Emerson Waldorf School

"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

The Waldorf high school curriculum is designed to be in harmony with the development of the students asEmersonBookshelfSmall they move through adolescence and into early adulthood. Particularly in the morning main lesson blocks, each year is built 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 AndrewTeachingSmallreciprocal 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.

The 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.

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 or German

Foreign Lang.
Spanish or German

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
Sculpture
Lino Print-making

Fine Arts
Painting
Sculpture

Fine Arts
Painting
Engraving

Fine Arts
Painting

Practical Arts
Coppersmithing
Calligraphy

Practical Arts
Weaving
Joinery
Surveying

Practical Arts
Bookbinding
Joinery

Practical Arts
Adv. Bookbinding
Joinery
Finishing
Electronics

Movement
Gymnastics
Folk Dancing

Movement
Gymnastics
Folk Dancing
Outdoor Education

Movement
Gymnastics
Eurythmy
Phys. Ed.
Outdoor Education

Movement
Eurythmy
Gymnastics
Phys. Ed.

Circus Arts

Circus Arts

Circus Arts

Circus Arts