A complete Waldorf education leads students from early childhood towards eventual independence in adulthood. The most genuine and compatible response to the Waldorf elementary years can only be provided by a seamless high school experience based on the same understanding of human development that resonated harmoniously within the students up to that point.

While the earlier years of the child’s education focus on the development of will and feeling, on learning through imitation and imagination, the path of the adolescent years strives to transform those earlier capacities into the development of critical and creative thinking – into power for life fueled by living ideals which the students can translate into deeds.

For the adolescent, living questions constitute the driving force of inquiry. A Waldorf high school curriculum strives to allow students to investigate these questions through a diverse program of study and experiences which are academic, artistic, practical, and social, but above all, relevant to human life and the earth.

While PWS students continually demonstrate their ability to enter and succeed in private and public high schools, the goal of Pasadena Waldorf School is to complete the full Waldorf education experience through the adolescent years. Preparatory work towards that goal has been under way since 2005. The target date for the inception of the high school has been set for 2012.

Imagining Pasadena Waldorf School High School. Just as adolescents themselves become quite individual, so too will the high school program reflect the individual character of this place and time. The program will be devoted to the mental, emotional, and physical health of the adolescents in their own right, not merely as a preparation for post-graduate demands. The integrity of the path we travel itself becomes the goal. This is the genuine freedom of which Waldorf education speaks.