Hawthorne Valley School is committed to the ideals, insights, and methods of Waldorf education, founded by Rudolf Steiner. This education recognizes the integration of body, soul, and spirit as the foundation of education and purposefully nurtures health, soul balance, and moral development in the growing child. The art of education practiced at Hawthorne Valley School seeks to balance academic discipline, artistic creativity, and practical skills in our students. Educating perception, feeling, imagination, and cognition through the arts is a central principle and practice in Waldorf education. Our goal is to unite in the developing individual active thinking with the heart's power of love and the will's initiative. Hawthorne Valley School is devoted to the development of free, moral, and capable individuals who are able to impart purpose and direction to their lives. Hawthorne Valley School seeks to build a living connection to the environment— scientifically, artistically, and practically. Learning directly from life, cultivating social responsibility and reverence for life, and educating the will are integral to the continuing educational research at Hawthorne Valley School. The School participates fully in an educational community, within the Hawthorne Valley Association, that includes biodynamic farmers and gardeners, environmental educators, and working artists and artisans. We also actively contribute to the wider community of Columbia County and successfully demonstrate the vitality of an independent educational and cultural life. ...read more