Comments:

elgan - 2006-01-17 21:43:41
They have Waldorf schools in Quebec, called �Enfants de la terre� of all things. I tend to call them �potato children schools�, which is probably unfair of me, but the people who send their kids there are more of the granola/hippy type than not. I know at least one girl, now in first year university, who went there for primary (she went to a French public highschool up to grade 10) who seemed to do very well in it, but then again, her parents fit the previous description I gave. She does too, when I come to think of it. I toyed with the idea of sending my daughter to private school for a while, but decided against it because I did not want to foster a sense of elitism. Whatever you feel AJ is lacking in school, be it private, Waldorf or public, I know you will make up for at home.
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egg - 2006-01-17 23:36:27
Thank you so much for your comments about my own decisions for pre-k but along a similar vein. We have a somewhat new waldorf school in the area and I thought the teachers were wonderful but the program well I think I just feel like a hypocrit. We are just not a waldorf family and I'm not sure that's really a bad thing. It works for some people it's just not our thing. I looked at monessori and the two jewish schools. Right now as much as it scares me I really think I'm going to send her to the public school for half or full day next year and see how it goes. The only question is which public school. Both have wonderful pre-k programs which is odd for CPS, but they do and in that way we're lucky. But frankly I'm very disappointed in my options and what else can I do I work and live in the same neighborhood I'm certainly not going to cart her all over the city for school, it would be a huge amount of time that I don't have. Hope your process goes well, I'm trying to get visits scheduled for us for the next week or so and then hopefulyl make our decision.
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Erin. - 2006-01-18 00:29:37
Hmm. I have a cousin who had a very troubled childhood & she eventually moved into a waldorf high school...it seemed to be good for her, generally, and she went to a good college but she works in porn now. I have mixed feelings about waldorf schools because of her: I get the feeling that for the early years of schooling they could be really good, but my cousin was spending all of her time drawing pretty borders on reports and I think she did a lot of drugs. Not that there aren't a lot of drugs everywhere.
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Harriet - 2006-01-18 10:47:30
All of these concerns are associations I have with Waldorf as well. But they also really have nothing to do with the Waldorf curriculum per se. If the people I know who've been involved with Waldorf in one way or another are the only measure, I'd have to say we are not a Waldorf family either. But there are several things in the curriculum that I find very appealing, if not essential. The first is the fact that they address the whole child, working to balance a child's interests and talents in the intellectual, artistic, physical and spiritual to create a well-rounded person. Second, the curriculum is based on child development research and is tailored to the why the mind and body develops. Third, while there is a specific curriculum, programs are tailored individually to each child, according to his or her strengths and weaknesses. All of this sounds ideal in principle and very different from the test-based teaching that seems to be the norm in public schools. That said, there is a lot of room for a twisting of the agenda. I can see that each school could be very different. Our interest will depend entirely on the other parents as well as teachers. But at this point, really, I'm just looking for alternative ways to envision education, to determine what our priorities are, what I think will suit AJ's personality, temperament and interests. I actually think he's likely to be happy in a traditional school environment, as long as we have teachers who are willing to tailor the work for him so he's not bored. But if the teachers don't know what to do, I'd like some ideas of alternatives so I know how to help. That's part of what I'm getting from looking at alternative schools.
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Chris - 2006-01-18 12:43:56
Hmm. I don't know too much about Waldorf. I think at the one around here you learn how to knit before you learn how to read, which might be good or bad. Also, you have the same teacher all the way through, which again, can be good or bad. The brother of a friend of my daughter M went to Waldorf school and was very unhappy, because, as his mother says, they just didn't really appreciate him -- I get the feeling he was sort of a bouncy, non-studious, but goodnatured boy. I guess they kept wanting him to sit quietly, which just was not in his nature. Anyway -- not very helpful, I think. The best thing my kids got out of private elementary Montessori school and private traditional middle school was a sense of being known. They're both the kind of girl I was worried would be forgotten in the back of the classroom -- i.e. reasonably well-behaved good girls. So I sent them to private schools where the education was good, but best of all the schools were small enough that the teachers and kids knew who they were, and they really felt connected. It's quite possible that your public school will provide this (I don't think ours would have). I also think that elementary school curricula are elastic enough to accomodate more or less gifted kids, and that a lot of learning really does take place outside of the classroom. I remember also being worried that my kids would be as bored in school as I was, and I don't think they were, which was good. Being bored in school is not the worst thing in the world, I suppose. I don't know -- it's a hard decision, and I think it really does depend a lot on what the various schools are like where you live.
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