Founders' Night

Founders' Night is one of the most important annual traditions for the San Francisco Waldorf High School. It's a celebration of the hearty group of parents who not only identified the need for a Waldorf High School, but took on the challenge of building one from the ground up. One of our original Founders and current Faculty member Dr. Joan Caldarera shared her experience of when this momentous decision was made.

"On the 2nd weekend in May, 1997, the Waldorf High School Planning Group convened a meeting in the Eurythmy Room on Washington St. We had been working for at least 5 years, reading Emerson on "The American Scholar," researching the curricula of every Waldorf High School in the world that had answered our inquiries, developing what we thought was needed to offer the "crown of the curriculum" to our SFWS community.

At that May meeting we introduced the results of all of our work to a small but dedicated audience. I showed them the big folder of papers that represented what we hoped to build starting with a 9th grade that September. Then I threw the folder over my shoulder, a dramatic gesture to suggest that we would continue to grow and change to meet changing needs. 

The audience cheered and pulled out their checkbooks. These were our founders, as our first donations came toward the high school that was still a dream, though now on a much closer horizon, about to become reality. 

We continue to  honor that prebirth moment every May with a showcase of high school student work in all fields. It is not possible to catalogue what you might see on Founders' Night, this year in its 28th iteration. But you can look for: pendulums from 10th grade mechanics; posters from 11th grade Inferno studies; idiosyncratic periodic tables; fused glass sculptures; weaving, basketry, and bookbinding projects; poetry and essays; projective geometry, showing the mathematical beauty of infinity; paintings and drawings; and lots of musical performances, from beginning guitar to concert choir. The crown is truly shining brightly!"

We look forward to celebrating our high school's 50th anniversary in 2027! Here's to many more decades to come.