Green Meadow Waldorf School is a different kind of private school.

Early childhood programs are play-based. Third graders experience a rigorous farm curriculum as they learn how people have fed themselves and each other through history. And high schoolers go into the world for international exchange programs and internships like they’re already in college.

“Green Meadow nurtures the physical, emotional and intellectual capacities of the child through our unique, developmental curriculum, which meets students right where they are in their growth,” says Vicki Larson, the school’s director of communications and marketing. “We have decades of experience engendering in our young people the academic, social, artistic and practical abilities that will enable them to become self-reliant and generous individuals capable of meeting whatever challenges they face in the future.”

Founded in 1950, Green Meadow is one of the oldest of the 300 Waldorf schools in the US (and roughly 1,000 worldwide).

Standardized testing is eschewed here in favor of block-style learning, teacher looping and multidisciplinary instruction.  On the school’s 11-acre campus in Rockland County, N.Y, test scores are less important than curiosity, collaboration and 21st-century skills.

“The Waldorf curriculum fosters independent, critical thinking and problem solving, develops ethics and morality, and promotes true joy in learning,” Larson says.

Green Meadow adheres to CDC and NY state guidelines for health and safety and taught students in-person for most of the pandemic. Larson now looks forward to a majority of the time being all of the time for this school year. “Community is at the center of everything we do,” she says.