Back to the Waldorf School of Garden City for a moment -

Garden City, NY is all things blue blood and conservative. Now picture the Waldorf community of teachers, teaching the children of these bankers, lawyers, and other pillars of that community. As Natalia implies, it was a dichotomy of cultures, a discordance, and as a result, an entirely unique experience.

As a "lifer" (ok, really only K-12), I am a product of the experience. The high school was a prep school that taught values and yet still provided an extraordinary education. Weak on sciences and mediocre on social sciences, its strength lay in its ability to teach adolescents to think abstractly within well defined parameters, within a framework of ideals, and to introduce us to concepts (free will vs. predestination was always one of their favorites) we would further explore in our liberal arts college experiences. From within that system, it was exceedingly frustrating, as it was still rigid in its framework, but perhaps that made it all the more appropriate to a bunch of teenagers who would otherwise not have had the focus and the drive such structure inherently provided. We rebelled daily, of course, but then, what teenager doesn't?

In the younger grades, I was lucky enough to have a woman named Susl Berlin as my lower school teacher from 1st-8th grade. Miss Berlin was old school, but still managed to incorporate Steiner's values and principles into a very structured yet artful curriculum. At the time, it was all I knew, so I thought everyone learned through their teacher drawing beautiful artwork on the blackboard to explain abstract concepts. It is only now that I realize how truly fortunate I was (Miss Berlin died last week, so forgive me if I wax a tad poetic here). I should hasten to add that we all generally hated Eurhythmy, and while I recognize that is nigh unto sacrilege, if further formed a bond amongst students we still laugh about to this very day.

I graduated with about 10 people (out of a total graduating class of 20) who I started with in kindergarten. While not all my most intimate friends today, these are people who have remained lifelong friends, who I speak with routinely if not frequently, and who I would trust with my life. They are people I can instantly catch up with after not having chatted for months at a time. Some are married, and have their children the same school we attended, some sit on the Board of Trustees today. Sadly, two have passed during those 25 years since I graduated, and we all came together to grieve. In short, it is a community, one that I am a part of because I grew up in it, incorporated many of its values and tenants, and am a better person for being a part thereof.

Boy, that was a longwinded way of redefining what Natalia said.

Thanks so much!!