If you read the previous post you know that I am constantly thinking about education and the choice we make for our children as the financial investment into private education is huge. It really was only this year that I began to really articulate for myself why we continue to make the choice of Waldorf education for our children. One of my "aha's" came a few weeks ago as I was cleaning out our garage. A neighborhood church was having a yard sale and was advertising pick up of unwanted items to be donated. I called and a gentlemen in his late fifties came and picked up our donation. As we spent some time visiting with this man and chatting about his life in our community talk turned toward education and where our children go to school and where his adult children attended school. Near the end of the conversation I shared with him that I wanted my children to walk into a great experience each and every day. He told me that was not possible. Rubbish! We choose our reality - at least I do - and I know that the choices we make for them dictate much of what they experience each day.
Speaking of experience, though I will not go into great detail here I will say I had varied experiences in school. A product of public education nearly each of the first 7 school years for me were pure hell with the last 5 improving greatly. I can honestly say that the improvement came as a result of having about 8 phenomenal teachers between 8th and 12th grades. Not to say my entire high school experience was great. But those 8 teachers made the rest tolerable. Tolerable. That was largely my school experience. Had it not been for those 8 teachers (who were inspiring and motivating and exciting) and of course the great group of friends that I surrounded myself with I might not be able to use the word tolerable at all. I would guess that between 8th and 12th grades I had approximately 25 teachers and even now looking back to be able to say that 8 were phenomenal is shocking to me even now. That is not to say there were only 8 good teachers at my high school. There were others in classes that I did not take but I can honestly say that many of my classes were uninspiring and ineffective to say the least. And, that is NOT to say that every teacher in every private school is inspiring and phenomenal because I also know that is not the case.
Circling back around to my previous post and keeping the word "tolerable" in mind I'll share with you the conversation my husband and I had last night as we stood by the bonfire talking with his friends and listening to another alum play the guitar and sing. I told him that SAS must have been a really great experience. It was he said. As he went there late (as a junior) he wasn't quite as connected to the culture and the people. But, he had a great experience. His days were filled with inspired learning where knowledge was taught for the sake of knowledge and for the sake of learning and acquiring wisdom. Subjects were delved into and critical thinking was encouraged. We stood under the stars last night and I listened and knew that these folks were greatly shaped by their education environment. They are all life long learners and were part of a long tradition of people who had come through the ranks at the school. Each year this reunion is for all graduates of the school. There oldest reunion class that I saw was 1952. To know that these folks all come back there each year to celebrate that experience is amazing.
