Art as an educational tool has a special place in Waldorf Schools. Artistic activity challenges the imagination and brings out creativity while developing a sensitivity for qualitative differences.
With budget cuts and shifting policies surrounding in-school arts education on the forefront of everyone’s mind and seemingly every politician’s political agenda, the importance and necessity of credible arts programs in schools across the country has come in to question.
For many, there isn’t even any question to be asked at all — music and arts are as a fundamental to a child’s educational development as the maths and sciences, perhaps in some cases even more fundamental as they allow for an outlet of expression and creativity that would otherwise be repressed or neglected.
The Waldorf curriculum awakens and nourishes healthy intellectual, physical and emotional development in students, and provides a dynamic, multi-dimensional educational experience.
We educate the whole child - the head, the heart and the hands.
How will your child benefit from a Waldorf education? Our students are not rushed through childhood by academic expectations that exceed their developmental stages. Instead, our teachers cultivate a life-long love of learning with an academic curriculum that is developmentally-appropriate and includes appealing, hands-on activities. Our children learn by doing, figuring out problems and finding opportunities while building respectful relationships in an environment that highly values individuality.
What does this look like in a classroom? Our students are engaged both physically and mentally with projects that strengthen the logical and creative sides of the brain. They do not sit still for long stretches of time or use screen technology that limits creativity and learning capacity by doing the work for them. Our students also spend a lot of time outdoors for projects, recess breaks, and on field trips. Our property includes five acres of forest and provides unique opportunities to engage children in hands-on learning.
To watch a child completely engaged in an arts experience is to recognize that the brain is on, driven by the aesthetic and emotional imperative to make meaning, to say something, to represent what matters.
Education in the arts is essential to students’ intellectual, social, physical, and emotional growth and well-being. Experiences in the arts – in dance, drama, music, and visual arts – play a valuable role in helping students to achieve their potential as learners and to participate fully in their community and in society as a whole. The arts provide a natural vehicle through which students can explore and express themselves and through which they can discover and interpret the world around them.
Participation in the arts contributes in important ways to students’ lives and learning – it involves intense engagement, development of motivation and confidence, and the use of creative and dynamic ways of thinking and knowing.
It is well documented that the intellectual and emotional development of children is enhanced through study of the arts. Through the study of dance, drama, music, and visual arts, students develop the ability to think creatively and critically. The arts nourish and stimulate the imagination, and provide students with an expanded range of tools, techniques, and skills to help them gain insights into the world around them and to represent their understandings in various ways.
At Halton Waldorf School we believe in a holistic and experiential approach that builds on educational foundations to create successful, well-rounded students who excel in the classroom and in life.
Waldorf schools offer a developmentally appropriate, experiential approach to education. We integrate the arts with academics for children from preschool until graduation. Waldorf Education aims to inspire life-long learning in all students and to enable them to fully develop their unique capacities. Founded in the early 20th century, Waldorf Education is based on the insights, teachings and principles of education outlined by the world-renowned anthroposophist, artist, and scientist, Rudolf Steiner. The principles of Waldorf Education evolve from a profound understanding of human development that addresses the needs of the growing child. These principles inspire and guide teachers, administrators, trustees and parents today.
The Waldorf curriculum is broad and comprehensive. Structured to respond to the three developmental phases of childhood – birth to 6 or 7 years, 7 to 14 years and 14 to 21 years – Rudolf Steiner stressed to teachers that the best way to provide meaningful support for the child is to comprehend these phases fully and to bring age appropriate content that nourishes healthy growth for the student.
Music, dance, theater, writing, literature, legends and myths are not simply subjects to be read about and tested; they are experienced. Through these experiences, Waldorf students cultivate their intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual capacities to be individuals, certain of their paths and ready to be of service to the world.
Come see for yourself!
Get in touch with us to learn more about Waldorf education in Halton:
Samantha Peris Admissions Manager Halton Waldorf School samantha.peris@haltonwaldorf.com 905-331-4387 ext. 59
Angela Marlatt Advancement & Communications Officer Halton Waldorf School angela.marlatt@haltonwaldorf.com 905-331-4387 ext. 58
Read more...
Forbes: Arts help students excel in Math and Science
Brookings: Art - essential to the human experience
NY Times: Art education contributes to retention of learning CNBC: Inside the tech-free school where high-tech parents are sending their kids NY Times: Silicon Valley's popular elementary school is the local Waldorf School
