What does it mean to have accessible Waldorf Education?

I see two aspects:  geographic and economic.  Each family will decide in their own best judgment as to the style of education for their children, and out of the impulse of allowing the inclusion of Waldorf education for more families, this school was born.

In December of 2002, I began to experience dream-visions of a new school in the Portland area.  A friendly, comfortable school where people of all socio-economic backgrounds felt welcomed, a place where it felt more like a village-school, a purposefully smaller setting, both in numbers and in people.  A place where the festivals were more participatory than show, a place where both the children AND their parents could be educated. 

As very large schools grow, the economic sphere tends to dominate the social-cultural sphere, and needs then press the development into a particular pattern.  Shining Star School is in full consciousness trying to intentionally grow another form, another path, another outcome, another destiny.  The school will not be economically driven, but needs-based. 

As such, we are working together to create new models for classrooms, teaching, sharing and pooling resources, in order to achieve our goal of allowing wider entry to families of all situations and lifestyles.

It is a dream to hold our community to about 100 children from K to grade 8, to see the intimate flavor or flexible teaching, community based enterprise and skill development.  If we can reasonably achieve this in the inner NE neighborhood, then we can spin off another Shining Star in another geographic location.

It is all about families walking to school, walking for coffee, preparing a space for adults to congregate with babies, knitting needles, garden gloves, and tea kettles.  It is about community center space for learning and growing together. 

If you would like to join us, in continuing to developing AWE, please check our events and dates page, sign up for our adult classes, or send your children to our school.

In support of idea to 'grow with intention', nearly eighty children are signed up for our programs in the fall of 2005.

Marsha Johnson