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Waldorf School for Ninth Grade to Open in Fall

Posted on: Monday, 27 March 2006, 12:00 CST

By TESS NACELEWICZ Staff Writer

Susan Purcell likes the education her children receive at the Merriconeag Waldorf School in Freeport so much that she doesn't want it to end after they graduate from eighth grade.

That's why she and other parents are planning to open a school this fall that would offer a Waldorf-based high school education for ninth-graders.

Waldorf schools strive to educate the whole child - the heart, head and hands - according to the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America.

The curriculum includes not only academic subjects ranging from foreign language to mathematics and science, but also the arts. In addition to knitting, weaving and woodworking, students learn to draw, paint and play musical instruments.

But Merriconeag serves only students in nursery school through grade 8. There is no Waldorf secondary school in Maine, although Merriconeag plans to open the state's first Waldorf high school in the fall of 2007.

In the meantime, Purcell and other parents are planning to open The Bridge School in Freeport or Yarmouth this fall. Tuition is expected to be about $12,500 per year, Purcell said. So far, there are 20 potential students, some who attended Merriconeag and others who are home-schooled or attended conventional middle schools.

The hope is that The Bridge School can temporarily bridge the gap until Merriconeag starts its high school in 2007. However, the new Merriconeag high school may begin with just grade 9 and add higher grades in subsequent years, said Lucretia Pascarelli, Merriconeag's high school coordinator.

Adding a grade at a time is how the Merriconeag elementary school grew over the years.

Although parents of Merriconeag students are planning The Bridge School, it would be independent of Merriconeag, Pascarelli said.

Purcell said The Bridge School planners want to open this year so Merriconeag eighth-graders graduating this spring can continue with a Waldorf education.

The Waldorf approach is based on the teaching principles of Rudolph Steiner, an Austrian philosopher who died in 1925. The schools reflect Steiner's belief that learning should be appropriate to a child's developmental needs at a particular age.

For example, children in Waldorf elementary schools don't use computers. It is considered more important for young children to interact with one another and teachers to explore ideas and develop their creativity and imaginations. Computer use is considered developmentally appropriate in Waldorf high schools, however.

There are more than 157 Waldorf schools in North America, including four in Maine. In addition to the Merriconeag school in Freeport, there are Waldorf schools in Blue Hill, Rockport and Eliot.

Merriconeag, founded in 1984, grew from an early childhood program to what it is today: a school of more than 250 students on a campus of about 80 acres on Desert Road. Annual tuition costs range from $3,680 for nursery school to $9,255 for grades 1 through 8.

Purcell's son Stephen, 14, is about to graduate from eighth grade at Merriconeag, and her daughter, Willa, 12, is in sixth grade there.

The Purcells' oldest daughter, Maddie, 15, graduated from Merriconeag two years ago and is a sophomore at Brunswick High School.

Maddie and her mother agree she's been successful there, adjusting well to a much larger school and taking advanced honors classes, even though she came from a school where students don't get grades.

"I find I don't have to study for tests nearly as hard as most of the class," Maddie said. Waldorf students are taught by oral presentations in the early grades, and Maddie said that trained her to easily remember much of what she learns.

Maddie said she is happy at Brunswick High, but her mother wishes she could have attended a Waldorf high school.

Susan Purcell said a Waldorf education "encourages ideals and imagination and is so engaging that students are less likely to become cynical or self-absorbed or flirt around with potential destructive behavior."

Staff Writer Tess Nacelewicz can be contacted at 791-6367 or at:

tnacelewicz@pressherald.com

Source: Portland Press Herald

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