What’s it going to take for your child’s school to recognize her abilities? Maybe it takes a different kind of school. T H E
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our concepts of capital goods and services are changing faster than at any other point in history. What was once stable, is no more. Tomorrow is knocking at our door. And it’s calling for new ideas, fresh perspectives and an abundance of applied imagination to thrive. Yet increasingly, public schools and even many private schools are educating for the past.
Parents everywhere are concerned about preparing
The key ingredient to nurturing the capacities of
their children for the future. So why is it that so
a developing mind is inspiration. This isn’t a
many schools end up draining the imaginative
new idea. Nor is it alternative. This is the wisdom
abilities of the students they seek to educate?
of a nearly century-old approach to education that
With all the emphasis on testing, what is it that’s
has become the fastest-growing independent
really being learned? With all the emphasis on
education movement worldwide. And it’s no wonder.
“the basics,” why are so many college freshmen required to take remedial coursework? It’s time to rethink thinking. Creativity is the new smart. Conceptual thinking is the new smart. The ability to synthesize disparate ideas is the new smart. And rote memorization won’t get you there. But inspiration will.
Inspiration outshines memorization At Kimberton, we provide a rigorous academic curriculum through the prism of creative thinking. The reason is simple. Mathematics requires creative problem-solving skills. Physics requires creative problem-solving skills. And creating a sustainable future certainly requires creative problem-solving skills.
Inspired children and young men and women are engaged learners. They are involved learners. They are interested learners. And when they graduate from Kimberton to attend some of the nation’s leading universities, they do so as creative thinkers whose capacities for both analysis and imagination are not only treasured, but sought.
KIMBERTON WALDORF SCHOOL
The future needs heroic
Rethinking thinking
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We live in a time of epic change. Global communities and local communities are increasingly interconnected, and
to developing the minds of young children. But unlike art schools, Kimberton Waldorf School views
Early Childhood Education
At Kimberton, we carefully align
Parent and Child Circle, Nursery, and Kindergarten comprise the Early Childhood
creative, developmental activities
Program at Kimberton. Central to all three is the preservation of childhood and
with emerging cognitive, emotional
the establishment of a secure, daily rhythm of life. The Early Childhood Program
and physical stages of growth. Art, music, handwork, sculpting, woodworking, movement arts and
Baking
Joy
KIMBERTON WALDORF SCHOOL
the arts as a means, not the end.
educates through play and nurtures a reverence for the natural world. At Kimberton, children bake bread, they develop dexterity through finger-knitting and working with beeswax, they tend a garden, and they are enriched with nature stories, puppet plays, storytelling and festivals.
blacksmithing are intrinsically interwoven with chemistry, physics, mathematics, botany, literature and history. From early childhood education through grade school and high school, Kimberton
Handwork
prepares children and young adults to meet the demands of the future by developing within them the tools to be nimble thinkers, creators and doers.
The Power of Play
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Creative expression is central
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Music
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The Lower School encompasses first through eighth grades. Throughout this
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period, children learn best through direct experiences that stir the emotions. subjects pictorially and dramatically, and by cultivating their imaginative capacities. Drawing, painting, poetry, recitation, drama, singing and playing a musical instrument all build academic skills that deepen comprehension. Subjects as diverse as mathematics and grammar, carpentry and knitting, sports and foreign language are taught imaginatively and artistically in widely divergent ways. In each year, the curriculum offers content appropriate to the child’s development. This approach allows motivation to arise from within, laying the foundation for joyful lifelong learning.
KIMBERTON WALDORF SCHOOL
Kimberton meets this need by presenting
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This renaissance education culminates
provides a rich, rigorous academic
in an outdoor exploration that allows
experience for students in grades nine
seniors to synthesize their various
We integrate art and academics in a
through twelve. The opportunities
academic studies in both the sciences
methodology that adds richness to both.
experienced at Kimberton have been
and the arts as they actually live out
We develop analytical thinkers with
likened to liberal arts college studies
their reading of Emerson, Thoreau
imaginative minds capable of producing
for the high school-aged student.
and Whitman.
prolific, life-changing ideas. These are
Teachers craft experiences which capacities and strengthen their
Investing in the hearts, minds and leaders of tomorrow
powers of judgment, while students
While other schools are teaching to
take on more responsibility for their
the test, Kimberton Waldorf School is
We invite you to see for yourself.
own education. They participate in
building the character of our students
Come, visit us and explore all that
foreign exchange programs, they
and testing the limits of their creative
Kimberton Waldorf School has to offer.
give back through social service
problem-solving abilities. Our curriculum
internships, and they immerse
has been finely honed over the course
sharpen students’ growing intellectual
themselves in senior projects.
of our nearly 70-year history.
the young people who will define the world of tomorrow. And they will do so by redefining everyone’s conception of intelligence, acumen and originality.
kimberton.org
KIMBERTON WALDORF SCHOOL
The Upper School at Kimberton
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Upper School
Creative Thinking
Art
Music Movement
Physics
Geometry
Synthesis
Experience Creative Problem Solving
Ideas Perception
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410 West Seven Stars Road | PO Box 350 | Kimberton, PA 19442 610.933.3635 kimberton.org