High School Curriculum Overview
	High School Curriculum The Honolulu Waldorf High School offers a rigorous and challenging program that integrates the arts, humanities, and sciences. Based on Rudolf Steiner’s insights into the needs of the developing adolescent, the curriculum balances the academic, artistic, practical and social needs of each student. Whenever possible, experience of the phenomena itself is the starting point; original sources rather than textbooks are preferred for study in the Humanities, and direct observation in the sciences. From there a theoretical understanding is developed, thereby fostering a personal and meaningful relationship with knowledge. Main Lesson The Main Lesson is the cornerstone of our curriculum. Main Lessons range from three to five weeks in length. The two-hour class time allows for an in-depth study of a particular subject. For each grade there are ten or eleven blocks in Humanities, Math, Social Studies, and Sciences in the academic year. Skills Classes Skills classes are year-long or semester-long courses in English, Mathematics, Foreign Language (Japanese, German, or Spanish), Movement, and Electives. Many of the skills classes are designed to reinforce the concepts studied in main lessons. Art Lessons In art classes, including fine arts, practical arts, and music, students are challenged to balance their intellectual, aesthetic and practical capacities, which ultimately sharpens their powers of observation and judgment. Some of the arts lessons are painting, drawing, clay sculpture, woodwork, metal work, bookbinding, and Hawaiian crafts. Hula, Hawaiian culture and crafts are among the practical crafts that are offered. Students develop practical skills and forge artistic sensibilities through focused practice in all these various arts. Senior Projects All seniors are required to complete a senior project that demonstrates their academic, artistic, or practical expertise in a subject of personal interest. Students write a paper based on extensive academic and personal research, create an artistic or practical representation of their work, and share the fruits of this work through an oral presentation and visual display during Senior Project Presentation Week. All parents and friends of the Honolulu Waldorf School are warmly invited to attend the project presentations.