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Waldorf provides unique option to public schools

Purposeful education available at a cost in Whistler and Squamish

Finding an alternative to the public school system used to mean significant disruption for families in the Sea to Sky corridor.

The choices were relocating to a community with more educational options, sending your child away to school or taking on home schooling.

Whistler’s Peggy Vogler and Squamish’s Christine Martin took a grassroots approach to ensuring there were viable options locally for their children’s education. These women, along with other like-mined parents, were responsible for the creation of Waldorf schools in their communities.

The dominant myth of Waldorf schooling is that it’s a free-for-all environment with children doing what they want – when they want – and emerging unprepared for the real world.

"Our students have been accepted to universities across Canada. The only place they can’t directly go to is UBC," says Vogler.

She explains that students wishing to attend UBC often take their first year of study at Capilano College, which offers a university transfer program.

While B.C.’s answer to the Ivy League may not be swinging its doors open to them, Vogler says that Waldorf graduates leave their school days with a combination of concrete skills, a creative approach to life and an appreciation of learning.

Founded in post-WWI Germany, the school was the brainchild of Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian philosopher who was employed by the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory to develop an educational program for the workers’ children.

Capitalizing on a child’s natural interests as the foundation for learning, his philosophy was a simple one: "Receive the children with reverence, educate them with love, send them forth in freedom."

Steiner’s method further differentiated itself from traditional education strategies by developing a sense of continuity by having the same teacher take a class from Grade 1 through Grade 8.

The goal, as well as the practice, of Waldorf education remain the same today as it did in the early 20 th century: "to produce individuals who are able, in and of themselves, to impart meaning to their lives."

The curriculum that assists children in moving in this direction is a broad blend of academics, art and practical activities designed to reflect the child’s emotional, spiritual and intellectual developmental phases. For example, academic subjects are put on hold until a child is seven years old. In the years from preschool to Grade 2, the preferred learning methods focus on art, tactile experiences and music. In Grade 1 students learn the fundamentals of music via the recorder, in Grade 3 they are learning musical notation and by Grade 4 they are playing the violin.

Alternative education

While the educational model they are being taught may differ from their public school peers, the fact Martin’s and Vogler’s children don’t attend their local public elementary school is hardly unique.

Currently, one out of every 10 students in B.C. is being educated outside the public school system. Approximately 60,000 elementary and secondary school students are enrolled in 356 independent schools. And according to the B.C. Home Schooling Association, an additional 10,000 children and youth are home schooled.

Religious considerations are the motivating factor behind more than half of the enrolments in independent schools. Catholic school enrolments make up more than 25 per cent of all independent school enrolments. Still, other parents are choosing alternatives to public schools because of dissatisfaction with the current state of public education.

The majority of Howe Sound School District’s 14 schools receive consistency low performance ratings from outside bodies, including The Fraser Institute. While it may be easy to dismiss a ratings system created by a right-wing, think tank, it’s harder to dispute the fact that the Ministry of Education’s Foundation Skills Assessments for School District #48 are lower than provincial averages.

Compound this with a provincial government that has closed 122 schools since 2002. Larger classroom sizes have also become the rule rather than the exception and a province-wide funding freeze has resulted in enrichment curriculum evaporating.

But for families that can afford it, Waldorf provides an arts-rich alternative to a flagging public school system.

Martin was so impressed with what Waldorf education had to offer that she quit her corporate gig as district manager for a pharmaceutical company to become Cedar Valley School’s kindergarten teacher three years ago.

"When my children were born I started to read about education more. I had no problems with the public school system and had supported it. But what I saw was that Waldorf was a holistic system that really met the needs of children in providing a balanced education," says the Squamish resident.

Conceived of six years ago, the three-year-old Cedar Valley School now offers preschool through Grade 4 classes to 37 students.

Vogler’s experience with Waldorf started out when she and her husband were part of a home-schooling co-operative that employed Steiner’s principals.

Currently president of the non-profit society that oversees the Alta Lake School, she is an enthusiastic proponent of Waldorf education. Her three children, a boy in Grade 6 and twin girls in Grade 2, all attend the school their mother helped found.

"The reason I chose it is that I wanted to offer the kids something different – something alternative," Vogler says. "I liked the idea of them having a purposeful education."

Purposeful is a concept that follows through the curriculum, particularly when it comes to arts and crafts. One of the crafts they take up is knitting, an activity designed to develop fine motor skills. The first Grade 1 knitting project coincides with the children learning to play the recorder. So naturally, the first project is a knitted bag for carrying their instrument. As a result the children have a sense of accomplishment and self-esteem.

"It’s been a really good experience," she says of her involvement with the Alta Lake School. "People have been really excited about it."

Different ways of learning

The Alta Lake School now has an enrolment of 35, with a maximum class size of 12 students. Three full-time and two part-time instructors teach the Waldorf method in a collection of portable classrooms adjacent to the Spruce Grove field house. The bucolic setting is perfect for teaching an educational system where students start each day with a nature walk.

The idea of starting a school day with a nature walk is just one aspect of the school many people find unsettling. The lack of textbooks, as well as the emphasis on interactive and experiential learning is troubling to some people. Clearly, this is not the type of school most people attended.

However, teachers at Waldorf schools are B.C. certified as well as Waldorf trained. The Ministry of Education benchmarks for each grade are met, it’s just the way that the curriculum is being applied that’s different. For example, while hearing a story read by the teacher, the students may mould beeswax sculptures of the story’s characters instead of sitting quietly with their heads down on their desk. Times tables may be reinforced by a series of walking, talking, stomping exercises to create a type of whole-body memory. And while report cards are anecdotal as opposed to grade-based, students are subjected to provincial standardized testing at the Grade 4 and Grade 7 levels.

Since both schools currently only have plans to offer classes up to Grade 8, students will have to either move to Vancouver to attend high school or reintegrate into the public system.

"Public school) teachers are amazed at the kind of questions our kids ask," says Vogler. "The feedback I’ve had is that our kids integrate well socially. And after a period of transition they do well academically. They just have to learn to a new system of learning."

Aside from having to accept a new, unfamiliar approach to education, one of the stumbling blocks some parents have with Waldorf schools is the tuition: $4,100 per year for Alta Lake and $5,000 per year to attend Cedar Valley. (The kindergarten program at Alta Lake is $3,300). While the tuition rates may see exorbitant to people used to the public school system, these numbers represent the low-end of private school fees.

"We don’t have any scholarships or grants, but we do have work exchanges, things people can do to reduce the fees," Vogler explains. She adds that while the board would like to see the school eventually free, this is a long-term goal.

Cedar Valley also aspires to be fee-free, but for now the Squamish school has a tuition rate of $5,000 per year.

"We do have tuition adjustment based on financial need," says Martin. "We want to open (the school) up to everyone."

To ensure that fees do not become excessive, both schools do substantial fundraising. For example, the Alta lake School fundraisers include a Christmas Fair, a May Fair and a Christmas concert with a silent auction at Millennium Place.

"We try to do things that fit in with the values of the school," Vogler says. "We don’t want to do things like chocolate sales – we don’t want to promote unnecessary consumerism."

For more information on the area’s Waldorf schools contact:

Alta Lake School: 604-932-1885 or www.altalakeschool.com

Cedar Valley School: 604-898-1825, Christine Martin