The San Francisco Waldorf School views each child as a growing human being of body, soul, and spirit, all of which must be nurtured by education. The School places human development and art at the center of its work and curriculum. It prepares young people to meet the world with inner confidence, to trust in the value of each human being, and to think and work with initiative in their lives. Following the indications of Austrian scientist and philosopher, Dr. Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), the children are taught in the context of their own stage of development with the understanding that subjects must be brought to them in different ways at different ages. The capacity for serious academic work and thinking in the high school is first prepared through healthy play and artistic learning in the kindergarten and lower grades. Children are not rushed, but encouraged.

Between birth and age seven, the child learns mainly through imitation. The atmosphere surrounding the child is filled with beauty, morality, and role models worthy of imitation. At this age the children need warmth and protection to develop their capacities in a natural, supportive, non-competitive and free atmosphere for creative play and work.

Children between the ages of seven and fourteen learn best from loving and consistent authorities who embrace the world with interest. At this age subjects are presented artistically in order to engage the children's feelings so that they will value the world and; want to master the basic academic, artistic, practical, and physical skills they will need for life.

High school students learn best in an atmosphere of challenge and enthusiastic expertise in which they can exercise their independent thinking. At this age students deepen their understanding of the world through challenging intellectual study as they begin to develop real mastery of their artistic, scientific, literary, historical, and physical capabilities.

The arts and practical work are the bedrock out of which Waldorf education nourishes creativity, thinking, feeling life, self discipline and health in its students. At the San Francisco Waldorf School our deeply committed faculty works together to foster each child's sense of self-reliance, social responsibility and moral purpose. By educating the whole child in these rich and creative ways, we hope to encourage young people to bring the highest human capacities into their adult lives as they become citizens of the future.