Tucson Waldorf School Reviews by Parents

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Posted October 12, 2011
Many children thrive here, but beware, this school can be extremely damaging for
some children and it took us almost a year to build our child s confidence back
up after he attended. The school is beautiful and lively and full of amazing
smells, music, and art and we did appreciate the holistic curriculum. However,
there is absolutely nothing scientific about the guiding principles of the
school, as one parent remarked, but rather the philosophical principals and
spiritual path developed by Rudolph Steiner (Anthroposophy), which is very
radical. Beware that children are placed into one of Steiners four categories by
temperament early on and teachers base their interactions and attitudes with
children on these temperaments, which are utterly arbitrary and completely lack
social and cultural context. This was extremely damaging for our child, because
our child did not fit perfectly in one of the boxes. If only he was slender,
elegant, and well-balanced instead of big and fleshy he would have received the
proper stimulation and attitude from the staff- -which is a ridiculous basis for
interaction between teacher and student.
—Submitted by a parent

Posted May 31, 2011
Wasn't the school for us at all and so we had a terrible and traumatic year. My
child's teacher was not adept at working with all types of children. Some
children appear to excell, but others are judged constantly. There very very few
days that I wasnt reminded how to parent better. Be sure to really look into the
ideology of this school because it apparently did not align with ours. Not a
pleasant experience at all. —Submitted by a parent

Posted March 14, 2011
Based on Steiner's philosophy of education, known as anthroposophy, it divides
education into developmental stages similar to Piaget's stages of child
development. This school initially seemed like a dream...the curriculum and
teachers view education as holistic and organic and emphasizes a balance of
developing the child not only intellectually, but emotionally, and artistically.
However, much like Steiner himself...we found this school to be extremely
elitist with absolutely no room for conflicting ideas of lifestyle, culture, or
ideologies. As immigrants from a non-white country, we found the parents and
educators to be more concerned with sugar, gluten, television, and artificial
colors then education. In other words, completely out of touch with reality. I
also agree with the parent that many teachers are brilliant, however lack the
ability to understand children that are not perfectly "Waldorf". I found this
school to do the opposite of what it boasts...it is another educational
institution that expects the students to learn they way it teaches instead of
teaching the way that individual child learns...which is a rip off for the
amount of fees parents pay.
—Submitted by a parent

Posted July 8, 2010
This can be a great school for your child or it can be a ridiculous experience.
I would advise you to learn the philosophy behind how and what they teach.Some
of the teachers are so wonderful and wise. If you had the experience we had it
is the result of poor teacher communication,poor administrative communication
and poor understanding of children. The teachers inability to correct or
understand my child in the most basic day to day classroom experience ensured
failure. Ignorance caused judgment by under qualified people which negatively
effected the daily life of my child sitting in the classroom. By placing my
child in more experienced school he has found so much confidence about how he
learns and the questions...oh the many questions he has about the world around
him!Many schools offer wonderful opportunities for our children, have fun
exploring!
—Submitted by a parent