Spotlight Story

Dear AWS community,

My name is Kelly Simpson. I am a former AWS student, who graduated, along with the rest of Laurie Miller’s 8th grade class, in 2011. I have since been asked to speak to my experiences with the school both in person, and remotely, but it has been some time since I last tried to put my finger on the Waldorf experience. Reflecting recently on my time with AWS, I felt compelled to share what has bubbled up so often in my mind since embarking on my own journey after leaving the school. 

I am not so old as to have forgotten my many fond memories at the Anchorage Waldorf School, but also not so young as to have known the school as anything other than Aurora when I attended there. I spent all 12 years of my formative education living, laughing and learning inside the same buildings and halls that I am told little feet still run, learn and grow in today. It warms my heart to think of all the stories and dreams the halls of AWS must contain over all these years there.

In my time since graduating from the Anchorage Waldorf School, I have found myself reflecting back more and more on the profound impact the educational philosophy of Waldorf has had not only on my interests, talents, and educational pursuits, but on forming me as a whole person. 

In my early years at Waldorf, I was struck, even at a young age, in regards to how greatly valued as a human being I was in the classroom. The holistic approach to everything from history, and science, to art in the educational process, was, and is, a gift. We weren’t taught to cover our mistakes in watercolor painting, but to transform them. Instead of piecing together a beeswax figurine from small, un-malleable pieces, we were shown how to pull something forth from the whole. It is in the details that our imaginations were allowed to come forth and flourish in the safe, protective, and nurturing environment of the Waldorf School. 

As a high school student, I found myself challenged academically in many ways I had not been used to before, particularly in math. I recalled, during that first, tough semester in the “real world” of public education, how many families had fled with their children from the Waldorf curriculum in order to better prepare their children for a look ahead to a demanding, tech-concerned future. 

Now, as a sophomore in college, having earned a full-ride scholarship to my dream school to pursue a degree in Filmmaking, I see how my skills of determination which I gained while in the classrooms at Waldorf led me to believe chiefly in my own ability to solve any problem, math or otherwise, and so therefore I did. My confidence grew, my decisions became my own, I reaffirmed my own talents, and my power to use them. 

I cannot speak to every experience, but Waldorf for me was never an experience I wanted to take for granted. I sing the praises of my small, community-based education. Being part of such a vibrant, committed, and supportive community of parents, teachers and friends of the school taught me I could count on those around me to believe in me. 

The enormous strength of letting children grow at their own pace, and in their own time, is a rare power, and something I still marvel at now in my adult life. Lightning rarely strikes twice, and I am so proud to say that in all my growth and progress since leaving the school, is a testament to the key values which were laid down in my elementary and middle school that I am very much the same person. 

The things we do in childhood rarely foretell for us the whole picture of who we will become as adults. But many things we were taught still resound in my heart today. Many things confused me, as I know they so often confuse the outside world. (What is Eurythmy again? Is that a band?) But my confusion always gave birth to a curiosity, and that gave way to a safe space in which to ask, and then to discover the answer to every question I had ever dreamed of. 

No one else can say as much– I loved my childhood education. I benefitted from not ever having to sit a single standardized test. I loved being challenged to be a better student, while also bringing awareness to my duty to my community and peers to create a kinder world.  

The kids I went to school with know me, and I them, in ways that are un-summable. I will eternally feel that I have a dozen friends with whom I share a close connection over a formative, and singular experience. Attending AWS has not always seemed the most logical option, nor the most predictable, but it was by far the best choice my parents could have made for me.

Thank you, Anchorage Waldorf School, for the gift that you are. Thank you to all those who continue to build the school, and teach another generation of children that is okay, always, to just be yourself. Thank you for pulling the person that I am today out of the clay.

Kelly Simpson, age 22

Polaris K-12 School, Class of 2015

University of North Carolina, Class of 2021