Curriculum Overview
Upon entering the Emerson Waldorf High School in 9th grade, students study a curriculum that mirrors the struggle of opposition they feel within themselves. In physics, for instance, students study the opposition of heat and cold; in chemistry, the expansion and contraction of gases; in history, the conflicts and revolutions of France, Russia, and the U.S.; in geography, the collision of plate tectonics; in literature, comedy and tragedy. Through the chaos and tensions of these struggles, students are summoned to exercise powers of exact observation.
In 10th grade, students begin to seek a certain order in the confusion, a midpoint to opposition. The curriculum presents models of balance with the study of acids and bases in chemistry, the principles of mechanics in physics, and the self-regulating processes of weather patterns in earth science, the play of masculine and feminine influences in embryology, and the reciprocal relationships of guest and host in The Odyssey. The 10th grade students are called to exercise powers of comparison, weighing in the balance contrary phenomena to determine their value and significance and also their origin.
The curriculum for the junior year allows the students to cut free of the dimensions of the classroom to embrace the furthest reaches of the student’s own imagination and interests. In a way, the junior year curriculum could be characterized by the theme of invisibility, by the study of those subjects that draw the student into areas not accessible to the experience of our senses. In chemistry, the students enter the invisible kingdom of the atom; in physics, they explore the invisible world of electricity; in projective geometry, they follow parallel lines to the point they share in the infinite - a point which can be thought even though it cannot be seen. In literature they travel the inward journey from sin through purgation to virtue in Dante’s Divine Comedy and confront the inward challenges of transforming selfish folly to compassion, sympathy to devotion, and ardor to faith in the medieval myth of Parzival. Juniors are called upon to analyze this invisible realm giving breadth to their imaginations. In 12th year, students return to the place where the Waldorf curriculum begins in year one: with the image of the whole. However, after having been through the different levels and climbing the “12-year staircase”, the student will truly “know the place for the first time.” The senior curriculum serves both purposes by offering subjects that synthesize subjects - world history, architecture, Faust - and relate these themes to the centrality of the human being.
More about the Waldorf approach to the Humanities.
Main Lesson Blocks
Each morning begins with a Main Lesson Seminar. These seminars are a key component of a Waldorf education; they are mandatory for all students and are grouped by grade level. Each seminar is approximately two hours per day and is scheduled for a block of three to four weeks. The purpose of these seminars is to explore one subject intensively through lecture, discussion, written and artistic projects. They are offered in the sciences, mathematics, literature, history and history of the arts.
9th Grade
English
- Comedy and Tragedy
- Mythology
- Revolutions
- History through Art
- Ancient History
Mathematics
- Probability
Science
- Geology
- Anatomy
- Thermodynamics
- Organic Chemistry
- Odyssey
- Bible as Literature
- History of Poetry
- Drama
History
- Medieval History
- History of Asia
Mathematics
- Trigonometry
- Shakespeare
- Parzival
- Dante
History
- History through Music
- History through Film
Mathematics
- Projective Geometry
Science
12th Grade
English
History
Mathematics
- Calculus
Science
- Zoology
- Ecoloy
- Applied Chemistry
- Optics
- Human Development
Sample Course Descriptions
Mythology: Ninth grade is a time of tumultuous change, when feelings vacillate between extremes of sympathy and antipathy. Students read Ovid’s Metamorphoses to have before them the images of transformation—in the stories of Baucus and Philemon, Daedalus and Icarus, Echo and Narcissus, Venus and Adonis, Midas, Persephone, Phaeton, and so many others—that have carried great themes of Western literature and art.
Hydrology: Taking students out of the classroom to nearby New Hope Creek gives them the opportunity to explore water flow patterns, benthic macro invertebrates, and basic stream ecology. This hands-on exploration of a part of their local environment brings tenth graders to a more thoughtful understanding of nature and their place in it.
History through Music: Waldorf philosophy stresses education in the arts as a means to better understanding of the world in which we live. Music has always played an important part in the religious and social practices of all peoples. Through the exploration of medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern musical styles, students come to a better understanding of the history and development of Western civilization.
Transcendentalism: Throughout high school, students are asked to complement careful observation of the world with reflection on their own insight and intuition. Because the Transcendentalists considered it axiomatic that self-knowledge and the study of nature are unified, students read the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau in senior year. This seminar encourages them to look backward and ahead to become consciously aware of how attentiveness and intuition conjoin. With Emerson, they can then imagine how they might help return the broken world to wholeness by overcoming disunity in the self, or simply, how the Delphis mandate of self -knowledge serves the world.
Track Classes
Track classes are year-long courses that are offered in English, mathematics (Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II and Pre-Calculus) and foreign language (Spanish or German).
Art and Movement Blocks
Fine Arts: In many cases, fine arts are taught by professional artists who are acquainted with the joys and challenges of the creative process every day in their own work. Media taught include drawing, painting, ceramics, textiles, photography, and sculpture.
Practical Arts: Students create beautiful and useful objects while practicing coppersmithing, wood joinery, basketry, bookbinding, and pottery. These classes teach students about materials, tools, and techniques. Along with learning how to make things, students gain focus and patience. Long after these projects are complete they remain cherished additions to Waldorf households.
More about our Practical Arts program.
Performing Arts: All students in the high school participate in the performing arts. Theater is often a part of language arts and may also be offered as an extracurricular activity. The chorus includes all high school students who rehearse twice a week and perform at school assemblies, among other venues. African drumming is a popular activity and is a central part of our world music curriculum at the high school. The students learn technique and rhythms, but more importantly they learn to play together. The drummers perform at school assemblies but have to be scheduled last because they’re a tough act to follow! In addition, all students participate in a spring performance call the Circus of Sorts. The circus curriculum includes stilt walking, hooping, poi, fire dancing and aerial dance. For more information click on the circus link. Waldorf curriculum, physical activity is viewed as a critical part of adolescent development.
Movement and Physical Education: The physical education program at Emerson includes a wide array of classes that develop specific skills and awaken a sense of rhythm and balance. Aerobics, West African dance, swimming, ice skating, Ultimate Frisbee, and challenging games combine to create a fun and diverse range of block classes. All students take an outdoor education class, where self-awareness and awareness of the natural world is the focus. Tracking, fire-building, and orienteering are examples of skills taught in our outdoor education curriculum. Physical education is not limited to ‘gym’ class - it also appears in some untraditional places. During a literature block on Homer’s Odyssey, students practices archery and group rowing in long boats, both important activities in this epic. Another class hiked around Pilot Mountain as part of a geology field trip.