I joined this group to respond to you. Your message truly resonated with me and what our family experienced at Waldorf. You are not alone and no one deserves to be made to feel as you did. Here is my review of the school. Very similar to what you wrote.our experience only spanned three years total but that was enough for us to spend thousands to get my children in a better place academically and emotionally.?
Waldorf education has the framework for a fantastic educational approach. Unfortunately, AWS ignores this approach to cover their own inadequacies in knowledge of child development, education, and hires unethical, untrained teachers. Our first went to Waldorf in fourth grade. She was received with love and kindness and in total collaboration with a very competent teacher. We decided AWS would be a great fit for our 2nd. The experience was night and day. Their teacher was very anxious and unsure of basic Waldorf curriculum or fundamental classroom management skills. We realized that AWS has no systems in place to collaborate or communicate with parents. Getting a good teacher is the luck of the draw -for better or worse. The disciplinary procedures and what is taught is up to the teacher and not congruent with their curriculum standards or handbooks. The governance system is a farce. There is no oversight of teachers, faculty or COT, which is comprised of all the same staff members. They play favorites among each other and will not reprimand some teachers who exhibit harmful behaviors towards students. There is no one available to take responsibility when issues arise. Our child was locked out of the classroom, unattended. It took half my daughter¡¯s class and another teacher to open the door. His teacher refused to let him in. Other students and their parents informed me of this incident-not the school. This event was a culmination of us begging my youngest child¡¯s teacher for collaboration and communication. Instead the teacher ignored us, lied repeatedly, allowed my child to be physically and verbally hurt by others, and verbally berated my child. When we filed a VOC with the school regarding the incidents, we were accused of sharing transphobic, homophobic, violent, and racist stories (written by an AWS student last year who faced no consequences) with my children who are part of the LGBTQ+ community. We were told repeatedly by AWS that ¡°you cannot believe the perception of children¡± - calling my daughter and her classmates liars for witnessing the lockout. I was shocked that these ad hominem attacks were lobbed against us as parents, me as a fellow teacher, and my children and others. Our concerns over my child¡¯s treatment were minimized. We then realized that it was easier for AWS admin and teachers to accuse our family of things that did not occur, rather than to reprimand an employee for negligent, unethical behavior that did occur. Many parents are aware of the favoritism among staff and the immature, cliquish behavior and are afraid to speak out, in case their child experiences maltreatment in the classroom. Even though we were told my children could stay until the end of the school year, we received a termination letter by admin at pick up two days later. I delivered two whole children to this school. They were returned broken. Our children's school year was completely upended through no fault of their own. It is difficult to express the absolute heartache, shock, and sorrow my children felt. AWS has left a financial burden on our family. We requested a refund from the board to cover services my children need and were denied. We are currently paying $1600/monthly to correct the damage done to my children by AWS. This includes therapy for both children and academic support for my youngest. They had more academic skills when leaving Kindergarten than they did in February 2024. They are in second grade. The school had us believe that school activities should not be in the home in the younger years. I now believe this is a facade to cover up for the fact that students in my youngest¡¯s class were taught no academics, and the lack of oversight of teachers in general. For the amount of tuition that we paid and fundraising (about $60,000), to allow children to falter this severely, academically and emotionally, is unconscionable. Children should be in a safe place and thrive and not be intentionally harmed by adults who have so little integrity, ethics, emotional maturity, and harmed by those who use performative allyship for financial gain.
