As someone who left the Waldorf community at the end of elementary school as a student and then re-entered it towards the beginning of adulthood as an administrator, I have a very clear feeling of what this means to me. It is a place where you can talk to someone and not necessarily agree with their point of view but believe that their intentions are good and true. It feels like a place where you can show up as yourself, and it feels like a place where you can learn about yourself. You feel a sense of belonging with others through the shared experience of working on honest personal growth. In ..read more

Grade 6 had a wonderful, adventurous trip to Loowit (Mt. St. Helens) in mid-October. The trip was tied into their Geology block, in which students studied the science of the forces of the earth and how they affect the landscape around us, as well as minerals, rocks and the ways humans use them. Volcanology was a part of our block, and students learned about the eruption of Loowit in 1980, then visited the mountain, viewing the devastation and regrowth. We journeyed through Ape Caves (a 1.5 mile underground lava tube) with headlamps and lots of bravery! We also camped beside the Toutle Riv ..read more

In the World Cooking Elective, middle school students embark on a culinary and cultural adventure that involves all of their senses as they learn to create delicious food from around the world. Focused on the humble pancake, students develop their knife and cooking skills while making and eating pancakes from different cultures. An open mindset is encouraged as we use different ingredients and cooking techniques to prepare sweet and savory pancakes that includes French crepes, Japanese okonomiyaki and takoyaki, German dutch babies, Indonesian serabi, Danish aebleskiver, and Korean pajeon. Stud ..read more

How does scientific progress occur? What is scientific truth? How does scientific knowledge shape the way we see the world around us? These are some of the meaty questions that the Grade 12 Honors Humanities group has been wrestling with this semester. I was excited (and a bit nervous!) to launch this new class: Topics in the History of Science. While the overall focus of the class is researching and writing a 15-page historical research paper, we began our studies by diving headfirst into a very difficult text, the seminal Structure of Scientific Revolution by Thomas Kuhn. Kuhn’s bo ..read more

In the spring of 2021, when we were just able to come back from online COVID education to in-person school (but only outside!) our 12th grade engaged in field chemistry. As the ultimate project in that class, the seniors created a curriculum and field guide for our 9th grade chemistry morning lesson blocks: to measure the water quality in Thornton Creek. The field manual includes an essay about why water quality matters, art related to healthy aquatic ecosystems, step-by-step procedures for measuring eight water quality parameters, and instructions on how to analyze the data. The legacy of our ..read more

This October the Class of 2024 and the Class of 2025 embarked on a week-long camping trip on San Juan Island. The trip took place during the first week of our Ecology of the Salish Sea block, which meant we had the opportunity to begin our study of ecology in-person. There were six key components of our trip: camping on a horse farm, kayaking in the Salish Sea, doing a service project for butterfly conservation on San Juan Island, visiting the Whale Museum in Friday Harbor, exploring life in the Salish Sea via rowboats at the UW labs, and whale watching at Lime Kiln Point State Park. Each of t ..read more

by Daichi Hirata This past July, I had the great fortune to attend a week-long workshop for educators sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Landmarks of American History and Culture program. NEH specializes in place-based education that lets participants experience parts of American history where they happened. “Heart Mountain, Wyoming, and the Japanese American Incarceration” taught educators about the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II and the related issues of the treatment of Native Americans, the racism behind many government decisions ..read more

by Daichi Hirata This past July, I had the great fortune to attend a week-long workshop for educators sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Landmarks of American History and Culture program. NEH specializes in place-based education that lets participants experience parts of American history where they happened. “Heart Mountain, Wyoming, and the Japanese American Incarceration” taught educators about the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II and the related issues of the treatment of Native Americans, the racism behind many government decisions ..read more

We are halfway through our summer program at SWS, and our campus is abuzz with activity! From Magical Crafts to Dungeons and Dragons and Outdoor Adventures, students have had fun on campus and off. Face paint, clay sculptures, tie dye, gardening, rock climbing, water play and so much more have kept kids entertained and connected with new and old friends.     ..read more

At graduation this year, Luna Schindler-Payne and Declan Miller represented the class of 2022. Their speeches are excerpted below. “When I think about the past four years, memories of sunsets and studying flood my mind. As I sort through the joyful and the challenging moments, two words that continue to come up: Gratitude and Change. These words mark the truest feelings I have in regard to these past four years. DECLAN MILLER ’22 In my opinion, learning is some of the best change there is and high school after all offers lots of opportunity for growth. There is the academic learning which ha ..read more