Our Commitment to Diversity
At Lake Champlain Waldorf School, we embrace the opportunity to deepen our understanding of each other and of our experiences. We expressly welcome families, faculty, and staff from all races, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, socioeconomic statuses, ages, abilities, and religions. We work to align our teaching at the Lake Champlain Waldorf School with our values as a school. Our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Accessibility Committee (DEIJA) leads this work in collaboration with school leadership.
CONTENT & CURRICULUM
The school has an ongoing commitment to faculty-staff study about equity in our curriculum and our society. We teach an anti-bias curriculum, rooted in social justice, in Early Childhood through Grade 12. In addition, we are excited about the project of constantly reviewing and innovating the traditional Waldorf program to present curriculum through a contemporary social justice lens.
Examples:
• The early childhood day ends with a rhyming land acknowledgement
• Telling stories with pronouns to represent a diverse cast
• The fifth graders learn North American geography through the stories of the Underground Railroad
• Twelfth graders studying environmental science read about and discuss the ways in which both Western science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) shape relationships between humans and our environment
• What was previously the second grade Saints main lesson now focuses on the biographies of extraordinary leaders and changemakers of the world
In addition to conscious curriculum development, LCWS makes a commitment to DEI work through investing in training and education for our faculty and staff, our students, and our parent community. This has included parent workshops on deconstructing the Thanksgiving myth, a full-day teacher workshop on talking with students about racism, and a Waldorf-specific training on racial identity development for our DEIJA group.
DIVERSITY & INCLUSION FUND SCHOLARSHIPS
LCWS offers Diversity and Inclusion Fund Scholarships which were created as part of our commitment to removing financial impediments for students from various cultural, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, with diverse talents, interests, and life experiences. For the purposes of the DIF Scholarship, we consider diversity across one or more of the following seven categories: culture and language; religion; family structure; economic class; gender identity and expression; racial identity; abilities.
DENOUNCING RACISM IN WALDORF EDUCATION’S HISTORY
Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Waldorf education, espoused racist views about racial hierarchy. We acknowledge this history, renounce the racist views that have been associated with anthroposophy and Waldorf education, and declare our intent to be a part of an evolving Waldorf movement that embraces anti-bias in all forms.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We gather as the Lake Champlain Waldorf School Community, two campuses and one school, to acknowledge that we are on the unceded land of the Abenaki people who have cared for it for generations and continue to do so. Their relationship to the land calls us to learn to be better caretakers of the land ourselves. We pay our respects to the elders past and present. We honor with gratitude this land and all it gives to us.