It began with an ad in the newspaper by the parents of a three-year-old, parents looking for other parents who were interested in starting a Waldorf school in the Valley. One family responded. That was May 2003. A year later, the two families became part of a seven-family board, with a Vision, Mission Statement and Statement of Principles. They also decided upon a name: Glacier Lifelong Learning Center (GLLC), and they looked forward to the day they would be called Glacier Waldorf School and Lifelong Learning Center. That day arrived in January 2008, when the Association of Waldorf Schools of North American (AWSNA) gave its approval, nearly five years after that first ad in the paper.

Waldorf education is new to the Flathead Valley, indeed to Montana. Glacier Waldorf School was the first AWSNA Waldorf school initiative in Montana, but now there are two schools operating in Montana, ours and one in Red Lodge, the School of the Beartooths, who opened their school doors the same fall as GWS. Despite being relatively new to Montana, Waldorf is currently the fastest growing independent school movement worldwide with more than 800 Waldorf schools in over 40 countries, over 150 in North America, and several public schools using Waldorf methods to enrich their teaching.

Waldorf education is more than just a school or method; it is a whole lifestyle and way of thinking and being. Indeed, the impulse behind Waldorf education is cultural renewal – an impulse that it’s founder, Dr. Rudolf Steiner, felt could be fostered through a new understanding of the individual and community. Fundamental to Waldorf education is the recognition that each human being is a unique individual who passes through distinct life stages and that it is the responsibility of education to address the physical, social, emotional, intellectual and spiritual needs of each developmental stage. Waldorf teachers are dedicated to creating a genuine inner enthusiasm for learning, which is essential for educational success. They truly believe, as Yeats said, that, “education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” Guiding values are a life-long love of learning, creative thinking and self-confidence, a sympathetic interest in the world and the lives of others, and an abiding sense of moral purpose. Waldorf students learn with more than their heads; they learn with their heads, hearts and hands.

Certain activities, which are often considered “frills” at mainstream schools, are central at Waldorf schools, such as art, music, organic gardening, and foreign languages. In the younger grades, all subjects are introduced through artistic mediums, because children respond better to this medium than to dry lecturing and rote learning. Waldorf schools balance academic, artistic and practical disciplines as teachers guide students through a richly creative program that approaches academic subjects through storytelling, music, movement, and artistic activity.

Waldorf education has its roots in the spiritual-scientific research of the Austrian scientist, educator, and thinker Dr. Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). In 1919, a director of the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory asked Steiner how children might be educated to prevent another catastrophe like World War I. Steiner responded by opening six months later the Independent Waldorf School with the stipulations that it be open to all children, co-educational, and run by the faculty rather than an administrative body or the government. Steiner’s aim wasn’t to inculcate in children any particular viewpoint, religion, philosophy or ideology, indeed he was completely against setting up any form of dogma. Rather, he believed and taught that “our highest endeavor must be to develop free human beings who, of themselves, are able to impart purpose and direction to their lives;” to make them so healthy, strong and inwardly free that they would become a kind of tonic for society as a whole.

Steiner was a pioneer in the area of developmentally based, age-appropriate learning. According to Steiner, the human being is a threefold being of spirit, soul, and body whose capacities unfold in three developmental stages on the path to adulthood: early childhood (kindergarten), middle childhood (grade school), and adolescence (high school).

While Glacier Waldorf School envisions a full K-12 Waldorf school here in the Valley, their first milestone was to open a kindergarten in fall 2006. This was followed by adding a first/second grade class in fall 2007. We have a kindergarten teacher who was trained at Sunbridge, a major Waldorf teacher training college in New York, and a grades teacher who is completing her Waldorf teacher training at Antioch New England Graduate School. The school also has a classroom assistant who also teaches our foreign language classes, French and German. Another board member is also a fully trained Waldorf teacher and provides valuable input and assistance to the operation of the school.