Waldorf News

School Profile: Camphill Special School in Pennsylvania

Guy Alma has lived and worked at Camphill Special School in Beaver Run, Pennsylvania for the past 21 years. He’s the Development Director and took time out to tell us about a very special school.

What makes the Camphill Special School so unusual?

We are the only Waldorf school in North America specifically for children and students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Our students start at kindergarten age and with the addition of our new Transitional Program, we are able to work and live with them until they’re 21.

We use a “hands-on” approach to the Waldorf curriculum in all the subjects which are taught in a very experiential way. Our students do everything they would do at any other Waldorf school. They study chemistry, astronomy, take field trips to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and much more. Parents always are surprised at the depth and breadth of their children’s education here.

We have a full range of therapies that support the education and life of the children. Therapeutic eurythmy, art therapy, colored shadow display, and social, cultural, and athletic activities all are part of education here.

Do you have a music program as well?

Our music program is wonderful and our students learn recorder, piano and the lyre as well. Every Thursday afternoon we have a concert for the entire community. Arts unlock the curriculum for our students.

Earlier you said that you live with the students. Can you tell us about that?

The school is at the heart of our community and when the students aren’t in class, they’re participating in the life of the community. They live in a house with house parents, their teachers, eurythmists, students studying our curative education course, and other community members. There’s a seamless sheath that surrounds the students here. We celebrate a rich festival life within the houses. There are about 100 students and 150 coworkers at the moment.

What is the curative education course that you offer?

In 1924 Rudolf Steiner gave the Curative Course. We have a four-year program in Curative Education and Social Therapy that begins with that course as its foundation. The program can lead to a BA in Education. We believe that experience is the key for our trainees.

They are in class one day a week from 8:30am to 8:30pm. The other days they are participating fully in the life of the school and the community. In the last two years of the training they choose a special area of interest and emphasis. Most of our graduates stay in the area. Some stay with us at the Children’s Village at Beaver Run and the Transition Program at Beaver Farm, and others go on to work in similar enterprises.

Do many of your students go on to the Transition Program for 18-21 year olds?

After graduating at 18, very few are able to go on to independent living. Most go on to life sharing communities such as Camphill Village Copake or Camphill Triform in New York, or in this area to Camphill Soltane or Kimberton Hills. There are many other life sharing communities in the United States and there are new communities opening all the time.

We founded our Transition Program a few years ago and we were lucky to purchase Beaver Farm recently, a 56 acre farm about a mile west of Kimberton Waldorf School. We’re building right now and should have everything set by spring.

It’s a three year program on a fully operating biodynamic farm. The students do almost all of the farm work. We raise all the beef, pork and eggs for both the farm and the school. There will be a weavery, pottery, commercial kitchen, honey extracting facility, and a candle making workshop as well as classrooms and therapy facilities.

During these years the emphasis shifts to vocational and life skills. Academics and the arts continue to play a role in their development, but the arts are now woven into a connection with the landscape, the environment and their work.

Wow, it sounds great!

It is! We’re very excited about the future. Beaver Farm has opened up a whole new realm of possibilities for us. The training course is going well. And most of all, our students are happy and loved by an entire community dedicated to them.

Learn more about Camphill Special School here