High School - Vigorous Observation & Reasoning

At Chicago Waldorf High School, we know that the questions are as important as the answers. Complexity⎯in global affairs, personal growth, scientific development or any areas of study⎯is learned, experienced and understood with deductive reasoning based on a student's ability to inquire. Waldorf education gives students expert experience and confidence to address the act of learning (in both externally structured, or self-guided situations) through disciplined inquiry, multi-layered reasoning and deductive processes.

Our students utilize objective observations, cataloguing and organizing details and synthesizing reasoning to reach understanding. The questioning integrated in this thorough process of examination is the foundational tenet of self-motivated learning and self-expressive authorship.

In mathematics, our students don't just learn about math equations, they learn about the inventors of those equations. They study the politics behind the acceptance of those theories and discuss and analyze competing theories of that mathematician's colleagues and competitors. 

Cultures are studied in the contexts of their religious, artistic, philosophical and environmental perspectives. 

In High School, learning is approached through phenomenological study. In this process students observe and record information and form their own questions for further analysis and debate before coming to conclusions and then presenting, and defending, their well-reasoned outcomes.

Using flexible thinking, having an ability to see the larger picture in any situation, adept perception of the connections between events and subjects, innate confidence in your ability to learn in any situation⎯these are the skills acquired by our High School students through the rigorous and in-depth Waldorf approach to learning.