Main Lesson

In a Waldorf school, the teacher remains with the class for eight years, beginning with first grade, leading his or her class through each day’s Main Lesson. This continuity gives the teacher a deep understanding of each student’s strengths and challenges, and supports the development of a rich social dynamic in the class.

The class teacher brings continuity to the curriculum as well, unifying the various disciplines over the years. At the same time, working with new subject matter at every grade level, the teacher's enthusiasm stays fresh. This supports the Waldorf philosophy that teachers are life-long learners themselves. Our school strives to help students develop and pursue life-long learning.

Inspired most deeply through their feelings, grade school students respond powerfully to what is beautiful in the world. This feeling for beauty is cultivated by the tools and approaches used in the Main Lesson work. Students begin the day with music and verse and then move into a two-hour Main Lesson, which includes visual, auditory, and kinesthetic elements.

Each Main Lesson block is an immersion in a particular academic subject, such as language arts, history, geography, algebra, botany, physics or astronomy. The block, lasting between two and four weeks, is shaped and enlivened by the teacher as the arts of music, poetry, painting, drawing, movement and drama are woven throughout the Main Lesson subjects of all the grades, allowing the whole student to become absorbed in the subject matter: head, heart, and hands.

Students create their own Main Lesson Books; observations, compositions, diagrams, and drawings are recorded illustrating their studies. These colorful, very individualized books reflect each student’s progress and are not only a record of what has been studied, but a method of enquiry, increasing the students' creative abilities as they study each subject.