms. Schools are engaged in understanding and addressing the current and historical roots of inequity. These endeavors are of spiritual, moral, and educational importance and are rooted in Waldorf education’s founding vision, which included addressing contemporary social struggles within the context of the life of the school.

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