Discover the World. Discover Yourself.
The High School at Kimberton provides a rich, rigorous, immersive academic experience for students in grades nine through twelve. Teachers craft hands-on experiences which sharpen students’ growing intellectual capacities and strengthen their powers of judgment and creative thinking, while students take on more responsibilities for their own education. Learning is not limited to the classroom but engages the student with the world through rich and meaningful experiences. Our international exchange program, outdoor education curriculum, service-learning opportunities and practicums add to the depth of our program.
When students graduate from Kimberton Waldorf School, they leave with not only a strong academic foundation but with a sense of who they are, the ability to think for themselves, and the confidence in their capacity to learn and do whatever they put their minds to.
Learning Environment & Approach
Kimberton’s high school program offers a distinctive learning environment that welcomes creativity, imagination, individuality, and hands-on involvement. Students benefit from a multimodality and interdisciplinary exploration of subjects where students are actively involved and contributing to the experience and not simply receiving information.
Collaborative relationships between faculty and students, and among peers, allows for richness in the academic, social and personal realms of the high school experience. Our faculty are inspired, passionate and involved and our small classes allow teachers to be engaged and accessible to each student. Our students are compassionate and respectful of each other, of the faculty and of the community.
The teenage years are an important time of growth and questions. High school students ask:
- What can I learn from the world around me?
- How has the world around me come about?
- Why does injustice exist?
- Who do I need to become to make a difference in the world?
Students move from the concrete world of observational comparisons into the critical world of conceptual analysis and synthesis. New creative thinking about life and the personal search for truth mark the beginning of the high school years.
Our high school curriculum is designed to give young people resources for their inner journey of development. What was earlier approached through imagination and pictures is now approached through analytical thinking. What was experienced with great intensity of feeling can now be reexamined with newly awakened faculties of personal judgment and critical thought.
High school students have a need for increased independence and for a deeper, more detailed understanding of the topic of study. Subject specialists lead our students through a rich and varied array of main lessons. A team of advisors guides each class, monitoring personal and social progress, coordinating class activities, and serving as liaisons between school and home. Each student has an academic advisor who helps shepherd academic progress throughout high school.
Together, teachers and students observe and consider phenomena in a shared quest for truth and self-knowledge. The science and math curricula train students’ capacities for clear thinking and observation to enable them to judge what is true. The humanities allow the students to apply their newfound thinking capacities to moral questions as well as to quests for meaning, freedom and individuality. The arts program provides balance and develops powers of observation, while also allowing content to be experienced through other parts of their being, not just through the intellect. Each year includes a practicum and a pedagogical trip.
High school students have the opportunity to participate in our international exchange program, spending several months attending classes at one of our partner Waldorf schools in Spanish- and German-speaking countries.
To learn more about our high school program, or to schedule a tour, please contact us using the form below.
High School Main Lesson Books
Each main lesson block allows for a deep and immersive exploration of a subject, including history, literature, mathematics, and science. The rigorous multi-week seminar allows students to fully engage with the subject matter using different modalities. They do experiments and research; they read and discuss and ask questions; they engage with the material, the teacher and each other to develop a deep understanding of the material, themselves, and the world. Students reflect on what they have learned and record it in their main lesson books through writing, research projects, illustrations, graphs, maps, charts, and other assignments. Main lesson books also serve as one of the ways that teachers holistically assess students’ understanding and progress.
