Emerson Waldorf School Pre-K-12

"Waldorf graduates are taught to question, not to accept ideas and conventions based solely on authority, but to think for themselves."

- From Learning to Learn, Interviews with Waldorf graduates

Curriculum Overview

 

EmersonBookshelfSmallThe Waldorf high school curriculum is designed to be in harmony with the development of the students as they move through adolescence and into early adulthood. Particularly in the morning main lesson blocks, each year is built around a central theme or question appropriate to the age of the students engaging the material.

In 9th grade, the curriculum mirrors the struggle of opposition that the students feel within themselves. In physics, for instance, they 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.

In 10th grade, students begin to seek a certain order in this confusion. The curriculum presents models of balance: acids and bases in chemistry, the principles of mechanics in physics, 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.

AndrewTeachingSmallThe curriculum for the 11th grade allows the students to cut free of the dimensions of the classroom to embrace the furthest reaches of their 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. In 12th year, students return to the place where the Waldorf curriculum begins in first grade: 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 a curriculum that synthesize subjects - world history, architecture, Faust - and relate these themes to the centrality of the human being.

High School Student/Parent Handbook 2009-10

High School Daily Schedule 2009-10

High School Main Lesson Schedule 2009-10

High School Course List 2009-10

9th Grade 10th Grade 11th Grade

12th Grade

Main Lesson Blocks
8:15-10:00a.m.
Each lasts 3-4 weeks
English
Mythology

Comedy and Tragedy
English
Odyssey
History of Poetry
Class Play
English
Shakespeare
Parzival
Dante
English
Faust
Transcendentalism
Class Play
Mathematics
Probability
Mathematics
Trigonometry
Mathematics
Projective Geometry
Mathematics
Calculus
History
Revolutions
Ancient History
History Through Art
History
Medieval History
Ancient

Asia
History
History through Film History through Music
History
The World since 1945
History through
Architecture
Science
Geology
Anatomy
Thermodynamics
Organic Chemistry
Science
Hydrology/Meteorology
Physiology
Mechanics
Inorganic Chemistry
Science
Botany
Embryology
Electricity/Magnetism
Physical Chemistry
Science
Zoology
Ecology
Applied Chemistry
Optics
Human Development
Track Classes
10:15a.m.-12:40p.m.
English 9 English 10 English 11 English 12
Foreign Lang.
Spanish
Foreign Lang.
Spanish
Foreign Lang.
Spanish or German
Foreign Lang.
Spanish or German
Percussion Current Events American History Senior Elective
Music Elective
Strings, Chorus, or Adv. Percussion
Music Elective
Strings, Chorus, or
Adv. Percussion
Music Elective
Strings, Chorus, or
Adv. Percussion
Music Elective
Strings, Chorus, or
Adv. Percussion
Algebra I Geometry Algebra II Pre-Calculus
Art/Movement Blocks
1:25-3:00p.m.
Each lasts 3-4 weeks
Fine Arts
B&W Drawing
Calligraphy
Print-making Basketry
Fine Arts
Painting
Drama
Fine Arts
Painting
Sculpture   Stagecraft/Drama
Fine Arts
Veil painting     Black & White painting
Practical Arts
Woodworking
Calligraphy
Practical Arts
Carpentry
Weaving
Surveying
Practical Arts
Bookbinding
Joinery
Practical Arts
Adv. Bookbinding
Movement
Gymnastics  

Phys. Ed      
Eurythmy              Circus Arts              
Movement
Gymnastics
Outdoor Education   Eurythmy              Circus Arts
Movement
Gymnastics
Outdoor Education   Eurythmy          Circus Arts
Movement
Gymnastics
Phys. Ed.      Eurythmy          Circus Arts
Electives