The Waldorf curriculum and philosophy are what distinguish Shining Mountain from other schools. However, these five unique features stand most prominently to answer the question “What makes Shining Mountain Waldorf School so successful at educating students from Kindergarten through Grade Twelve?”
Role of the Arts
The arts permeate all aspects of school life at Shining Mountain. Fine and practical arts – painting, sculpting, drawing, singing, instrumental ensembles, woodwork, handwork, drama, movement – provide:
a bridge for social interaction
a way of knowing, i.e., a cognitive process that stresses observation and discernment
an education of the senses, which awakens us to the wonder permeating our world and our humanity
a humanizing activity that allows us to feel our co-creative abilities with others
a discipline that teaches patience, flexibility, concentration.
Academics come alive when conveyed through an artistic medium. Every aesthetic detail imaginable contributes consciously to the totality of the Waldorf learning experience: the colors in the classroom; the colored chalk drawings on the board; the rhythm of the lesson and the day; the way the teacher speaks, moves, and balances humor with seriousness.
Integrated Curriculum
The Waldorf approach relies upon an interdisciplinary structure within each grade level and progressing through the years. At the core of Waldorf education is Steiner’s emphasis on achieving balance between the three distinct ways that humans relate to the world: through thinking, through the life of the emotions, and through physical activity. Long before educational research confirmed the idea of “multiple intelligences,” Steiner understood the need to balance the head, heart, and hands. At Shining Mountain, diverse modalities of teaching are integrated to ensure that students encounter a variety of learning styles. As a result, each child is able to comprehend classroom material and find positive areas of self-expression.
Developmental Approach
The Waldorf approach works with human nature and recognizes that capacities emerge in students at fairly predictable stages, while also allowing room for individual rates of maturation. This recognition of a metamorphosis of comprehension underlies both the organization of the curriculum itself and the changing methods of teaching throughout the twelve years. Rudolf Steiner saw human development unfolding in seven-year stages:
Until age six or seven: Children learn primarily through physical activity and imitation. The goal at this stage is to provide a warm, calm, secure, aesthetic environment that nourishes the senses, the imagination, and creativity of the young child. The 3 Rs are Reverence, Repetition, and Rhythm. Through storytelling, arts and crafts, and healthy movement, a strong foundation is laid for formal academics beginning in first grade.
From age seven until fourteen: Children at this stage learn best when academics appeal to the feeling life, and lessons are conveyed through an artistic medium such as painting, drama, music, storytelling, and other direct experiences that stir their emotions. A sense of beauty, harmony, and rhythm permeate the day, engaging children and supporting their learning.
In the High School: Themes and methods stimulate higher-level intellectual skills. Now is the time that the forces of imagination - carefully cultivated in the early years - are transformed into analytic, synthetic, and evaluative thinking skills in the adolescent.
Teacher-Student Relationship
Waldorf education at Shining Mountain embraces the living, direct relationship between teacher and student as the optimum catalyst for successful learning. Our teachers model an extraordinary capacity for knowledge, creativity, and the sheer love of discovery, motivating students toward academic success and a keen sense of wonder, purpose, and personal fulfillment.
Festivals
Shining Mountain deeply recognizes the wholeness and connectedness of human beings with all life, especially through the observance of seasonal changes. Our community festivals connect us with traditional cultures world-wide that have for centuries marked the turning points of the year. Celebrating festivals can bring us consciously to what we all experience instinctively - the changing cycles of the year and life itself.
Rose Ceremony: By giving a rose on the first day of school, twelfth graders welcome incoming first graders. In turn first graders give roses to the seniors upon graduation.
Michaelmas: A harvest festival, this event includes a community potluck and a school-wide food drive for local social service agencies.
Halloween Journey: Magic, enchantment, and mystery weave through this wonderful evening of creative scenes and drama enacted by faculty and community members.
Martinmas and the Lantern Walk: For children in Kindergarten and first and second grade. As the sun sets earlier and the world grows darker, this tradition of making and carrying lanterns into the cold, dark evening symbolizes that the inner light of humankind wants to shine forth.
Advent and Advent Spiral Garden: Beginning in early December, this festival of light celebrates a kindling of the inner light as winter draws close and days grow shorter. It represents the renewed promise that spring light and life will begin again.
St Nicholas: In this European tradition, St. Nicholas and his silent ex-thief Rupert visit the classroom on December 5. St. Nicholas reads aloud from his Great Book, which records the deeds of all children. Golden nuts, dates, and tangerines are given to each student.
Winter Faire and the Kingdom of Winter: Music, seasonal crafts for the children, games, wreath-making, food, and celebration mark this combination festival and fundraiser, where local artisans display and sell hand-made crafts and art.
Santa Lucia: A young Santa Lucia, the oldest girl in grade two, leads her classmates in procession from classroom to classroom, singing and offering fresh-baked goods.
Shepherd’s Play: Each year the faculty performs this reverent and humorous medieval nativity play as a gift to the students and the community.
Easter: The joy of springtime, of rebirth after the death of winter, lives in the ancient symbols of hare and egg, and is visible in greening grass and tiny buds bursting into flower.
May Fair: Garland-making, a petting zoo, simple crafts, and music accompany the dancing around the traditional Maypole to remind us that warmer days are ahead.
Evaluation and Grades
Student evaluation in Kindergarten through Grade 8 is done through individualized student reports and parent-teacher conferences. Formal grades and a transcript, combined with parent-teacher conferences, begin in the High School.
