Education - Tradition continues as Waldorf School begins classes

The freedom of summer has ended, but students are back with their friends, one grade older.

The first day of school at the Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs is filled with tradition and celebration.

The main tradition at the Waldorf School is the rose ceremony, which symbolically welcomes the first graders to the school by presenting them with a rose, given to them by the senior class.

“The ceremony is so wonderful. It’s a beautiful tradition that welcomes in the new students into the Waldorf family by the people they look up to,” Katherine Scharff, administrative manager, said.

The ceremony always takes place on the first day of the new school year, and the first graders begin sitting with their parents, cross a small bridge to sit with the rest of the school. This marks the passage from early to middle childhood, and the beginning of lifelong learning.

“It’s symbolic - walking over the bridge to a new phase of life,” Scharff added. She added that one of the seniors who has been a Waldorf student since first grade, said he was “honored” to be welcoming the new students.

“He said it was appropriate for the seniors to welcome the younger students and they he felt they were an extension of his family. It's just appropriate that the ceremony takes place this way.

When the seniors move on, others take their place and fill the school for the future,” Scharff said. “It’s a wonderful process.”

After the ceremony, teachers announce their wishes and goals for the school year.

“It gives the students a goal to work for, and the teachers let the students know what they hope to accomplish,” Scharff said.

Before the students head off to begin their classes, teachers light a candle to guide their way. The seniors then lead the first graders to their new classrooms.

“The whole process is wonderful,” she said.

While the rose ceremony for the beginning of the school year ends with the seniors walking the first graders off to class, the rose ceremony actually culminates on the last day of school in June, with the same first graders giving roses to the seniors that welcomed them eight months earlier.

“It’s a tradition that comes full circle for the oldest and youngest students,” Scharff said.

This year, 255 students are attending the Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs. The school was started in 1981 with the mission to cultivate academic knowledge, artistic knowledge and practical skill in all of their students. Waldorf teachers strive to teach their students based on the developmental stages of children through the capabilities of thinking, feeling and doing.

“A Waldorf education brings curriculum and materials to students in a way they are able to grasp, but from a different angle. We want the students to see things in a different light,” Scharff said.