Approved by the Governance Council and Board of Trustees June 2018
“The process of becoming culturally responsive to all our students is essential to the continued growth of Waldorf Education in North America and around the world. It is the moral responsibility as human beings and as educators to meet the needs of all our students.” – Vicki Larson, Green Meadow Waldorf School
At Shining Mountain Waldorf School we commit to creating and sustaining an equitable, diverse, inclusive learning community. We are taking up this work with inspired commitment and intention.
Shining Mountain Waldorf School adheres to the philosophy of education and pedagogical indications initiated by Rudolf Steiner in 1919 out of a response in part to the First World War and the rise of industrialism and materialism. Steiner’s goal was to establish an education with a culturally rich, age-appropriate curriculum that would educate the body, mind and spirit of children. Steiner intended Waldorf education to focus not only on what knowledge must be acquired to enter society, but also to awaken capacities in children that would bring renewed impulses into society: love, awe, devotion, compassion, and trust. These are the qualities consciously cultivated at Shining Mountain Waldorf School from early childhood through adolescence. We believe that a lifelong love of learning and a curiosity to ask deep questions are vital to this process. Our graduates leave school having developed independent thinking, warmth of feeling, and a strength of will that propels them toward moral courage and social responsibility.
At Shining Mountain Waldorf School we strive to create equitable opportunities for underrepresented populations. We will accomplish this by having equal access to and participation in educational programs, professional development, and community resource networks. These programs and networks provide resources to help close the demographic disparities in education and leadership roles in all spheres of institutional functioning.
We define diversity as the range of human differences that can be engaged in the service of learning: personality, language, learning styles, life experiences, race, ethnicity, class, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, sexual identity, country of origin, ability status, cultural, political, religious, military or other affiliations.
We experience inclusion as the act of creating a community that honors and recognizes the worth and dignity of all people. An inclusive community promotes and sustains a sense of belonging; it values and practices respect for the talents, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of living of its members. The Shining Mountain Waldorf School community strives to embrace differences and offer respect in words and actions for all people.
A diversity of human experiences and viewpoints in our learning community enriches the educational experience of all members of the community, and requires that we grow and stretch ourselves as individuals. We aspire to create and support equity, diversity, and inclusivity as we honor and serve the dignity of the human being, using the insights of Anthroposophy. We must expect and seek change and transformation. We are taking up this work in the following ways:
Creating space for all individuals and groups to express themselves in the community and through the curriculum:
In order to address and achieve these ideals, we are committed to implementing:
“I feel like one of the really important things that you get out of a Waldorf education is curiosity—curiosity to go and learn and explore what’s out there in the world. I fell into engineering and a path that I don’t think I would have anticipated, but having an arts background where you’re bringing creativity and imagination into problem-solving, there’s a really incredible synergy between those.”
