"Waldorf Education addresses the child as no other education does. Learning, whether in chemistry, mathematics, history or geography, is imbued with life and so with joy, which is the only true basis for later study. The textures and colors of nature, the accomplishments and struggles of humankind fill the Waldorf students' imaginations and the pages of their beautiful books. Education grows into a union with life that serves them for decades.

By the time they reach us at the college and university level, these students are grounded broadly and deeply and have a remarkable enthusiasm for learning. Such students possess the eye of the discoverer, and the compassionate heart of the reformer which, when joined to a task, can change the planet."
Arthur Zajonc, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Physics, Amherst College

Building Capacities

The purpose of Waldorf Education is to nurture the students’ inherent enthusiasm for learning and to guide them in expanding their capacities. Thinking is developed from the concrete (doing) toward the abstract (thinking), with feeling as the mediating quality between practical and conceptual learning. When we possess the capacity to feel deeply, we can internalize learning - rather than simply memorizing information for the short term.

It is for this reason that we consider fine arts to be a critical element of academic studies. We think it is important work for students to discover, through the practice of fine and practical arts, the breadth of human feelings, and to express them through stories, drama, and the regular practice of music and painting. A sense of achievement is cultivated through the completion of age-appropriate physical, artistic, and academic tasks at each stage of the children’s development.

Social Life

Education at Three Cedars is brought by human beings, for human beings. The long-term relationship between the faculty, staff, parents, and students requires a shared commitment to resolving differences. The guidance of the adults in our community is intended to affirm the human values of mutual respect, courtesy, cooperation and service.

Hard Work and Joy

Engaging the students’ multiple intelligences gives rise to a remarkable love of learning. Each child is honored and all forms of intelligence are fostered, including linguistic (word), logical-mathematical (number/reasoning), spatial (picture), bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal (people), intrapersonal (self), naturalistic (nature), spiritual, and existential intelligences. All students experience areas in their studies that come easily and quickly to them, and all students are encouraged to work diligently and persevere through those that don't, allowing students to experience both the joy of ease and the joy of accomplishment.

Thriving in Today's World

Our students are educated so they may go out into the world ready to meet life’s challenges with knowledge, courage, enthusiasm, creativity and a solid sense of how to think and reason. While some effects of a good education are measurable at the time, many of the most important facets are planted as seeds that will continue to grow and bear fruit in later years and throughout adulthood.