"I think Waldorf schools are very much in synch with the notion of Conceptual Age and the ideas of “A Whole New Mind”. They foster internal motivation in students, as well as mastery and persistence. They teach the habits of the heart that children need to do well in life after school."

~ Daniel Pink author of A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers will Rule the Future

Ninth Grade—Year of Tempest and Inquiry

Ninth graders entering high school are leaving childhood behind. Intellectually they are ready to meet a rich academic and arts curriculum, while emotionally they are buffeted by the turbulence of early adolescence. They live in a world of strong polarities, and the gesture for this class is polarities without resolution. They are intensely aware of dramatic changes in their bodies and in their ability to think in new ways, and these changes can lead to inner struggle and even rebellion. The curriculum responds to this new state of being by providing structure and order amid the tension of opposites. In physics, students experience the opposition of heat and cold; in chemistry, the expansion and contraction of gases; in history, the conflicts and revolutions of three countries in different geographic regions; in geography, plate-tectonics; in English, comedy and tragedy; in art, black and white drawing. In WHSP, studies must ignite students’ interest rather than require them to copy and do rote work.

Tenth Grade—Year of Comparisons and Curiosity

Tenth grade students have generally settled into a new level of maturity. Their physical bodies achieve a more balanced proportions with more accompanying poise and confidence. They are ready to look beneath the outer event to examine the deeper processes revealing how things happen. After a year of polar opposites, they are looking for lawfulness. Now they are interested in their origins and how the world came to be the way it is. The curriculum meets this with subjects that compare and contrast phenomena: in chemistry, the study of acids and bases; in physics, the principles of mechanics; in mathematics, trigonometry and conic sections; in embryology, aspects of the masculine and feminine. In the humanities, the study of ancient civilizations addresses questions of how cultural similarities and differences have affected the world. By looking beyond differences to find relationships, the students develop powers of comparison that can serve them all of their lives.

Eleventh Grade—Year of Comprehension and Contemplation

In eleventh grade, students look even deeper into the life processes to ask why things occur as they do. They are now ready to weave together the different threads of their experiences. With their individualities coming to the fore, they begin with growing independence to seek deeper answers to their questions and to express their own identities. The study of Rome, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance reflects their own inner exploration and development. Experiencing the literature of Shakespeare and Dante, and the epic quest for the Holy Grail, they ponder the most profound levels of human motivation and destiny. In the sciences, the search for explanation of the unseen, for comprehension of that which lies beyond the senses, is met in the study of the atom in chemistry, in the invisible phenomena of electricity in physics, and in projective geometry and mathematics, where parallel lines are followed to the point they share in three dimensions. 
Eleventh graders discover that, through the power of their own thinking, they can grasp what is beyond the visible, sense-oriented world; through their own independent analysis and abstract theorizing they can traverse invisible landscapes. The WHSP students also take on more responsibility for their learning through research assignments and projects that reflect their own areas of interest.

Twelfth Grade—Year of Interaction and Contribution

Maturing twelfth graders are preparing to enter the realms of higher education and work, and they now have a vital, blossoming understanding of who they are in the world. By studying the work of 20th century writers, they confront the vital questions of Who am I?, of destiny, of good and evil, and of the meaning of life. The curriculum presents them with ideas from many different perspectives. This enables them to move through analysis to synthesis. The study of world history, architecture, global issues, economics, the Transcendentalists, and Russian writers brings divergent viewpoints to activate individual, independent thinking. In optics and acoustics, in biochemistry and in the studies of zoology and evolution, the human being is central, not from a glorified perspective, but as the link between the inner world of ideas and the outer practical world. 
Through the curriculum, twelfth grade WHSP students come to know themselves in the context of the world in which they live. They can then freely develop their individual perspectives. The culmination of their high school education is the ability to think for themselves with the confidence that they can make a positive contribution in life.