Introduction

​Our school offers an experiential and academically rigorous approach to education, while being conscious of developmental stages of the child. Our teachers integrate the arts in all academic disciplines for children, from preschool through eighth grade, to enhance and enrich learning. Golden Bridges aims to inspire life-long learning in all students and to enable them to fully develop their unique capacities.

Music, dance and theater, writing, literature, legends and myths, science and mathematics are not simply subjects to be read about and tested; everything that is brought by the teacher is taught from the whole to the parts, and begins by reaching the child's inner life first. We are cultivating and exploring the human being's relationship to the world around us. Through these experiences, our students cultivate their intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual capacities to be individuals certain of their paths and to be of service to the world. ​Thus, it is a moral and social education as much as an academic education. 

Our goal is for GBS graduates to have the ability to integrate thinking, to assimilate information as opposed to memorizing isolated facts, to be flexible, creative and willing to take intellectual risks, and to be leaders with high ethical and moral standards who take initiative and are passionate to reach their goals. 

​Our teachers are dedicated to generating an inner enthusiasm for learning within every child. This eliminates the need for competitive testing, academic placement, and rewards to motivate learning and allows motivation to arise from within. It helps engender the capacity for joyful life-long learning and happy children. 

"The whole goal in our work is to lead the individual to have the self confidence to try something and learn through failing as much as through succeeding...
What we really want for this world, ultimately, is the joy in learning and possibility of really creative thinking—freedom from constraints of what is in front of you. We want the children to have those kinds of experiences. "
—Justine Costerouse, Founder and Teacher

Further Reading

The work we do is inspired by Waldorf education, as are many of the following resources:

What is Waldorf Education?

• Stanford University Reviews Waldorf Education
• Core Principles of Waldorf Education
• The Wisdom of Waldorf
• What is Waldorf Education?
• What are Waldorf methods?
• Montessori and Steiner: A Pattern of Reverse Symmetries
• A Look at Waldorf and Montessori Education in Early Childhood Programs
• ​Educating for Creative Thinking

Education & Nature

• "Forest Kindergartens in Germany", The New York Times, May 2017
• "Let Kids Play in the Woods", Slate, May 2014​
• "The Perks of a Play-in-the-Mud Educational Philosophy" The Atlantic, 2018

Miscellaneous

• "Teaching our Children to Read, Write, and Spell", Susan R. Johnson
• "Let Kids Play" New York Times, 2018 ​
• "Hey Parents, leave those kids alone", The Atlantic,  2014
• Why Children Need to Play
• What Waldorf Graduates do when they graduate