About the Waldorf Method

Since its founding by Rudolf Steiner in 1919, the Waldorf school movement has grown to over 650 schools throughout the world, over 125 of them in the United States and Canada.

Waldorf education balances artistic, academic and practical work educating the whole child, hand and heart as well as mind. Its innovative methodology and developmentally-oriented curriculum, permeated with the arts, address the child's changing consciousness as it unfolds, stage by stage. Imagination and creativity are cultivated as well as cognitive growth and a sense of responsibility for the earth and its inhabitants. Steiner's detailed psychology of child development, described early in the 20th century, has been supported by modern research in education and neuropsychology. Through Waldorf education, Steiner hoped that young people would develop the capacities of soul and intellect and the strength of will that would prepare them to meet the challenges of their own time and the future.

Hearthstone incorporates many Waldorf principles into its curriculum. A wealth of other resources and traditions are drawn on as well. The school flexibly responds to the needs, interests and resources of its member families.