A School With Balance

By David Ruenzel

Wilton, N.H.

In American education, the notion of developing the "whole person" has been around forever. This is why schools have long encouraged students to do everything from excel in math and play in the band to climb ropes and sing in musicals. At the Pine Hill Waldorf School here, the idea of educating the whole person hasn't led to an exhaustive string of extracurricular activities but is instead seamlessly integrated into every aspect of daily practice. Everyone at Pine Hill does most everything well--from playing the recorder to freehand drawing of geometric patterns--and all with a sort of contemplative reserve that seems, in its absence of competitive striving, almost un-American.

"A Waldorf education is like a toolbox for life," one Pine Hill teacher says. Another Waldorf teacher who is also a Pine Hill alumnus attests, "Confidence is the greatest gift my schooling gave me. Once you find your way into something, be it pottery or auto mechanics, you feel like you can find your way into anything else because you've learned that everything is interrelated, even...