Educate them in love,
Send them forth in freedom."
- Rudolf Steiner
Welcome
Our School
Founded in 1994, Taos Country Day School is an independent, non profit school serving 145 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grades. While embodying the heart and soul of a pioneer school, our program features a Waldorf curriculum, experienced staff, and a strong parent community. Taos Country Day School has thirteen full time teachers and six specialty class teachers. Our curriculum integrates academic studies with art, music, drama and multicultural studies.
The Waldorf Curriculum
The Waldorf curriculum is meant to unfold according to the stages of development of the growing child. Education proceeds in three major steps as the child s consciousness develops. Up to age 12, it is largely a pictorial and imaginative consciousness; from then on it adds the element of reason. Until age 12, the Waldorf curriculum works with the child s imagination, proceeding from fairy tales, legends, and fables through the Bible stories and ancient mythology. In the fi fth and sixth grades, the transition is made to actual history and science. From then on, without losing its imaginative and artistic elements, the curriculum is presented in a more scientifi c manner, increasingly relying on direct observation, objective description, and refl ection in all subjects.Curriculum in Detail:
Kindergarten
The First Grade
The Second Grade
The Third Grade
The Fourth Grade
The Fifth Grade
The Sixth Grade
The Seventh Grade
The Eighth Grade
Art and Special Subjects
Learning Sustainability & Stewardship of the Land
Land and Conservation ProjectsA Conservation Easement will protect a three-acre piece of land which includes our beloved "Magic Grove". This is a beautiful piece of land bordering the Taos Pueblo with a magnificent view of Taos Mountain. A grand willow tree welcomes all with its spreading branches. These acres will be used for orchards, biodynamic farming, and outdoor education. They will be protected from development and preserved for future generations. Most importantly, we will be demonstrating values that will influence and inspire our children.
Seed and Garden Business
Third graders have started an organic seed business featuring the "Three Sisters": corn, beans, and squash. These heirloom varieties will be planted this spring and collected as seed in the fall for next season's seed sales. Currently, the class is weighing, packaging, and marketing lettuce, pea, flower, and many other varieties of seed.
Making a Difference ... One Tree at a Time
Designed to create awareness of local food sustainability and stewardship, the orchard project will preserve local apple tree varieties and the stories told by the elders that tend them. Students in 5th through 8th grade, along with orchardist Ron Boyd, have grafted 425 heirloom apple trees, enough for each student to take home an apple tree later this spring. An orchard will be planted at the school and additional trees will be donated to create a community orchard. This project is sponsored by a Classroom Education Grant from PNM.
Outdoor Education
Our school is located in the Sangre de Christo Mountains of the Southern Rockies, near the Rio Grande Wild Rivers area. The immediate proximity to numerous national forests, parks, wilderness areas, and protected rivers gives us the opportunity to take Waldorf education to the outdoors. Through parent and teacher involvment, we have access to professional climbing, llama trekking, white water rafting, skiing, and backcountry adventures. We are able to offer outdoor and adventure education to our students as well as classes from other geographic locations.
Our Graduates
Our first eigth grade graduating class of 2003 is now successfully completing their year of college. Please watch for the upcoming details of their adventure! We are also tracking our last graduating class who are now sophomores attending the Taos High School and Vista Grande High Charter School. They currently have a combined GPA of 3.7.
Sharing Our Community
Making Ethnic & Economic Diversity Sustainable
We strive to keep our annual tuition low ($6,710) to make our program available to as many students as possible. Our goal is to reflect the ethnic and economic diversity of our tri-cultural community. Twenty-two percent of our students are Hispanic, Native American, African American, South American, and Asian. We also extend free tuition to foster children; currently $20,000 annually. Thirty-five percent of our families receive tuition assistance.
Native American scholarships are essential to support our neighboring Taos Pueblo students and other Native American students. This is a commitment made by the faculty to share Waldorf curriculum and resources.
Foster Child Support has been an ongoing program for the past nine years. We provide annual tuition, language therapy, and other services to children in need.
Outreach to our sister school in Peru is important to our community. Program founders from Peru have visited and shared native dance and music with our students. Their students have attended classes at our school for six weeks, and enjoyed skiing for the first time. Each year, we raise money and send Waldorf school supplies to our friends in Peru. This year they supported our Capital Campaign by hosting a visiting family for a week.
Our Mission
Our mission is to provide a comprehensive education based on the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner that engages and nurtures the child physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.We seek to cultivate each student's individual gifts, to encourage independent thinking and imagination, and to foster a life-long love of learning.
Our goal is to enable students to become balanced, vigorous, life-affirming, and compassionate individuals who are able to meet the challenges of their lives and times.
We advocate respect and understanding of all cultures and the natural environment.
The school provides a non-competitive, physically and emotionally-safe learning atmosphere that encourages community involvement.