A Day at Hawthorne Valley School

Kindergarten: The room is breathtakingly beautiful in the colors of the walls, seasonal decorations, the nature table, and the sturdy wooden toys. The children form a ring and sing autumn songs, following the gestures of trees with falling leaves. After morning circle, children listen to a fairy tale. They draw a scene from the story. Some dress up and act out a part of the story, while others build boats and bridges. Still others help knead the dough for bread-baking day.

First Grade: The students are seen clapping and stamping out various number patterns in concentration exercises. A story follows from the land of numbers in which the wise queen shares everything equally among her subjects while the king and "Michael Multiplier" are gathering more treasure. Later, they will illustrate the story for their main lesson book.

Second Grade: The class is writing in their main lesson book about the fable "The Lion and the Mouse." The teacher first tells the story; then the children retell and act it out. Then, they write and illustrate it for their main lesson books. Word families like "net," "bet," and "get," are drawn from the story and practiced. A new vowel diphthong, "ou" in mouse, is introduced.

Third Grade: The students are in a social studies block called "House building," exploring how native cultures used natural materials to build shelters. Lessons about diet, crafts, and traditions are illustrated in student notebooks with accompanying written accounts. In projects class, students construct an adobe wood-fired bread oven made from clay they gathered from a nearby pond. They are proud of their models of shelters from around the world.

Fourth Grade: Language arts in the fourth grade use the profound, dramatic tales of Norse Mythology as the thematic thread for reading and writing practice. The wars of the gods and giants, the cunning of Loki, and the wisdom of Odin, provide a broad palette for compositions, spelling tests, vocabulary building, poetic recitation, reading, and eventually dramatic performance.

Fifth Grade: Beautiful blackboard illustrations give visual aids for a continuing review of fractions. Rules for expanding and reducing fractions are recorded in the main lesson books. Concrete examples from carpentry make vivid the practical use of adding and subtracting fractions. Extensive mental math practice, concentration exercises, and beanbag games based on math patterns have preceded the introduction of new material.

Sixth Grade: The sixth graders have been immersed in the study of Roman history. Their main lesson books show pictures and stories of Romulus and Remus, the Seven Kings, the Sybil, the Roman Republic, and Caesar. Roman law, engineering, architecture, government, and conquest are touched on in this history block. The children are laying plans for a Roman banquet. Two students created a diorama of a battle scene with beeswax-modeled soldiers.

Seventh Grade: Physics! The students are studying the mechanical advantage of different block-and-tackle systems, lifting various weights and recording the effort needed with spring scales. Study has included leverage, the wheel and axle, the screw, and the inclined plane. Later they will hoist each other up with pulleys in the hayloft of the barn across the street, lever up a wagon, and jack up a car while learning the principles of mechanical advantage.

Eighth Grade: The students have been conducting a variety of electrical experiments. Every day a new principle is demonstrated, recorded and illustrated with precise diagrams. A bell with a homemade switch is wired, tested, and drawn, then used to signal the end of class. Today, the students are working as teams to create four pairs of telegraph senders and receivers. There has been an exposition about Samuel Morse and the importance of the telegraph just as the railroads provided a new means of transportation.

Ninth Grade: The ninth grade is studying the relation between skeletal form and function in mammals. The teacher has brought in five boxes, each with the vertebrae of five different species. In groups, students put the "puzzle" of one animal's spine back together—about twenty-five bones. Now we have a cow, deer, seal, dolphin, and human spine in front of us. The students see that the overall pattern is the same, but the form in each species is related to the animal's size, movement, and environment.

Tenth Grade: It is the last day of the tenth grade Geometry block. Complex ink-drawn geometric plates adorn the bulletin board: "An Investigation of the Pentagon," "Phi and the Golden Mean," and "Conic Sections on a Coordinate Plane." The block began with instruction on how to accurately draw the curves and concludes with a study of formulae, the coordinate plane, and the fascinating joining of algebra, geometry, and laws of form. Student presentations include a handmade 3-D geometrical puzzle, a mathematically accurate model of the spiral of a conch shell, and a photographic essay of elliptical shapes in nature.

Eleventh Grade: Over the past two weeks, the History through Music class has run the gamut, from students playing ethnic instruments, such as drums, scrapers, rallies, clappers, and shakers, to quietly listening to a John Cage composition. Today, students are singing Queen's "The Show Must Go On."

Twelfth Grade: Today the seniors have a guest speaker for their economics class, Michael Mackay, Vice President of the Hudson River Bank and Trust Company. The students, who are learning about publicly held stock companies, are engaged in a lively discussion with Mr. Mackay regarding a recent hostile takeover attempt by a competing bank. Mr. Mackay poses a question regarding shareholder values. Several hands are quickly raised.

After the two-hour main lesson, the students participate in a variety of special disciplines: French, German, eurythmy, orchestra, chorus, handwork, gardening, math and English skills classes, woodworking, physical education, sculpture, and painting. The artistic subjects are fully integrated with the main lesson curriculum wherever possible.

These snapshots from a tour through the grades of Hawthorne Valley School illustrate an educational ideal that motivates students by engaging their full human potential: their will, their heart, and their inquiring mind. Learning is lifted beyond the realm of textbooks and becomes an encounter, an experience, and a quest.