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Waldorf News

Growing a Waldorf-Inspired Approach in a Public School District: New research study from the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE) praises the Alice Birney School in Sacramento

Alice Birney Waldorf-Inspired School, a public K-8 school of choice within the Sacramento City Unified School District, provides a powerful example of an alternative educational approach within a public system. Rather than focusing on preparation for standardized tests, Waldorf students are deeply involved in a full range of expressive arts – ranging from watercolors and music to knitting and physical activity; they learn science by gardening and investigating natural phenomena, mathematics by designing and building things of practical value, history from studying biography and the human meaning of historical events, English language arts by writing their own books and extended accounts of what they are learning. The school’s attention to comprehensive student development, including their social-emotional, physical and artistic development has profoundly shaped its graduates into young adults. More »

American Students: Smartphone Experts Who Struggle in Reading and Math

American teens' increasing access to smartphones is driving a meteoric rise in their entertainment tech use. The recently released Common Sense media report shows that teens now spend an incredible 6 hours and 40 minutes each day using video games, online videos, social media, and other screen self-amusements. Not counted in this total is the tremendous amount of time teens spend texting and talking on their phones. As our adolescents' lives become increasingly dominated by digital entertainment, what are the consequences? An answer is found in another recently released report on U.S. teens: the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation's Report Card. This study reveals that 8th grade students' scores in reading and math dropped from the last time they were measured in 2013. A disturbing two-thirds of American 8th graders now score "below proficient" in reading, and this same percentage of students score "below proficient" in math. More »

New Waldorf Inspired Publicly Funded School in Colorado: North Fork School of Integrated Studies

In the magical little valley of the North Fork of the Gunnison River, things have been stirring. A small community of like-minded people have come together to educate their children from the inside out. Since the 1970’s, creative individuals seeking a simpler lifestyle settled this valley, bringing their intelligence and skills. Cottage industries sprang up to complement the coal mining and the fruit growing industries. Once known as the Fruit Capital of the West, the North Fork Valley today has the largest concentration of biodynamic and organic farms and vineyards in Colorado. Due to its rich offering of the arts, the valley has been recognized by the State of Colorado as a “Creative District.” A thriving community of farmers, ranchers, artists, musicians, craftspeople, and outdoor enthusiasts live nestled together, closely tied to the earth. So it comes as no surprise that in this vibrant valley, Waldorf Educational methods have taken root. More »

Routes of Sculpture: An international art contest open to all Waldorf Steiner schools in the world

A new idea was born from that training trip: to propose an international annual contest open to students between 17 and 19 years old of the Steiner Waldorf schools in the world, to that every year come to have a training trip in Tuscany. The aim of this contest is the creation of two reliefs in marble, for the outside walls of the Heart Hospital (Hospital of Paediatric Cardiac Surgery G. Pasquinucci in Massa, Tuscany, Italy). The theme of the art works is free, just thinking of an audience of children. The two groups of winners, with the teacher of their school, will be hosted free of charge for fourteen days in Massa Carrara, Tuscany, Italy: here they will create their marble relief in Studi d’Arte Cave Michelangelo (www.studidarte.com), working with the craftsmen, who will monitor the work and also teach them, in a unique experience of full immersion in this artistic workmanship. This training course is a real apprenticeship where it will be possible to carry out a project guided by a professional sculptor craftsman. The contest will be repeated annually in order to decorate, year after year, an outside wall of the Hospital, with messages from Waldorf Steiner students from Europe and beyond. The contest combines different purposes: it is a project with educational and training goals for students; it has an international character; it is inspired by the development and knowledge of the territory of Tuscany, that has always tied its identity to sculpture; finally, it is a project of solidarity, dedicated to help and support children around the world suffering from grievous congenital heart disease. The submission/registration of the schools and their students is free. More »

Delayed kindergarten enrollment dramatically reduces ADHD in children, study shows

A new research paper co-authored by Professor Thomas Dee finds strong evidence of mental health benefits in delaying kindergarten. A new study on the mental health effects of kindergarten enrollment ages found strong evidence that a one-year delay dramatically improves a child’s self-regulation abilities even into later childhood. According to the study co-authored by Stanford Graduate School of Education Professor Thomas Dee, children who started kindergarten a year later showed significantly lower levels of inattention and hyperactivity, which are jointly considered a key indicator of self regulation. The beneficial result was found to persist even at age 11. “We found that delaying kindergarten for one year reduced inattention and hyperactivity by 73 percent for an average child at age 11,” Dee said, “and it virtually eliminated the probability that an average child at that age would have an ‘abnormal,’ or higher-than-normal rating for the inattentive-hyperactive behavioral measure.” More »

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