Academic Excellence and a Lifelong Love of Learning

At San Francisco Waldorf High School, students discover a dynamic and challenging college preparatory program grounded in the classics and engaged in the modern world. Students are energized by learning and become creative thinkers who can take on the complex questions of today’s interconnected world.

What sets our classes parts? Courses engage students at their stage of adolescent development. Integration of the arts and academics inspires student learning. Direct source material often replaces textbooks. Dedicated teachers lead small, seminar-style classes that foster dialogue, debate, and oratory.

Even the structure of the day, a morning period of intensive academic study called Main Lesson followed by track classes, helps students gain a depth and breadth of understanding. The Main Lesson is a two-hour period spanning several weeks. Students immerse themselves in subject such as Trigonometry or Latin America and really “learn how to learn.”

Track classes are year-long courses in the humanities, mathematics, world languages, and music. Students choose a course of study Spanish or Mandarin, and many participate in a unique exchange program at Waldorf high schools abroad. All students take four years of music and art.

Overall, the curriculum exceeds University of California admissions standards. All students study physics and calculus, for example, with additional honors classes offered. Graduates excel at a variety of academic institutions in a wide range of subject matter, becoming young adults who make a difference in the world.