What is a Waldorf school?
At the heart of the school is an innovative education, a constantly renewing, 100-year-old, humanistic approach to learning that is taught at more than 1,100 schools worldwide. Waldorf Education prepares students to enter into adulthood with the gifts of independence, self-knowledge, a mastery of analytical and critical faculties, and a reverence for the world's beauty and wonder. Our faculty and staff share the vision that education is transformative, and full of love, curiosity, and kindness. Through our highly-intentional, well-rounded curriculum and meaningful relationships, we strive to imbue students with confidence, perseverance, resiliency, and self-knowledge with which to lead lives of purpose and direction.
Waldorf Education...
- develops a love of learning and an enthusiasm for school.
- takes account of the needs of the whole child — academic, physical, emotional, and spiritual.
- regards artistic activity and development of the imagination as integral to learning.
- is based on an understanding of the different phases of child development.
- is respected worldwide for its ability to produce confident youth who have a strong sense of self and the capacities to innovate and problem-solve, and the will to engage.
At SF Waldorf School...
- we emphasize personal connection as a foundation for education.
- we weave creativity into every lesson.
- we teach the right thing at the right time.
- we nourish the unique capacities of each individual.
Established by Rudolf Steiner and Emil Molt in 1919, the education is among the fastest growing in the world. Based on the philosophy of anthroposophy, it holds as its primary intention the ideal of bringing forth every child’s unique potential in a way that serves the further development of humanity. Explore the shared principles.
The internationally recognized training provides a framework for teaching that develops from a strong view of child development, in addition to teachers' expertise in their subject areas. Offered at institutions worldwide and locally at the Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training.
A Stanford University study on Waldorf education found significantly higher positive student achievement outcomes on standardized state assessments, greater engagement, and significantly lower disciplinary action and truancy. These results held across racial and socio-economic subsets. Check out the Stanford study.
“In the development of a child, implicit learning comes before explicit learning. And thus, I think that the emphasis in Waldorf education on implicit learning—on the arts, on things that you do manually, on language—is actually a very good thing because that emphasizes the strengths of the child during that stage of development."
Waldorf 100 Celebration Keynote Address | May 18, 2019
“We recognize that the inner life of the human being is directly connected to the outer life. So we believe in nurturing the physical body as much as the soul realm and the thinking realm.” Read more
A time-tested education responding to today's needs
Our curriculum...
- nurtures imagination.
- nurtures creativity.
- nurtures relationships.
Our approach is...
- holistic — educating the head, heart, and hands.
- developmental — recognizing how much children change from year to year.
- relationship & community based — recognizing the importance of the human connection.
“It is important that we discover an educational method where people learn to learn and go on learning their whole lives."
Rudolf Steiner, founder of
Waldorf Education